CADlights 39g Pro build thread

[mylifeismyown66]

I think someone else here hung their BRS reactors above the sump on the wall of the stand, without the shelf in there of course. Not much room to do anything extra in the stand when the shelf is still in there.

I just found out that the single BRS reactor does Carbon and GFO at the same time and will take up less space. I just looked around in the stand and with my fuge light and the ATO im going to put in there is hardly any room for anything. Looks like I will have to mount it to the back wall or something.

 

[timdanger]

i have the dual BRS media reactor inside my stand -- it is an amazing mess of pipes, cords, gadgets and clutter... but it all fits!

i'll try and get an updated picture sometime, but this picture shows where i mounted it. note that 1) the fan and fuge light are not actually mounted where you see them in the picture (this was a picture while i was setting up) and 2) i've sinced removed the DSB from the fuge and moved the media reactor pump into the center chamber, both for water movement at the bottom of that chamber and to help alleviate some of the clutter in my return pump chamber.

 

[CalmSeasQuest]

I have the Dual BRS reactor, but I mounted it outside of the cabinet. It works OK, but I'll likely be replacing it with 2 separate reactors (working on a 72X36X24 build.)

The problem with 2 reactors driven by a single pump (or combining both GFO and AC in a single reactor) is that they require different flow rates. I use BRS Hi Cap GFO and BRS ROX 0.8 Carbon. The GFO needs to tumble slightly to prevent it from solidifying whereas you do not want the Carbon to tumble as it will create fines. GFO is much heavier than the Carbon - It's virtually impossible to adjust a single pump to satisfy both ideals.

They also exhaust at different rates (GFO *usually* lasts longer) so you'll be wasting expensive GFO when replacing Carbon when using both in a single reactor.

 

[timdanger]

I have the Dual BRS reactor, but I mounted it outside of the cabinet. It works OK, but I'll likely be replacing it with 2 separate reactors (working on 72X36X24 build.)

The problem with 2 reactors driven by a single pump (or combining both GFO and AC in a single reactor) is that they require different flow rates. I use BRS Hi Cap GFO and BRS ROX 0.8 Carbon. The GFO needs to tumble slightly to prevent it form solidifying whereas you do not want the Carbon to tumble as it will create fines.

THE GFO is much heavier than the Carbon - It's virtually impossible to adjust a single pump to satisfy both ideals.

this was part of my consideration as well; however, using the two "free" sponges supplied with each canister, you can hold the carbon in place between them (thus preventing the carbon from tumbling and creating fines - i'm also using Rox 0.8) while simultaneously allowing the GFO to appropriately tumble by not using the sponges to hold it in place. my rox 0.8 carbon does not move, and my GFO tumbles very lightly.

it might also be beneficial to run the outlet pipe into your filter sock to catch any fines/etc., but i haven't seen any evidence in my tank indicating that it's necessary.

 

[CalmSeasQuest]

I played around with the same idea, but never got it working well. I found that if the ROX is held tight by sponges, it tended to clump together and become channelized, limiting contact time. The additional sponge also cut the flow from the MJ1200 and I couldn't get enough surface agitation on the GFO - You must have found the "Sweet Spot"

 

[mylifeismyown66]

Looks like Im going to have fun planning this sump out lol My ATO should be in this week and I plan on getting a small container and gravity feeding it over the return, and hopefully I can mount the single BRS reactor inside the sump, but I suppose I could mount it outside on the stand or wall if I NEED to. Right now my sump has no rock or filter sock where the return falls into the sump (working on getting both of those things), and my middle chamber i decided not to put in a DSB, but I have some rock there for now and my chaeto, and in my return chamber is the return pump, my heater, and all of my controller sensors.
Timdanger: Any reason you have the water coming out of the reactor going back through your filter sock? I was planning on putting the pump for the reactor in the middle chamber if it wont suck up chaeto, and the water that went through out into the return area.

 

[timdanger]

well, i currently don't bother. i did at the time of the picture because i wanted to make sure i would be able to catch any carbon/GFO dust/fines. however, i never really saw much of any accumulation. it makes sense to put the return pipe into a filter sock for a day or two, maybe, just so that you can be sure the GFO is fully "rinsed" of dust that the sponge won't capture.

however, note that this would not be the case if you are using a single reactor for both carbon and gfo. assuming you mean running gfo/carbon in the same part of the chamber (as opposed to separated out with sponges, which might be a smart alternative!), gfo is harder than carbon, and the tumbling of one against the other will definitely create carbon fines. in that case, i would absolutely say you should run the return into a filter sock or something to capture the fines that will otherwise be released back into your tank. that being said, i don't know if the typical 200micron filter sock would even catch the fines, so you might want to look into that. HLLE has been attributed to carbon fines by some authors.

note that, you CAN use a single BRS reactor for carbon and GFO, but you are risking a couple things doing that.

 

[emklreefer]

Mylifeismyown: i just got the same setup too and am paying close attention to how you are doing it. im not getting as much equipment that you have and im planning to just run the whole tank with only the stock equipment. i read up on each individual part and they all seem to be pretty good reviews. the technical support at CAD lights is phenomenal.

my tank doesnt come with a filter sock but there is a good amount of padding in there. it looks like it should do the job fine hopefully.

i just hooked up all the parts and cabinet. it took me about 2 hours for everything (with the cabinet taking 1 hour). so far im up to the lights. the plumbing came in already put together and i just had to unscrew the bottom piece of both the return and drain, screw them from the bottom and tighten. pretty simple from what i read in the previous pages, definitely a good improvement. im thinking about raising the durso drain if its gonna give some noise. im planning to put it in my bedroom so noise will be a factor. the drain pipe looks pretty big in diameter so it looks like the flow should be smooth and quiet.

Its looking pretty good and cant wait to get it going.

 

[emklreefer]

Ok just setup the water and turned it on. i got all the stuff to raise the drain pipe if the noise becomes bad. so far it isnt too bad, i can hear water trickling sounds.

im thinking tomorrow to get some "starter fishes" anybody have any suggestions on what to put in? some peole say damsels but i heard they get aggressive.

im so tempted to get some baby tangs but i read they dont belong in little tanks unless i take them out once they get a little bigger.

im having problems posting up pics. im gonna try later but now its still quite boring with just a cloudy tank with nothing in it.

 

[SPotter]

Ok just setup the water and turned it on. i got all the stuff to raise the drain pipe if the noise becomes bad. so far it isnt too bad, i can hear water trickling sounds.

im thinking tomorrow to get some "starter fishes" anybody have any suggestions on what to put in? some peole say damsels but i heard they get aggressive.

im so tempted to get some baby tangs but i read they dont belong in little tanks unless i take them out once they get a little bigger.

im having problems posting up pics. im gonna try later but now its still quite boring with just a cloudy tank with nothing in it.

Ok so you need to give us a little more information about the tank. What are you using for rock? Live rock or dry rock? Are you using live sand?

Majority of the people on here are not fans of cycling a tank with "starter" fish because it is cruel to the fish. I definitely say no tangs at any point in the life of your tank and damsels are aggressive. You will have such a hard time getting them out of your tank you will end up taking all of the rock out of your tank.

 

[timdanger]

absolutely no reason or need to use damsels to cycle the tank. expensive, cruel and unnecessary. just put your live rock and live sand in there and it will cycle. if you get live rock from an established system or if it's been cured in a vat for a long time, you might not see much of an ammonia/nitrite/nitrate spike at all. i did this and never even was able to detect measurable ammonia/nitrite/nitrate, even 4-5 days in.

 

[emklreefer]

the tank is running now great. and my water cleared up almost all seems like except for some haze that im sure will celar in a few more days max. i put in just live aragonite at this point and my salt is 1.023, PH 8.2, Ammonia, Nitrite, Nitrate are all 0. so you guys think i should just get live rock and let it cycle? i've seen people with 39G, 50G CAD tanks and other brands that have baby tangs in there. i can wait for a while until the waters perfect, but man they are like my favorite fish though. it will suck pretty bad if i need a bigger one to be able to keep a baby. what if i get a MP10-40 or something to increase flow?

i got a buddy thats got a thriving reef system that im gonna take some filter media out of to seed my bio for 2 weeks and put in rock next week.

i guess im just excited at this point with my new 39g CAD Pro and wanting to do as much as i can with this baby.

whats a good Tang substitute?

 

[mylifeismyown66]

Most tangs need much more space than 39g due to their large size and the fact they spend their days grazing throughout the tank. The only tang I can think of that may stay small enough is the tomini tang.

 

[SPotter]

New pictures of my 39 pro

New pictures of my 39 pro

I just took some new pictures of my tank and some recent additions.

 

[SPotter]

Thumbs up to Eddie at Cadlights. I had bought the LED light and suddenly half of the blue lights stopped working. I sent it back and aparenlty one of the ballasts blew out from a surge. Instead of replacing the ballast Eddie replaced the light with a brand new unit! Now thats customer service!

 

[emklreefer]

thats great to hear Spotter. i always had a safe feeling when dealing with them when choosing this tank. i asked lots of questions and they always give honest opinions, never felt any high pressure sales gimmick. i guess with a great product like the 39G Pro, it really sells itself.

 

[CalmSeasQuest]

I just took some new pictures of my tank and some recent additions.

View attachment 130634 View attachment 130635 View attachment 130636

Tanks looking great Steve

A few updates,

The Tunze 9011 skimmer continues to ROCK. In addition to great production, I continue to be amazed that it starts up EVERY time after feed or maintenance cycles.

I've been playing around with my AquaIlluminations. I just upgraded them to the SOL Blue LEDs (White/Blue/Royal Blue) and am starting to see a significant improvement in coloration. I also added 403nm Stunner strips and reflectors directly to each AI unit. (sorry - my Son has my DSLR, pics to follow.) When the main lighting is on, very little change in coloration is noticed (certainly nothing that could be captured on a photograph.) When the main lights are off - the Near UV-A of the stunner causes the yellows, golds and oranges to glow - The coloration is very bright (I know, I know, pics are coming )

I wasn't looking for, nor did I really expect there to be much difference in initial coloration. I'm curious to see what impact (if any) is had on the zooxanthellae and resulting changes in coral pigmentation.

I've entered a grow-out contest (Zoas in this case) that will enable me to directly compare the growth and coloration results between the AI and G2 LEDs using a common water source and matching PAR. The contest will run over a course of 6 months involving 2 sets of 8 identical frags - It should be interesting.

On a related note, A thread I created on the Aquaillumination LEDs (featuring my Cadlights 39GPro ) has been nominated for thread of the month by RC. It would be great if you could stop by and/or cast a vote.

The thread is AquaIllumination PAR Measurements

You can cast your vote here!

Thanks everyone!

 

[CalmSeasQuest]

Sorry, Duplicate post - Not sure how that happened

 

[reeftivo]

I have the Dual BRS reactor, but I mounted it outside of the cabinet. It works OK, but I'll likely be replacing it with 2 separate reactors (working on a 72X36X24 build.)

The problem with 2 reactors driven by a single pump (or combining both GFO and AC in a single reactor) is that they require different flow rates. I use BRS Hi Cap GFO and BRS ROX 0.8 Carbon. The GFO needs to tumble slightly to prevent it from solidifying whereas you do not want the Carbon to tumble as it will create fines. GFO is much heavier than the Carbon - It's virtually impossible to adjust a single pump to satisfy both ideals.

They also exhaust at different rates (GFO *usually* lasts longer) so you'll be wasting expensive GFO when replacing Carbon when using both in a single reactor.

I've always had great success with a MJ1200 on a Two Little fishes reactor running Chemipure elite (resin and GFO combined). Takes up much less space and you just change out the bag. I took my bag of elite and poked a hole in the untied end and ran the tube right through the bag then zip tied it off and just slid it in. Worked great and tumbled well. The resin doesn't create fines when tumbling.

 

[marinetankdiver]

Moving and have to take tank down for a bit - selling Ecoxotic LED

Moving and have to take tank down for a bit - selling Ecoxotic LED

I've taken my tank down in anticipation of a move and decided to take this opportunity to sell my Ecoxotic LED system.

Ecoxotic Panorama 17.5 Inch LED System w/ Stand Mount and Stunner strip - about three months old. I added two silent fans to the light to use for evaporation cooling on my tank, the fans are very easy to remove if desired. - asking $400 + shipping OBO.

PM me with questions

I also wanted to take this time to say thank you to everyone here as you have all been very helpful with my questions and problems.

Thanks