My 70 Gallon complete with Water, Coral and Fish!

[thewackyreefer]

Well, I've upgraded the past 4 years so why stop now?

I picked up a 70g Artisan Series tank from Cadlights last weekend. I fortunately had the opportunity to pick it up in person and was able to check everything out before I accepted it and I couldn't be more pleased. The high clarity glass is great and the silicone job blows Lee Mar out of the water. I've seen some negative reviews of the stand...yeah, it's pretty weak but it'll do the job without question. I'm going to use it for now but will definitely upgrade to a nice steel stand down the road. The sump that comes with the setup is decent but the pump they provide is way overpowered, glad I wasn't planning on using it anyways.

Here's the plan:
70g Cadlights Artisan (36" x 24" x 18")
Cadlights Stand
Cadlights Sump (upgrading to custom acrylic)
SWC 120 (looking for an upgrade)
TBD Return Pump
2 x EcoTech Radion LED's
EcoTech MP40w ES
ReefKeeper Lite
Seneye Reef Monitor

Most of the rock will come from my current setup although I probably won't use but 1/3 of what's currently in there, I'm REALLY hoping to avoid the "wall" look in this one. I don't have any stocking plans at this point. I'd say it'll be a mixed reef, likely heavy on the acans with some sticks up top.

Once I have some decent pics I'll post them. That's all for now!

 

[cabi]

Following this build sound great!!

 

[Sugo]

Can't wait to see some pics!

 

[skinz78]

This should be good, I can't wait for the pic's!

 

[bige]

Sweet!

 

[thewackyreefer]

Should be able to get some pics for you guys tomorrow.

Over the weekend I moved everything over from my current setup. I only ended up using maybe half of the rock I had and I'm really really happy with the scape for the first time since I got in this hobby.

I spent a good amount of time today programming the Radions and doing some PAR testing with the Seneye. Running two of the fixtures at 14k temp 55% brightness I was hitting 250+ PAR on the sand bed so I adjusted to 20k at 40% max and that took me down to just under 100 PAR on sand bed and over 400 PAR up at the top. These things are BRIGHT!!

I've found that I get a good amount of condensation in the stand so I installed a small fan over one of the holes in the back of the stand to draw some fresh air in and it's done wonders. For now I'm just using a Rio pump...the pump they gave me with the setup is ridiculously overpowered for the sump they provide so I'm only pushing about 250gph or so at this point which is perfect. No micro bubbles or anything!

All I have to do now is hook up the ATO and decide on a light to use over the fuge and I think I'll be all set.

Been testing like crazy just to make sure I don't get any spikes but my nitrates look normal and no ammonia to worry about according to the Seneye.

 

[revhtree]

I'm here!!

 

[thewackyreefer]

Alright here's a quick pic!

 

[thewackyreefer]

What do you guys think about the two pieces on the back from The Alternative Reef (gooch)? Look pretty good, eh? I think they fit pretty well and fill in the space without making it look like a huge pile of rocks.

 

[GR808]

Sweet looking tank. Love the clean lines on the rimless and the LED is sick. Your right about the two pieces on the glass. It does fill in empty spaces without taking up too much real estate on your tank bed.. Awesome

 

[thewackyreefer]

Thanks, I've still got a bit of work to do on it but it's going to take some time...

Eventually I plan on upgrading the sump as I'd like something a little bigger with a bigger area for a new skimmer. I think for the first time since I got in the hobby, and 5 tanks later I'm finally happy with the tank and the scape.

 

[revhtree]

I love it when I start feeling good about my tank!

 

[skinz78]

Those rocks on the back look great, I want to get a few for my tank and fill in some empty spaces.

 

[Mike&Terry]

Nice upgrade! We're looking forward to seeing your progress...

 

[Aquaph8]

Nice upgrade! We're looking forward to seeing your progress...

+1 looking good.

 

[thewackyreefer]

Thanks guys! Here's another quick iPhone shot.

 

[thewackyreefer]

Didn't provide much of an update earlier but I've got a little time now so here goes nothin.

To be frank, a lot of pieces took a major hit in my last tank. I'm not sure I ever got to the bottom of the issue but I have reason to believe long term use of Kent Reef Carbon (which was recalled) played some part in the issue. Over the course of a couple months beginning when I switched to Kent I lost my SPS and started losing acans and other LPS daily. All in all I must have lost between 30-40 total frags when all was said and done. In the 5+ years I've been in this hobby I've never experienced anything like this and it was most frustrating.

Since moving pieces over to this tank over the past week or so I've noticed a significant difference in the health of the corals. Some of my acans took a pretty bad hit and will take quite a while to recover if they bounce back at all. I'm seeing a lot of good polyp extension on most pieces and even the acans are keeping their feeders out constantly. It's nice to see things going well! I really hope things continue down this road.

I've been testing all of my parameters daily and I've got the Seneye to keep an eye on pH, ammonia, temp and a few other params for me. Pretty nifty reef gadget for the price and it's been super beneficial trying to figure out where to start with the Radions since it has a PAR meter built in.

So the Radions...I love em...not much else to say about them. They're everything I hoped for and more. I found a little bug in the programming but it's a known issue so hopefully it'll be resolved in the next release.

That's all for now! Time to start thinking about some fish, the cardinal is getting lonely!

 

[thewackyreefer]

Here are some blastos I got as part of the trade for the old tank.

Sorry I've been lazy and taking pics with the iPhone. Some day I'll bust out the Canon...

 

[skinz78]

Very nice!

 

[thewackyreefer]

Well I don't have any new pics but I figured I'd give another quick update since it's been a while.

Basically, I haven't done anything but monitor, monitor, monitor. I'm still having acan issues and the last of my personal collection as well as the group buy acans are looking really, really bad. I don't know what else I can really do at this point, Amino Acids are my last ditch effort as a few people have now told me they think my nutrient levels are too low for acans as everything else is thriving. I have a single cardinal, fire shrimp and some snails so my bio-load is very, very small and I really don't feed the tank too much although I've always spot fed my LPS. My po4 levels are typically between 0.00-0.03 on a Hannah meter and my nitrates are nearly undetectable.

I've tried every imaginable dip (furan-2, coral rx, melafix) as well as an interceptor treatment with no luck over the course of the past few months. If anyone has any suggestions I'm all ears!!

The rest of the tank is doing pretty well I'd say. The few SPS I have are starting to color up nicely and polyp extension looks good. Z's & P's are all doing well too.

I don't really have any future plans at this point! Just waiting for things to get healthy again before I add anything else to the system. Ugh, it's so frustrating!!!!!!