Cade 600 S2 Build

[dwair]

Realized I haven’t posted a shot of the actual tank in awhile. Fish are in now. 2 clowns, fire fish. Carpenters wrasse, six line wrasse and royal gramma.

waiting on my local LFS to get a 2 spot bristletooth tang in and going to put him in and that’s it.
Got hair algae everywhere, CUC comes tomorrow to fix that :)

 

[dwair]

Went to the casino last night and made some money so bought some more stuff for the tank! Ordered the rest of the test kits I need, Hanna Checker for Alk and Calc. Went ahead and bought another Nero 3, I don't think 1 will be enough, if it is, I've got a spare. Ordered some All For Reef by Tropic Marin and 2 mixing Jugs. Getting ready to start doing some dosing and get my parameters in line because.....

I did my first order of Coral! Finally. I have 3 pieces in the tank now, but they were really tester pieces to see how it was going to go, was going to wait longer before putting more in, but that was mainly financial reasons. So win money = coral money!

Ordered from MarineFarmers - Palau Green Nepthea, Giant Bali Xenia (excited to see this one), Green Polyps Toadstool and a Tracy Morgan Gorgonian. Hit their free shipping by 96 cents :) We'll see what this looks like next week!


Updates on Reefcleaners - Package was delayed, was hoping it would be here today, this is like the 3rd time over the years I've ordered from them and everytime I've had issues. Think I'm going to stop ordering from him. I understand they are inverts but, what is so wrong with just shipping overnight instead of this USPS crap. 3 days already in Triple Digit heat temps and now delayed another day possibly more cause tomorrow is Saturday and if they don't make it tomorrow thats the entire weekend!

Phillip from KP Aquatics also texted me and I'll get my 3rd order of rock shipped on Monday! 3rd times the charm right? I've had some horrible luck shipping with this tank setup.....

 

[Evo R]

Don't give up hope just yet! Still early days.

This is a marathon and not a sprint. Keep the end goal in sight.

 

[dwair]

Don't give up hope just yet! Still early days.

This is a marathon and not a sprint. Keep the end goal in sight.

Oh I'm far from giving up hope lol. Just commenting on the terrible luck I've had with livestock shipping this time around. This is like my 5th or 6th tank. I'm not worried at all.

 

[Evo R]

Oh I'm far from giving up hope lol. Just commenting on the terrible luck I've had with livestock shipping this time around. This is like my 5th or 6th tank. I'm not worried at all.

That's very good to hear!!

In Afrikaans we have a saying " Elke kontak sport het sy beserings" ( Every contact sport has its injuries)

Just see it as new tank teething pains haha.

 

[dwair]

That's very good to hear!!

In Afrikaans we have a saying " Elke kontak sport het sy beserings" ( Every contact sport has its injuries)

Just see it as new tank teething pains haha.

Definitely. But I'm doing things the way I've wanted to for along time, even with the trials its forcing on me. I've always wanted to do a tank with Refugium and tons of bio diversity and biological filtration instead of all the mechanical filtration that I've done in the past and everyone spouted as this is what you must do to be successful.

I may end up having to switch to that in the future, but for now, doing things the way I want to and trying out new possiblities :)

 

[dwair]

Ok, well Reefcleaners order came in finally yesterday, All DOA of course after 6 days of shipping.

My 3rd shipment of KP Aquatics rock showed up today early! Finally a shipment that went successful. Looks like I got some good rock too, Different types of coral/sponges/macro algae, some serpent stars, saw a crab. Added 3 pieces to DT and 2 pieces to my new Fluval Tank to get its cycle going.

Got first piece of coral in today as well. Koji Pink Nepthea from UC.

Also waiting on Reeftopia CUC order to come in atm. Supposed to be here by noon. First order from them, so we'll see how it goes. Really need this CUC, this hair algae is getting out of control fast.

I'll add pics probably tomorrow, had to move basically ALL my rockwork around, completely changed my aquascape adding this KP rock in. So water super cloudy.

 

[dwair]

Ok here are pics of tank now that it’s cleared up. Still not happy with the scape but I guess that’s the compromise with live rock. Can’t build it how you want. Also you can see the CUC working in the hair algae lol. They are making headway.

 

[Evo R]

Coming along! Glad to see some negatives finally turning into positives ;) with regards to orders shipped to you.

 

[dwair]

Coming along! Glad to see some negatives finally turning into positives ;) with regards to orders shipped to you.

So am I!

 

[dwair]

New additions from MarineFarmers and Reeftopia.

update on GHA - snails have cleared it all in the rocks, the back wall is almost toast. Starting to worry cause it’s a lot of snails and once this GHA is gone, not sure I’m going to have enough stuff for them to eat.

Anyways Coral - Tyree toadstool, Tracy Morgan Gorg, orange gorg, giant Bali Xenia, Palau Green Nepthea, Koji Pink Nepthea, Green RFA.

 

[dwair]

Well been about a month now with Chaeto in the sump and this Tunze Chic Fuge Light just isn't doing the job. Zero growth on the Chaeto while the entire display was full of GHA. The snails have cleared it out, but still getting zero growth on Chaeto. Phosphates .2, Nitrates 25. Been dosing Chaetogro everyday since introducing it as well.

It is still nice and green, but no growth. Light was on 24/7 too.

So went to Home depot and got a clamp light fixture and a Phillips PAR 38 Flood Light bulb and we'll see how this goes. I can tell already I don't like the clamp light fixture. I was trying to mount it on the side of the sump and the angle is just awkward can only light about half the fuge. But without installing something for the clamp light to hang down from the ceiling of the sump, its really my only option.

I got kinda lucky too, as I was trying out different positions with the light on, the bulb is pretty heavy and it actually fell in the water for a split second. Lucky nothing happened, but got super lucky there. Its secure now where I got it, but again only lighting about half the fuge, granted that half is where my chaeto kinda floats. So I'm going to give it a week or two and see if I can get growth like it is.

If I do get growth, I'll figure out a more permanent way to mount this. This option so far only cost about $30, I spent another $10 and grabbed a timer just in case I need to go to an alternate lighting schedule from DT, but for now just going to keep it on 24/7 and see what happens, while continuing to dose Chaetogro and Phyto daily.



On a side note, if this doesn't work, I'm probably just going to do what I did on the last tank and go back to a ATS. It worked well on the last tank and Santa Monica makes one where its mounted by PVC and I don't have to have a shelf, which was my biggest annoyance with the Clearview Scrubber I had on the last tank.

I really want the Fuge to work, but this sump isn't really designed for a fuge as it is and I'm having to do some awkward stuff to make it work, so if Chaeto isn't going to grow, screw it back to ATS.

Will give progress updates as I go.

 

[dwair]

Well, just spent a small fortune and ordered the ATI Straton LED light. We'll see how it is once I get it in!

 

[dwair]

Light is here!

 

[dwair]

Light is up!

 

[Its only Money]

Do they offer a rigid mount for that light?

 

[dwair]

Do they offer a rigid mount for that light?

The ATI Straton? No. Currently its only Hanging Kit. Other mounting options are in the future.

 

[dwair]

Well got a PAR Meter so I was able to take some readings. Glad I did. I had the light mounted to high. Lowered it to 10" above water and values are where I want now, max 220 at top of rockwork, but the spread on this light because its a Panel LED means I still have 180 on Sandbed lol.

Think those values are good for softies. I may up them later if I decide to try some SPS.

Got a couple new pieces of Coral as well. New Gorg and a pretty big leather.

 

[dwair]

Now have Apex and Trident on the tank. Hopefully I can keep the tank stable now. Got to figure out my exact dosing with All For Reef now that I have the Trident testing everyday.

 

[dwair]

Well Chaeto is growing good. Almost ready to harvest.