Cadlights 50G Artisan Cube Tank Build Thread

[snowriderz]

hows your tank coming along Coco? havent seen an update for a while. your tank looks amazing and i check it out once in a while.

did you see the new 50G Artisan from CAD lights? its got their new Conic skimmers in them and the LED dimming lights now. looks pretty awesome. thinking about getting one of those for the Holidays.

 

[bullitr]

Richard is in Scotland getting his doctorate.

 

[snowriderz]

thats a good enough excuse haha. good luck.....but whos taking care of the tank?

 

[bullitr]

thats a good enough excuse haha. good luck.....but whos taking care of the tank?

most of the acropora and high end corals are gone its only a anemone reef now i believe and his father is taking care of it.

 

[cocoaandme]

Thanks Lawrence, yep I've been pretty busy with school in Scotland. Getting my masters not doctorate though but hoping to follow up with a doctorate (school system here is a bit different).

Like Lawrence said I sold most of my nice corals. I have one green acropora in it as an experiment and the rest are softies, lps and montis. From the last itme I saw it via webcam it looked like it was doing well. I'll see if I can get a friend to take a clear picture of it.

 

[ChefZilla]

Heya Richard. Nice to hear from you. Hope everything is coming along nicely over in scotland. Are you planning on coming home for the holidays? The green acro and bonsai I got from you is really taking off now. The red planets about the same. And theres i think 7 polyps of PH now as well.

 

[vashichino7]

Hey Guys, I actually purchased a CADlights 50 gallon setup also. I noticed the way you installed your pumps and returns, quite interesting. How fast did your tank take to collect your purple algae, and how do you like it so far?

Here are my pictures.

 

[vashichino7]

<a href="http://s1201.photobucket.com/albums/bb356/vashichino7/?action=view&current=photo1.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i1201.photobucket.com/albums/bb356/vashichino7/photo1.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket"></a>

<a href="http://s1201.photobucket.com/albums/bb356/vashichino7/?action=view&current=photo2-1.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i1201.photobucket.com/albums/bb356/vashichino7/photo2-1.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket"></a>

<a href="http://s1201.photobucket.com/albums/bb356/vashichino7/?action=view&current=photo3-1.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i1201.photobucket.com/albums/bb356/vashichino7/photo3-1.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket"></a>

<a href="http://s1201.photobucket.com/albums/bb356/vashichino7/?action=view&current=photo4-1.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i1201.photobucket.com/albums/bb356/vashichino7/photo4-1.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket"></a>

 

[bullitr]

<a href="http://s1201.photobucket.com/albums/bb356/vashichino7/?action=view&current=photo1.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i1201.photobucket.com/albums/bb356/vashichino7/photo1.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket"></a>

<a href="http://s1201.photobucket.com/albums/bb356/vashichino7/?action=view&current=photo2-1.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i1201.photobucket.com/albums/bb356/vashichino7/photo2-1.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket"></a>

<a href="http://s1201.photobucket.com/albums/bb356/vashichino7/?action=view&current=photo3-1.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i1201.photobucket.com/albums/bb356/vashichino7/photo3-1.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket"></a>

<a href="http://s1201.photobucket.com/albums/bb356/vashichino7/?action=view&current=photo4-1.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i1201.photobucket.com/albums/bb356/vashichino7/photo4-1.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket"></a>

Its Very nice
Also please dont take this the wrong way
but that naso shouldn't be in a small tank
Maybe Richard might say thing

 

[cocoaandme]

Heya Richard. Nice to hear from you. Hope everything is coming along nicely over in scotland. Are you planning on coming home for the holidays? The green acro and bonsai I got from you is really taking off now. The red planets about the same. And theres i think 7 polyps of PH now as well.

Hey Brent, glad to hear the corals are doing well. I won't be going home for the holidays. Probably won't be back until summer if that.

Hey Guys, I actually purchased a CADlights 50 gallon setup also. I noticed the way you installed your pumps and returns, quite interesting. How fast did your tank take to collect your purple algae, and how do you like it so far?

The coralline algae grew gradually for me. It will vary for every tank. If you want to get an idea of the growth rate you can go through this thread and see the pictures I have posted of my tank.

Also what rock is that? Looks like lava rock.

Its Very nice
Also please dont take this the wrong way
but that naso shouldn't be in a small tank
Maybe Richard might say thing

Looks like there is another tang in there as well. I agree with Lawrence that a naso tang in the 50g is a bad idea. 2 tangs in a the cad 50g is worse.

 

[vashichino7]

Hey Brent, glad to hear the corals are doing well. I won't be going home for the holidays. Probably won't be back until summer if that.



The coralline algae grew gradually for me. It will vary for every tank. If you want to get an idea of the growth rate you can go through this thread and see the pictures I have posted of my tank.

Also what rock is that? Looks like lava rock.



Looks like there is another tang in there as well. I agree with Lawrence that a naso tang in the 50g is a bad idea. 2 tangs in a the cad 50g is worse.

Hey guys, honestly I take real good care of my tanks and have spoke to many enthusiats. Some disagree and some agree.

The rock I used is trace rock, I have live rock in my sump. Reason for thr trace was the aquascaping technics and usage.

What do you guys think?

 

[cocoaandme]

There will always be enthusiasts that agree and disagree with every aspect of reef aquariums. The marine biologists and well known aquarists are the ones to listen to.

 

[ken1977]

Your tank looks sick!!! I have the same one. cycle for 5 weeks now.

 

[cocoaandme]

My family took some pictures of my tank for me. Here is the update (sorry about the quality, they used an iphone):

So everything that I left in the tank seems to be doing well. I left it as a bit of an experiment to see what would happen. The only things being done to the tank in my absence are feedings and adding water to the ATO reservoir. I have a refugium in the sump and another one next to the tank.

 

[babyjess210]

Nice tank Richard!!!!! LMK when you frag that green tip frogspawn

 

[vashichino7]

Have a few questions; currently for filtration I am using the sump with a 4 inch sock to the skimmer. The middle divider i have placed my old live rock in, the return i have placed bioballs. I have also put together a chiller which i will connect my UV STERILIZER to. What can i do to improve filtration? I get brown algae on the bed time to time and green on the glass. Any suggestions?

Also in the previous photos of your build i noticed you had a two little fish calcium reactor, i am thinking of getting a reactor. Do you recomend that brand? Its a very nice price compared to others... Let me know please any suggestions will help. Thanks

 

[cocoaandme]

Why are you using bioballs? I would replace the bio balls with more live rock. Bioballs support aerobic bacteria which only breaks down waste to the level of nitrates. This means that you are increasing nitrate levels and therefore supporting algae growth. Also your tank is new. It's normal to have algae blooms with a new unstable tank.

If you want to have better filtration I recommend using a refugium. However, it is best to first understand the concepts behind refugiums in order to setup a good one. Read lots of articles on it.

Also having 2 tangs in a 50g will almost certainly guarantee that you will have high nutrients (if you are feeding them properly) and it won't be long before they out grow the tank. Plus they will become territorial eventually in such a small tank and cause each other to stress out resulting in ich outbreaks and eventual death due to stress and poor immune systems.

The reactor I have is a phosphate reactor not a calcium reactor. So if you are comparing the price of a phosphate reactor to a calcium reactor the phosphate reactor will definitely be cheaper. I like the tlf reactor a lot and I think it's great for the money.

I wouldn't get into calcium reactors just yet if I were you. Sounds like you are fairly new to reefing so it would be best to take things slow and just see how things do. You can mess up your tank params with a CA reactor if you don't know what you are doing.

 

[cocoaandme]

Nice tank Richard!!!!! LMK when you frag that green tip frogspawn

Hey babjess! Thanks for the compliment. I won't be back from Scotland until next summer at least but when I get back I'll make you a frag. It's actually a bicolored frogspawn so it has green and purple tips mixed.:beer:

 

[vashichino7]

I have actually taken out the tangs. I currently have just a blenny in my quaranteen tank, waiting to move in. The middle divider of the sump is quite tiny for a refugieum, wouldnt you say? Should I take the bioballs out and replace with more live rock?

 

[cocoaandme]

I have actually taken out the tangs. I currently have just a blenny in my quaranteen tank, waiting to move in. The middle divider of the sump is quite tiny for a refugieum, wouldnt you say? Should I take the bioballs out and replace with more live rock?

Actually I have a refugium in the middle chamber. You can see it in the pictures of my sump in previous pages of this thread. It worked very well. I only added the second refugium because I wanted more stability and nutrient export while I was away for the year.

As for the bioballs, I think it would be better to replace with live rock. It might not be so bad to have them in there but it depends on the chemistry of your tank. If your nutrient input is low then the bioballs probably won't affect the chemistry much but if you have high nutrient input than they could create a situation where nitrates are being produced too quickly.

Live rock is nice because it has aerobic areas and anaerobic areas. So you can get populations of both kinds of bacteria growing.