Aquabacs' Cadlights Artisan 50 Azooxanthellae Tank build

[Aquabacs]

Hello Everyone!

I am very excited to finally start my new tank build! The Artisan 50 was the perfect size up-grade tank for my next non-photosynthetic aquarium project.
I was out growing my 18" x 18" x18" High Clarity ECOCUBE and was in the market for a larger tank. With the filtration being built into the back of the ECOCUBE I was losing valuable real estate inside my aquarium. A few requirements I was looking at in a new tank were: it had to have a sump, be rimless, and had to be made of low-iron glass. I looked into ELOS, Solana XL, and custom options all were more than I was looking to spend on a 60 gallon or less glass box. When I saw that Cadlights decided to venture into making the Artisan 50 gallon system, with it's dimensions being 24" x 24" x 20", having the minimalistic look of an ELOS,

being made of beautiful, low-iron, Starfire beveled glass, it was my logical choice. So I pre-ordered the aquarium with Eddie and waited for it to arrive.

With the heavy demands of Azoo corals I didn't want to take a chance of the skimmer and sump to undersized. Cadlights designed a custom sump based around the Bubble Magnus NAC-6 protein skimmer.


Aquascaping
The tanks aquascaping is planned to be open and rockwork to be minimal. Only two pieces of rock will be used. One being a piece of live rock which I has travel from my 90 gallon to my 24 gallon and now to 50. This rock was previously "cooked" before I actually started using it in my aquarium. If you are not familar with the process I can expain it if you would like. It is a simple process, just takes time, patience, and going through alot of saltwater, so if you want to know, let me know. The second rock that is being used is a ceramic sculptured rock from Aquaroche. To avoid any PH issues with using ceramic rock, it will be soaked in RO water for a week and the water will be changed daily.


Filtration and Water Movement
Having high flow/water movement in a azooxanthellae aquarium is key in keeping heavy detritus from forming and transporting food to the inhabitants in the aquarium. For in tank water movement; a Vortech MP40w will be used on the back of the aquarium, left side of the overflow box and a Vortech MP10 will be used on the right side. The pumps are being installed this way due to how the rock structure will be placed. In addition, a Tunze Silence 1073.04 will be used for return pump.

The skimmer I choose for this aquarium was a Bubble Magnus NAC-6. A high performing skimmer is a must, the BM mini was available with CADlights pro set-up, which would be more than enough for normal keeping of LPS, SPS, or soft corals, but I wanted to rest easy knowing that I had a skimmer that was going to handle the intense feeding that I put my aquariums through. I feed my aquariums very heavy and do water changes as much a 50 percent, twice a week.


Lighting

The lighting for my tank will be Japanese style LED spot lighting only.

The lights themselves are a mix of 12K, 20K and all blue PAR 38 LED kights that I have picked up from Nano Customs. Once set up, if needed, the lenses on the lamps can be changed for desired lighting pattern/coverage. Neo Arm multi-directional clip on base light fixtures (imported from Japan by Aquatouch) will be used for the PAR 38 LED lamps. The fixture clips onto the rear glass panel of the aquarium and the head of the lamp can be angled in any direction. Also by using this style fixture, it allows the PAR 38 lamp heatsinks to remain vented properly at all times.

Mike

[Bonta]

FOLLOWING !!
I love Cad cubes
an I love Azoo corals.

[Aquabacs]

Thanks! It is one of the first 50 CAD has built. Soon as the plumbing parts come in, I cant get moving on the tank, and get some water in.

Mike

[tinnghe]

Just order the tank goin to build my own stand though so that I can house my old skimmer the itech200. Can't wait till yourself up might steal some design.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[mklukas]

These CAD50's are showing up all over the place now it seems, following along as it's one of the tanks I'm considering!

[Aquabacs]

The tank is very well built and looks almost exact as the Solana XL. I would buy the tank again in a second and Eddie is a pleasure to work with. I picked up the tank from him locally but they are packed extremely well so if you need to have them shipped there should be no worries.

Mike

[chartwell]

This is going to be really cool and different! Did you see the Cad 50's are sold out till Feb 15th? Glad we got ours early!

[Aquabacs]

The first production run was only 50 tanks and Eddie said all were sold.I guess it was a good thing for us to be first on the list by pre-ordering them when we did. Once the word get's out enough about the tank it should be the Solana for 2010.

[Aquabacs]

Quick picture of the LED PAR 38 bulbs just in case you haven't seen what they looked like before.



Mike

[CalmSeasQuest]

Originally Posted by Aquabacs

Quick picture of the LED PAR 38 bulbs just in case you haven't seen what they looked like before.

Mike

Congrats on the Artisan, Many of us with 39Gal Pros would have gone with the Artisan had it been available.

You'll like Evils PAR38 - I'm using a 12K/80 degree optics to power the sump frag tank in the photo below. The DT is lit by the new Cree G AquaIllumination LEDS.



If you run into issues with a noisy overflow, I came up with a simple solution using a zip lock back that renders it virtually silent. There's a post and photo at
http://reefcentral.com/forums/showth...472553&page=35 (about 2/3rds down the page.)

Good luck with your tank!

[FISHUNT-72]

Aqua,what are the dimensions of that sump?Also is that a 4" sock?I'm one of the lucky ones to get this tank before it sold out.I'm going to start building my stand this weekend.I was going to build it wider than 24" to have more room for equipment,but your sump looks good.I might build something similar and keep my stand around 24" wide.I also ordered that skimmer as well.Here's a link to my build.http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/sh...?t=1771398.Not much going on yet,just pics of the tank.

[Aquabacs]

Thanks Tom! The 39 Pro is a very nice tank, love the curved corners. The the 12K and 20K lamps I have are the original optics from Clive's first batch of lights which I have been using on my 24. I have a all blue with 60 degree optics and I have an all red that he made up for me.

Thanks for the thread link. Did you have a chance to lengthen your Durso pipe? Also have you had any issue with the ziplock leaching off any phosphates since you installed it?

Mike

[Aquabacs]

@FISHUNT-72 The sump that I had made up is 20"L x 18"W x 14"H. It has just enough clearence inside the cabinet. The 4" sock holder is by GEO and felt sock by Perfomance Marine. I temporary put a flex drain line in (I had it laying around) but I have all hard plumbing parts coming in.

Mike

[theyammieguy]

subscribed.

[CalmSeasQuest]

Originally Posted by Aquabacs

Thanks for the thread link. Did you have a chance to lengthen your Durso pipe? Also have you had any issue with the ziplock leaching off any phosphates since you installed it?

Mike

The zip-lock mod works so well, I probably won't bother pulling out the durso to lengthen it - it's totally silent. I used a Ziploc 1 gallon/heavy duty freezer bag made from Polyethylene. I'm not aware of PE leaching phosphates? Its only been in place for a couple weeks, but I've never been able to detect any phosphates.

[Aquabacs]

Hopefully my plumbing parts should be in by the 18th (waiting on 2 Schedule 80 Cepex Ball Valves & gray flex pvc). After that, it should be smooth sailing from there.

Tom, your tank is looking good! Are you going to be using a controller with your AI lights? GHL or DA?

Mike

[CalmSeasQuest]

Originally Posted by Aquabacs

Tom, your tank is looking good! Are you going to be using a controller with your AI lights? GHL or DA?

Mike

Thanks - I use an Apex, they are supposed to be working on a module for the AI lights - I'll wait a bit, if not forthcoming , I'll grab the GHL light controller.

[Aquabacs]

Cool. The set-up for the GHL with the AI lamps looks amazing. It will be interesting to see what features other companies are going to offer to set each other apart.

Mike

[theyammieguy]

I wonder why they don't ship all the parts at once. Your not the first I've heard about waiting on the plumbing.

[Aquabacs]

Originally Posted by theyammieguy

I wonder why they don't ship all the parts at once. Your not the first I've heard about waiting on the plumbing.

Actually, I picked up everything up from Eddie @ CADLights directly, so there was no issue on their part. I didnt order the pro-sump that comes with all the plumbing. Since I had them make up a custom glass sump to fit the NAC-6 skimmer in the first chamber instead of the Bubble Magnus Mini, and I didn't need the refugium light or return pump. Unfortunately I had to order parts from two separate vendors since the items I wanted were not available locally for pick up.

Mike

[theyammieguy]

Ahh, ok.

[Aquabacs]

Today just working on soaking my Aquaroche sculpture in R.O. water and changed out my filters in my RO system.


Took two quick pictures of two of my gorgonians that will be transferred to the 50 Artisan.

Mike

[Aquabacs]

A picture of one of my feather starfish with his squat lobster. I love Azoo corals but I want to focus on my collection of feather starfish. I would like to see the aquarium evolve into a feather starfish biotope. I have seen beautiful dive photos with non-photosynthetic gorgonians covered in groups feather starfish and would like to create that vision.

Mike

[uhuru]

Beautiful gorgs and crinoid Mike. We have similar tastes I have been keeping a feather star for a couple of weeks now.

[Aquabacs]

Thanks. The black one is 2 years old and I have a smaller green one for about a year. I found that the black, green or yellow crinoids do best in captivity. I had a red one for about 6 month's and I found it dead when I came home for work, I have no idea why.

Great article on crinoids
http://www.coralscience.org/main/art.../feather-stars




Mike