CADlights 39g Pro build thread

[reeftivo]

Yeah I have been thinking about buying a new bulb for this stock light. Any suggestions on the MH and T5s? I do like the blue of the T5s though so may stick with them but not sure yet. I might go with some a touch less blue. See if that might help a touch with growth too. I should get a different bulb though try a 10k and 14k maybe but 10s are sometimes a bit too yellow. The blue T5s may help that though because these stock ones are really blue.
I still need to find a new pump for my stock CAD skimmer. I never have got that one to work. That's how I ended up with the Bubble Magus. I don't know which pump will fit and still be at around the 295gph or what ever the stock skimmer pump is. I looked all over and can't figure out which one would work. It's hard to find one that will sit underneath and is the correct size outlet and the correct gph. Maybe I'll have to bite the bullet and try another one of these POS ones that come with the CAD stock skimmer. I got 2 of them and neither one works. My pump with the BM skimmer surges like yours does too. I'm going to look around and see if I can find a new pump for that as well. I don't like these no-name pumps. I'm happy with just about everything on the CAD but EVERY pump that it comes with is garbage and needs to be replaced. I would rather pay an extra $150 and now I had quality pumps, now I have to try to figure out what pumps will work on these two skimmers. Going to be a pain because I have been looking and can't find any answers. I guess I'll have to start bringing one skimmer with me when I go out to fish stores and find one there, then switch the skimmer out and do the same with the other one lol.

Hi buddy!

I'm not sure which pumps at this point would work for the stock cad skimmer but the best gph match is the MJ1200. The only problen is the outlet is too small and that surely would affect the performance even with modding it to fit. I think the smaller rio pumps may work but you would have to bring the resun pump with you to the LFS and match the collars up to see if they fit. The Eheim mini pumps would also be a match for the gph but no LFS that I know of carry them and the out put dimensions would be a guess. IMO the eheims are the best option for these so I may just order one online at marine depot and see if it works. If it doesn't then I will still have a quality pump on hand for other applications.

 

[reeftivo]

did you take out the divider to get your skimmer in that area? I have been wondering about taking out my rock rubble and seeing if I could remove that divider and make a bigger skimmer area. Then I could let the water run in the back of that area and place the skimmer more in the middle to front. Not sure about getting that divider out though.

Yes, I had to remove the divider and the rails at the top of the first chamber.

The rails I removed with a small pair of pliers and they came off easily. The divider was a bit more scary. I drained the chamber and used a small hammer to lightly tap the ends starting from the top down. I would tap the divider and it would crack away from the acrylic then I would use large pliers to slowly teak it until it split away and broke off. It worked easily but scared me a bit and I was at the ready with a 10 gallon sump just in case. The ATB skimmer is huge. 23 tall 6 in wide and 10.5 long. It fit exactly to the dimensions of the first chamber with the exception of the threaded output collar which I had to heat and bend slightly. It is working too good right now so I'm hesitant to remove it but I had to remove my rubble and liked the rubble in that chamber. Heck, If you decide to remove your divider I have a spare deltec MCE600 you could place in that chamber. Just a thought.

 

[reeftivo]

Another thing LOL. Tivo you mentioned you are running the 14k 150w prism bulb now and getting good growth. Isn't that the bulb our fixture comes with? I thought it was because that's the one CAD sells so I just figured that's what comes stock in the light. Or is it something different? I was thinking of maybe going with the 14k Phoenix. I haven't used them before but heard nice things. I heard they are as blue as 20k but the intensity is a lot stronger so might be worth a try. Too bad bulbs are so spendy to "try" lol.

Yes I'm back to the 14k stock prism bulb. It works! I will be getting a Ushio soon. The Phoenix bulbs are excellent bulbs so if I were you I would give it a shot. SPS will grow fastest under 10k and slower under the higher kelvins. I think with this cad ballast and the actinic T5s that a 10 k or 14 k is perfect. If you want a bit more blue then the 15k would be good but growth would probably be a bit slower.

Gotta love this hobby!!:dance:

Happy Reefing Buddy!

Tivo

 

[reeftivo]

Just got back from lunch and dropped by the house to check on the Atman pump that was surging on the Bubble Magus skimmer. I ran a 12" length of 3/4 in vinyl tubing straight up in my koi pond and it wasn't surging this morning but was when I checked at lunch. It's not a drastic surge. Maybe 1 minute holding and then a slight 4in drop, then up again. I will see if I can get another atman shipped and in the meantime, I'll see if another pump may fit.

 

[Gillundr]

Yes, I had to remove the divider and the rails at the top of the first chamber.

The rails I removed with a small pair of pliers and they came off easily. The divider was a bit more scary. I drained the chamber and used a small hammer to lightly tap the ends starting from the top down. I would tap the divider and it would crack away from the acrylic then I would use large pliers to slowly teak it until it split away and broke off. It worked easily but scared me a bit and I was at the ready with a 10 gallon sump just in case. The ATB skimmer is huge. 23 tall 6 in wide and 10.5 long. It fit exactly to the dimensions of the first chamber with the exception of the threaded output collar which I had to heat and bend slightly. It is working too good right now so I'm hesitant to remove it but I had to remove my rubble and liked the rubble in that chamber. Heck, If you decide to remove your divider I have a spare deltec MCE600 you could place in that chamber. Just a thought.

Nice. How much do you want for the skimmer? I might take you up on it. =)

 

[Gillundr]

Yes I'm back to the 14k stock prism bulb. It works! I will be getting a Ushio soon. The Phoenix bulbs are excellent bulbs so if I were you I would give it a shot. SPS will grow fastest under 10k and slower under the higher kelvins. I think with this cad ballast and the actinic T5s that a 10 k or 14 k is perfect. If you want a bit more blue then the 15k would be good but growth would probably be a bit slower.

Gotta love this hobby!!:dance:

Happy Reefing Buddy!

Tivo

In my frag tank I have a Ushio 14k. It's just a 40g breeder that I set up for a frag tank and used another old 40 breeder to make a sump and fuge out of. I was running a T5 hood over it for a while and things did pretty good but the other day I was bored. I had this pendant that is 400 watts and has 2 32 watr actinic bulbs in it as well to help with the blues. I had a few brand new bulbs laying around and one of them was a Ushio 14k. I know the 400w will be different than the 150w HQI, and it hasn't burned in yet but it puts off a nice color. Not much blue really white. I think if it was the 10k it might be on the yellow side but who knows. Yeah I really want to try another bulb over the CAD though. From what I read I think they said the Phoenix 14k has the intensity of a 10k but a bit of blue in it. I would love to try the 10k and 14k. I know lol us reefers want the nice colors and fast growth...what a pain. It's nice the hoods have the actinics to help supplement some blue in there and color up the corals. That's what I liked about the pendant I just put over my frag tank. I have been thinking about selling it but before I did I thought I would try it out over the frag tank and see how things go for a month or so. I was getting pretty decent growth with the T5 fixture and it was only 4 bulbs. I only ran 1 actinic in it up front for color though. I put the 400w on for 5 hrs yesterday and moved everything from the top down to mid tank. I think I'm going to have to go a bit slow so the corals don't burn up and let them get used to it. I was tempted to hang this fixture over the CAD LOL. The wife said NO. Might look into an outer orbit with the 250w someday but I would like to try to keep this stock for at least a year and see where that gets me. Maybe change around the bulb though.
I put some nice SPS in there so we'll see how things go. Had a few bleach out a bit so they will need to color back up. I'll put up a couple pics of the new sps in there. I'm having issues keeping calcium where I want it. Almost need a doser lol but it's not going to happen. Not now anyways. No more room in that sump. Unless I take out the reactors. Maybe if I take out the carbon reactor I could run calcium. I don't know. Or maybe if I use an ATO I could put in the calcium there. Been using LOTS though. DO you thing the Phoenix 10k will grow out corals much faster than the 14k? I wonder if it would make a notable difference. I get a little worried about 10s looking yellow and then the corals looking yucky.
I think I am going to try to take out that chamber. I have seen a couple people do it but it's scary. Funny too I had another sump just like this one laying around that I just gave away about a month ago, I could have just used it lol. Oh well.

 

[Gillundr]

Just got back from lunch and dropped by the house to check on the Atman pump that was surging on the Bubble Magus skimmer. I ran a 12" length of 3/4 in vinyl tubing straight up in my koi pond and it wasn't surging this morning but was when I checked at lunch. It's not a drastic surge. Maybe 1 minute holding and then a slight 4in drop, then up again. I will see if I can get another atman shipped and in the meantime, I'll see if another pump may fit.

I looked around at a couple of LFS for pumps to fit the stock skimmer and not luck. To find one that fits and matches the size of the collar and the right GPH is a PAIN. I don't know what to do about it. I was wondering if this would work ASM G-300 Replacement Pump for Mini-G. Not sure though. Here's a link
http://www.marinedepot.com/ps_ViewItem.aspx?idproduct=AG1611&idCartRow=17497633&isKit=0&child=AG1611
I hate to just buy another of the same one because I have already had two that wouldn't work. I doubt modding an MJ would do the trick very well. Is there an Ehiem that matches up to it?

 

[reeftivo]

Nice. How much do you want for the skimmer? I might take you up on it. =)

PM me! It works great but I modded it to work over the chamber of an AIO. I couldn't get it to skim out of the rear chamber because the chamber was too small and the skimmer would skim faster than the flow could bring it nutrients so I cut and spliced the intake to reach over the chamber and pull directly from the DT. I also shortened the output pipe a couple of inches but it doesn't affect performance. The intake pipe looks original when the extension is removed. I will take some measurements tonight to make sure it will fit (it should). I doesn't have a very big collection cup but the cup is plumbed with an overflow drain that could be modded easily to a second container in the event you're out of town for a while.

 

[reeftivo]

In my frag tank I have a Ushio 14k. It's just a 40g breeder that I set up for a frag tank and used another old 40 breeder to make a sump and fuge out of. I was running a T5 hood over it for a while and things did pretty good but the other day I was bored. I had this pendant that is 400 watts and has 2 32 watr actinic bulbs in it as well to help with the blues. I had a few brand new bulbs laying around and one of them was a Ushio 14k. I know the 400w will be different than the 150w HQI, and it hasn't burned in yet but it puts off a nice color. Not much blue really white. I think if it was the 10k it might be on the yellow side but who knows. Yeah I really want to try another bulb over the CAD though. From what I read I think they said the Phoenix 14k has the intensity of a 10k but a bit of blue in it. I would love to try the 10k and 14k. I know lol us reefers want the nice colors and fast growth...what a pain. It's nice the hoods have the actinics to help supplement some blue in there and color up the corals. That's what I liked about the pendant I just put over my frag tank. I have been thinking about selling it but before I did I thought I would try it out over the frag tank and see how things go for a month or so. I was getting pretty decent growth with the T5 fixture and it was only 4 bulbs. I only ran 1 actinic in it up front for color though. I put the 400w on for 5 hrs yesterday and moved everything from the top down to mid tank. I think I'm going to have to go a bit slow so the corals don't burn up and let them get used to it. I was tempted to hang this fixture over the CAD LOL. The wife said NO. Might look into an outer orbit with the 250w someday but I would like to try to keep this stock for at least a year and see where that gets me. Maybe change around the bulb though.
I put some nice SPS in there so we'll see how things go. Had a few bleach out a bit so they will need to color back up. I'll put up a couple pics of the new sps in there. I'm having issues keeping calcium where I want it. Almost need a doser lol but it's not going to happen. Not now anyways. No more room in that sump. Unless I take out the reactors. Maybe if I take out the carbon reactor I could run calcium. I don't know. Or maybe if I use an ATO I could put in the calcium there. Been using LOTS though. DO you thing the Phoenix 10k will grow out corals much faster than the 14k? I wonder if it would make a notable difference. I get a little worried about 10s looking yellow and then the corals looking yucky.
I think I am going to try to take out that chamber. I have seen a couple people do it but it's scary. Funny too I had another sump just like this one laying around that I just gave away about a month ago, I could have just used it lol. Oh well.

400watt? That's awsome! The nice thing is you could raise the pendant as high or low as you want but the bad is the higher you have to go the more bleading out into the room. Regarding your calcium, is your mag level above 1300. I'm sure you know that if it's too low then the calcium levels won't increase with suppliments and could precipitate out. I have an MRC nano reactor (not the hang on version) and I'm still trying to figure out where to put it. I'm doing a remodel upstairs and have to wait for carpet before I find a good location for it. The reactors are worth every penny once you get them tuned. Back to lighting, the 10Ks will give you the best growth. A great LFS over here has 400 watt 6500ks with Ice cap ballasts over his frag tanks (I thought they were 14ks) and the colors are excellent even without actinics. He is using Iwasaki bulbs. I think 14ks are better . You'll still get good growth and the colors will be much better. If you have a frag tank then 10k would be better.

 

[reeftivo]

I looked around at a couple of LFS for pumps to fit the stock skimmer and not luck. To find one that fits and matches the size of the collar and the right GPH is a PAIN. I don't know what to do about it. I was wondering if this would work ASM G-300 Replacement Pump for Mini-G. Not sure though. Here's a link
http://www.marinedepot.com/ps_ViewIt...0&child=AG1611
I hate to just buy another of the same one because I have already had two that wouldn't work. I doubt modding an MJ would do the trick very well. Is there an Ehiem that matches up to it?

Those may work. MD has good customer service and I might eventually get around to calling them and see if they could measure the i.d. of the output on those. I just havent had time lately. I have dealt with them for some time now and they are very helpfull to me (maybe because I've spent a small fortune with them-LOL). Check out the Eheim small on the MD site. That collar sure looks like it would slide right in! The only problem would be that the gph is slightly lower but the Eheims are much better pumps against head pressure than any other (with the exception of Mags) so I bet they would work if they would fit. If it works then I would get some enkamat and mesh mod the impellar. That would pull more air and possibly compensate for the gph loss.

 

[Gillundr]

I'm not familiar with the Enkamat and mes mod. Is there a link or something I could read about it?

 

[Gillundr]

400watt? That's awsome! The nice thing is you could raise the pendant as high or low as you want but the bad is the higher you have to go the more bleading out into the room. Regarding your calcium, is your mag level above 1300. I'm sure you know that if it's too low then the calcium levels won't increase with suppliments and could precipitate out. I have an MRC nano reactor (not the hang on version) and I'm still trying to figure out where to put it. I'm doing a remodel upstairs and have to wait for carpet before I find a good location for it. The reactors are worth every penny once you get them tuned. Back to lighting, the 10Ks will give you the best growth. A great LFS over here has 400 watt 6500ks with Ice cap ballasts over his frag tanks (I thought they were 14ks) and the colors are excellent even without actinics. He is using Iwasaki bulbs. I think 14ks are better . You'll still get good growth and the colors will be much better. If you have a frag tank then 10k would be better.

Right now it's pretty close to the water. Thinking about raising it up a bit at least until the corals get used to it. But I have been only running the main light 5 to 6 hrs to get used to the light. I might eventually put in a 10k or something in there, going to see how this one does first. Let it burn in a bit and let the corals get used to it. I figured even with a 20k though I will still get fast growth with a 400w over that shallow breeder and good colors to boot but will have to play with it and experiment. Thinking about raising the light a few inches for now.

 

[Gillundr]

Mag is good. I checked that too. It just sucks it up. I have been changing 10g of water every week since it's been set up so I think it doesn't have a chance to suck all the Mag up. I may slow down on the WCs a bit soon but I had issues with skimmers on it in the beginning so compensated that way, and just sort of kept up on it. I'm going to put a few pics up of the new frags I moved into the CAD from my frag tank. Some are a bit blurry but you'll get the idea.

 

[reeftivo]

I'm not familiar with the Enkamat and mes mod. Is there a link or something I could read about it?

Here is a good pictorial for mesh modding. This guy used three layers (too much) 2 layers are fine. This will increase your air intake by 1/3 and chop the bubbles into super fine micros. I've done this to three skimmers and tried it with the deltec but the air was too much for the design of the skimmer. The only problem with mesh is that it will clog over time and about once every couple of months should be cleaned and inspected. If it clogs it will pull more air and less water so you will see a decline in skimmate over a couple of days and it's time for cleaning. Many don't like mesh because of the maintenance but if your willing to inspect and clean it occassionally then it's great-and quiets down pumps considerably.
http://www.wamas.org/forums/lofiversion/index.php/t18074.html

 

[timdanger]

In my frag tank I have a Ushio 14k. It's just a 40g breeder that I set up for a frag tank and used another old 40 breeder to make a sump and fuge out of. I was running a T5 hood over it for a while and things did pretty good but the other day I was bored. I had this pendant that is 400 watts and has 2 32 watr actinic bulbs in it as well to help with the blues. I had a few brand new bulbs laying around and one of them was a Ushio 14k. I know the 400w will be different than the 150w HQI, and it hasn't burned in yet but it puts off a nice color. Not much blue really white. I think if it was the 10k it might be on the yellow side but who knows. Yeah I really want to try another bulb over the CAD though. From what I read I think they said the Phoenix 14k has the intensity of a 10k but a bit of blue in it. I would love to try the 10k and 14k. I know lol us reefers want the nice colors and fast growth...what a pain. It's nice the hoods have the actinics to help supplement some blue in there and color up the corals. That's what I liked about the pendant I just put over my frag tank. I have been thinking about selling it but before I did I thought I would try it out over the frag tank and see how things go for a month or so. I was getting pretty decent growth with the T5 fixture and it was only 4 bulbs. I only ran 1 actinic in it up front for color though. I put the 400w on for 5 hrs yesterday and moved everything from the top down to mid tank. I think I'm going to have to go a bit slow so the corals don't burn up and let them get used to it. I was tempted to hang this fixture over the CAD LOL. The wife said NO. Might look into an outer orbit with the 250w someday but I would like to try to keep this stock for at least a year and see where that gets me. Maybe change around the bulb though.
I put some nice SPS in there so we'll see how things go. Had a few bleach out a bit so they will need to color back up. I'll put up a couple pics of the new sps in there. I'm having issues keeping calcium where I want it. Almost need a doser lol but it's not going to happen. Not now anyways. No more room in that sump. Unless I take out the reactors. Maybe if I take out the carbon reactor I could run calcium. I don't know. Or maybe if I use an ATO I could put in the calcium there. Been using LOTS though. DO you thing the Phoenix 10k will grow out corals much faster than the 14k? I wonder if it would make a notable difference. I get a little worried about 10s looking yellow and then the corals looking yucky.
I think I am going to try to take out that chamber. I have seen a couple people do it but it's scary. Funny too I had another sump just like this one laying around that I just gave away about a month ago, I could have just used it lol. Oh well.

it's awesome that this is what you do when you're bored. it sounds to me like you have some neat toys laying around -- how could you ever get bored?

also, i encourage you to go ahead and try to remove the chamber to fit the bigger skimmer in -- if it breaks, i'm selling an extra cad sump over in the hardware classifieds (it has a little crack in it, but should be fixable)! i'll give you a discount.

 

[reeftivo]

Mag is good. I checked that too. It just sucks it up. I have been changing 10g of water every week since it's been set up so I think it doesn't have a chance to suck all the Mag up. I may slow down on the WCs a bit soon but I had issues with skimmers on it in the beginning so compensated that way, and just sort of kept up on it. I'm going to put a few pics up of the new frags I moved into the CAD from my frag tank. Some are a bit blurry but you'll get the idea.

When you're ready for a Ca reactor, check out My Reef Creations (MRC). They have the best equipment packages I've found. The build quality of the reactors is second to none. I got mine a little over two years ago and their prices have come up about $20 on the reactors and the packages but they are still cheaper than even the crap reactors out there. I got the CR nano with a secondary effluent chamber along with a 5lb bottle, jbj regulator, Ph probe and holder, coarse media and Ph controller all for less than $550 bucks back then. I bet now it's still under $600.

Looking forward to the frag pics!

Take care buddy!

 

[timdanger]

i recently bought a tunze 1073.040 to replace the cad stock return pump -- i'll let you guys know how it works out. supposed to be dead silent, and only uses 41 watts, so i'm hoping for the best.

as far as the B-M skimmer goes, i'm sorry you guys aren't having good luck with it. i'm not 100% sure what to think, because although i'm not getting consistent production, again it could definitely be because i don't have an ATO (which is a necessity) and my water level is dropping 1.5" over the course of the day. there's a lot of turbulence in the skimmer body for sure, but i can't decide if that's hurting my production or not. i have noticed that the size of my bubbles are tending to vary -- i'll get a lot of smaller ones, but then i'll have very large ones rising to the top as well. any diagnosis for that?

at the end of the day, though, i'm getting pretty dark skimmate -- but not very much of it (i'm filling up about 1/3 of the collection cup each week, i'm guessing). that being said, again, i've got the evaporation problem. and, i'm still pretty lightly stocked, with a small ocellaris clown, a bluespot jawfish, an algae blenny, and i just added a new royal gramma last night. i have no corals (unless you count hitchhiker star polyps, which i do not).

 

[Gillundr]

Cool. Thanks for the link, I will look into it and maybe try it on one of my skimmers and see how it goes.
I thought I would post a couple pics of some of the sps I put in the tank over the weekend. I put some stuff up high, some mid-tank, and a couple pieces in the bottom. I want to see how well this light will do. Placement was based on where I have this stuff in other tanks. Bottom pieces are Granulosa and A. Lokani (Blue) Blue Turaki. Other stuff I put in includes-Oregon Blue Tort, Yellow Tort, Red Table, Cali Tort, a small green cap piece (not sure if it will do much it was a small piece I broke by accident and threw in there. I want to put a "real" frag of a cap or two in there eventually), Roabs Tubbs Pink Jade, Fishheads Blue Tip Tenius, ORA Blue Prostrata, ORA Nathan Green Milli, Aqua Stag, Blue Acro, Blue tip Acro, Tri-color Valida, Red Planet Table.
I think that about covers it LOL. These are all frags from stuff I had already so I didn't go out and buy a ton of sps to "try" with these lights. It's sort of an experiment for me and they are mostly all small frags few a bit bigger. Easy enough to remove before they "overgrow" frag plugs and rocks and get cramped. I wanted to try a variety of stuff to see if it would grow and maintain color and I wanted to try some stuff at all areas of the tank. I haven't been able to find any info on anybody keeping sps long term in the CAD under the stock lights so thought I would try it and keep it updated and documented for people in the future. I may change the bulbs around during the process and will report what I experience with that as well. I do have another system to move corals back to if for any reason they don't look like they are doing well. Here are a couple pics, a lot of them are blury I'm going to have to work with my little camera a bit to get it to take some nice pics of sps without bluring stuff but you can get an idea anyways.

This and another Milli are mid tank, one pretty much under lights the other off to the side not in direct light.

A couple down at the bottom, maybe 2 or 3" off of the sand.

A couple of shots of pieces up at the top.

 

[reeftivo]

very, very nice gillundr! I'm jealous!

timdanger,

An ATO would solve the big bubble problem. If your level drops during the coarse of the day the air will increase and bubbles will merge under the fins of the red diffuser plate before being released upward. Thats why you see big bubbles in there as well as the normal micros.

 

[reeftivo]

i recently bought a tunze 1073.040 to replace the cad stock return pump -- i'll let you guys know how it works out. supposed to be dead silent, and only uses 41 watts, so i'm hoping for the best.

as far as the B-M skimmer goes, i'm sorry you guys aren't having good luck with it. i'm not 100% sure what to think, because although i'm not getting consistent production, again it could definitely be because i don't have an ATO (which is a necessity) and my water level is dropping 1.5" over the course of the day. there's a lot of turbulence in the skimmer body for sure, but i can't decide if that's hurting my production or not. i have noticed that the size of my bubbles are tending to vary -- i'll get a lot of smaller ones, but then i'll have very large ones rising to the top as well. any diagnosis for that?

at the end of the day, though, i'm getting pretty dark skimmate -- but not very much of it (i'm filling up about 1/3 of the collection cup each week, i'm guessing). that being said, again, i've got the evaporation problem. and, i'm still pretty lightly stocked, with a small ocellaris clown, a bluespot jawfish, an algae blenny, and i just added a new royal gramma last night. i have no corals (unless you count hitchhiker star polyps, which i do not).

1/3 cup of skimmate that good is cool! Especially with that low of a load.
Your production will increase once you get an ato. Ask for a Tunze osmolator for an early Christmas present -lol!:thumbsup: