Chartwell's 50 gallon CAD cube

[chartwell]

Am I the only one who creeps up to check on new arrivals the first morning after getting them? I was really holding my breath but both fish look great and are eating well.

In other news I got a new Phoenix 14K 150 watt bulb today and swapped it out for the stock bulb. I really, really like it. It is quite blue, which I was expecting from my research. Makes the coral colors "pop" a bit more.

Susan

 

[wwu123]

I've thought about it, but haven't done it. I did add gutter guard over the top of the overflow since I had the pleasure of fishing a clownfish out of there. Pretty hard to get your hand down in there enough to catch a fish!

Don't know if anyone else noticed, but a DVD case sliced in half along the spine fits perfectly over the overflow, it even "snaps" in place...

 

[ctrl+f]

One problem I have is that I have to keep the return pump dialed back with a ball valve or it overwhelms the drain and the water level gets scarily high in the tank and I think it would overflow if I let it. This didn't used to be a problem, so I'm guessing the overflow and durso have slimed over and maybe are a bit restricted, slowing the drain. It kind of sucks because I now have a very slow turn over which I know is not ideal. I'm not really brave enough to tackle cutting out some of the overflow teeth or tearing out and redoing the drain, but I am afraid that might be what is needed...

I am thinking about getting this tank instead of going custom, but this is scary to me. Would there be space to drill an emergency drain? Maybe through the back?

 

[chartwell]

wwu123- I might have to try that, but the one thing that worries me is I have now fished my clownfish out of the overflow twice. If there had been a cover on it I think he would have just flopped off onto the floor and died. Or maybe he'd have flopped back into the tank, I don't know. I really don't want to cover the tank.

ctrl+f - I'm clueless on plumbing, maybe someone else can answer your question. I recently opened up my return pump all the way and watched to see what happened. The tank did not overflow, but it was within 1/2 inch or less from the top. So I dialed it back down to having the water line 1 inch from the top. It does make me nervous that if a snail or something ever blocked my drain I think I would have a whole lotta water on the floor pretty quick!

Hmmm, might be worthwhile to do the DVD case overflow cover afterall for this very reason.

Susan

 

[Fishfish0001]

There is a way to use a plastic bag insted of a CD case. Apparently it works great and doesn't get dirty. I can't remember which thread it was in though...

 

[chartwell]

1 year anniversary

1 year anniversary

It has been right about a year since I set up this tank, two years + since starting the system in a 30 gallon tank. I took some pictures tonight, thought I'd post an update. I have two new fish since my last update, a Flame Hawk and a Coral Beauty. That brings me up to five fish, so no more fish for me!

Full tank shot

Full tank, closer

Coral Beauty Angel

Flame Hawk

 

[chartwell]

...and some of the corals:

Acans

Candy Canes

Zoa Rock

Blue Zoas

Zoas

Frogspawn and Hammer

Brain

 

[Lt.Shineysides]

You have a very pretty tank. I like the cad lighting tanks a lot and am getting one soon. Good work!

 

[chartwell]

Thank you Lt.Shineysides - have fun with your tank when you get it!

 

[urbaneks]

Good looking tank. I'm trying to decide between a custom cadlights and lee mar tank. What is your opinion of your cadlights? Would you buy another cadlights?

 

[hifoo]

Good looking tank. I'm trying to decide between a custom cadlights and lee mar tank. What is your opinion of your cadlights? Would you buy another cadlights?

I'd like to know too, I have been looking at the 50g for some time now, and would like to know what you think about the 50g since you have been with it for over a year.

 

[chartwell]

If I had it to do all over again, I'm not sure what I would do!

I have no complaints about the quality of the actual tank. The glass and seams look great. I have had problems with some of the equipment and have had to replace some things. They never did send me my plumbing, we had to buy and do all of that ourselves. The return pump died after about six months, the skimmer pump was so touchy I had to get a new one, the fuge light died, the fan was super loud and rusted quickly, stuff like that. The skimmer does seem to work pretty well and I haven't had any problems with it since I got the second pump (which I did have to pay for.) Replacing the fuge lamp was no biggie and I haven't needed a fan since a replaced the return pump with one that runs cooler. The light fixture is still working, did have to replace the fuse in the ballast but that's it.

I have a problem with my return pump outreaching my drain. I have a
Tunze Silence 1073.02 dialed waaaaaay back with a ball valve or my tank would overflow, which means my turnover is practically zilch. I have two MP10s in the tank for flow, so it is not that big of a deal, but I wish I knew why this happened and how to fix it. It wasn't like this at first, but I've checked everything and there are no obstructions in my drain plumbing, so I think it is just that once things slimed over the drain speed slowed way down.

The sump is pretty small, I have the older model which I think is smaller
than they come with now. I have a ball of cheato in the middle chamber but it tended to just sit there and rot since the flow in my sump is so low. I jammed a nano powerhead in there to keep the cheato moving, it barely fits but seems to be working.

We built our own stand so I can't comment on that. All in all I guess I would do things the same since, frankly, I would not be willing to spend the money to buy the high end equivalents of the light fixture, the skimmer, etc., so I would never have set up this system unless I could have bought it all together like I did. Even with replacing some things I think I still came out ahead based on how much some of the equipment can cost. I think if you have good DIY skills or already have some of the equipment then you might be better off just getting the tank.

Susan

 

[chartwell]

Update

Update

We're coming up on the tank's two year anniversary (three years if you count the year it was a 30 gallon) and I thought I would do an update.

I went through a rough patch where practically all of my fish jumped out and died within a couple of weeks of each other :-( We finally got a screen lid built, I feel so stupid for not having done it from the start. That was a long time ago, and I've slowly restocked - I currently have a black O. clown, a Tailspot blenny, a firefish and a Bangaii Cardinal.

Corals: a trachy brain, a frogspawn, a hammer, assorted zoas, two different acans, a blastomussa, some palys, couple of mushrooms, and a little montipora frag. I think I'm done of getting corals, I want to just let these fill in.

I feel like I finally have the tank on autopilot and everything seems really stable. I started VSV dosing a few months ago and it has made an amazing difference for the better in how the tank looks. I got a dosing pump for my calcium and have perfected adding my alk supplement and magnesium to my ATO reservoir, so the only thing I dose by hand each day is the VSV.

I took everything out of my sump, no cheato, no sand, no rocks. It is just a place to keep my skimmer and heater, and that has also seemed to really help with reducing detritus build up. I change 5 gallons once a week - I take 3 gallons out of the display, lightly vacuuming the sand, and 2 gallons out of the sump, siphoning out any detritus.

Enough talking, here are some recent pictures.

FTS

 

[chartwell]

Fish

Fish

Best friends

Firefish

Tiny fish, big personality!

 

[chartwell]

Corals

Corals

Palys

Hammer

Green Acans -was 5 heads when I bought it, over 30 now

Frogspawn

 

[edigi05]

Very nice! Love the CAD tanks. Ive been running my 50 for about 18 months and couldnt be happier.

 

[chartwell]

Just a few photos, not great, but better than some previous attempts!

Acans:

Ricordia:

Duncan:

Bangaii Cardinal:

 

[audiofile18]

hi, this is the cad 50g series one.

 

[chartwell]

Wow, been a long time since I posted - been through a lot of ups and downs, just about gave up recently due to dinos, finally seem to have them on the run and stuff is opened up and happy again, such a relief to see.

Does anyone know what the purple, branching growths behind the clam in this photo are?

 

[chartwell]

Update

Update

Time for one of my infrequent updates - mostly just wanted to post some photos.

The tank is doing the best it ever has- turned out all of my problems were from cooking my poor corals with too much light from my Radion :-( I stopped trying every new graph that I saw and just set it to Natural with a 21foot depth offset to make it the blueness I wanted, made the intensity only be 25 % and BAM- the corals started turning the right color and actually growing! I changed nothing else, so I know it was this... can't believe I struggled for so long, and it was so simple - oh well, glad things are good now!

Now for the photos: