CADlights 39g Pro build thread

[Rennsport]

Reeftivo -- I am not far from you in Yorba Linda but spend many weekends at a friends place off Pine avenue -- question for you, where do you find live rock locally? I ordered and received a 50lb box of rock from Marco -- love it but need some larger pieces that I would very much prefer to pick out, so to speak.

Thanks

 

[reeftivo]

Near you is So Cal Tropical fish just west of the 57 on chapman ave. and they occasionally have very nice pieces of fiji and hawain rock but you would need to call the owner Tom over there to see if he has any in. His shop is very small but he has very nice frags and awsome equipment for sale. Also in your area is Amazing Aquariums on tustin ave. in orange. Over here, the nicest little shop I've found is Jans Tropical fish off 7th street across from the montclair mall and they have large fiji base and branch rock at 5.99lb. If you buy live rock from anyone, you should check to see if they mark their holding tanks with the date the rock is received because while many don't sell "cured live rock", the date on tank and how long the rock has been circulating in there will be a good indicator that most of the die off has occured and it is pretty clean. Global Aquatics on mission rd. in ontario is a large warehouse style shop that used to have alot of good stuff. The owner has kind of let his shop go to the dogs but he occassionally has some good stuff.

 

[reeftivo]

a couple pics of the simple CD cover mod in the overflow.

 

[ItsMee]

I tried it without the zip ties and it works. I suppose that type of plastic is reef-safe and doesn't leech anything into the water....

 

[reeftivo]

It is a polycarbonate plastic and they are used in the food and drug industry so it should be fine.

 

[reeftivo]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=15677923#post15677923 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Rennsport
Reeftivo -- I am not far from you in Yorba Linda but spend many weekends at a friends place off Pine avenue -- question for you, where do you find live rock locally? I ordered and received a 50lb box of rock from Marco -- love it but need some larger pieces that I would very much prefer to pick out, so to speak.

Thanks

Have you tried Orange Coast Tropical fish on western ave. in buena park?

 

[timdanger]

everything's progressing nicely over here. however, i'm starting to get a fair amount of what i hope is hair algae but i believe is bryopsis (feathery tree-like plumes) on the glass, and the snails/hermits aren't eating it (either off the glass or off the rocks).

what kind of algae-removing glass scraper is everyone using? i've never really been happy with the mag-floats i've purchased in the past. i was looking at getting a nimble nano, but according to the guy who sells them, the 8mm glass would likely be a little too thick for even the biggest nimble nano.

i've seen the AlgaeFree Piranha advertised, but it's all kinds of expensive. anyone have any experience with it in this tank? what about other alternatives?

 

[reeftivo]

Hey buddy!

I have a lot of experience with bryopsis so you better hope it's not that!! Post a pic and I'll let you know.

The only-Only-ONLY thing that will eat bryopsis is a true lettuce nudibranch. It must be a true (pale green) lettuce nudi! I tried urchins,sea hares, emerald crabs, lawnmower blennies, every snail known to mankind and the only thing that would eat it was the nudi. The blennie tried it for a snack and after a few bites gave up. They produce a toxin that makes them taste like $%^T. The only problem with nudis is that they WILL eventually end up in a pump! They love to die!LOL. Unless you have moderate flow and all the pump intakes screened, they will eventually perish. But they kick butt eating the bryopsis!!!!!

I have a magnavore and it is for a 6mm to 10mm tank but IMO its way too strong so I don't use it. I still use my old mag float but with a small thin piece of filter pad cut to size over the wet side. works great!!

The mag floats are good but the problem with them is the adhesive for the wet and dry sides. It becomes soft and the pads start moving.

 

[snoel614]

i use a metal scraper from home depot.it works great,its cheap and you can get replacement blades cheap too.

 

[ItsMee]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=15713717#post15713717 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by snoel614
i use a metal scraper from home depot.it works great,its cheap and you can get replacement blades cheap too.

Nice, is that safe? I guess it doesn't have time to rust before the next time you use it if you clean it with fresh water eh?

 

[reeftivo]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=15713717#post15713717 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by snoel614
i use a metal scraper from home depot.it works great,its cheap and you can get replacement blades cheap too.

Straight blades are a pain in tanks with a curved front panel because you have to hold it vertically and go side to side for it to be effective. The only ease of use would be for the side panels.
I've heard very good things about the mag-flip cleaner and may purchase one soon to try it out. They say it flips to a scaper and can get the narrow hard to reach spots-Bonus!

 

[timdanger]

agreed on the straight razor concept -- i tried for about a minute to use a straight blade on the end of a stick to clean my tank last night -- it wasn't doing any good at all. i just ended up grabbing a foam bad and polishing up the glass. did a fine job in 5 minutes.

this is something i will be a little more hesitant to do once i have fish WITH BIG TEETH VVVVVVVV in there... but for now, i guess it works.

reeftivo, let me know how that magflip works. i've seen it, but i was hesitant. 8mm glass...

 

[reeftivo]

Hi timdanger!

I'm farting around here at work and just watched the mag flip video on their website-magflip.com. Pretty cool and man is it thin. I want one. I'm getting alot of coralline growth now and it looks like it will work well. Right now I'm using the med. mag float and it works well with a thin piece of filter pad on the wet side but it wont take the coralline off so I have to take a scrub pad and stick my arm down into the bottom to get the coralline off the back and edges. It's pretty easy right now because I'm fanatical with this tank but when The coralline really takes off and I get my calcium reactor set up, it will become more troublesome.

Hows everything going with your system?

 

[timdanger]

i took a look at the mag-flip -- it does say "good for glass up to 3/8" -- that's 9.5mm, so our 8mm glass falls in that range... maybe i'll just let you see how it goes!

here's a pic of my current setup, as of this morning:

a few pics of my LR -- i'm very happy with it (props to Reef Chief in VA Beach):

and, what i fear may be bryopsis (hard to get a good pic of this - i cleaned most of it off my glass/rocks last night, so this is what's left):

 

[reeftivo]

Man that tank is going to look SICK!! I love the rock! Nice little patches of stars and good coralline growth-very nice. In a couple three months-LOL that coralline is going to go nuts and look beautiful in there. Well Done!!!

As for the algae?

Wow, thats a tuff one on the algae. You can rule out hair algae because of the stalk on that thing. I'm guessing on the bryopsis side-sorry! The bryopsis I've dealt with is mostly fern like similar to the caulerpa taxifolia but there were some areas within the clusters that looked just like that. If you buy a lettuce nudi it will eat it but then it will starve to death. Bryopsis is the only thing it eats. There just isn't enough in there to keep it alive and you don't want to cultivate bryopsis for a lettuce nudi. There is one other animal that would eat it and damned if I can't remember what the heck it is right now but I will find out for sure. The bryopsis is actually a pretty good looking algae when it grows out but the problem is eventual take over and smother nearby critters. Since you have such a small amount it would be best to physically remove it right now before it takes hold. What I mean is to actually take the pieces with it out and use either a screw driver or needle nose pliers to break the small area of rock that it is attached to. The reason I say this is because if you srub it with a brush or pluck at it (even out of water) it will spore all over the place and re-establish. The other option which is drastic is to boil the rock. It may not be bryopsis but I would not risk it since your system is so young. Get it out now because I didn't try as hard as I could of when I noticed it and it was a constant battle for me and made reefing less enjoyable.

Bravo on the setup buddy!!

Happy Reefing!

Tivo

 

[reeftivo]

timdanger,

Observation: be carefull with that loc-line pointed down on the left and make sure you have enough room in the sump to handle the extra amount of siphon or you'll get wet-LOL.

How's your surface agitation? Do you get a film on the surface?

 

[timdanger]

thanks for the encouragement, reeftivo!

re: algae -- ya, i am feeling/fearing bryopsis. i've dealt with it in my 8g biocube for about the last year, so i've tried several different methods for controlling it (Mg, snails, hermits, lettuce nudi, urchin, even light elimination (that last one was not voluntary -- my biocube fixture blew out, which is why i ended up getting the cad, but now the lights have been out for 2 months and there is STILL a little bit of bryopsis in there. baffling.)). for now, i'm going to try to keep my Mg levels high and see if that will help keep it under control. i'm also planning to stock an algae blenny, so i'll give him a crack at it. might try another lettuce nudi if it starts to ramp up, but we'll just have to wait and see) -- my LFS might agree to a "nudi loaner" program! i definitely don't want to boil the rock -- defeats the purpose of paying all that money to get the sweet coralline! plus, the spores are already going to be in the tank, whether i boil the rock or not. i just need to figure out how to control it. there are absolutely no nitrates or phosphates in the water, and there couldn't be much in the way of nutrients/dissolved organics (skimmer hardly producing anything) so it's surprising to me that the algae has grown so quickly, but what can you do?

re: loclines -- wouldn't just having one locline pointed parallel with the water break the siphon? i don't know for sure, but i was thinking that would do the trick and prevent a flood. i've had no surface scum/film. my surface agitation is relatively low at the moment, but i've been repositioning the loclines every day or two to try and avoid dead spots. this will be my plan until i can afford a vortech, i think (we'll see, though -- i am still getting plenty of dead spots that the loclines don't reach without blowing a crater into the sand).

 

[ItsMee]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=15722141#post15722141 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by reeftivo
timdanger,

be carefull with that loc-line pointed down on the left and make sure you have enough room in the sump to handle the extra amount of siphon or you'll get wet-LOL.

This is one of the reasons I like the oscillators that came with my setup. If not bought from cadlights they are around 9.99 each. The head on the oscillator is about an inch above the lockline that it is attached to and therefore breaks the back-siphon that much sooner I just got live rock in my tank, and when the dirt settles I will post a pic. I got mine from drs foster and smith, and I am very pleased with the shapes, colors, and life.

 

[reeftivo]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=15722745#post15722745 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by timdanger
thanks for the encouragement, reeftivo!

re: algae -- ya, i am feeling/fearing bryopsis. i've dealt with it in my 8g biocube for about the last year, so i've tried several different methods for controlling it (Mg, snails, hermits, lettuce nudi, urchin, even light elimination (that last one was not voluntary -- my biocube fixture blew out, which is why i ended up getting the cad, but now the lights have been out for 2 months and there is STILL a little bit of bryopsis in there. baffling.)). for now, i'm going to try to keep my Mg levels high and see if that will help keep it under control. i'm also planning to stock an algae blenny, so i'll give him a crack at it. might try another lettuce nudi if it starts to ramp up, but we'll just have to wait and see) -- my LFS might agree to a "nudi loaner" program! i definitely don't want to boil the rock -- defeats the purpose of paying all that money to get the sweet coralline! plus, the spores are already going to be in the tank, whether i boil the rock or not. i just need to figure out how to control it. there are absolutely no nitrates or phosphates in the water, and there couldn't be much in the way of nutrients/dissolved organics (skimmer hardly producing anything) so it's surprising to me that the algae has grown so quickly, but what can you do?

re: loclines -- wouldn't just having one locline pointed parallel with the water break the siphon? i don't know for sure, but i was thinking that would do the trick and prevent a flood. i've had no surface scum/film. my surface agitation is relatively low at the moment, but i've been repositioning the loclines every day or two to try and avoid dead spots. this will be my plan until i can afford a vortech, i think (we'll see, though -- i am still getting plenty of dead spots that the loclines don't reach without blowing a crater into the sand).

wouldn't just having one locline pointed parallel with the water break the siphon?
Sorry about my brain fart, but yes, your right about the siphon! Gettin"old over hear-LOL. Are you finally building a foam head in the skimmer? Are you using the UV?

Your pics don't show much algae since you mentioned you cleaned it but if most of it is a dark green film or brown diatoms then you're fine and still just going through slow cycling. If your skimmer is still not producing and no UV is being used then that will add to the algae because both would help kill/remove excess free swimming spores. If you can, while your waiting for the MP10 or 20 you should pick up a inexpensive MJ1200 with the flow kit $39 to bump up your circulation. They are ugly but very powerfull and it will help with the algae problem. You should have 20 X's turnover in your tank if you decide to keep sps (I know-Alot of flow!!). I estimate with my two vortechs that I probably have at least 30 X's turnover in mine (1/3 power each)and you would never know it by looking at it because of the broad flow that the MP's provide. I don't run the UV because I'm leary of raw UV light on the components in the overflow and it would kill any pods returning to the sump.

 

[reeftivo]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=15722771#post15722771 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by ItsMee
This is one of the reasons I like the oscillators that came with my setup. If not bought from cadlights they are around 9.99 each. The head on the oscillator is about an inch above the lockline that it is attached to and therefore breaks the back-siphon that much sooner I just got live rock in my tank, and when the dirt settles I will post a pic. I got mine from drs foster and smith, and I am very pleased with the shapes, colors, and life.

Can't wait to see the pics ItsMee!
Re: the oscillators. I wanted to buy them when I ordered the tank but forgot to add them to the order-OOPS! I noticed when I received the tank that they were not on the shipping receipt but fortunately I had some flow accelerators from my old tank that I forgot about(don't use anymore because of the vortechs). Do those oscillators restrict the pump flow? My accellerators cut my pump turnover considerably. The water would come flying out of the return but in order to do that it had to be compressed down through a 1/4 inch hole. I really noticed the reduction in the flow through my sump with those so I took them off.