Lyscer's Cadlight 68gallon Versa Build

[lyscer]

Decided that I would start my build thread since I just received the tank and have it in place ready to start setting up.

I have changed my mind on the tank that I want many, many time. I have always come back to the fact that I love the look of the cadlights tanks and while at a LFS this weekend my wife told me to just do it so we bought the 68g Versa.

I currently have about 60 pounds of LR that has been baking for 3 months in my garage. If interested I can post a link to my thread about cycling that and getting it going.

Filtration:
- Bubble Magus 5 skimmer
- Standard return pump that comes with the Cadlights tank
- Going to start with ~60 lbs of LR and will be doweling the rock together with 1/4" acrylic rods. I am still torn on what to use as the base (stone paver, another rock, etc..)
Substrate:
- I currently have 2 bags of the Tropic Eden Reeflake so I will see how deep that makes the sand bed in this tank. I am shooting for 1.5"-2" sandbed that the rocks will sit lightly on so that in the future I can have a sand sifting animal help with any detrius and build up in the sand.

Circulation:
I am looking at getting a MP40qwd. But am thinking I will need to get a MP10qwd to help supplement the flow. Long term I am going to be going SPS on the rocks and LPS (euphyllias) in the sand areas.

Sump/Refugium
- I have been loving the mangroves so I may put some mangroves in the refugium with some sand/crushed coral in the lower tank. To help maintain a clean look I have been looking at the Aqua Pro 3C clamp on light for the fuge light (http://www.marinedepot.com/Up_Aqua_...t_Fixtures-UP_Aqua-AZ64853-FILTFILDTN-vi.html)

Lighting
I have some DIY LEDs that I will be using but just need to find a decent way to hang them above the tank without destroying the clean look.

I'll post some pictures tonight of the current status. Also any ideas for putting an ATO on this would be awesome as I have the water line ran to the tank already.

 

[lyscer]

I put some acrylic sheets in the bottom of the tank as I am thinking that they will help distribute the weight of the acrylic rods that are in the bottom of my rocks to hold it just above the sand bed.

 

[lyscer]

I forgot to mention that I painted all of the plumbing black using krylon paint from Walmart to help hide the plumbing. I felt like it was a major distraction and I have read of people having good results using that paint in their marine aquariums.

 

[Daniel@R2R]

Cool! Following!

 

[lyscer]

Added 1 bag of Tropic Eden Reef Flake sand and started the ro/di water line into the top tank (last night). I dropped a heater and some salt in there too and am hoping that the salinity is pretty close to 1.025, the tank is 1/2 full and at 77ish degrees when I get home from work I will be able to start playing with the rock.

I have also decided that I am going to make a modular drop-in contraption for the sump. I want to eliminate as much salt creep as possible and I have found I usually get salt creep from the drain line bubbling all over the place so the plan is to build an acrylic box with a bulkhead that the drain plugs into, this will be completely enclosed with some filter socks and some holes for the water to escape (or overflow). I am going to be utilizing the design of the sump drain area seen here:

 

[lyscer]

Finally got my rock in place. Next I will be working on getting my lights up.

 

[lyscer]

I put some HoldFast instant ocean epoxy on some of the rock structure parts in hopes that it will lock in my rocks and when I add some crabs/snails they wont create a rock slide. Since I am now waiting for things to cycle I finished up the programming on my Arduino temp/outlet controller. Right now the Arduino+Yun is really simple and provides the following functionality:
- Tracks history of tank temperature
- Controls 4 outlets
- Turns off the heater outlet if the tank temperature exceeds a safety limit of 81 degrees
- Allows me to see all of this from my phone

Here is a snapshot of the interface:

And the arduino setup... which I am probably going to end up creating an enclosure to hold the eletronics. I just haven't put too much thought into that part yet.

Arduino/yun/relay and temperature sensors can be seen here

And the relay when I put it into the outlet box with the outlets:

 

[lyscer]

Purchased a Gyre XF130 today and this thing is awesome! It moves the water really good and I decided to play with the pulse mode and it can get some pretty good water rocking. My Ammonia, Nitrites and Nitrates are still non traceable so I think I may do a ghost feeding to see if that will help. Since adding the epoxy I have found that there is a strange film on the surface of the water in the sump and my skimmer is freaking out and filling the skimmer cup in seconds which I have read can happen for a few days after using epoxy. I do have a slight algae that has grown on the tank of the glass so I scraped it off and I am hoping to rig something up to get some lights on this tank this coming weekend.

I also realized that I really need to move my tank 5 inches so that I can build and fit a small 8"-9" cabinet next to the tank to hold all of the electrical components/controllers. So I am going to start looking for a large water container that I can use to hold my water so that I can slide the tank a few inches. I will post some pictures of that process when I get to it

 

[Shep]

Looks good so far, I like the rock work you have. So what kind of livestock are you planning on keeping? and for a large water container, you should looking into getting one of those brute trash cans.

 

[lyscer]

Thanks. For livestock I don't have it nailed down but I am thinking I want a couple of snowflake or picasso clownfish and I would love a couple of pipefish but am still torn over wether they would be a good fit. I do plan on having this be a SPS dominant tank with some lps. I am still trying to figure out how to mount my lights.

I ended up moving my tank last night and was in a hurry so I wasn't able to take pictures. I have a 65 gallon tank in my garage that I am selling so I just used it as a temporary holding container. I syphoned the water out of my tank using a 1.5" pond tube and it drained the tank in no time!

I have a 15 gallon water barrel that I installed a float valve in that I am planning on hooking up for my water change station, but haven't gotten around to it yet.

I put some carbon in a bag in front of the return drain in the sump because I cannot get my skimmer to settle down after the epoxy was added to hold the rock in place. I am hoping that within 48 hours it will settle down because I have some strange slimies growing/accumulating on the surface of the sump water. I am planning on starting to build the control center cabinet this weekend so I will take pictures of that as I go along and post those.

Weekend Planned Projects:
- Construct float valve holder to go into the sump to hold the float valve
- Construct the controller cabinetand outlet center

 

[fishroomlady]

everything is looking good......pipefish do require a good supply of pods and mine need frequent feedings - this may mess with the water quality needed to keep an sps dominant tank

 

[lyscer]

I finally got sick of waiting for my skimmer so I cut a couple pieces of 1" pvc that I had lying around and stuck it under the feet of the skimmer. It is working much better now! I am a little amazed that it is pulling garbage out of the water when my bioload is 3 hermit crabs.

I tested my levels today and am seeing:
- Ammonia: 0ppm
- Nitrites: 0ppm
- Nitrates: 0ppm

Not sure if this thing is fully cycled - I did use all live rock and it has been running a solid week now. I did perform a ghost feeding on the tank 3 days ago. If I can get my lights up tomorrow I may put a mushroom in the tank or some other kind of hardy coral to see how it fares.

 

[lyscer]

I feel like I got quite a few things done with the tank over the weekend. I made a DIY Float valve holder, bent my light holders, mounted them in place (using command strips and zip ties so we'll see how they hold) and got all of the wood for my "electonics" cabinet cut, sanded and prepped for placement.

Float valve bracket that I made by heating up some acrylic wit ha heat gun and then drilled a hole.

Went to Home Depot and bent some 3/4" conduit. Used a 3m scotch pad and roughed it up then strung it up between my hammon posts and painted it black with many coats of leftover krylon black paint.

In this picture you can see the vertical pipes coming down, those are the light posts. I drilled a hole in the backboard of the stand and fed the water line though it and down to the water clamp thing I made. The water line helps hold pressure on the clamp and keep it in place and pressed down.

This was a test fit for the lights, and I absolutely hate how messy the hang kit I made looks . Any ideas on how to hang the lights from the posts without them looking messy (I zip tied the led light cord onto the tube but it is just temporary so I didn't cut the tails off the zip ties.

all of the wood pieces for the electronics cabinet. I am going to work on cutting out the outlet holes today and the only other thing not picture are the cleets that will hold the back into place so that I can easily remove that panel from the front of the cabinet.
- Sides (2x)
- Bottom/Top
- Door
- Back
- False back wall that will hold all of the outlets.

Sample fit so that you can see how it will go together. The gap below the false wall is intentional for ventilation. I am going to be making some slits in the backboard of the cabinet too.

 

[lyscer]

I wanted to post another update since it has been a bit since my last one.

Livestock
I added a couple of small frags to my tank last week as everything was looking good as far as water parameters. I added a small frag of pom pom xenia and a small filly mushroom. Since I am still waiting on my other light to show up I put an extra t5 fixture that I have on the tank to light 1/2 of it. I have been noticing a TON of copepods on every pane of glass through the tank/sump. The little feather dusters that are on the rocks have also been showing up in various places on other rocks.

Water Flow
I was not happy with my flow so I found a Eheim 1262 locally for a good price and swapped it out as my return pump. It is louder than I would like and I am still not able to export nutrients from the display as well as I would like. I will watch things float around for at least a full day before they dissapear. So I am not sure if I just need more flow to get things to go into the corner overflow or if I need another powerhead to help push things that way. The gyre does an amazing job of keeping particles suspended in the water though.

With everything looking healthy and happy and my water params being in tact I added a couple of small blue chromis to the tank to see how they do for at least the next week.

Water Storage/Changes
I am a huge fan of regular small water changes. Since I was to this stage I figured I should get my reserve water up and going. I have found in the past it is soo much easier to do water changes if you have water on hand and don't have to wait hours/days for it so I modified a 15 gallon water storage container to have a float valve, a bulk head and a power head in it so that I can set and forget my ro water and then use it when needed or in an emergency. I made a small 2x4 stand that it sits on so that I can slide a bucket underneath the jug and fill it up in preperation for water changes.

This week
So this week I am really hoping that I can get my electronic cabinet finished up. I did start the process of gluing it up but did not have much time to devote to it this week. Since it is so close I should be able to finish it this week and will hopefully get it in place to help hide the rats nest of wires that I have growing next to my stand as seen in the original picture.

Macro Algae
I have also found a couple of local reefers that I am going to pick up some macro algae from. I got a magnafuge light to help light up the macro and I am going to be picking up some more live rock to put in the sump/refugium. I will update this again once my electronic cabinet is done and I have everything mounted/organized inside of it.

 

[lyscer]

The electronics cabinet has had a small amount of progress. I have however been fighting a bigger problem. I keep getting a build up of scum on the surface of either the display or the sump. I decided to try my hand at the DIY Filter Sock using the polyester felt and we will see how well it does. This was one of the items that I was originally concerned about and why I upgraded my return pump.

This is a shot from in the tank looking up. You can see the "milky" look of the surface. I have found that the overflow design is actually the culprit of this. The slits are too thin so it creates surface tension and items on the surface don't go through, but the underlying water column does... at least this is how it appears.

I tested my theory by "flooding" my tank. I put an attachment on the overflow that eliminated the overflow box and all of the surface film was gone in about 30 minutes.

I made sure to catch it all in a filter sock this time, because up to this point it all ends up back in the display.

 

[lyscer]

Finally finished my electronic cabinet!! This was way more work than anticipated. For those that are curious all the wires in the top left are from the arduino and the bread board. It controls the outlets individually from my web interface.

I am still having a problem with surface gunk building up so I think I am going to cut out some of the teeth on the overflow to help things get through easier since that seems to be the problem area.

 

[lyscer]

It was like christmas in July (and just happened to be on my birthday) that this 24" 8 bulb ati fixture showed up.

 

[spspirate]

Thats such a cool fixture! Good luck!

 

[lyscer]

spspirate, thanks. I am just hoping that I can make my tank look 1/2 as nice as yours is. I followed your build thread and it was impressive. I didn't realize that you were in Richmond or I would have scheduled a visit to check out your tank. I worked for a company up until April that was based out of there and would travel out there often.

 

[lyscer]

Alright, time for some pictures. This light sure makes things seem bright!