Martin's CADE S2 1500

[martin.a]

Finally! I am sorry for the delay. The tank was purchased in February, but life happened causing some delays. The tank got wet 14 days ago and today ammonia and nitrites finally showed 0 (nitrates at ~15ppm), and I decided that life has to wait, as I finally must start my build thread.

The tank: CADE S2 1500 with white cabinet.

• Size: 1500 × 700 × 600 mm (L×W×H)
• Display capacity: 540 L / 143 gal
• System capacity (total): 640 L / 169 gal

The junk:

• Lights: x4 A8SE Max
• Filtering: ReefMatt 1200
• Skimmer: Octo Elite 200-S
• Heating: x2 Schego PTC Heaters 300W on Inkbird 306A
• Return pump: Jebao DCP-10,000 (will be changed into 2-pump system)
• Powerheads: x2 Jebao GMP-40 (will most likely be expanded)

Aquascape: Marco rocks hand shaped into... well... a scape? I built it some time ago with huge support from the community. Thank you!

The tank/cabinet was purchased from Auburn Aquarium is Sydney, an 'almost-local' FS (Sydney is only 300km away from Canberra), and hand delivered by the shop's owner to my living room. BTW, those guys were beyond awesome. First class experience. I know whom to call when I need another tank. I consider the cost of delivery to be negligible when compared to a possible emotional distress associated with online purchase and use of a courier company.

The delay: The floor needed additional supports as the joists are parallel to the wall. So, pouring of reinforced concrete slabs, getting appropriate structural jacks and beams, installing it all, making sure it's properly over-engineered... a lot of quality time spent in the basement. Some extra floor-and-wall work plus some engineering had to be done before the tank could have been swung into it's final location as the cabinet and the hood are to be duct-vented into the basement and outside. RODI, salt water, fresh air duct for skimmer, emergency power... all in the basement too. Plus lights on risers bolted on the wall. (All DIY.)

Fun in the basement. The white square ducts are for venting of the cabinet and the hood. Work in progress.

The sump was modified - the unnecessary glass cut out to fit the ReefMat. The main drain plumbing was redone to allow for hard-plumbing of the ReefMat. Hard plumbing was necessary to fit the ReffMat and the skimmer next to each other at the back of the sump to keep the rest of the sump for refugium (bright or dark, future will tell).
The floor of the cabinet was silicone sealed to the alu frame, the back fully paneled with white acrylic panels, holes added for conduits and air ducts (leading to the basement). After that, finally the whole rig was ready for its final trip.

The final 976mm to go. Teflon cooking sheets proved to be the best to get the rig skating. All those 'pipes' on the wall go down to the basement, the blue masking tape outline on the wall is there to help with aiming .

Yes Honey, I am almost done, I just need extra 15 minutes!

ReefMat and skimmer in the sump. Some 1.2mm room to spare. This picture was taken after the tank was already wet, hence the 'starting' liverock in the red bucket (extra liverock to come). The 'wig' visible in the top-right corner is rockwool plugging the air vent.

 

[Bucrob]

Finally! I am sorry for the delay. The tank was purchased in February, but life happened causing some delays. The tank got wet 14 days ago and today ammonia and nitrites finally showed 0 (nitrates at ~15ppm), and I decided that life has to wait, as I finally must start my build thread.

The tank: CADE S2 1500 with white cabinet.

• Size: 1500 × 700 × 600 mm (L×W×H)
• Display capacity: 540 L / 143 gal
• System capacity (total): 640 L / 169 gal

The junk:

• Lights: x4 A8SE Max
• Filtering: ReefMatt 1200
• Skimmer: Octo Elite 200-S
• Heating: x2 Schego PTC Heaters 300W on Inkbird 306A
• Return pump: Jebao DCP-10,000 (will be changed into 2-pump system)
• Powerheads: x2 Jebao GMP-40 (will most likely be expanded)

Aquascape: Marco rocks hand shaped into... well... a scape? I built it some time ago with huge support from the community. Thank you!

The tank/cabinet was purchased from Auburn Aquarium is Sydney, an 'almost-local' FS (Sydney is only 300km away from Canberra), and hand delivered by the shop's owner to my living room. BTW, those guys were beyond awesome. First class experience. I know whom to call when I need another tank. I consider the cost of delivery to be negligible when compared to a possible emotional distress associated with online purchase and use of a courier company.

The delay: The floor needed additional supports as the joists are parallel to the wall. So, pouring of reinforced concrete slabs, getting appropriate structural jacks and beams, installing it all, making sure it's properly over-engineered... a lot of quality time spent in the basement. Some extra floor-and-wall work plus some engineering had to be done before the tank could have been swung into it's final location as the cabinet and the hood are to be duct-vented into the basement and outside. RODI, salt water, fresh air duct for skimmer, emergency power... all in the basement too. Plus lights on risers bolted on the wall. (All DIY.)

Fun in the basement. The white square ducts are for venting of the cabinet and the hood. Work in progress.

The sump was modified - the unnecessary glass cut out to fit the ReefMat. The main drain plumbing was redone to allow for hard-plumbing of the ReefMat. Hard plumbing was necessary to fit the ReffMat and the skimmer next to each other at the back of the sump to keep the rest of the sump for refugium (bright or dark, future will tell).
The floor of the cabinet was silicone sealed to the alu frame, the back fully paneled with white acrylic panels, holes added for conduits and air ducts (leading to the basement). After that, finally the whole rig was ready for its final trip.

The final 976mm to go. Teflon cooking sheets proved to be the best to get the rig skating. All those 'pipes' on the wall go down to the basement, the blue masking tape outline on the wall is there to help with aiming .

Yes Honey, I am almost done, I just need extra 15 minutes!

ReefMat and skimmer in the sump. Some 1.2mm room to spare. This picture was taken after the tank was already wet, hence the 'starting' liverock in the red bucket (extra liverock to come). The 'wig' visible in the top-right corner is rockwool plugging the air vent.

Goodluck with the new build! It's always an adventure with these things.

 

[martin.a]

Two weeks ago... Aquscape in, filling up with RODI.

Rocks are 'cleverly glued' to Delrin (POM) blocks. The blocks are 20mm tall (25mm on the left to provide a bit more digging space for a shrimp. Cleverly, as in fact you can't glue anything to Delrin. My original idea was to drill interlocking holes through the base of the rocks and the Delrin blocks, and use delrin rods to lock them together. Fancy. Sadly, drilling in Marco rock turned out to be an awfully unrewarding experience. I stupidly assumed this rock is soft. Well... it is kind of, but impact drilling of any kind available to me doesn't work, and drilling with diamond core bits is too much hassle. So, I blind-drilled the Delrin block at angle instead, epoxy filled the holes and used the same epoxy to glue those block to the base of rocks. Epoxy sticks superb to limestone, and interlocks in the holes in the Delrin blocks. Almost as fancy.... And probably totally unnecessary.

My RODI source. Here at the very beginning, when flushing the membrane from silver residue. DI resin not in yet. My tap water is ~35ppm, but the house plumbing is all solid copper. (As can be seen top-left.)

After the rocks and RODI came the salt. I used Aquaforest Reef Salt. This is the only salt I ever used, so I am not sure if it's good or bad. Notoriously mixes to low alkalinity, but mixes quickly and cleanly.

It is cloudy today, but the forecast for tomorrow is clear water with fresh sand. Approx 6 bags of Caribsea Special Grade Reef Sand. I use the same sand at work and I like it. I really expected it to clearout overnight and it did:

I overdid the sand a bit... Had to take about a bag out. The left 1/3 has now a slightly thicker bed for a shrimp (as I already mentioned). I want YWG with Tiger Pistol shrimp. The left part of sand bed is separated from the rest with burrowed rocks. We will see if this works... if I get the shrimp. (YWG with a shrimp is at least $700AUD in AU; if and only if one can get it. Not to even mention that most likely the shrimp will not be Alpheus bellulus.)

 

[fishface NJ]

Good luck! It looks great.

 

[martin.a]

Tank full and water tide. Only one bulk head needed a bit of extra tightening. I am used to orings needing to be held only loosely with the pressure sealing them. Well, this is not scuba-tank kind of pressure, so a bit of extra hand persuasion was needed. BTW, overtightening seems to be the most common reason for failure of those PVC fittings - they crack with time from the stress.

Cycling: I brought about 2kg of live rock and 8kg of live sand from my tank at work. I put them in there for exactly this purpose in February. Both went into the sump.

Of course I made an offering to the Great Goddess of Tank Cycling:

The biggest and meanest tiger prawn they had on the market.

Nergigante Eater of Elders made sure we were good to go. (It was not me who named the cat, I call him Puss.)

I also dosed a fair bit of Microbacter 7. Probably for religious purposes as its efficacy is rather disputable. (No better than its ability to prevent cavities when used as mouthwash.)

The ammonia increased to 0.8ppm, and the cycling was slowly rolling, but a bit too slow to my liking, and so I started questioning my choices. So, I raised ammonia to 2ppm and introduced FritzZyme 9. Anything smelling so... pungent, must be effective! And the cycling started spinning faster indeed! Of course, having no control, I have no idea if my intervention had any effect on it at all.

 

[martin.a]

First metazoa in!

Most of my liverock is still in a separate tank. I dosed that tank with Tisbe, Apocyclops and Tigriopus pods. Additionally some amphipods were introduced from another tank. As I want a pair of Mandarins, I need to have a good, working 'copepodarium' established in my sump.

First, I brought only a handful of the liverock from that tank to be used a source of bacteria for cycling. Once the cycle is over I am to bring the rest, to establish the copepods population. Well, that's what I planned.

It's actually funny: As the cycle was progressing, bacterial film started showing on surfaces. Seen this before. But that film started thinning. I was a bit bamboozled, wondering what went wrong this time. Until, I finally got a magnifying glass and seen hordes of tiny copepods ravaging the bacterial population! They were doing so at 2ppm of ammonia as if this was nothing! Not only they survived, they multiplied exponentially at those rather scary conditions. So, I started dosing some phyto to persuade them to live the bacteria alone . Last night I have seen 2 amphipods marching on the rocks. So much fun already! With 'empty' tank. I may need valium when I finally put fish in.

 

[martin.a]

I forgot to show where I squeezed the the heaters in:

They went under the ReefMat. Inkbird sensor on the left (under emergency drain). This may be not the perfect location, but seems to actually working all right. I would need to remove the skimmer and the ReefMat to access them. But how often would I want to do it? I made sure heaters do not touch anything. Even with the ReefMat in place I have clear view on the the heaters to check this from time to time.

The white 'buttons' are foot-holders for the ReefMat. They are siliconed to the bottom. They also rise the ReffMatt by 12mm so its handle fits over skimmer's muffler - see the last photo in the first post. Allegedly, rising the ReefMat may also save a bit on the mat, as the water can reach higher level before triggering the sensor.

BTW, getting accurate thermometer is mission impossible! pH - easy, conductivity - no worries, salinity - sure, even DO easy (dissolved oxygen), but temperature? No way! Each thermometer show its own interpretation and no reference! I think, I need to cool something down to 0K to grab a reference point and extrapolate from there .

 

[martin.a]

OK, so right now I am ready to move-in the rest of my liverocks, pods and the single trochus and astrea living with them.

One rock which is superbly covered with coraline algae will go into display to seed the rest of the rocks. I will also finally need to install the lights to stimulate coraline algae growth. Of course low level and short period.
And I need to start mustering my 'cleaning crew'. The plan is:

• Trochus x12
• Nassarius x6
• Astrea x12
• Strombus (conch) x1
• Gold ring cowrie x2
• Peppermint shrimp x5
• Tuxedo urchin x1 (later)

I am very much open to advises!

 

[Gumbies R Us]

Following along!

 

[martin.a]

Live rock in the sump. Lot's of coraline, I will add some light, it would be pity to loose it. The 2 resident snails were moved too. They seem fine.

First test after nitrogen cycle (ammonia and nitrites at 0):

pH is 8.3 (Hanna pen HI98129).

We came out all right except alkalinity. Yeah. Aquaforest mixed low (as usual), and some alkalinity got lost in the cycle. I will add 12g sodium bicarbonate in 1L of RODI and tomorrow morning see where we are. Hopefully above 6 dKH . And I keep dosing live phyto.

 

[fishface NJ]

Nice looking live rock. Did you get it locally or had to have it shipped?

 

[martin.a]

Shipped from Melbourne. But, from New Jersey/Florida perspective it's probably locally .
But this is something I call 'zombie rock'. Basically, cured coral rubble sold as 'pest free live rock' meaning it's very low on biodiversity. It has fair bacteria for startup, but that's it. Here you see it after it spent months in tank under light. BTW, I really like FL. Keys and Everglades NP mostly, but Marco Isl. is a nice place too.

 

[martin.a]

The cleaning crew moved in. It was high time.

Four peppermint shrimp.

Five trochus and five astrea snail (more to come)

Four strombus snails (conch)

Sorry about the quality of the photos, it was already lights out. BTW the tank and the sump have lights now. About that tomorrow.

I continue dosing phyto (and started my own cultures). I also daily drop one cube of frozen mysis shrimps to feed... whatever is in there. Copepods seem less visible. Amphipods on the other hand multiplied. I wonder if this explains decimated copepod population. Hopefully we can find some kind of agreement between the pods and a balance.

 

[martin.a]

So far so good. Today alk. 7.9 dKH, nitrates 14.4 ppm, phosphates 0.08 ppm. This gives a bit of evidence in discussion if fresh Marco rocks release or bind phosphates. At least mine seem to bind.

Other news:
Trochus tries to fit to the scape. (This picture is not inverted.)

Nothing missing on this photo, this is my attempt to show the copepods. Clearly, a microscope should have been used ;-)

I am happy to see this growth on the powerhead.

 

[martin.a]

On the matter of lighting.
The main display lights are four A8SE Max purchased directly from their country of origin. For now, the lights are installed on a temporary gantry waiting for me to design and manufacture dedicated hood. It will be a slim hood, either mechanically vented or not. I am still on the fence deciding between vented tank cover, or the hood. Vented cover would be very neat and effective, but would put approx. 6-10mm of polycarbonate between the lights and the water. Four A8SE have enough punch to deliver even than though. There would be no condensation on the cover as it would be mechanically vented. But it would make sticking my arms into the tank a tad more cumbersome.
Anyway, 'the jury is still debating' on the subject, and so the lights are just hanging from a stick. The gantry can move up and down. You can see it below in the lowest and highest position. You can also admire all lights power cords neatly hidden inside the 2 vertical rising beams. Only for the ambiance I left the cables artistically hanging at the top, and between the lights.
In the lowest position the lights are 13cm (5.1") from the water surface. In the highest they are... 'really high' providing unobstructed access to the tank.

Lowest position:

Highest position:

Probably, I will spread the lights a bit more to get better coverage at the ends.
The only mod to the lights themselves (for now) was application of thermal paste between the LED board and the heatsink. I am not actually 100% sure this was required here, but will not hurt given the heatsink surface is straight from flattening router, and not polished in any way. In my case one of the lights also had a fan wire caught between the LED MCPCB and the heatsink. That would harm.
If anybody interested, I am happy to discuss the 'hood travelers'. They can be removed and reinstalled with the tank in place. I actually did it, so can attest that.

I the sump I use one of those AquaOne MariGlo lights. They are hopeless. Their PSUs are hopeless. I just had that one in a bin discarded from another tank. I am in search for something more suitable. I don't like those desk-style lights. Either I get something ready made or make something myself. I want ability to change the light intensity and the spectrum to help promoting the growth I want and discourage the growth I don't. There are hordes of copepods and amphipods living there, they need to eat properly to prosper and to be sacked-in into the display to allow my dragonets to prosper.

Edit: Yes, you can see heaps of microbubbles thrown out from the skimmer. It drives me nuts, I can not tune this dang thing up. I have 2 more Octo skimmer in other tanks, the classic ones, and there is not a single buble from them. This one is the Elite... yeah.

 

[martin.a]

And so the time goes. Nitrates and phosphates keep dropping even though I feed 1 cube frozen mysis a day.
Nitrates: 12.7 ppm
Phosphates: 0.03 ppm
Alkalinity: 7.8 dKH
I started feeding 2 cubes a day. I am worried especially with the phosphates hitting zero.
But, I know where all the nutrients are going:

So much life...

 

[Zyfreef]

Finally! I am sorry for the delay. The tank was purchased in February, but life happened causing some delays. The tank got wet 14 days ago and today ammonia and nitrites finally showed 0 (nitrates at ~15ppm), and I decided that life has to wait, as I finally must start my build thread.

The tank: CADE S2 1500 with white cabinet.

• Size: 1500 × 700 × 600 mm (L×W×H)
• Display capacity: 540 L / 143 gal
• System capacity (total): 640 L / 169 gal

The junk:

• Lights: x4 A8SE Max
• Filtering: ReefMatt 1200
• Skimmer: Octo Elite 200-S
• Heating: x2 Schego PTC Heaters 300W on Inkbird 306A
• Return pump: Jebao DCP-10,000 (will be changed into 2-pump system)
• Powerheads: x2 Jebao GMP-40 (will most likely be expanded)

Aquascape: Marco rocks hand shaped into... well... a scape? I built it some time ago with huge support from the community. Thank you!

The tank/cabinet was purchased from Auburn Aquarium is Sydney, an 'almost-local' FS (Sydney is only 300km away from Canberra), and hand delivered by the shop's owner to my living room. BTW, those guys were beyond awesome. First class experience. I know whom to call when I need another tank. I consider the cost of delivery to be negligible when compared to a possible emotional distress associated with online purchase and use of a courier company.

The delay: The floor needed additional supports as the joists are parallel to the wall. So, pouring of reinforced concrete slabs, getting appropriate structural jacks and beams, installing it all, making sure it's properly over-engineered... a lot of quality time spent in the basement. Some extra floor-and-wall work plus some engineering had to be done before the tank could have been swung into it's final location as the cabinet and the hood are to be duct-vented into the basement and outside. RODI, salt water, fresh air duct for skimmer, emergency power... all in the basement too. Plus lights on risers bolted on the wall. (All DIY.)

Fun in the basement. The white square ducts are for venting of the cabinet and the hood. Work in progress.

The sump was modified - the unnecessary glass cut out to fit the ReefMat. The main drain plumbing was redone to allow for hard-plumbing of the ReefMat. Hard plumbing was necessary to fit the ReffMat and the skimmer next to each other at the back of the sump to keep the rest of the sump for refugium (bright or dark, future will tell).
The floor of the cabinet was silicone sealed to the alu frame, the back fully paneled with white acrylic panels, holes added for conduits and air ducts (leading to the basement). After that, finally the whole rig was ready for its final trip.

The final 976mm to go. Teflon cooking sheets proved to be the best to get the rig skating. All those 'pipes' on the wall go down to the basement, the blue masking tape outline on the wall is there to help with aiming .

Yes Honey, I am almost done, I just need extra 15 minutes!

ReefMat and skimmer in the sump. Some 1.2mm room to spare. This picture was taken after the tank was already wet, hence the 'starting' liverock in the red bucket (extra liverock to come). The 'wig' visible in the top-right corner is rockwool plugging the air vent.

Good work

 

[shadyraro]

Great looking setup and it's good to see another aussie reefer on here.!

 

[diggers]

And so the time goes. Nitrates and phosphates keep dropping even though I feed 1 cube frozen mysis a day.
Nitrates: 12.7 ppm
Phosphates: 0.03 ppm
Alkalinity: 7.8 dKH
I started feeding 2 cubes a day. I am worried especially with the phosphates hitting zero.
But, I know where all the nutrients are going:

So much life...

No livestock yet? Are you doing an extended cycle to get through the uglies?

 

[martin.a]

No livestock yet? Are you doing an extended cycle to get through the uglies?

Well, there is livestock - there are the snails, the shrimps and hordes of pods, but no fish nor cnidarians. To be honest first fish were to enter this week, but I have 'communication issues' with my LFS.
I do not want any corals or anemones until I feel confident with the uglies. I want to know, I can switch off the lights if needed.
Cyano is not that bad for now as you can see below (pic from a few days ago, it looks a tad worse today). I expected coraline to be more advanced. But, not so. These green alage are fine from my experience. Coraline will push them out when the time comes. I hope it knows the expectations ;-)

Water parameters are still very unstable. Nutrients are down, I feed a bit extra, but I know I am mostly feeding cyano which will 'eat' whatever is there. I agree - constant influx of small amounts of ammonia from a few fish would be beneficial. Frustrated with my LFS. Canberra reality.