CADLights 8 Gallon Build

[wmitchell96]

Hi! I am brand new to the saltwater world, so try to bear with my as I am sure I will make many mistakes. After a good bit of research, I decided to go with the CADLights 8. I plan on keeping most things stock. I have added a Koralia Nano 245. I just added water and about a pound of rubble that I eventually plan to keep in the filtration area. So far I have come across a few issues. With my Eheim Jager 50w heater set on the lowest setting, the temperature has not dropped below 84. I am going to try to turn it off and see what the temperature sits at with no heater. Also, the return pump is causing sand to be pushed out of the front right corner. I am considering a Hydor Flo to remedy this issue. Plan to keep mostly softies and a few LPS. May try a few SPS in the future. The only fish I am thinking of keeping is a Firefish and maybe a clown goby. We'll see! I'll post a picture of what the tank looks like as of now. I am completely open to any suggestions you all might have!

I'd also like to give special thanks to terrypercula; I have been drilling him with questions over the past few weeks!

[terrypercula]

:thumbsup: let the fun begin.

[JJ650]

I had the same problem with my Cad 8g. I put the hydor on there and it fixed the issue. I use a Cobalt neotherm and I have never had an issue with it. Works quickly and correctly. I have a large Zoa colony (close to a 100 heads), a beaded rock anemone, galaxea (I do not recommend getting this for this tank...sweeper tentacles are LOOONNGG and deadly), silver gorgonian, pulsing xenia, small zoa colony porcelain crabs and CUC. No major water issues, save for one bacteria bloom that fixed itself in a day or 2.
Most of it will be transferred to a 34G Solana I recently picked up.

[wmitchell96]

Here's the pic of the tank, let me know if it doesn't work.

Clearly I played around with the rubble a little bit ;)

JJ, do you have anything in the middle chamber? Your tank sounds awesome!

[hersheyb]

Yeh! another cadlight!! keep us posted with your build

[Stevebutters]

Sweet looking tank! Just be sure to run a full cover over the display if you do eventually get a fire fish. I have had 3 carpet surf... all three finding small gaps in my full lid.... Beautiful fish, quite interesting to watch.

[wmitchell96]

What is the best material to use to cover it? Some type of material similar to a screen door?

[Sky_Shark]

What is the best material to use to cover it? Some type of material similar to a screen door?


You can pretty easily build a screen top. Buy the frame parts at Home Depot or Lowes and buy the clear mesh (1/4 inch) from BRS. The parts to build the frame are much cheaper at the stores, but they don't carry the right kind of mesh.

[wmitchell96]

Okay! Thanks Sky Shark.

Do you guys have any suggestions about what to keep in the middle chamber? So far I just plan on throwing some extra live rock back there, but some people have said that it could just cause detritus build up.
Thoughts?

[wmitchell96]

Quick little update about my temperature problem: I left the heater off all of last night and I just now checked my temperature and it is sitting at about 75. I assume this is not warm enough (most things I have read say 78-82). Could I put my heater on some sort of cycle of 1 hour on 1 hour off? Or on for 2 off for 2 etc. I'm also not sure if I would have to be a fancy timer for that sort of complex timing situation. I also think I picked up two very small hitchhiking snails that I will post pictures of. Ideas on the heating situation?

[Sky_Shark]

You might want to check out some of the heaters specifically made for tanks about that size, though that is strange yours is running so high. It might need to be calibrated. Otherwise a controller with a temp probe would handle that situation. Expensive though.

[wmitchell96]

How would I calibrate it? And I read on their website I believe that 50w was for tanks up to 11 gallons. And 25w was for up to 6

[Sky_Shark]

Check the eheim site for the product manual. That will have re calibration instructions.
To see if it is off, an easy way is to stick it in a 5 gallon bucket of tap water and let it run for a few hours. Then check the water with another thermometer. Compare that temp with what the heater is set at. Re calibrate as necessary.

[wmitchell96]

Okay! Thanks for the advice! Will do

[JJ650]

Here's the pic of the tank, let me know if it doesn't work.

Clearly I played around with the rubble a little bit ;)

JJ, do you have anything in the middle chamber? Your tank sounds awesome!

Nope. It stayed empty until I modded my tank. I ended up using a canister filter and removed the right and center chambers. The left most chamber (if you are facing it) stayed intact and is my overflow and surface skimming. Don't have to worry about anything getting sucked up.
So, most of my rear acrylic panel is missing now. :D

[wmitchell96]

Here's some algae I am a little worried about. Can anyone ID?

[wmitchell96]

Here is a full tank shot of the new live rock I added. it had great shape and was very porous, but it seems to have lots of things growing on it. I don't know what is good and what is bad!

[wmitchell96]

There are a few other things that are worrying me. There are some brown almost zoa like polyps but with longer tentacles. As well as some smaller similar reddish/brown circular polyps.

[wmitchell96]

I think the second polyps may be Red Bubble algae. Sorry for all the posts.

[wmitchell96]

Pictures of the algae. Any identification would be helpful!

[terrypercula]

Is there a way to male the pictures a little less blue? Might make identifying easier.

[wmitchell96]

I'll try to get a few more posted tonight with better lighting!

[wmitchell96]

Here are some pictures that will hopefully be more clear!

[wmitchell96]

Quick update.

I took out the live rock with all of the algae on it, and applied some H2O2 with a turkey baster directly on the spots where the algae was. I then dried the rock and put it back in. All of the red bubble algae seems to have turned orange and the large bubbles are no longer very visible. the green hair algae seems to have shrunk in size and what I think was Apastia seems to be hanging rather limply. It kind of came from the underside of my rock, but it isn't out and about like it was in the former picture. Hopefully the H2O2 got rid of it all!

[wmitchell96]

Several things have happened! Almost all of my GHA and Red bubble algae seems to have gone away! The brown polyp (I have decided was apastia) still has one stalk left, I plan on manually removing it soon. Yesterday I added four hermit crabs after I tested my water and everything came back 0. My only issue is that my pH is a little low (about 8.0) and my water is still running a little warm (81-82). The LFS employee suggested that before I add fish I might want to use some sort of pH buffer. Thoughts on this?

Also, I found a strange looking critter on the filter sponge. Does anyone have an idea as to what it may be? I took it out cause I was unsure what it was. Most people described pods as clear, and it was not. It looked much more like a centipede while it was in the water. Hoping to finish up my cycle and add some corals/fish as soon as possible!

[terrypercula]

Well PH is going to swing so it being at 8.0 shouldn't be your biggest worry in the world. Don't get me wring you'll still want to try and bring it up a little but you should be okay.

[pkirby]

My PH sticks around 7.8-8. Acropora/Montipora/LPS/Zoa... all do just fine. it's been that way for 3 years. I've gone as far as running a CO2 scrubber, which did raise the PH, but I never noticed an improvement with the elevated PH vs without... so I no longer run the CO2 scrubber.

Don't chase PH. if it's crazy high or crazy low, you'll have issues... but in general just try keeping it consistent. The biggest thing you're going to have to worry about with an 8g tank is salinity. Make sure you stay on top of top-offs and/or get an ATO.

[terrypercula]

My PH sticks around 7.8-8. Acropora/Montipora/LPS/Zoa... all do just fine. it's been that way for 3 years. I've gone as far as running a CO2 scrubber, which did raise the PH, but I never noticed an improvement with the elevated PH vs without... so I no longer run the CO2 scrubber.

Don't chase PH. if it's crazy high or crazy low, you'll have issues... but in general just try keeping it consistent. The biggest thing you're going to have to worry about with an 8g tank is salinity. Make sure you stay on top of top-offs and/or get an ATO.

Yup. Not to get way to ahead of yourself but if you do get an ATO and you are concerned about your PH, do a little reading up on Kalk. I've ran it in my ATO and it works like a charm if you use the proper dosages.

[wmitchell96]

I'll look into it! One thing I have noticed is that my back chamber is often running low and the display stays pretty constant. I did upgrade my pump to an Hydor Pico Evo.mag 300 gph (http://www.drsfostersmith.com/product/prod_display.cfm?pcatid=23729) and could it be that it is pushing out too much water? I have reduced the flow on it and it has helped the issue slightly. Could it be the water is simply evaporating where my heater is at?

[hijinks]

You're sump or back area is going down due to evaporation. It works just like a sump... Your display will stay the same since it overflows into the sump area and you'll see the evap in the sump. With a 8 gal setup you'll want to keep the water level stable or you'll get salinity swings that could be lethal.

[wmitchell96]

I am doing daily top offs. Is this enough to keep it stable?

[hijinks]

It is enough.

[Ne0eN]

Definitely get an ATO. How long can you stay on top of the daily top-offs? (pun intended) :D

I use a simple Aqualifter pump and a plastic gallon container hidden in the back of the tank (I got the same CADLights set-up as you). I control the dosing using a simple ball valve. There is some trial-and-error involved, but once you dial it in, you just refill the gallon jug every week or so with RODI water. I actually evaporate about a gallon every 10 days. Unreal!!

[wmitchell96]

I mean the top-offs will be difficult to keep up with as the tank isn't exactly at my house. But once I go to college I figure throwing a cup of water in there every evening is just something else I will think of doing instead of studying :P

[wmitchell96]

So much has happened! I have added 2 Trochus snails, and my first fish!!! I'll try to get some better pictures up as soon as I can. I've also added another large piece of live rock that has 2 brittle stars (I think, haven't seen either of them in their entirety. Today, I even added a little eagle eye zoa frag. Again, will post pictures as soon as I can! Also did my first water change, and everything seems to be doing well! I think I have quite a bit of Vermetid snails. Should I try to remove them?

I was thinking about adding a little hammer/frogspawn as an island on the front left side of the tank, ideas on this? Is there enough room?
Thanks for any advice! :beer:

[Bakes2]

Looks to be coming along. Did the new pump take care of the temperature issues?

[wmitchell96]

Looks to be coming along. Did the new pump take care of the temperature issues?

It was honestly completely my fault. I was using the wrong indicator. It has two red things and I was using the one exactly 180 degrees of the one I should have been using. I didn't want to admit it, but anyways. I set it properly at about 80 and my temp stayed at about 81, and then I was looking for about 79, so I believe I have the heater now set at about 72 degrees, and I have the lid on it and my temperature is sitting at 79, right where I want it. Not sure if the heater is doing anything at all, but temp is where I want it so I'm not gonna mess with anything :lmao:

[wmitchell96]

I've added a lot!!
Currently I have:

Firefish
4x Hermit Crabs
1x Trochus snail (one of them died for no reason it seems)

Corals:

4x Ricordea's
4x Zoa's
Pulsing Xenia
Green Star Polyps
Green Finger Leather
Metallic Green Birdsnest (it's still mostly brown for some reason)
2x Mushrooms
Duncan
Favia
Acan

I think the Duncan isn't full adjusted to my lights, it remains partially open most of the day, and then opens up all the way once the lights turn off (but the room light is still on). I can't really dim my lights, should it just adjust over time?
I am thinking about adding a peppermint shrimp and maybe a hammer or frogspawn as one of my last additions. Any advice is always welcome!

http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d125/mitchellwilliam96/photo1_zps90b3c4cf.jpg (http://s34.photobucket.com/user/mitchellwilliam96/media/photo1_zps90b3c4cf.jpg.html)

[wmitchell96]

http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d125/mitchellwilliam96/photo2_zpsbcb84271.jpg (http://s34.photobucket.com/user/mitchellwilliam96/media/photo2_zpsbcb84271.jpg.html)

Close up of the ric's! I'll try to get some more pics ASAP! Hopefully some better ones.

[Raland271]

How deep is you sand bed?

[Fishy 1]

looking good:thumbsup:

[falcona2552]

any updates?