Downsizing??? Really???

[Ron Reefman]

It's here!!! And it was a bit of a handful for 2 guys to unload (especially since one of them is 67 years old and a bit out of shape).




There was a lot of stuff in there and it all seems to be in top notch condition. We got everything inside before the midday thunderstorms hit. The dining room is kind of full of 'stuff'. You can see in the photo how well the new stand will compliment our new kitchen cabinets we had installed 6 months ago. The 36" 2 door cabinet I ordered looks like the kitchen cabinets.




I couldn't find assembly instructions, but how hard could it be? It's a 6 sided rectangle. So I got started and all was going well until I got down to the front supports. So I called CadLight. They said the instructions should be in the long box with the plumbing supplies. Long box? I didn't get a long box. Oh, and I didn't get bulkheads, ball valve, loc-line nozzles or pipes? He said, that's what's in the long box. So he explained how the front supports go in and said a box of plumbing supplies would go out UPS today. Cool. I appreciate good customer service.

This is the box full of all the stand panels. It weighs darn near as much as the tank!




I got most of it together.




I intend to get metal inserts to go in the stand where the front supports thread in. That way I don't wear out the wood threads every time I want access into the stand and have to remove those supports in order to move the sump or the new pan I'll build. I used white silicone and sealed up all the seams inside the stand to keep any water or salt creep from getting in between the panels. Tomorrow I'll pick up some 3/8" pvc sheet material and build a 'pan' to fit inside the stand. That way any drips or minor spills will get caught and not do any damage to the stand. I'll install a bulkhead in the pan and run a hose out of the stand and out of the house. So if something serious happens water will drain outside and not in the stand or on the floor.

Maybe when my wife gets home we can put the empty tank on top of the stand so I can get a better visual... maybe a better photo to show off too! :thumbsup:

 

[neiltus]

nice...

 

[Oldcabin]

Congrats!
Nice work thus far, glad to hear CAD is taking care of you.

 

[Ron Reefman]

Thanks guys. This is the first time I've set up a primary DT and had some reasonable idea of what I'm doing. The last system was so big and convoluted that it was pretty much a hit and miss operation. This time I know pretty well what I want and were I'm going... except for rockscape???

 

[Ron Reefman]

I still have some work to do inside the stand, like install a drip tray, get the door braces attached with helicoils and bolts rather than wood screws and get the door aligned just right. But I couldn't resist getting the tank up off the dolly and then top it off with the light to show me just how bad I need to clean out the inside of the tank! This is really a small step, but visually it's a big thing.

 

[GQuinn]

Nice set up. Are you using a styrofoam sheet or a pad between the tank and the stand?

 

[Ron Reefman]

CadLight provides a foam pad that is very much like a yoga mat to put between the tank and the stand. I used a yoga mat under my old 180g tank, so I'm pretty comfortable with it's ability to conform as needed. I'm also using the styrofoam that came under the sump in the packaging and will keep it for under the sump.

 

[Ron Reefman]

Today I have made a 'drip tray' or 'splash pan' or 'stand liner'... whatever you want to call it, for inside the stand. It's 3/8" PVC that is glued & screwed together. It fits snug to the inside measurements of the stand. And when it's done, it will have a PVC rim at the top to prevent anything from getting down between the PVC tray and the stand. I'm pretty happy with the way it turned out.

Here is the tray after it has been glued with PVC glue.




And here it is inside the stand. You can see the gap at the far end between the tray and the side of the stand due to the corner ribs of the stand. I'm going to make a rim out of the same PVC material that will fit on top of the tray and attach to the stand. BTW, the back of the tray is taller than the sides so the top of the tray will be just above the top of the sump. That way 'stuff' won't get down between the tray and the sump either.

 

[neiltus]

I really like that idea. I also would like it in some sort of slide out like you would put in a cabinet for servicing the sump. Doubt rails would hold the weight of the sump though. Just a thought.

With your sump in there, how much space do you have around the sump? How tight a fit is it?

 

[Ron Reefman]

Thanks, I had a flexible pvc shower pan liner under my last sump (8'x2'x18") and it saved me from several spills, like a leaky pipe and a leaky external pump. And as much as I like it, my wife sees it as pretty close to absolutely mandatory! LOL!

The slide out would be cool, but that would mean flexible pipes and extra lengths... blah, blah, blah. Besides there are 2 vertical bars that fit at either edge of the center door. Just knowing I may want to get in there and move the sump or the tray, I'm not using wood screws to hold the vertical supports in place. I'm replacing screws by putting helicoils into the stand and using small bolts that will thread into the helicoils. That way taking them in and out several times won't tear up the threads like the wood screws would. I pick up the helicoils from Granger tomorrow. I hope to have the stand done by the end of the day Saturday.

The inside of the 'tray' is 17 1/4"x55" and the 35g sump outside measurements are 12 1/2"x43"x15". So there is some room to play. With nearly a foot at the end I expect I can fill it with something!

The 36" kitchen cabinet going next to the stand will have a 2'x2'x20 display refugium on top. And inside there will be a 10g reservoir for the auto top off, a dosing pump and two 1g jugs or 2 1/2g jugs for Ca & alk and a reactor for whatever I need (GFO, carbon, etc.) and my Apex equipment.

 

[neiltus]

Helicoils are pretty darn cool, they have saved my butt on many occasions. I have used them mostly for repairing old boilers with seized fasteners, have a machinist cousin who uses them on engines, motors, etc. Very good idea on your part.

 

[clownaround2]

Following along also. Great thread! Was playing with the idea of a Cadlight Artisan, but was holding off. Nice to see your experiences with them and how you are putting everything together.

 

[mikeatjac]

Looks great Ron. Nice stand liner. All looks clean and well thought out.

 

[Ron Reefman]

Helicoils are pretty darn cool, they have saved my butt on many occasions. I have used them mostly for repairing old boilers with seized fasteners, have a machinist cousin who uses them on engines, motors, etc. Very good idea on your part.

I use to race sports cars (still do... kind of) and used helicoils when stuff stripped out. As my wife said, it's probably overkill for this stand, but if I do it, then I'll probably never have to take it apart!

Following along also. Great thread! Was playing with the idea of a Cadlight Artisan, but was holding off. Nice to see your experiences with them and how you are putting everything together.

So far here are the good and bad points.

The tank is awesome, the stand is very close to perfect and the glass sump is extremely well put together. I love the extra room around the sump compared to the Red Sea stand. I'm not a big fan of euro-brace tanks, but now that it's sitting in my house, it looks just as good as a rimless from the front. The DC pump looks like all the other DC pumps and I'm upgrading from their 3000gph to a 3500gph that I already own. The skimmer looks very familiar (the lid says 'MODE' with a fish in the middle of the O) and I think it will do the job. I'd rather use my AquaMedic Turbo 5000 that was in my 400g system, but it won't fit in the sump.

CadLight did forget to load a box of plumbing parts with the other stuff in the tank. So I didn't get the metric bulkheads (metric... what a pita), loc-line nozzles, ball valve and other plumbing supplies. I called on 8/16 and was told they would get the box out UPS that day. Two days later I called for a tracking number... oh, it's shipping tomorrow. Argh!!! Normally I wouldn't care about the delay, but I have fish, corals and inverts in small tanks all over the house with no filtration due to my 180g tank failure. Doing water changes to keep everybody alive is getting old after 2 weeks and this delay didn't make me happy. We'll see if I get a tracking number today. Oh, and there were no instructions for putting the stand together either. But it's a 6 sided rectangular box, how hard could it be?

Looks great Ron. Nice stand liner. All looks clean and well thought out.

Thanks. There's more work to do, but it's moving along. I can't wait to get started on the rockscape or for the 36" kitchen cabinet to get here.

 

[lg2725]

Looking good. I do have a question..Do you actually remember what each of those wall switches controls by memory or do you have a cheat sheet?? I know what my answer would be.

 

[JoeTSI]

Sounds very familiar to my frustrations when they didn't include my plumbing either. I ultimately switched everything over from metric to normal plumbing using SCH40. If I remember correctly the smaller holes are around 1/2inch or 3/4inch bulkhead fittings and the large one for my 100gal was a one inch. I am using the 1 inch as my drain (Durso) and using the two smaller as returns.

 

[Ron Reefman]

Looking good. I do have a question..Do you actually remember what each of those wall switches controls by memory or do you have a cheat sheet?? I know what my answer would be.

Ha! Great question. My memory isn't that good and a cheat sheet could get misplaced. And there are others (my wife) who need to know what's what when it comes to the switches and timers. In fact we go away for long weekend a lot and and have a friend who feeds our cat and takes care of the tanks. So she needs to know what's what as well.

So to make things easier, I made generous use of our label maker. I even labeled hardware and electrical wires and plugs (at both ends). Then my wife took photos and made an aquarium maintenance notebook with photos, explanations and descriptions of everything. How things work, if this happens-do this and this to fix it, water levels should be here with pumps on and here with pumps off... just about everything. It helped my wife learn the system and it provided a workbook so our friend could do a lot of troubleshooting on her own before she would need to call us. And I couldn't help much if I'm face down in 3' of water over a shallow reef 2 miles from shore!

The sad part is, with a new bathroom cabinet going in behind the wall with all the switches and timers, I'm probably not going to be using them any more. All the electrical connections were inside the old bathroom cabinet and I'm not going to butcher up a new cabinet the way I did the beat up old cabinet that was almost 30 years old when I set the switches up. I have an Apex that I got from a friend with lots of EB8 and EB4 power strips, so I'll probably move into the 21st century and computerize the system!:wildone:

 

[Ron Reefman]

Sounds very familiar to my frustrations when they didn't include my plumbing either. I ultimately switched everything over from metric to normal plumbing using SCH40. If I remember correctly the smaller holes are around 1/2inch or 3/4inch bulkhead fittings and the large one for my 100gal was a one inch. I am using the 1 inch as my drain (Durso) and using the two smaller as returns.

Interesting... Joe, did you do a build thread? How long have you had your CadLight tank?

I have the 1/2" bulkheads that just fit the 2 smaller holes and a 1 1/2" that fits the bigger hole. I have my old loc-line 'Y' nozzles that I was going to use anyway. I'm considering drilling a hole in the bottom of the tank near a back corner and doing an emergency drain there. That way I can use the 1 1/2" as the main drain and the 2 1/2" to feed the 2 loc-line returns. A black pipe against the black background wouldn't be too obtrusive.

I'm doing a manifold so I can feed the main tank, a display refugium, a 1hp chiller in the backyard, a reactor, a water change drain line to the bathroom sink and a spare.

I just want to give CadLight some grief for their mistake and it gives me a chance to test their customer service. So far, product is really good and customer service is... 50:50. I'll know more in a week!

 

[JoeTSI]

No, I never did a build thread unfortunately. I may start a blog now that I have a new job where I am traveling every other week. I did eventually receive my plumbing but let's just say it isn't impressive to say the least. I had some pics of my plumbing on my phone but a certain dummy (me) never backed it up and I lost most of them when my phone did a most spectacular belly flop into the pool. I will get some pics over the weekend but I am thinking of using one of the half inch drains as a durso emergency drain and the 1 inch for continuous siphon.

 

[lg2725]

That's a lot of dummy switches you'll be left with or a bunch of holes to fill.