DarkReefer's CADE Reef S2 1800

You have to calibrate it by eye as it goes off what flow you want for min and max flow, after setup the schedule says 100% but the flow speed says 6% that's why it's confusing. Probably user error no doubt lol, I've tried to look it up but there's not much out there even in the manual.
But apart from that it's dead silent and doing the job.

Probably want you to buy the flow meter upgrade ;-)
I was thinking earlier that I'm pretty sure there's a flow meter thingy that they sell which is why I was asking about how it's all calibrated. Strange that the default calibration is to just wing it and eyeball it though, considering how pedantic the rest of the calibration stuff has been so far (at least that I've experienced).
 
Yeah that's what I've read and probably why the pump comes with a union in the box, I might even end up getting one just for peace of mind.
Does the Apex replace the speed controller for the pump completely - or can you still see that?
I base my speed off the lights on that (no Apex) - so mine runs at around 45%.
 
Does the Apex replace the speed controller for the pump completely - or can you still see that?
I base my speed off the lights on that (no Apex) - so mine runs at around 45%.
You can see the lights on the controller and mine are all lit up, on fusion the schedule says 100% with min speed 4% and max speed 6%. It's all to do with the IQ level adjustment which I think is the wizard with setting up the pump, but I've read there's another way to set it up bypassing the wizard which is not recommended but I haven't tried that.
 
Last weekend went and got myself an Aquaforest air scrubber whilst it was on sale.
For the first half of the first day I didn't feel like it was doing much, but I think this was down to me leaving about 4m worth of hose connected (was initially going to see how it went before I cut it down and worked out where to place it), checked the suction and could barely feel anything so I snipped the hose down to maybe a meter and reattached it to the unit.

I've definitely seen an improvement in terms of number for the pH, probably a bit less than I was initially hoping though tbh, but it's certainly improved.
I've seen a change of .2 across the board, for both highs and lows. Is it worth it? Hard to say currently, will need to watch what happens with the corals and whether I see any increase growth.

So with previous lows anywhere to 7.69 and highs of 7.92, I'm now seeing lows of 7.92 and highs upto 8.12.

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Also did another waterchange last week and increased my salt level from around the 32ppt to, to 33 and a bit ppt. Which I believe is around the 1.024sg mark so slowly getting closer to where it needs to be.

I'm also down a nem because I saw the one that has been looking poorly (all tiny/shrivelled) with half it's foot hanging off, so I decided to just pull it out. Got rid of it before it decided to let go and put itself through my powerhead which I've had happen in the past (except those ones usually climbed into it for some reason).
 
Give the scrubber a few weeks to settle in, mine is hitting highs of 8.38 and lows of 8.17 now which is fantastic. I’ve left the media in for 4 weeks now and I think this is the key, only the bottom third has changed colour so I’m leaving the media until more purple shows.
 
Give the scrubber a few weeks to settle in, mine is hitting highs of 8.38 and lows of 8.17 now which is fantastic. I’ve left the media in for 4 weeks now and I think this is the key, only the bottom third has changed colour so I’m leaving the media until more purple shows.
Yeah fair enough. I've just left it to do it's thing. I think I've got about 1/4 of the media used so far but yeah probably wont change it unless I see the pH drop off or that it gets used up. Be interesting to see how it evolves, if it does.

Still think the skimmer is not quite right. I either get heaps of foam but stuff all skimmate (as in the foam doesn't overflow enough into the cup so it takes weeks to fill up) or I get too much liquid and it looks like a boiling pot.
Think perhaps I oversized the skimmer a little when I got it thinking it'll be good for when I have a heavily stocked tank. Can't seem to get it to skim just right to help me to reduce my nitrates.

According to this I should've gone for the 150 (I went for the 180 instead for some reason), but now I really don't wanna spend another 500+ on getting a smaller skimmer just to see if it works LOL
1757808105774.png
 
Yeah fair enough. I've just left it to do it's thing. I think I've got about 1/4 of the media used so far but yeah probably wont change it unless I see the pH drop off or that it gets used up. Be interesting to see how it evolves, if it does.

Still think the skimmer is not quite right. I either get heaps of foam but stuff all skimmate (as in the foam doesn't overflow enough into the cup so it takes weeks to fill up) or I get too much liquid and it looks like a boiling pot.
Think perhaps I oversized the skimmer a little when I got it thinking it'll be good for when I have a heavily stocked tank. Can't seem to get it to skim just right to help me to reduce my nitrates.

According to this I should've gone for the 150 (I went for the 180 instead for some reason), but now I really don't wanna spend another 500+ on getting a smaller skimmer just to see if it works LOL
1757808105774.png
Yeah you could be right re skimmer as the ReefMat does a lot of heavy lifting filtering crap so you might not have as much to skim, but if you are looking to eventually heavily stock your tank then it might be fine.
 
Yeah you could be right re skimmer as the ReefMat does a lot of heavy lifting filtering crap so you might not have as much to skim, but if you are looking to eventually heavily stock your tank then it might be fine.
Yeah I wonder if that was the mindset when buying it.
Though, I did see on FB marketplace someone selling a 180 and it had noted on a screenshot 600-1500L or something crazy, so could also maybe be that when I got mine it was rated slightly differently to current ratings. Actually quickly googling now, seems to show me the same thing at aquaristic and the like so I suspect they've possibly updated it.

I do want to stock heavy, both with corals and even fish but I wouldn't consider my tank being that way at the moment. Sure there's a number of fish but I feel like there could easily be a bunch more.
I'd like to possibly try raising it on a stand or something a little and see if that changes anything too and makes it better or worse, just haven't found or built something yet to prop it on.

That said... I should probably also look into the carbon dosing and getting that set up finally as a work around for the slow skimmate collection.
 
Houston, we have a problem!

The last few days the return has been glugging away a bit (going down the emergency overflow or whatever). Initially I wondered if the vents were clogged up, but nope, they're clear. Then I thought maybe something is clogging up the reefmat, causing slow flow... never did I expect to see this.

20251003_201416.jpg


There was literally a carpet of aiptasia down there. Unbelievable. I know I had spotted a couple of big ones in the DT along with a couple of smaller ones in the sump, but this was unreal. Never thought it would be these things clogging things up!
I'm going to have to pull the whole unit out today and thoroughly attack it with a brush/hot water or something in the sink to try get them all out for good. Then hope they don't come back!

I also need to go and buy some aiptasia X to try kill off the big ones in the tank and also thinking about possible getting some peppermint shrimp to run around in the sump and possibly a filefish for the DT.
 
Houston, we have a problem!

The last few days the return has been glugging away a bit (going down the emergency overflow or whatever). Initially I wondered if the vents were clogged up, but nope, they're clear. Then I thought maybe something is clogging up the reefmat, causing slow flow... never did I expect to see this.

20251003_201416.jpg


There was literally a carpet of aiptasia down there. Unbelievable. I know I had spotted a couple of big ones in the DT along with a couple of smaller ones in the sump, but this was unreal. Never thought it would be these things clogging things up!
I'm going to have to pull the whole unit out today and thoroughly attack it with a brush/hot water or something in the sink to try get them all out for good. Then hope they don't come back!

I also need to go and buy some aiptasia X to try kill off the big ones in the tank and also thinking about possible getting some peppermint shrimp to run around in the sump and possibly a filefish for the DT.
Wow!
I know i have one in my sump i see every now and again, so i dropped some peppermint shrimp in there to take care of it...could you fit shrimp in there?
 
Houston, we have a problem!

The last few days the return has been glugging away a bit (going down the emergency overflow or whatever). Initially I wondered if the vents were clogged up, but nope, they're clear. Then I thought maybe something is clogging up the reefmat, causing slow flow... never did I expect to see this.

20251003_201416.jpg


There was literally a carpet of aiptasia down there. Unbelievable. I know I had spotted a couple of big ones in the DT along with a couple of smaller ones in the sump, but this was unreal. Never thought it would be these things clogging things up!
I'm going to have to pull the whole unit out today and thoroughly attack it with a brush/hot water or something in the sink to try get them all out for good. Then hope they don't come back!

I also need to go and buy some aiptasia X to try kill off the big ones in the tank and also thinking about possible getting some peppermint shrimp to run around in the sump and possibly a filefish for the DT.
Wow!
I know i have one in my sump i see every now and again, so i dropped some peppermint shrimp in there to take care of it...could you fit shrimp in there?
Yeah, going to try and pick some up tomorrow if I can find some
 
Well, I ended up getting some peppermint shrimp. Though I got only 3 because I've never had them before and I'm not sure how efficient these guys are. I placed all of them in the sump, so hopefully they goto work and do some good.
They did have a stripey there which I've heard can eat Aiptasia but I wasn't too sure about it, I think I'd rather wait until I find a filefish as they seem to be THE fish for eating Aiptasia instead. Almost got some aiptasia x, but they only had a big bottle of the stuff and holy... I was not about to drop $130 on it.

I also picked up a small elegance coral. I'll grab some photos when I remember to.
We used to have that big gold tip elegance coral which was amazing, easily our favourite coral, but when it let go of it's skeleton it was just too annoying to have to have a box for it to live in. Hopefully this one doesn't let go, it was already out and looking lovely yesterday though. Maybe my clownfish will live amongst it like they did with the old one!
 
Well, I ended up getting some peppermint shrimp. Though I got only 3 because I've never had them before and I'm not sure how efficient these guys are. I placed all of them in the sump, so hopefully they goto work and do some good.
They did have a stripey there which I've heard can eat Aiptasia but I wasn't too sure about it, I think I'd rather wait until I find a filefish as they seem to be THE fish for eating Aiptasia instead. Almost got some aiptasia x, but they only had a big bottle of the stuff and holy... I was not about to drop $130 on it.

I also picked up a small elegance coral. I'll grab some photos when I remember to.
We used to have that big gold tip elegance coral which was amazing, easily our favourite coral, but when it let go of it's skeleton it was just too annoying to have to have a box for it to live in. Hopefully this one doesn't let go, it was already out and looking lovely yesterday though. Maybe my clownfish will live amongst it like they did with the old one!
Nice! Hopefully they take care of them.

I actually looked in my Reefmatt after your pic...and have some in mine also LOL
None in the actual sump so i can only assume the peppermints pick them off when they move into the sump.
 
Nice! Hopefully they take care of them.

I actually looked in my Reefmatt after your pic...and have some in mine also LOL
None in the actual sump so i can only assume the peppermints pick them off when they move into the sump.
ooo lucky. I definitely didn't expect to see any in there tbh. I've changed over that roll a few times and never noticed anything like that. I pulled the reefmat out, completely dismantled it and gave it a hot bath using tap water and attacking it with a toothbrush. It took a while but I think I got everything. Fingers crossed.

If I bought more, I would've put one in the reefmat to live so it can just peck away at anything in there too lol.
Maybe even in the overflow weir could be a good idea.

I just found some of the Aiptasia X on another site for under $100 delivered for the 500ml, so will give that a whirl LOL.

I think I'm also going to look at getting some urchins too. I had one or two a while ago but they died off at some point, want them to destroy the remaining hair algae. It's taking over my SPS too!
 
ooo lucky. I definitely didn't expect to see any in there tbh. I've changed over that roll a few times and never noticed anything like that. I pulled the reefmat out, completely dismantled it and gave it a hot bath using tap water and attacking it with a toothbrush. It took a while but I think I got everything. Fingers crossed.

If I bought more, I would've put one in the reefmat to live so it can just peck away at anything in there too lol.
Maybe even in the overflow weir could be a good idea.

I just found some of the Aiptasia X on another site for under $100 delivered for the 500ml, so will give that a whirl LOL.

I think I'm also going to look at getting some urchins too. I had one or two a while ago but they died off at some point, want them to destroy the remaining hair algae. It's taking over my SPS too!
Best bet is the Monsoon Urchins - the ones you can buy really small.

I have a few of them in my tank, they get into all the nooks and cranny's - used to have a large tuxedo but it would pick up coral frags and move my rock around all the time!
 
Best bet is the Monsoon Urchins - the ones you can buy really small.

I have a few of them in my tank, they get into all the nooks and cranny's - used to have a large tuxedo but it would pick up coral frags and move my rock around all the time!
I had a tiny baby shortspine urchin come in from a frag one day and was moving about, havent seen it in forever though so who knows if it still exists. I don't know if I'll jump straight into getting one, I can't remember why but my last 2 decent ones (a tuxedo and a short spine) both died at one point not sure if it was a water parameter issue or something else.
 
Thought I'd add a few more pics.

Here's that new elegance coral, seems to be doing alright in this back corner, if it really settles in well and the fish don't try to eat it I might splurge on a bigger gold tip to place at the front of the tank perhaps.
20251012_140951.jpg


20251012_140957.jpg


Check out the size of this Aiptasia... I've got another 1 on the opposite side of the tank similar in size and another 2 that are a little smaller but still decent. (plus other smaller ones).. I've ordered some Aiptasia X to try but I don't yet have an ETA when it'll arrive.

20251012_141007.jpg


This guy is finally starting to look like it'll come back, was flopped over and looking pretty sorry for itself for a bit there (fish even seemed to start pecking at parts of the flesh).
20251012_141016.jpg


And the GHA is still running rife in the tank, it's taken over my SPS colony. I was even trying to dust it off with a turkey baster and even set one of my closest power heads to ramp upto about 80% or so once a day for 15 mins to try and blow all the stuff off but no joy...

20251012_141024.jpg


Did a test yesterday too (first one in a month - oops).
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Love the elegance, always wanted one, but worried it would get blasted with too much light in my tank!
Try and find some rock from someone shutting down a tank, and load up your sump - it will help to add additional bacteria and diversity into the tank.

Have you tried astraea snails also? I found they ate the GHA a bit...although its probably just a nutrient imbalance.
 
Love the elegance, always wanted one, but worried it would get blasted with too much light in my tank!
Try and find some rock from someone shutting down a tank, and load up your sump - it will help to add additional bacteria and diversity into the tank.

Have you tried astraea snails also? I found they ate the GHA a bit...although its probably just a nutrient imbalance.
Yeah I enjoy them, they're awesome corals. My last gold tip was pretty big, but for some reason let go of it's skeleton so... whilst it continued to live and probably would still be alive now.. I eventually got tired of having a box in the tank to house it so it wouldn't get sucked into a powerhead, eventually gave up.

I've actually got a bunch of old rock from my last tank and maybe even some left overs from setting up this one possibly in the garage that I could possibly add. Idk how good/bad it is to do that though given it's been sat out for ages. Imagine there'd be a bunch of die off.

No, haven't tried that snail type.
I could probably try turning my lights down slightly, I think I raised them by 10% or so several weeks back hoping to pump more light on the sps and brighten the tank a bit more. Currently the schedule is about 50% max brightness... so idk.. I feel like that amount of light shouldn't be too bad. Not seeing the GHA on the backwall like I used to or anything just seems to have come back on the rocks a bit.. possible that the hermit crabs have killed off the snails so they're no longer patrolling the rocks.
 

WHEN YOU SEE A REEF2REEF POLL, WHAT’S YOUR USUAL MOVE?

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