"Angel Reef" - Cade S3 1200

[krayzie]

Hi, hope your tank is going well. I was hoping you could help me.
Did you end up with the reefmat 250/500 as planned? If so, how did you plumb it?

Cade says this is "rollermat ready" and there is indeed plenty of room for the reefmat500. However i cant figure out any logical way to plumb the line. The passthrough from the "input" chamber of the sump into the front left chamber (which they call the triton tray, but seems the most obvious place for the reefmat) is about 2 inches

The corrugated line from the reefmat is i believe 3 inches. it doesnt appear to be close to fitting through that gap, and the only other way i can see is cut the main drain super high and then have this weird vertical run of the reefmat line with a big kink to get over the baffle

would be greatful for pics of your sump and reefmat setup!
(PS i am doing this with water in the tank which i regret, but i thought i wouldnt need the reefmat until i was ready to consider adding fish)

Hey Martin,
i have not installed any roller mat yet. i was half waiting for cades rollermat that would fit in the return chamber keeping the fuge section for macro.

what roller mat are you considering? are you going to ever run a fuge at all? as Australian_Reef is suggesting you could just run it in the fuge section

 

[SlothMartin]

Hey Martin,
i have not installed any roller mat yet. i was half waiting for cades rollermat that would fit in the return chamber keeping the fuge section for macro.

what roller mat are you considering? are you going to ever run a fuge at all? as Australian_Reef is suggesting you could just run it in the fuge section

What are you doing for filtration, did you buy a filter sock holder? (my tank did not come with one)

i installed the reefmat 500 yesterday and it was a huge pain. Originally i was going to put it in the fuge section but didnt really want to lose it. So once i got the manifold out of the way and the rm500 taken apart i thought it was going to fit in the input chamber (the one the drain goes into)

its very tight, and it actually does not fit because the top portion of the reefmat is supposed to clip into the bottom portion, but the overhang just barely hits the back brace of the tank. So its not clipped together and partially resting on the brace, but it is close enough that it still works. It is possible it could fit better if i used the reefmat stand legs to get additional height (not sure)

once i got far enough to realize this, i had already cut the corrugated pipe and so i couldnt go back to the fuge section without buying more parts.

the current annoyance is that i had my heaters in the drain section, and its such a tight fit with the reefmat that i cant get them out to reposition them without taking the reefmat out first. so thats on the agenda for today. i might look at switching to a cade roller system when it comes out as well if its a better fit

 

[shadyraro]

What are you doing for filtration, did you buy a filter sock holder? (my tank did not come with one)

i installed the reefmat 500 yesterday and it was a huge pain. Originally i was going to put it in the fuge section but didnt really want to lose it. So once i got the manifold out of the way and the rm500 taken apart i thought it was going to fit in the input chamber (the one the drain goes into)

its very tight, and it actually does not fit because the top portion of the reefmat is supposed to clip into the bottom portion, but the overhang just barely hits the back brace of the tank. So its not clipped together and partially resting on the brace, but it is close enough that it still works. It is possible it could fit better if i used the reefmat stand legs to get additional height (not sure)

once i got far enough to realize this, i had already cut the corrugated pipe and so i couldnt go back to the fuge section without buying more parts.

the current annoyance is that i had my heaters in the drain section, and its such a tight fit with the reefmat that i cant get them out to reposition them without taking the reefmat out first. so thats on the agenda for today. i might look at switching to a cade roller system when it comes out as well if its a better fit

Hey mate, put your heaters in the weir overflow section, I’ve got 2 in there and they work fine.

 

[Australian_Reef]

I’m moving my reefmat to a manifold in the skimmer section as I want to use the fuge section for its proper purpose. Obviously won’t filter all of the water but should do enough to polish. Wish cade would hurry up with their own model.

 

[Cat57]

Thanks for this I’m in the process of trying to purchase the Cade S3 1200 myself within the next few months

 

[Cat57]

Welcome to my build thread of my new white Cade S3 1200 reef tank this will be an upgrade from a WaterBox 20 AIO Cube - the original tank was a Christmas present in 2023 to my daughter.

https://www.cadeaustralia.com.au/product-page/reef-s3-1200-white
I will primarily be keeping Acropora/SPS dominated coral

official tank info

Tank Dimensions:

• Size: 1200x700x610mm
• Total volume: 512L / 135gal
• Display volume: 432L / 114gal
• Inbuilt ATO of 44.4L/11.7gal
• Glass: 12mm Opti-Clear
• Polycarbonate lid

Cabinet:

• White Aluminium
• Chiller compartment (dry zone)
• 16 socket x2 boards
• Dosing pump shelf

Sump/Filter area

• 5 zone area
• Input
• Refugium – ‘Triton tray’
• Skimmer/reactor chamber
• Bio media
• Return with ATO float valve
• Tinted black glass
• 3 feed lines for reactors/chillers

Plumbing

• ‘Quick fit’ all tank side plumbing already installed
• Blue colour
• Concealed return lines in ATO section with non-return valve
• 2 in tank lock line style returns
• Herbie style overflow

Current Equipment at hand:

• Return
  • Jebao - MDP-10000 DC Pump
• Wave Makers
  • Jebao – DMP40 (Left)
  • Jebao – DMP40 (Right)
  • Nero 3 – Back wall (from old tank)
  • Nero 3 – Back wall (from old tank)
• Lighting
  • Ecotech Radion Gen 6 Blue
  • AI Hydra 64
• Heating
  • 2x 300w Aquael Platinum Electronic Heater
• Doser
  • RedSea 4 dose
• Autofeeder
  • Eheim Everyday Fish Feeder
• UV
  • 87W UVonic T5 - UV87-T5

Future Equipment

• Return
  • 1x Ecotech Vectra M2
  • 1x Ecotech Vectra S2 – for chiller
• WaveMakers
  • 2x EcoTech Marine – Vortech MP40 Wavemaker
• Protein Skimmer
  • Mantis Skimmer Tornado 150
• Aquarium Reactors
  • Aquaforest
• Lighting
  • Xr30 g6
  • Rms rails
• Roller Mat
  • RedSea 250/500
• Chiller
  • Not sure yet
• Reef Controller
  • Neptune Apex with controller board
  • Neptune Trident

• Substrate: 30kg of CaribSea – Special Grade Live Reef Sand – 1 to 2mm grain size for 2.5cm/1inch deep
• Approx. 20-40kg of branching Western Australian live rock – no existing dry rock will be transferred over
• Nutrient Export: live rock, Protein Skimmer, roller mat
• Saltwater type: Australian east coast natural Seawater
• Water Changes ~10% (50 Litres NSW) every Friday or Saturday
• Elemental dosing - Aquaforest Component 1+2+3+
• Triton ICP every 1-2 months

Aquarium Tank Inhabitants

• Current fish list – to be transferred over
  • Pair of Percula clown - (Amphiprion percula)
  • Lawnmower blenny – (Salarias fasciatus)
  • Talbot's damselfish – (Chrysiptera talboti)
  • Pygmy Possum Wrasse – (Wetmorella tanakai)
  • Assortment of turbo and Stomatella snails to be transferred
  • 2 Peppermint shrimp to be transferred
• 6 Acro coral frags will need to be transferred over
• 3 Deshi Corals (Acanthophyllia sp.) will need to be transferred over as well

Future fish list - I’m not sure if my tank is big enough for the tangs

• Magnificent rabbitfish - (Siganus magnificus)
• Two Spot Bristletooth Tang – (Ctenochaetus binotatus)
• Scopas Tang – (Zebrasoma scopas)
• Fairy Wrasse – (Cirrhilabrus cyanopleura

I received the tank on 11th September of 2025

Just waiting for my S3 1200 to come I see you have a UV sterilizer where in the sump did you install it?

 

[diggers]

Following along . Building a cade s3 too.

 

[shadyraro]

Any updates?

 

[Gumbies R Us]

I am also curious about updates!

 

[krayzie]

sorry guys, the next few posts will be rolling updates on what i can find from my phone.

January 2026
mid summer here in Australia my tank was constantly hitting 27c i think the corals just held on i bought a few fans which did not really help.

i also got dinos which were killed by the oversized UV plumbed closed loop. but it looked terrible in the tank but it did the job

 

[krayzie]

January frag update

 

[krayzie]

in Feb2026 after beating dinos, i got bryopsis, treating it with Fluconazole

 

[krayzie]

after beating that for the 2-3 weeks in March 2026, lovely Amphidinium dinos appear.

their appearance startles me and i think its cyano because of the purple mat like look.. so i start a Fritz slime out treatment for 2 days which does nothing.

i didnt initially get the microscope out until the end of day 2 and then i realised its Amphidinium dinos

i started silicate dosing for a few weeks not really going anywhere and doing more research and i stumble on https://3dreefing.com/pages/3dreefing-uv-sweeper

having just bought a bambulabs p2s printer what harm can it do, so i print it out and buy a handheld uv off amazon and within a week of sweeping i can see the reduction of dinos significantly

these photos were the initial stage of the dinos, it got much worse.......

 

[krayzie]

April was a better month, coming out the other side of bryopsis and dinos, Neptune Apex A3 pro i rewarded myself with an Apex A3 Pro. unfortunately here in australia we dont get the powerboard with the kit but i was fortunate to be able to borrow one of the older EB6 boards off the guys at the LFS

 

[krayzie]

i had a long time trying to connect it to a newer router that has wifi7 enabled. so i had to turn it off and connected no problems

 

[krayzie]

tank shots

 

[krayzie]

MAY! i scored a second hand Trident.

 

[krayzie]

decided to give the fish a lunchtime feed to keep them happy so i bought a neptune AFS. its loud but it works i guess

 

[krayzie]

i also tested par.
1000 under the water
500-600 mid water
250 sandbed

this was at 100% i think its it a bit overkill so i turned it down to 70% and numbers are obviously 30% lower which i think its still ok

 

[krayzie]

tank shot and video of the knock off jebao dmp 40s. i have one at each end on sine wave ... they are pretty impressive