CADE REEF 600 S2 Build Thread

[trevorhiller]

Out of curiosity, what are you using to track your parameters?

It’s an app called Aquarimate. It’s soooo helpful. Has a log, tracker for prices, livestock, parameter section, etc.

 

[blaxsun]

It’s an app called Aquarimate. It’s soooo helpful. Has a log, tracker for prices, livestock, parameter section, etc.

I'll have to check it out - thanks!

 

[trevorhiller]

I turned on the Ultra Reef Chaeto reactor today as I received some chaeto from an eBay seller "pickyouraddiction." I ordered a 1/4 cup, but he sent me a large enough piece that I was able to split it up into the three sections of the reactor.

Phosphates are still 0.20 --I actually think my RowaPhos might be depleted already since my Phosphates were over 0.6 to start. I've ready it can go quick when you first start it. Nitrates ~1.0

We'll see how this thing works, sure looks slick in the sump though.

I also added a bottle of Tig copepods from @hollback to the tank & sump and bought a second bottle to try my hand at culturing them again. I ordered some phyto to get started from eBay and silly me got so worried about all the details of the phyto and copepod culture tanks that I dumped the whole bottle of phyto in the fertilized culture water and forgot to save some for the copepod culture bucket...

Hopefully it's no big deal but I just added some of the fertilized phyto culture water to the copepod culture bucket so they at least have some food. Rookie move though lol

 

[trevorhiller]

I'm updating the build thread for an entry into the ReefMat giveaway. My tank is going good, I do have a bit of hair algae in a couple spots, nothing too bad. The brand new Marcos rocks has some diatoms starting to form on it. My live stock is doing good; I am still waiting on my new fish from Dr. Reef's Quarantined fish. The two I ordered said often in stock, usually ships in 2 weeks, but I haven't gotten any updates yet. Today is day 15 so hopefully will hear soon. I did notice that I have had a huge explosion of spirobis worms, probably because of heavy feeding and reef roids to keep Nitrates and Phosphates > 0. I started cutting back a little bit because the spirobis are EVERYWHERE.

I believe I've gotten my Kalkwasser maxed out dosing 1500 mL a day. My sump level is a little high and the tank hasn't pulled from the gravity ATO, so I just decreased it 1350 mL/day to try that. I'm also dosing 6 mL/day of All For Reef. This seems to be working pretty well to keep my Alk stable and I should have the dosing dialed in in the next week I'd imagine. I've been doing daily Alk tests since I am dialing in the doseages, and it has ranged from 6.7-7.4--not too bad for 3 weeks of daily tests. I'm typically only seeing a 0.1-0.2 Alk change day to day. My frags look happy and I'm pretty pleased with the All For Reef plus Kalkwasser dosing strategy.

A week or so ago I had a low magnesium level so I dosed and retested, still low, so dosed again. Well I ordered the Hanna magnesium checker the other day to add to my collection and low and behold, Mag is 1700! I don't know if the Salifert was inaccurate or my mag dosing math was, but everything looks fine, so I am just going to let it come down naturally. The other possible cause is I am using Brightwell's Kalk+2 which contains mag and when I started dosing the All For Reef, it boosted the Mag level higher than I desired. Silly mistake, but no big deal.

On a side note, I am sooo impressed with the Ultra Reef skimmer. Check out the attached picture--it's a beast. I did add Chaeto to my Ultra Reef Chaeto reactor, which, was probably a dumb idea because my nitrates and phosphates haven't been high at all. But it's new and I HAD to see it working. I do like it and chaeto has grown a little (I think?), but some of the smaller bits escape and land in the sump due to the upflow design. It would have been better if the slots in the top were smaller holes to prevent chaeto from spilling out. I'm experimenting with adding some sponges to the top chamber to prevent any little pieces of chaeto from escaping. Jury is still out on this thing, but I think it's going to work good enough.

 

[trevorhiller]

Tank update, it's been just over a month since setting the Cade up.

I ended up removing the rowaphos reactor because it stripped out my phosphates. It was just too much with low bio load and chaeto reactor. So now I have just the chaeto going. I had my Kalk and AFR about dialed in, then my Alk slowly kept rising so now I am decreasing it again to try to keep it around 8.

I added a bunch of frags from a my "local" fish store -- about an hour away. I also received my QT fish from Dr. Reef today. I was supposed to get a tomini tang and a yellow watchman goby, but the YWG didn't survive the shipping. :-( Fortunately, the tomini tang is doing well and already picking at the rocks. He's a little shy and doesn't like to come out when I am in the room, but managed to snap a quick video of him. Very pretty fish--online photos don't do them justice.

 

[trevorhiller]

Tank update:

I woke up today and found out that my new Tomini tang that was supposed to be my "centerpiece" fish had died. This makes me 0 for 2 on my shipment of fish from Dr. Reef's QT Fish. I'm very disappointed, especially since the fish showed no sign of disease or illness. I emailed Dr. Reef to ask for advise on what happened and he offered to replace the fish even though it's been 2 weeks since I received the shipment. Very good service, but frankly I don't care about the money. I just feel terrible that the fish didn't survive. Especially after losing the Yellow Watchman Goby in the shipping process. One set back after another... So for now it's just the two clownfish in the tank again; fortunately they still seem healthy & happy.

I'm going to stock up on an assortment of fish food and vitamins to try to maximize my chance of success on the next fish. Hopefully this bad luck streak is over!

 

[HBtank]

Bummer about the Tang, but nice setup! Sooo.... I have been looking at a very similar setup! I have an old 80g tank that I am rehabbing, but I just cant resist pulling the trigger on a nice tank that can fit in my room, and this time around I don't really want to DIY. Also contemplating the Aquaforest Oceanguard tanks, but the electrical panel on the CADE is a real plus for me as that is just another DIY for other tanks. I am tempted to try the 900, but that would end up blocking part of my closet and I think the 600 is the right call.

I had to laugh, you have the same exact skimmer (Ultra Reef Akula UKS-160) I have my eye on, since it is reportedly super silent and bulletproof, as well as the Sicce SDC 6.0 return pump. I was thinking of the Kessil ap9x for the light.

I didn't see what you are using for flow? I think I see some Neros in there? I am likely going with an APEX controller and since the Sicce and Kessil work with the 0-10v controls, I was looking at options that will too (so maybe Tunze or a Gyre). The one thing is I would like to put them on the back wall, but that means magnets have to go in the weir and ATO chamber?

Any advice on what to go for when it comes to flow on this tank? This will likely be SPS dominant, but I will never run a tank that doesn't have some LPS and softies at the bottom.

Also, would you say the overflow is silent (and that skimmer)? Being in my room that is critical.

Any other recommendations based on your startup?

 

[trevorhiller]

Bummer about the Tang, but nice setup! Sooo.... I have been looking at a very similar setup! I have an old 80g tank that I am rehabbing, but I just cant resist pulling the trigger on a nice tank that can fit in my room, and this time around I don't really want to DIY. Also contemplating the Aquaforest Oceanguard tanks, but the electrical panel on the CADE is a real plus for me as that is just another DIY for other tanks. I am tempted to try the 900, but that would end up blocking part of my closet and I think the 600 is the right call.

I had to laugh, you have the same exact skimmer (Ultra Reef Akula UKS-160) I have my eye on, since it is reportedly super silent and bulletproof, as well as the Sicce SDC 6.0 return pump. I was thinking of the Kessil ap9x for the light.

I didn't see what you are using for flow? I think I see some Neros in there? I am likely going with an APEX controller and since the Sicce and Kessil work with the 0-10v controls, I was looking at options that will too (so maybe Tunze or a Gyre). The one thing is I would like to put them on the back wall, but that means magnets have to go in the weir and ATO chamber?

Any advice on what to go for when it comes to flow on this tank? This will likely be SPS dominant, but I will never run a tank that doesn't have some LPS and softies at the bottom.

Also, would you say the overflow is silent (and that skimmer)? Being in my room that is critical.

Any other recommendations based on your startup?

Tank Opinion - For me I liked the volume (and cheaper price) of the 600, but the 900 is really nice. If it wouldn't have been going on my second floor, I would have got the 900, but I was worried about the weight--like crazy person worried. I will say that 24" is DEEP. It can be a bit of the PITA to maintenance because I don't have very long arms (5'11"). The 900 frag might have been a better choice for me personally, but no going back now! In the future if I ever get a bigger tank I'll stick to 18" or less height. I've gotten used to having my arm burried up to my arm pit in the tank, but coming from only having experience with nano tanks, this was a new endeavor for me. I haven't seen a lot of tanks in person, but I do believe Cade is about as close to custom quality as you can get without going custom.

Skimmer - I love the Ultra Reef skimmer - consistent, silent, quality. I wouldn't even recommend looking at anything else if you can afford it. The thing is a tank and so easy to tune because how many threads are on the gait valve.

Flow - For my tank's flow I have 2 Nero 3s. The magnets do have to go in the back chamber (under water because that's where top off water is stored or in the weir because of the design). I wanted the wavemakers on the back so that kind of excluded the Ecotech options (which I would have loved to get)--but the Neros work great. If Ecotech ever makes the dry side waterproof though I'm definitely switching just for the convenience of maintenance and no cords in the tank.

Lighting - I kind of wish I would have went with the AP9X over the a360x + ReefBrites just for a slimmer form factor. Price would have been similar. The ReefBrites are nice, but they feel a little cheap and look a little sloppy for my taste despite my best cable management skills. If you go with Kessils, you'll need the extended mount because the back chamber of the tank where you mount the lights makes the light off center toward the back even at max extension. Just something to keep in mind for your planning.

Noise - The weir is great, takes about 5 mins to tune and done. The sicce pump is nice too. I do wish it has a battery backup option, but that's a project on my list of things to do.

If you have any questions just ask, don't let my OCD/critical review discourage you from it because I am 95% happy with all the equipment and decisions I made, but one is always learning from experience in this hobby.

 

[trevorhiller]

Tank Update, Day 55

I've had a few challenges over the last couple weeks. I had my alkalinity dialed in with Kalkwasser and All For Reef dosing, then all the sudden the demand in the tank decreased and I've had to cut my AFR dosing in half. I'm only dosing 2.6 mL/day now in addition to the 1400 mL of Kalkwasser solution. I toyed with the idea of switching to two part because I seem to be struggling with the AFR taking several days to show in my Alk readings, but I think it's because I'm dosing such a minuscule amount. I'm going to give it another chance and today I added two Versa dosing pumps--one for the Kalkwasser and one for the AFR.

I've also been battling hair algae big time. Thank goodness I didn't go with a big one-piece aquascape because I've been removing a rock daily and giving it a good scrubbing with a toothbrush dipped in 3% peroxide solution. So far this seems to be working wonders and I've removed the bulk of the hair algae. I also removed some of the Reborn crushed coral substrate from the tank because I had a little more than I wanted in the tank and I think it was accumulating detritus. The hair algae was even growing on the pieces of coral rubble making it quite the process to clean.

I'm looking to purchase some more clean up crew because I've lost a few members. My Halloween hermit crab finally decided to eat by strawberry conch I didn't realize they weren't compatible when I bought both, but he hadn't messed with him for a month or two so I thought I was safe. I think the Halloween hermit is going to be relegated to the sump when I get some new CUC members. I'd also like to pickup some CUC that will help keep the hair algae at bay. The good news my trochus snails are breeding and I have a TON of little baby trochus snails that seem to be growing quickly. Hopefully they'll help down the road once they get a bit bigger.

I received an email notice from Dr. Reef that my quarantined replacement fish are getting ready to ship-hopefully they'll be here this week or next. I'm really hoping I have better luck with the replacements. He was so nice about the whole process and replaced both at no charge with no shipping fees either. Despite my losses, I highly recommend him. It's hard to find customer service like that anymore!

Enough words... here's a picture of my updated control panel. I took some time today to organize the controllers and wires a little when I installed the Versas today. I also upgraded my heater controller recently to an Aqua Logic single stage system and couldn't remember if I updated the build thread. It fit well in the Cade controller cabinet with the Versas. I'd like to find a way to better manage the cables, but that's a future project.

 

[SBReefer319]

Hi there, thanks so much for posting so much detail about your build. There’s not much out there about cade aquariums on YouTube. I’m planning on getting this tank and had a question about the sump. In place of where you have your Chaeto Reactor, do you think a Red Sea reef mat would work there?

 

[trevorhiller]

Hi there, thanks so much for posting so much detail about your build. There’s not much out there about cade aquariums on YouTube. I’m planning on getting this tank and had a question about the sump. In place of where you have your Chaeto Reactor, do you think a Red Sea reef mat would work there?

My best answer is potentially….

it looks like the Red Sea 500 has a foot print of about 9 X 11”. But I’m going to say it would be really tight. I’m not sure if it’s practical for this sump. I considered a roller mat too, but I think I would get a replacement sump made because it’s just going to be too crowded (atleast for my liking). I think you’d have trouble fitting a skimmer in there.

if you wanted to just run the roller mat, that would probably work.

I’m not sure how tall the Red Sea roller mat sticks up over the the edge of the sump. You would just need to make sure that it wouldn’t hit the cable nook as this intrudes into the vertical space of the sump. Hopefully that makes sense.

 

[SBReefer319]

My best answer is potentially….

it looks like the Red Sea 500 has a foot print of about 9 X 11”. But I’m going to say it would be really tight. I’m not sure if it’s practical for this sump. I considered a roller mat too, but I think I would get a replacement sump made because it’s just going to be too crowded (atleast for my liking). I think you’d have trouble fitting a skimmer in there.

if you wanted to just run the roller mat, that would probably work.

I’m not sure how tall the Red Sea roller mat sticks up over the the edge of the sump. You would just need to make sure that it wouldn’t hit the cable nook as this intrudes into the vertical space of the sump. Hopefully that makes sense.

Based on just the dimensions, it looks like it's not going to fit. That section of the sump is 14.88" x 12.36". The dimensions of the reef mat is 8.3" x 10.6" and the skimmer i'm running is 8.24" x 6.74". I thought i might be able to sneak it in as it seems smaller on the base and gets wider as you go up, but probably not worth the risk.

 

[trevorhiller]

Tank Update

Still waiting on my replacement fish from Dr. Reef, he said last week it should be in the mail this week or next. I'm thinking next since it's already Thursday. It's going to be great timing because I've got a bit of hair algae going on and the Tomini tang would be great to have right now.

I also picked up a Flame Hawk fish from Petco. He's currently in quarantine with copper power prophylactically. He's doing well so far, eating great and has a great personality. I'm soaking TDO Pellets in Selcon and he comes up to the surface and practically eats out of the condiment cup I'm using to soak the food. He's about half way done with copper, then I'm planning on treating with Prazi Pro. Hopefully he does well because I think he's going to make an awesome tank mate. (As long as he doesn't eat my peppermint shrimp!)

My CUC has dwindled down, so yesterday I added some new CUC members from reef cleaners. A tuxedo blue urchin, strawberry conch, 3 turbo snails, 3 bumblebee snails, peppermint shrimp, 2 money cowries, 4 nasarius snails and 3 emerald crabs. I'm anticipating having to feed extra heavy to get the new fish acclimated to tank life, so I went a little overboard on the CUC members to compensate.

My tanks parameters seem to have stablized around 8.1-8.4/1-3/0.01-0.4. I'm quite happy with that. Not running GFO at the moment and no chaeto either since it didn't seem to survive in the ultra reef reactor. I think my tank just doesn't have enough to support it-it kind of turned to mush. I'll try it again down the road once I have some more fish and I'm feeding heavier.

 

[trevorhiller]

Exciting week for my tank coming up! I am expecting delivery of my replacement fish from Dr. Reef's Quarantined fish tomorrow! I'm hoping I have a better experience this time--it sucked to get my centerpiece fish in only to have it die after two weeks. I can't thank them enough for replacing my fish when they didn't have to. They really have top notch service and I highly recommend them despite what happened to my previous fish. I think I just had some bad luck and it was nothing they did wrong...

I just (FINALLY!) finished my my bachelor of science in nursing degree and ordered myself a few items as a reward for my hard work. I really hated this degree, so I specifically told myself I couldn't buy a controller until I finished it as some motivation.

I have a Profilux Mega set on the way and ordered a couple frags from Top Shelf Aquatics.

Here's what is coming:

Oregon Tort
GARF Bonsai
Rainbow Monti
Milka Stylo
Hollywood Stunner Chalice
Fox Flame
ORA Red Planet

I chose some of the classics that always stand out to me when I see them in other people's tanks. I'm hoping well-established reef tank corals will give me a better chance of success long-term.

I'm still battling some hair algae, mostly on the Reborn substrate. I've been removing a few scoops at rinsing with peroxide before returning it to the tank. That seems to be working well, but it's a slow process. I finally got my dosing stabilized on my tank for the last month or so and now it's starting to drop again. I'm hoping that's a sign of growth and things getting established. I did add a fan to my tank room to help increase evaporation, so I'm increasing my Kalkwasser dosing now that I have more room to dose. I might bump the All For Reef up a little bit too, but I'm hoping more Kalkwasser will boost the pH a bit. My API test kit says it's about ~8.0--I'm curious to see what the Profilux says when it gets here.

More to come soon!

 

[lubeck]

Glad I found your thread. I followed your other one but haven’t seen any action.

if the hair algae isn’t super long try getting a Mexican turbo snail. They work wonders. I know your tank is still young but I would consider beefing up your clean up crew. I have a 32 gal and have well over 20+ various snails and about15 hermits

 

[trevorhiller]

Glad I found your thread. I followed your other one but haven’t seen any action.

if the hair algae isn’t super long try getting a Mexican turbo snail. They work wonders. I know your tank is still young but I would consider beefing up your clean up crew. I have a 32 gal and have well over 20+ various snails and about15 hermits

Yeah I upgraded kind of quick! The 15 gallons wasn’t enough for me! I actually just added 3 turbos, along with a second urchin and some other neat critters in the last few weeks. I think they’ll keep it at bay once I manually remove all the long stuff. Right now I have lot of 1-2” strands growing from the reborn substrate. I’m scooping it out with a slotted spoon (removing any baby Trochus snails and critters) then pouring straight 3% hydrogen peroxide on it. After a few mins of swishing around with a spoon, I add it back in and the algae is gone. You should see how nasty the water is when I’m done!

I did the same with my rocks a few weeks ago and it eliminated 95% of the hair algae from them and has kept it away so far. I think the substrate is just the only place left it has to take root.

My hope is it’s going to burn itself out soon and then the CUC will keep it down. It’s annoying; but I’ve definitely seen worse in photos.

 

[trevorhiller]

Tank update

I got my Profilux installed on the tank. So far it seems nice. The programming is a bit… eccentric and I’m still working on programming some features I want. But it’s definitely nice peace of mind and the build quality is exactly what I expected it to be.

My recent fish order did not go well. My Tomini tang came in lying on its side, not very active. I desperately scrambled to save him and gave him a methylene blue bath, but he unfortunately didn’t make it. The yellow watchman goby I ordered was alive though. I got him acclimated to the tank and added him. The first two days I noticed he wouldn’t eat pellets. So I got some frozen brine shrimp in the tank for him. I put whole cube in and watched him eat one measly piece. The next day, he’s no where to be found…. I looked under all of my rocks, in my sump and even my filter sock. I can’t find him anywhere. I suspect he died and the CUC got him :-(

I’m having such bad luck with fish shipments. My tank has been up since last November and I still only have two clownfish. I’ve lost two watchman gobies and two Tomini tangs now… I desperately just want to get some more fish in there to get my nitrates and phosphates up a bit and it’s proving very challenging. I’m hoping that my flame hawk fish finishes quarantine ok and I can get it moved in later this month.

I’m going to try one more Tomini tang… if that doesn’t work, I’m going to have to come up with a plan B.

Wish me luck, this streak of fish deaths is really sucking the fun out of the hobby for me.

 

[trevorhiller]

Edit: Found my watchman goby and it's alive! He WAS in the filter sock, I have no idea how I didn't see him, but I heard him splashing tonight when I changed the sock. I quickly placed him back in the tank and he went back to swimming around like nothing happened.

He's a very strange YWG, always swimming around in open water. My previous one never behaved like this, it almost immediately found a nook in the substrate. Hopefully he settles in and finds a spot somewhere near the bottom. Unfortunately, he's pretty tiny and I have no idea how I am going to keep him out of the weir with his size and behavior.

 

[killer2001]

I'm curious to know if your ORP sensor is calibrated or not. Reason why I say that is because 195 mV is rather low. I almost wonder if you have something consuming oxygen out of the water faster than its being replenished. Might be a shot in the dark but would explain why the YWG was behaving the way it was if it needed more oxygen. I'd look into testing to see what your current dissolved oxygen level is.

edit: When my ORP sensor dipped to 180 mV (from dosing too much live bacteria) my fish immediately shot up to the surface of the water and was gulping for air.

 

[trevorhiller]

I'm curious to know if your ORP sensor is calibrated or not. Reason why I say that is because 195 is rather low. I almost wonder if you have something consuming oxygen out of the water faster than its being replenished. Might be a shot in the dark but would explain why the YWG was behaving the way it was if it needed more oxygen. I'd look into testing to see what your current dissolved oxygen level is.

Well when I had taken that picture, it had just gone into the tank after initial calibration, but it was brand new out of the box and I was adjusting the positioning of the probes. It's since come up to around 220. But to be honest, I don't know anything about ORP other than some use it to turn ozone on and off. The last few days it's been running around 200-223 with an average of 211. I see that is on the low side.

I would find it odd that I wouldn't have enough dissolved oxygen though. I have two Nero 3s in the tank along with the return pump and a Ultra Reef Skimmer running. There's also a pump connected to my UV sterilizer, so definitely a lot of water turnover.