DarkReefer's CADE Reef S2 1800

[DarkReefer]

So after testing last Tuesday, I bumped up my dosing a bit and checked again on Saturday to see how it was all looking.

pH - 8.0
Nitrate - 2.0
Phosphate - 0.043
Salinity - 1.027
Alkalinity - 7.1
Calcium - 395
Magnesium - 1185

I don't know how but my Mag dropped despite increasing dosage, so I've pumped it up some more and will have to test again.
Calcium also dropped a bit so I've bumped that.
Was good to see the Alk on the increase, so I'm maintaining that one as is until it gets to around 8.

Also noticed my foxface is picking at my duncan coral, so that's been slowly dying off. Yay.
I think the fox and possibly purple tang have been going at the helios too as that has been in awkward shape for the last half a week and I spied over the last couple days both of them looking like they were picking at something on it.

I attacked the aptaisia that was near my zoas and so far seem to have gotten them it seems, we'll see. Zoas haven't been overly happy since but I'm hopeful they'll bounce back.

Also forgot to mention I ended up having a huge drama trying to replace my filter roll about a month back.
Was losing my cool with it. I didn't have a stapler so was trying to run the stuff through with sticky tape and it just wouldn't hold. Had to pull the whole thing out and run the stuff right through. Did my head in.
I've since bought a stapler, so if the next one doesn't go as smoothly as the Reef Dudes make it look then I've got a mind to get rid of it and try the reef mat instead.

 

[DarkReefer]

Update time!

Went to a lfs yesterday to get some more mag supplement and noticed they had several anthias that looked nice and were eating alright. Left the shop without them but chatting with my gf we decided to go back today and pick them up.
We got all 5 left and put them in. Since doing that we can only find 4... no idea where the last one is hiding.
Checked around the tank, checked bags etc buy nowhere to be seen. Hopefully it comes out later..

I've really got to try and do something with the lights, it's very blue and I feel like some of the colours of the fish aren't being shown off properly as a result. I've messed around previously with ab+ template and whilst that seems to be an alright colour, it grows algae on the sand like nothing else.. which I assume comes from the white, red and green spectrums. If anyone has any nice templates or suggestions for the xr15 that works for them, would love to see/hear...


On the topic of lights, for the last few weeks I'd cut some cardboard and stuck on with tape onto the lights to limit light spill and seeing the led whilst sitting on the couch. We started looking into the 3d printed spill shades and whilst they look fairly nice they're just so pricey. My gf suggested we try some corflute so we went to bunnings and bought a sheet of the white corflute and used some cable ties to attach it to the lights.
Whilst it may not be the prettiest, I think it looks pretty decent especially for $35 and some cable ties and seems to work a charm (more so for led glare than the spill), would have gotten a piece long enough to do the whole length in one if it would have fit in the car but the overlap doesn't look terrible considering the cost.

Update; 5th Anthia came out of hiding once I threw some mysis in... phew !

 

[Gumbies R Us]

Update time!

Went to a lfs yesterday to get some more mag supplement and noticed they had several anthias that looked nice and were eating alright. Left the shop without them but chatting with my gf we decided to go back today and pick them up.
We got all 5 left and put them in. Since doing that we can only find 4... no idea where the last one is hiding.
Checked around the tank, checked bags etc buy nowhere to be seen. Hopefully it comes out later..

I've really got to try and do something with the lights, it's very blue and I feel like some of the colours of the fish aren't being shown off properly as a result. I've messed around previously with ab+ template and whilst that seems to be an alright colour, it grows algae on the sand like nothing else.. which I assume comes from the white, red and green spectrums. If anyone has any nice templates or suggestions for the xr15 that works for them, would love to see/hear...


On the topic of lights, for the last few weeks I'd cut some cardboard and stuck on with tape onto the lights to limit light spill and seeing the led whilst sitting on the couch. We started looking into the 3d printed spill shades and whilst they look fairly nice they're just so pricey. My gf suggested we try some corflute so we went to bunnings and bought a sheet of the white corflute and used some cable ties to attach it to the lights.
Whilst it may not be the prettiest, I think it looks pretty decent especially for $35 and some cable ties and seems to work a charm (more so for led glare than the spill), would have gotten a piece long enough to do the whole length in one if it would have fit in the car but the overlap doesn't look terrible considering the cost.

Update; 5th Anthia came out of hiding once I threw some mysis in... phew !

The lights look great on your tank!

 

[DarkReefer]

The lights look great on your tank!

Thanks!
It's a very basic and cheap fix for the time being but does the job enough so that we're no longer being blasted in the face from the LED's directly. I'm sure the proper 3D printed shades would be much more appealing but for the moment, this will do fine!

 

[DarkReefer]

One of the new anthias were found dead on Monday morning. Not sure if it was a result of stress or something with the water change completed late Sunday afternoon, fished it out of the tank and seemed to still be in tact.

Had a suspicion my fish were about to start breaking out with ich late Sunday (maybe it was Monday night I can't remember) after I noticed the purple tang looking a little odd, other fish seemed ok. There weren't spots but you could see the scales/coating to be a little 'off'.

Anyway, checked last night and sure enough the Blue and Purple are covered in spots so now I've started dosing Medic to try and sort it out. Have had success twice before with it in the smaller tank so fingers crossed it goes well again...

 

[DarkReefer]

So I've been dosing the medic for about 3 weeks. Seen some mixed results so might have to go another round.

Most of the spots if not all cleared off of the purple tang, the blue hippo tang broke out probably half way through and hasn't quite cleared up yet, the foxface seemed to get a few here or there but has mostly remained clear.

Starting to wonder if I have flukes or some sort of parasite though. Have noticed the foxface twitching it's head to the side sometimes over the past week or so, so I'm keeping an eye on him. Really hope it's nothing but he does seem a little 'off' and not doing his usual slurping at the surface like it used to do every night (this might be because the Anthias have been distracting perhaps).

Lost my bicolor blenny over the weekend too, had it for just over a year. Nothing seemed off with it from what I'd noticed at least, but woke up one morning to see it dead. No attack marks or anything from what I could see so I'm really not sure.

Did some testing over the weekend . Was good to see my Alk finally up but calcium and Mag quite low still.
Results as below;
Temp - 24.8
pH - 8.0
Nitrate - 5.9
Phosphate - 0.055
Salinity - 1.027
Alk - 8.9
Calcium - 390
Magnesium - 1200

In response to these results I tweaked the alk dosing back slightly (Ideally looking around the 8-8.5 mark I think), Mag was pumped up a bit more & same with calcium. Aiming for Mag to be 1350 and Calcium to be 430.

Pulled a heap of the GHA that was in the DT, there's still a bunch there but managed to get a decent chunk out.
I also set up a bit of a refugium on the weekend. Installed my old AI HD32 light to the sump and went out searching for Chaeto. Instead I was given some other macroalgae stuff for free from a LFS. No idea what it is, the guy told me but rekons he got rid of all his chaeto after getting this stuff because it's much less of a detritus trap etc etc.
Will see how this stuff fares, if it's junk I'll just get rid of it and find some chaeto instead, but it was free so hopefully does the job and can out compete the algae in the DT and maybe help the tank in other ways. Threw in some copepods as well for good measure.

Oh, and I also picked up a redline cleaner shrimp. Almost immediately the Anthias were lining up for a clean. The others have been less inclined but I think I saw the foxface getting a clean here or there.

Coral wise I noticed my firework clove polyps are starting to make a comeback after foxface ate half of them. Have probably half a dozen new heads popping up, be nice if they took off. Currently watching my xenia splitting everywhere and starting to envelope my GSP too. I think it's split itself into 3-4 different pieces now.

Finally, did a decent water change of maybe 150-200L over the weekend to freshen up the water a bit, it's been at least 3 weeks since I last did it due to dosing Medic, but will continue to monitor the fish and the tank, but I think I'm coming due some clean up of the sump, equipment both in and below tank, media and nearing a roll change out for the fleece roller.
If anyone has advice for cleaning media and getting the detritus out of the sump at all I'm all ears! (short of a wet/dry vac of the sump I'm not coming up with much).

Would love to see a corner turn soon with the tank and it's inhabitants and stability start settling in. Coming upto 6 months with this tank now.

 

[shadyraro]

Sorry to hear about your blenny, here’s hoping you don’t have anymore losses and the tank clears up soon.
Nice work on the fuge and redline, hopefully the macro takes off and does as good a job as what chaeto does.
For cleaning media just pull it out and rinse it in some old tank water, it’s the easiest way I’ve found to do it.
And for the sump every now and I’ll get a turkey baster in there and loosen all the detritus, then I use a battery liquid transfer pump and pump out all the crap and It works great.

I use this one.

LIQUID TRANSFER PUMP

LIQUID TRANSFER PUMP

www.supercheapauto.com.au

I’m sure your tank will come good soon, patience is key

 

[DarkReefer]

Sorry to hear about your blenny, here’s hoping you don’t have anymore losses and the tank clears up soon.
Nice work on the fuge and redline, hopefully the macro takes off and does as good a job as what chaeto does.
For cleaning media just pull it out and rinse it in some old tank water, it’s the easiest way I’ve found to do it.
And for the sump every now and I’ll get a turkey baster in there and loosen all the detritus, then I use a battery liquid transfer pump and pump out all the crap and It works great.

I use this one.

LIQUID TRANSFER PUMP

LIQUID TRANSFER PUMP

www.supercheapauto.com.au

I’m sure your tank will come good soon, patience is key

Appreciate the info, sounds easy enough to clean up then. So might have a go inthe next week or two, be nice to freshen it up a bit!

 

[DarkReefer]

It's been a pretty crazy month...

My foxface started showing bad signs with what appeared to be ich or some flukes or something. Was breathing quickly, didn't seem as hungry etc, flashing, twitching and seemed lethargic.
Was going to set up a full quarantine system to try and medicate all the fish etc. Missus and I were prepared to go set this up and went to the LFS to buy everything to do it and after discussion with the guy there we decided to try further in tank treatment first.

LFS advised to finish the 2nd round of medic although we didn't have enough to last the full 20 days (ran out of medic) but got some Quantum fish revitaliser which is the same thing (peroxide salts) so was able to finish out the dosage with that.
MUCH easier to use than medic, I don't know why medic can't make their little measuring spoon slightly longer so you can actually get the last bits out of the bottle easier. Jerks. Was glad to be rid of the bottle and this stuff seemed decent and the fish showed improvement. (There was quite a distinct aroma that the salts gave off once added to the tank too).

Along side the salts I also changed up the feeding a little to include some Quantum fish enhance which is basically garlic supplement which I added to the mysis and also bought some ocean nutrition flake food to compliment the mysis & pellets.
Thankfully the fox started improving and has since almost fully recovered (some spots still showing a little but behavior has returned to normal). Would hate to lose him.

2 of the Anthias also got pop eye, one was quite bad but I think it's been going down a little. 1 is more recent and doesn't seem as severe but hopefully will come good also. Not sure if this is due to the shrimp going too hard, injury against rocks or parasite.

We also ordered in some Prazi Pro from the US which I dosed for the first time on Sunday. Can't say for sure if it's doing anything yet but fingers crossed it does well.


Pulled a heap of algae from the sand bed a week or two ago. I seem to have to keep pulling chunks from the rocks/sand bed. Rocks look like they need more pulled, it's so annoying.
Really should get some sand sifting fish but after the last debacle I've had since buying these anthias I'm really not in the mood to go through it all again by adding more fish.

Still need to do a big sump clean up.
The macroalgae appears to be doing well, I think the little handful I got has since doubled in size (if not maybe slightly more), so fingers crossed that keeps going well and provides some big benefits soon.

Tested on 30/6 and results as below;

Temp - 24.9
pH - 8.1
Nitrate - 9.5 (Increase likely due to increased feeding/various foods & no w/c in 3 weeks due to medicating using the salts)
Phosphate - 0.046
Salinity - 1.027
Alk - 9.2
Calcium - 3.95
Magnesium - 1260 (Finally looks like it's coming up).

 

[JonoH]

There's always something right!
Glad your fish is doing better.

 

[DarkReefer]

Honestly this tank and this hobby. I'm about done with it...
My roller filter has been screwing around lately which is causing the water to create a stream past the filter fleece and it stops triggering the float, seems the positioning or something of the roll is slightly off pulling away from the front of the unit slightly. Usually always triggers the alarm in the middle of the night too. Have attempted to both clean and correct it a few times now to no avail.

Then tonight whilst trying to adjust it my arm was slightly against the return pipe when I felt something wet, I look up and notice this leak..

and I also notice I don't have a rubber washer in there, idk how it was missed in the first place when I set it up but I'm raging.
Now I have to drain a heap of water to storage containers that I've had to go buy tonight because the cade has a second stupid inlet at the bottom which means practically the WHOLE tank needs to be drained to pull that drain.
Hoping maybe there's an extra washer on the internal one but idk. Missus has gone to buy some marine silicone to possibly try seal it for the night so we can attack it properly tomorrow and not have everything in tubs tonight..

It never ends with this dang hobby...

 

[Muppy]

You dont need to drain most of the tank if you remove the drain completely. There is a baffle inside the overflow so you will only need to drain the amount of water that is in the overflow.

 

[JonoH]

Honestly this tank and this hobby. I'm about done with it...
My roller filter has been screwing around lately which is causing the water to create a stream past the filter fleece and it stops triggering the float, seems the positioning or something of the roll is slightly off pulling away from the front of the unit slightly. Usually always triggers the alarm in the middle of the night too. Have attempted to both clean and correct it a few times now to no avail.

Then tonight whilst trying to adjust it my arm was slightly against the return pipe when I felt something wet, I look up and notice this leak..

and I also notice I don't have a rubber washer in there, idk how it was missed in the first place when I set it up but I'm raging.
Now I have to drain a heap of water to storage containers that I've had to go buy tonight because the cade has a second stupid inlet at the bottom which means practically the WHOLE tank needs to be drained to pull that drain.
Hoping maybe there's an extra washer on the internal one but idk. Missus has gone to buy some marine silicone to possibly try seal it for the night so we can attack it properly tomorrow and not have everything in tubs tonight..

It never ends with this dang hobby...

Water....always finds a way...
Chin up...its all worth it in the end!
If it was easy everyone would do it!

 

[DarkReefer]

You dont need to drain most of the tank if you remove the drain completely. There is a baffle inside the overflow so you will only need to drain the amount of water that is in the overflow.

Honestly mate, thank you so much for this.
I hadn't realised there was a baffle there at all.

It looks like I was trying to tighten underneath but was spinning the wrong way and then the overflow tube was spinning as well and I was spiralling in panic mode.

The trick with the vice grips or in my case pliers worked a treat and I felt like it was much tighter.

Really appreciate your advice, literally saved my sanity and helped so much.
Had literally just been to bunnings to buy 6x 90L storage tubs to drain everything into. Was expecting to have the fish and corals in tubs over night and having to go and find a washer tomorrow.

 

[Muppy]

I'm glad you have been able to stop the leak. Turns out though, I was actually incorrect and there is supposed to be a gasket there. I was working from memory, but when I got home I checked and there is definitely a gasket on mine. I'm pretty sure there is an o ring on the return pipe in the overflow, and the gasket on the underside of the tank is probably to cushion the tank from the fitting. At least you have stopped the leak for now.

As for the filter roller, I also had heaps of trouble with mine. I have a Reef Factory roller, and it took me months to get it set up right. It was just not triggering very often at all, sometimes only 3cm every few days. What I did to fix it was drastically adjust the position of the float switch so it was much closer to the water level, and required a much smaller rise in water level to trigger it. Maybe this will help you.

This is the first time I have used a filter roller and tbh I don't think I'm happy with it. There is so much detritus building up in my sump, I have to vac it fortnightly. On my previous tank I had filter socks and there was never much detritus in the sump.

 

[DarkReefer]

I'm glad you have been able to stop the leak. Turns out though, I was actually incorrect and there is supposed to be a gasket there. I was working from memory, but when I got home I checked and there is definitely a gasket on mine. I'm pretty sure there is an o ring on the return pipe in the overflow, and the gasket on the underside of the tank is probably to cushion the tank from the fitting. At least you have stopped the leak for now.

As for the filter roller, I also had heaps of trouble with mine. I have a Reef Factory roller, and it took me months to get it set up right. It was just not triggering very often at all, sometimes only 3cm every few days. What I did to fix it was drastically adjust the position of the float switch so it was much closer to the water level, and required a much smaller rise in water level to trigger it. Maybe this will help you.

This is the first time I have used a filter roller and tbh I don't think I'm happy with it. There is so much detritus building up in my sump, I have to vac it fortnightly. On my previous tank I had filter socks and there was never much detritus in the sump.

Yeah I'm not sure. I seem to recall contacting CADE asking about something like this when I was building it and was told it was a change of design. Can't remember if this was the part that was redesigned or if it was something else though so I might hit them up again to find out.

I do prefer a filter roller over the socks personally. Hated having to pull those things out, wash them etc. on my old tank so I made sure I got one for this before it was set up. Rather be able to set and forget for 2-3 months until it needs changing out. There is detritus everywhere in the sump which I do agree with you on for sure. I'm actually planning to buy a wet/dry vac so I can attack it properly for maintenance as using a normal pump whilst it didn't do too bad, didn't do as good of a job as I would've liked.
Mine is a clarisea SK-5000, and this issue I've been having recently along with the issues I was dealing with, with the alarm/system failing when I first got it just makes me feel like getting rid of it and trying for a red sea or something instead.
As frustrating as it is, I think I'd still rather deal with that (at least for now) than having to change/wash filter socks every week or whatever.

 

[JonoH]

Yeah I'm not sure. I seem to recall contacting CADE asking about something like this when I was building it and was told it was a change of design. Can't remember if this was the part that was redesigned or if it was something else though so I might hit them up again to find out.

I do prefer a filter roller over the socks personally. Hated having to pull those things out, wash them etc. on my old tank so I made sure I got one for this before it was set up. Rather be able to set and forget for 2-3 months until it needs changing out. There is detritus everywhere in the sump which I do agree with you on for sure. I'm actually planning to buy a wet/dry vac so I can attack it properly for maintenance as using a normal pump whilst it didn't do too bad, didn't do as good of a job as I would've liked.
Mine is a clarisea SK-5000, and this issue I've been having recently along with the issues I was dealing with, with the alarm/system failing when I first got it just makes me feel like getting rid of it and trying for a red sea or something instead.
As frustrating as it is, I think I'd still rather deal with that (at least for now) than having to change/wash filter socks every week or whatever.

I can report...that i have had no issues with my Red Sea Roller.
Also found filter Rolls for them of Ali Express for 19 dollars a roll. They seem to last about 8 weeks.

 

[DarkReefer]

I can report...that i have had no issues with my Red Sea Roller.
Also found filter Rolls for them of Ali Express for 19 dollars a roll. They seem to last about 8 weeks.

Ah good to know.
The red sea was one I really wanted but I opted for the Clarisea so it fit in the existing chamber and I could keep the refugium section free for future fuge type stuff and have always wondered if I should've have just gone the Red Sea.

Also, I contacted CADE to ask about the silicone washer and they confirmed that they ship with both of them on the threaded side. So it's possible I've just missed it on install and will have to have a look to see if it's on that connection.

Provided everything stays sealed I might save this job for the weekend because I'm really not feeling like losing half or all of my week night again on the tank lol.

 

[DarkReefer]

So yesterday I drained the overflow again to check out if there's an additional rubber gasket on the overflow side that I missed. Unfortunately it looks like there was not.
I was a little relieved to see that I at least had an O ring on the underside, but I've no idea why I don't have a larger gasket on the underside similar to that on the top.

Top side - you can see there's an o ring built into the larger flat gasket.

Bottom side - Just an O ring (ignore the white stuff, that's some marine silicone I attempted to use to plug the leak temporarily a few weeks ago).

So cleaned up the underside a bit and had to even pull away some of the underside tank lining so that I could make sure it was getting a better seal as it had started to lift a bit. For now, no further leaks (there wasn't after initially tightening up after last time but I wanted to see what was going on gasket wise). I think I'm going to try and get hold of a gasket to suit like the top side and then just keep it handy in case there is a leak at some point.

Here's a current full tank shot taken this morning. You can see I've got a heap of algae happening. This red stuff seems to have popped up in the last month. Cyano possibly ? I do have some chemiclean I could run through it but I should probably try and check it out under a microscope first...

And some more close ups of the gunk and corals. Starting to see a heap of aiptasia around too. I've tried killing off the batch on the zoa rock once or twice before with aiptasia x type stuff but to no avail yet. May have to look into getting a fish that eats the stuff perhaps.

Water tested yesterday -

Temp - 24.8
pH - 8.0
Nitrate - 14
Phosphate - 0.055
Salinity - 1.026
Alk - 9.1
Calcium - 375 (still a bit low, need to adjust dosing to try get it to bump up a bit)
Magnesium - 1275 (Also still a bit low, was making a come back but I let the mag doser run empty for a few days so that's probably why it dropped off).

Also bought a 20L cheap ozito wet dry vac yesterday, keen to use that on the sump in the next couple weeks or so. Planning to use the pump to drain most of it then use the vac to get the last little bit of water out along with all the detritus etc.
Still need to sort the Clarisea roller out also as it's still getting water bypassing the fleece causing it not to trigger the motor and eventually set off the alarm.

 

[Jmp998]

This is what site flush with the bottom of your tank? I don't think that is the right piece at all for that spot. The plumbing for my Cade 1200 looked like in this video below. The piece that goes flush against the tank (on the underside) is hexagonal, and as I recall flat with no O-ring.