d2mini's "Mixed Reefalicious" Cade 600 Build

[d2mini]

The tank is looking great! I love how clean everything looks. I feel your pain on the small stand. I am setting up a Red Sea 200 G2 and I have spent a ton of time planning and organizing everything to make the best use of space. How do you like the Octo Pulse? I have read good things.

Thanks!
So far, I can say it's dead silent. And I like how it's able to be angled a bit, unlike the vortech or nero.
Its size is fairly compact as well.
I like that it has a 1-10v connection so I may hook it up to my Profilux at some point but for now, I'm just using the random mode on the Octo controller.
I chose it because it's literally the only powerhead at BRS that pretty much gets all 5-star reviews!

 

[d2mini]

what do you use to attach the power supplies and such to the cabinet? Also, do you have an ATO?

I used sticky 3M velcro for the power supplies. Easy to remove them if I ever need to.
The return pump and powerhead controllers come with their own mounts they slide into, so I mounted the mounts by using a small piece or two of 3M double-sided tape.
Even the plastic dosing bottles have a small piece of velcro on their back side just to help ensure they don't fall out when I open the door or accidentally knock them.

I think all of this should hold long-term because there is really no humidity or anything in this space. Other than a couple of small holes it's fairly well sealed off from the sump area of the stand.

No separate ATO. A good portion of the back of the tank is an ATO. It holds around 18-20 liters from what I can tell.

 

[Rick5]

I used sticky 3M velcro for the power supplies. Easy to remove them if I ever need to.
The return pump and powerhead controllers come with their own mounts they slide into, so I mounted the mounts by using a small piece or two of 3M double-sided tape.
Even the plastic dosing bottles have a small piece of velcro on their back side just to help ensure they don't fall out when I open the door or accidentally knock them.

I think all of this should hold long-term because there is really no humidity or anything in this space. Other than a couple of small holes it's fairly well sealed off from the sump area of the stand.

No separate ATO. A good portion of the back of the tank is an ATO. It holds around 18-20 liters from what I can tell.

That Mitras mount is great. I don't know why the other light fixture manufacturers don't offer something like that (e.g. ATI). My preference for a cube or cube-ish tank that uses a single fixture is to have it affixed to the tank, rather than suspended from the ceiling.

I think I'm just targeting ATI's Straton fixture in this post. I like and want the fixture, but having to suspend the fixture from the ceiling or DIY a mount won't work for me.

On a semi-related note, I'm looking forward to CADE rolling out white stands. I read that's expected to occur next month.

 

[d2mini]

That Mitras mount is great. I don't know why the other light fixture manufacturers don't offer something like that (e.g. ATI). My preference for a cube or cube-ish tank that uses a single fixture is to have it affixed to the tank, rather than suspended from the ceiling.

I think I'm just targeting ATI's Straton fixture in this post. I like and want the fixture, but having to suspend the fixture from the ceiling or DIY a mount won't work for me.

On a semi-related note, I'm looking forward to CADE rolling out white stands. I read that's expected to occur next month.

Yes, it took Cade a bit to figure out the best way to deal with the white glass doors... keeping them opaque. White wouldn't have worked for me but it's going to look great in some spaces!

I actually used to prefer hanging my fixtures. The wires are pretty thin. I guess I liked the way it almost floated over the tank, and the height adjustability was infinite. I've done it on slanted ceilings too, like the very first pic in this thread. The problem is when you get into multiple fixtures. But I know a lot of people prefer the tank mount. I went back and forth on this one due to the issues with lack of mounting points on this stand but I already had the GHL mount and figured it would look cleaner on this particular tank. The design of this one is great because it allows a huge range of adjustable mounting height. Lights with mounts that have some low, fixed height is a definitely deal breaker for me.

 

[d2mini]

Another TBS rock shipment coming this week! And I was just moving the base rock around and look who was hiding underneath.

 

[d2mini]

So I was moving rock around because I wanted to clean up my sandbed before Part II of "The Package" arrives this week.
TBS sand is very varied in grain size and has all kinds of shells (pieces and whole), dead coral skeleton, etc. This is great, but in my smaller tank I felt it looked a little out of scale. Better suited for a larger tank. No problem though, just need to rake up the bigger stuff.

I used one of these maintenance tools, using the rake attachment seen in the middle of the far right row.

https://amzn.to/3zMssgB

STEP 1: I turned off powerheads. I left the return pump running. Then I just spent some time calmly and slowly raking the top surface, maybe 1/4" into the sand, doing my best just to grab the larger items, letting the actual sand sift through. I moved all rock to one side of the tank, raking everything into a pile in the front. Then moved all rock to the now clean side and raked the other half into the same pile.
Here's what I ended up with. About 2-3 big handfuls.

STEP 2: Using that same rake, I pushed the pile into a fish net and pulled it out of the water, letting the water drain out and then dumping it into a container. I then borrowed the kitchen colander (shhhhhhh ) that had larger holes and dumped it all in there, over the tank. I could now use my hands to swish everything around in the colander, letting all the sand fall back down onto the sandbed. A few minutes later, this is what I was left with...

Now, this is still great stuff. Lots of surface area. I didn't want to throw it away. If you have a refugium, it would be great for that, either spread out on the bottom, on a sandbed, or piled in a corner. I don't have one, but I do have three "media trays" in my sump that are all empty at the moment. I have some Marine Pure Gems that I was going to eventually put in one of them but haven't yet. So I emptied the colander into one of those, and then placed in the sump first in line. I like that I can view it. Hoping maybe it will be good for pod production???

Meanwhile, I now have a much cleaner-looking sandbed, still with a really nice, natural variety of grain size, tiny shells, etc but what I feel is better scaled to my tank.

 

[Snoopy 67]

So- Now I know what I "should do", when I get mine this week.

 

[d2mini]

Ahhh… I love the smell of live rock in the morning.

 

[Snoopy 67]

Mine is here too.
Road trip after lunch.

 

[d2mini]

Mine is here too.
Road trip after lunch.

Awesome! Mine landed about 7:45 and I pulled up to the freight office about 8:30.
Got it home and in the tank.
Acclimating critters now.
Then have the challenging task of trying to figure out a decent aquascape underwater.

 

[d2mini]

A bucket of PART 2!!!!!
Tunicates, sponges, macros, barnacles...

 

[danieyella]

Yesss, another cade cube to follow. I just set my 600 up - downsized from the 1200 to make a move easier, after we move both will be set up and I cannot wait.

Living for your controller organization though OMG. Time to start printing some things so I can clean mine up.

 

[d2mini]

PART II of "The Package" IS IN!!!!

This is the beauty of TBS... 2 weeks ago I got Part I (all the sand and some of the rock), this Tuesday I got the rest of the rock and all the clean up crew (hermits, snails, starfish, cucumber, pep shrimp). Wednesday I put two small fish and two test lps coral frags in.

Nitrates are sitting around 5ppm.

I have yet to see a single bad hitchhiker.
I've now learned that the new owners remove every gorilla crab, whelk, etc they see at several points of inspection from picking the rock up off the ocean floor to packing in bags at shipping time.

At the same time, I haven't seen much in the way of good hitchhikers either. Could be a seasonal thing.

 

[Snoopy 67]

Nice looking tank Dennis.
I have been waiting for a clear tank for pics.
The only critters I've seen so far are a Pyramid snail and a good sized possible aptasia.

 

[d2mini]

Nice looking tank Dennis.
I have been waiting for a clear tank for pics.
The only critters I've seen so far are a Pyramid snail and a good sized possible aptasia.

I was about to check in on you.

My old 200g tank TBS rock had a few glass anemone. Nothing that became a pest though.

 

[revhtree]

Gorgeous rock bro! Loving the build!

 

[143MPCo]

I honestly always enjoyed your build threads, glad you are back, man!

 

[143MPCo]

PART II of "The Package" IS IN!!!!

This is the beauty of TBS... 2 weeks ago I got Part I (all the sand and some of the rock), this Tuesday I got the rest of the rock and all the clean up crew (hermits, snails, starfish, cucumber, pep shrimp). Wednesday I put two small fish and two test lps coral frags in.

Nitrates are sitting around 5ppm.

I have yet to see a single bad hitchhiker.
I've now learned that the new owners remove every gorilla crab, whelk, etc they see at several points of inspection from picking the rock up off the ocean floor to packing in bags at shipping time.

At the same time, I haven't seen much in the way of good hitchhikers either. Could be a seasonal thing.

..your photography skills are amazing!

 

[d2mini]

Gorgeous rock bro! Loving the build!

Thanks, David!

I honestly always enjoyed your build threads, glad you are back, man!

heh heh, Thanks!

..your photography skills are amazing!

Thank you!

 

[d2mini]

Here's some of my new co-workers...