Firthy's CADE 1500 from downunder

[Plecosam]

19" rackmount PDU

 

[Firthy13]

Nice control panel! I like those switches, are the sockets on the back of each one? What are they called, it makes a nice clean set up.

Yep switch on the front and outlet on the rear inside the cabinet. They come with the cade tank but they are a pretty standard switched power distribution unit found in most server racks. Typically advertised at PDU's. I'm sure you can get them from most electrical wholesalers that specialize in data and communications.

 

[ReefDemon]

Yep switch on the front and outlet on the rear inside the cabinet. They come with the cade tank but they are a pretty standard switched power distribution unit found in most server racks. Typically advertised at PDU's. I'm sure you can get them from most electrical wholesalers that specialize in data and communications.

Once the new tank build is started these are going on, I cant believe I've never considered them before. Keep up the good work, I'm getting schooled here!

 

[Firthy13]

New bit of gear. I picked up an Aqua UV 57w twist UV sterilizer. Currently working out how i am going to get this plumbed in. At this stage, i am thinking ill modify my return line and have it supplied directly from my return pump before the water goes off to the reactors and chiller. I figure ill be treating all the water leaving my sump that way and i can easily achieve the recommended flow this way also. Just need to find the appropriate barb fittings.

 

[sfboarders]

Just wondering if it was pretty tough to lift the tank with 4 people. Did you use any suction cups or just grab it from the bottom corners?

 

[Firthy13]

Just wondering if it was pretty tough to lift the tank with 4 people. Did you use any suction cups or just grab it from the bottom corners?

The glass weighed 240kg but 4 men moved it without an issue. We had suction cups but we found it was easier to carry it from underneath the glass itself. Where the suction cups came in handy was shuffling the tank around on top of the stand, but totally not necessary.

 

[Firthy13]

Just a bit of an update.
Day 47 of the cycle, still seeing high nitrites. After using a large bottle of doctor Tim's and Seachem Stability I was expecting a slightly faster cycle. But I'm sure the patience will pay off. Still haven't turned my lighting on so tank is still beautiful and clean. I'm enjoying that while it lasts as I'm more than likely going to be dealing with algae for the coming months.

I also found the required fittings for my UV sterilizer. As my Cade plumbing is metric and not compatible with standard pressure pipe I had to use barbs and some hose to get it installed. Not the prettiest install, but does the job and is easily modified or returned to stock if required in the future.

 

[Firthy13]

Well i believe my cycle is stalled. Nitrite is extremely high. i have been sitting on nitrite for 4 weeks with no change so i think i'm going to do a 15% water change and seen if i can get them down. Hopefully it hasn't killed off all my aerobic bacteria.


In a previous post a mentioned the issue i was having with Salifert nitrite test kit. As you can see, its not registering anything. Not that API tests are super reliable, but this is enough evidence to suggest its a bad batch of reagent.

 

[Plecosam]

Your cycle is not stalled, ask brandon429 for his opinion, these days a stalled cycle is debunked or it does not happen.

Is that a Salifert Nitrite test kit and what is your Nitrate and Ammonia reading?

 

[Firthy13]

Your cycle is not stalled, ask brandon429 for his opinion, these days a stalled cycle is debunked or it does not happen.

Is that a Salifert Nitrite test kit and what is your Nitrate and Ammonia reading?

Yes i have been reading a lot about the controversy over 'stalled' cycles. i have watched a few seminars by Dr Tim and the research behind what he preaches is very convincing.

yes, both brand new and in date. API goes off scale, Salifert detects nothing, even looking through the side of the vile to get a low range reading, not even the slightest hint of pink.

Ammonia is undetectable on API, salifert and Seachem ammnoia badge. ( i know, not reliable, but worth mentioning)
Nitrite, is well over 5ppm according to 3 different API test kits.
Nitrate is around 90-100 PPM using Nyos. i assumed this would be so high due to the presence of nitrite as i believe nitrite interferes with nitrate tests.

 

[Plecosam]

Ok, yes i agree high nitrate due to nitrite, I would say you are cycled though. Best to talk to a cycling expert though, send Brandon a pm.

 

[canadianeh]

Hey I used Dr Tim’s and my cycle took 1 month instead of 2 weeks that dr Tim’s advertised. Check out my build thread. I recorded daily test data. See if yours trending the same as mine. I let my nitrite disappeared by itself. My nitrate was also over 100 ppm using Salifert. It dropped significantly after nitrite disappeared.

Ask @Brew12 for his advice

 

[Plecosam]

Your nitrate did not drop as it was never that high in the first place.

 

[ddaddy2420]

Great looking build so far - i was so excited when i saw CADE in the title because i have just recently purchased a Cade SR 900 Series 2 system and am working on my build as well. Tank is still a few months from being delivered me being from Georgia, US and all.

Couple of questions
1. You mentioned having trouble tieing into things due to the metric dimensions of the tubing - i hadn't even thought of that when i bought this system. What all have you run into that has caused some delay due to the tubing being metric?

2. You mentioned it but i didn't understand - how did you get your sump to have the white back ground? what material did you use and where did you get it? Definitely looks much better with that...

Good idea using the media chamber for your skimmer, plenty of room for the fuge now.

This is one of the issues with the 900 - those media chambers are only 4 inches wide - haven't come across a skimmer with that small of a footprint. So i am considering installing a baffle in the main skimmer chamber to house my skimmer on one side and a small fuge on the other.

Look forward to following along and i will be posting mine here soon as well.

Dale

 

[Firthy13]

Great looking build so far - i was so excited when i saw CADE in the title because i have just recently purchased a Cade SR 900 Series 2 system and am working on my build as well. Tank is still a few months from being delivered me being from Georgia, US and all.

Couple of questions
1. You mentioned having trouble tieing into things due to the metric dimensions of the tubing - i hadn't even thought of that when i bought this system. What all have you run into that has caused some delay due to the tubing being metric?

2. You mentioned it but i didn't understand - how did you get your sump to have the white back ground? what material did you use and where did you get it? Definitely looks much better with that...



This is one of the issues with the 900 - those media chambers are only 4 inches wide - haven't come across a skimmer with that small of a footprint. So i am considering installing a baffle in the main skimmer chamber to house my skimmer on one side and a small fuge on the other.

Look forward to following along and i will be posting mine here soon as well.

Dale

it was more of a supply and demand issue in regard to the availability of fittings. I'm in a country town in Australia so we don't have the large number of stores that the likes of Sydney and Melbourne have and Covid has also slowed delivery services here. So that won't be an issue for you. I believe Sanking, the company that make the metric plumbing for these Cades have made metric to standard adapters. Believe it or not, metric plumbing isn't really used here, it have very specific applications.

I removed the centre brace of the stand and totally removed the sump. I used white sign writing vinyl, like what you would see used to wrap a car. It can be purchased by length from ebay and amazon. I have even seen people use contact film in which you would use to cover school books.

The Cades are a very well thought out tank, im sure you will love it. I think the skimmer chamber is about 13"x15" so you should easily fit a little fuge in there.

 

[ddaddy2420]

Yea I was thinking about dividing that big chamber to have a small fuge area and a separate skimmer chamber.

Also you know how the auto top off section is on the back of these tanks, I’m still not clear exactly how they work? Does it top off the return chamber section anytime the float drops low enough to open that drain line?? So then you just have to have some sort of system to keep the top off chamber on the back of the tank full right??

 

[Firthy13]

Yea I was thinking about dividing that big chamber to have a small fuge area and a separate skimmer chamber.

Also you know how the auto top off section is on the back of these tanks, I’m still not clear exactly how they work? Does it top off the return chamber section anytime the float drops low enough to open that drain line?? So then you just have to have some sort of system to keep the top off chamber on the back of the tank full right??

Yep, that's it. Super simple but has been working extremely well for me. I don't even get a 1/4" of level fluctuations in my return section. I use a hose that contects to my water change station to pump the RODI water in.

 

[ddaddy2420]

Do you have an auto top off connected to it from your water change station or do you just pump water to it when it gets low??

 

[Firthy13]

Do you have an auto top off connected to it from your water change station or do you just pump water to it when it gets low??

No I just manually do it whenever it gets low. I have a level sensor in my return section that will alert me if it get 1cm below normal running height but it lasts over a week.

 

[Peach02]

Any updates? And how have you found filling up the ato?