Shadyraro's Cade 900 S2

[shadyraro]

Haha yeah look I'd love to. I can see it adding up pretty quickly though.
Would definitely want the trident.
Was chatting with the missus a little about it last night as we were doing the water change and mentioned how you can get a module for it so you can automate your water changes and set it to do a certain amount every day etc.
She then starts saying 'oh maybe it's worth looking into'... not realising that it's going to cost a good several grand to get what we want out of it (water change thing, plus testing with both trident types and that's just to start LOL).

I'm stoked with the Apex so far it is definitely next level compared to reef factory that's for sure.
I still haven't got a trident yet as my LFS sold out pretty quickly, but I'm in no hurry and like you said the the price of the Apex gear can add up pretty quickly.
But in saying that the things you can do on the fusion app is insane, I'm still learning and getting my head around it but if you got all the gear you said then you'd never have to touch your tank again lol.

 

[DarkReefer]

I'm stoked with the Apex so far it is definitely next level compared to reef factory that's for sure.
I still haven't got a trident yet as my LFS sold out pretty quickly, but I'm in no hurry and like you said the the price of the Apex gear can add up pretty quickly.
But in saying that the things you can do on the fusion app is insane, I'm still learning and getting my head around it but if you got all the gear you said then you'd never have to touch your tank again lol.

That's good to hear that you're enjoying it so far.
From what I understand it seems to have pretty good tutorials for getting things set up and the like.

There's always something to spend on our tanks... it never just 'ends' haha.
Just the other day I think I dropped $600 and it was all just maintenance type stuff I'd neglected to top up for a bit. Most unsatisfying purchase I think I've made for the tank (aside from a few hundred on snails/crabs)... lol

The water change thing would be amazing for sure though. We both hate water change day.
Usually means the day before is spent producing water through RODI unit for both ATO and Salt Water, the day of is heating the salt water and mixing it and then about 40 mins or so for the change itself + topping up the ATO.

Somewhat automating that process away would be awesome, but I've no doubt it'll probably be costly too lol.

 

[shadyraro]

That's good to hear that you're enjoying it so far.
From what I understand it seems to have pretty good tutorials for getting things set up and the like.

There's always something to spend on our tanks... it never just 'ends' haha.
Just the other day I think I dropped $600 and it was all just maintenance type stuff I'd neglected to top up for a bit. Most unsatisfying purchase I think I've made for the tank (aside from a few hundred on snails/crabs)... lol

The water change thing would be amazing for sure though. We both hate water change day.
Usually means the day before is spent producing water through RODI unit for both ATO and Salt Water, the day of is heating the salt water and mixing it and then about 40 mins or so for the change itself + topping up the ATO.

Somewhat automating that process away would be awesome, but I've no doubt it'll probably be costly too lol.

It'll be costly but so satisfying!
Another reason I went NSW, no hassles when it comes to mixing salt just chuck it straight in lol.
There's so many apex tutorials out there and they're really helpful, even the Neptune community forum site is fantastic with so much info and people willing to help out is pretty good.
Instead of dropping $600 maybe you should've put it towards an apex lol

 

[DarkReefer]

It'll be costly but so satisfying!
Another reason I went NSW, no hassles when it comes to mixing salt just chuck it straight in lol.
There's so many apex tutorials out there and they're really helpful, even the Neptune community forum site is fantastic with so much info and people willing to help out is pretty good.
Instead of dropping $600 maybe you should've put it towards an apex lol

Haha Yeah look, would've loved to!
Maybe I'll convince the missus to get the odd thing here or there and slowly build it up lol.
Yeah sounds look a good thing to jump into, especially now that reef factory seem to be going through some turmoil etc.

Previously did the NSW but wasn't using it fast enough really and would sit in the barrel for a bit too long (smaller tank). These days though I think cost wise it'd probably work out roughly the same or possibly bit more expensive to buy it in I think.
If I ran an IBC then perhaps it might be worthwhile, but possibly find myself in the same position of not quite using fast enough (unless I got into automation around it).

 

[shadyraro]

Haha Yeah look, would've loved to!
Maybe I'll convince the missus to get the odd thing here or there and slowly build it up lol.
Yeah sounds look a good thing to jump into, especially now that reef factory seem to be going through some turmoil etc.

Previously did the NSW but wasn't using it fast enough really and would sit in the barrel for a bit too long (smaller tank). These days though I think cost wise it'd probably work out roughly the same or possibly bit more expensive to buy it in I think.
If I ran an IBC then perhaps it might be worthwhile, but possibly find myself in the same position of not quite using fast enough (unless I got into automation around it).

Yeah that's what I'm doing buying bit by bit, the pro kit is a pretty good start and all I've added so far is an mxm module and salinity probe. Next will be a trident then a DOS to use for automatic water changes, but I got to figure out how I'm going to do that first lol.

Yeah with reef factory going thru the dramas I've completely lost trust in them now, even if they do get bought out I can't afford to rely on a brand that might not exist in 6 months. Not only that but they're already having issues with reagents stock, spares etc and it's really not looking good at all.
And although I spent a bit on the RF gear I'll keep it all for another project just in case they sort themselves out, but my main tank will be run solely on apex now.
I've already removed 5 pieces of RF gear from my tank and it's freed up 5 plugs lol, compared to the 1 I'm using for the apex running all the same stuff it's great!

 

[shadyraro]

Update:

I’ve had my tank 2 years now so I made a new video on YouTube, feel free to check it out!

 

[DarkReefer]

Cool update, lots of new gadgets. Still clean af lol.
Miss my copperband, was such a great fish.

 

[Featherweight]

Beautiful reef!

 

[shadyraro]

Cool update, lots of new gadgets. Still clean af lol.
Miss my copperband, was such a great fish.

Haha thanks! Copperbands are awesome fish

Beautiful reef!

Thanks

 

[Gumbies R Us]

Update:

I’ve had my tank 2 years now so I made a new video on YouTube, feel free to check it out!

Congrats on your tank making it past the two-year mark!

 

[shadyraro]

Congrats on your tank making it past the two-year mark!

Thanks!

 

[JonoH]

Only just found this thread!
Always great to see another Aussie tank - looking clean. Well done for making it to the 2yr point without wanting to go bigger again :-)

 

[shadyraro]

Only just found this thread!
Always great to see another Aussie tank - looking clean. Well done for making it to the 2yr point without wanting to go bigger again :-)

Hey thanks!
It's good to see more aussie reefers on here, your tank looks great btw

 

[shadyraro]

My Apex is already paying for itself as yesterday I was getting multiple notifications telling me that my sump water level was rising.
As I was at work I checked the fish-cam and could clearly see that the display water level was a lot lower then normal, 2 of my nero's were sucking in a lot of air and the fish were freaking out.
I went into the apex app and turned the nero's and return pump off, I was about to finish work and I knew it would be either a blockage or failing return pump.

Once home I turned the return back on and straight away I could see that the water coming out of the return outlet was a lot slower then normal, I pulled the return to check and it looked OK and the pipes were all clear with no blockages.
I only recently put the vectra S2 back into my tank when I installed the apex last month, it was around 5 years old and it still looked fine to me.

I gave it a quick clean and put it back in but I think it might be on it's way out as I had to increase it's flow to get the water to where it should be, so I might be looking for a new pump soon and will probably go with either a vectra M2 or Cor 15 pump.

Thankfully my apex did it's job and luckily I got notified pretty quickly and was able to rectify the issues, I usually go to the gym after work so the extra couple of hours away could've meant I came home to a couple of cooked neros as well but who knows.

 

[tbox]

Just checking in again on your awesome tank. I'm glad to see you like the Apex.

I'm still deciding between the Cade 900 s2 vs s3, and in the meantime getting everything else sorted. I love a lot about the s3, but I'm torn on rimless vs eurobrace. I had a freshwater tank a while back with the eurobrace and while I loved the look, it was definitely harder for me to clean. With the Cades being so deep, I might have a hard time with the eurobrace. Are there other improvements on the s3 you think make it much better?

I enjoyed the water change video! I have 20L jugs and do NSW. I only have a 100L tank right now with a mature mixed reef. I have auto water change currently but I find I use it manually more than auto. Initially, I was doing twice daily small auto changes but I didn't see a benefit vs a 20% every two weeks. I just had to switch out jugs more frequently. Plus, when I need to vacuum anything, the auto change doesn't help. I'm interested to hear what you think if you do the Dos.

Thanks for keeping the updates going! Are you leaning s3 for your 1200?

 

[shadyraro]

Just checking in again on your awesome tank. I'm glad to see you like the Apex.

I'm still deciding between the Cade 900 s2 vs s3, and in the meantime getting everything else sorted. I love a lot about the s3, but I'm torn on rimless vs eurobrace. I had a freshwater tank a while back with the eurobrace and while I loved the look, it was definitely harder for me to clean. With the Cades being so deep, I might have a hard time with the eurobrace. Are there other improvements on the s3 you think make it much better?

I enjoyed the water change video! I have 20L jugs and do NSW. I only have a 100L tank right now with a mature mixed reef. I have auto water change currently but I find I use it manually more than auto. Initially, I was doing twice daily small auto changes but I didn't see a benefit vs a 20% every two weeks. I just had to switch out jugs more frequently. Plus, when I need to vacuum anything, the auto change doesn't help. I'm interested to hear what you think if you do the Dos.

Thanks for keeping the updates going! Are you leaning s3 for your 1200?

Hey mate,

With the S3 I think the biggest pros are the twin return outlets, redesigned sump and cabinet, euro brace and ploycarb lid. Also the cabinet doors going from glass to aluminium is a big yes from me as I've read about a few people who have accidentally smashed/cracked there doors which would be frustrating and something I'm always cautious of.

The only con I think is the price, here in Australia the 1200 S3 is $4500 which IMO is a big jump from the S2 which is currently $3500. There is also no stock in Australia for either model and I don't know when there will be, I know there was a bit of a backlog in orders so I guess we'll just have to wait and see.

 

[DarkReefer]

My Apex is already paying for itself as yesterday I was getting multiple notifications telling me that my sump water level was rising.
As I was at work I checked the fish-cam and could clearly see that the display water level was a lot lower then normal, 2 of my nero's were sucking in a lot of air and the fish were freaking out.
I went into the apex app and turned the nero's and return pump off, I was about to finish work and I knew it would be either a blockage or failing return pump.

Once home I turned the return back on and straight away I could see that the water coming out of the return outlet was a lot slower then normal, I pulled the return to check and it looked OK and the pipes were all clear with no blockages.
I only recently put the vectra S2 back into my tank when I installed the apex last month, it was around 5 years old and it still looked fine to me.

I gave it a quick clean and put it back in but I think it might be on it's way out as I had to increase it's flow to get the water to where it should be, so I might be looking for a new pump soon and will probably go with either a vectra M2 or Cor 15 pump.

Thankfully my apex did it's job and luckily I got notified pretty quickly and was able to rectify the issues, I usually go to the gym after work so the extra couple of hours away could've meant I came home to a couple of cooked neros as well but who knows.

Oh dude, I didn't even see this post... wow.
Good thing you had it up and running properly then. Maybe I should make sure my notifications work after all.
That's crazy! Glad you were able to save it and had all the things in place to do it (like turning off the pump and powerheads remotely). Would've been a dang shame if you hadn't of caught it and something happened so really happy it worked out. The tank is too nice for something bad to happen!

I was actually coming to see if you had posted any thoughts on the CO2 scrubber and whether you've seen much of a benefit or not from using it. (remember you had gotten one but couldn't remember if you'd said anything about it).
Are you still enjoying it and think it's been worthwhile ? Any drawbacks ?

 

[shadyraro]

Update:

The Apex has been running for about 5 weeks now and I'm really happy with how it's all going.
It's taken a while to get used to the Apex fusion app and I'm still learning as there's definitely a lot to take in, but once you get your head around it and take your time it starts to make sense and becomes easier to use.

In saying that last week I replaced my vectra S2 return pump with the COR-15 return pump and although it seemed easy enough to setup, I still don't even know if I've even set it up correctly lol. The way the pump is setup in the app just confuses me and I'm still trying to understand the schedule, user error no doubt but I'll figure it out eventually. The COR came with a union in the box which I'm guessing is to connect to a flow meter, so I might look at getting one of those down the track.

Also on the weekend my aiptasia eating Copperband died
I'm not sure whether he was bullied as my mimic tang didn't like him from day one, or because they're very passive eaters and he was pretty slack at feeding time as the other fish were always were in turbo mode.
Anyway I'm pretty bummed as he was such a great looking fish and kept my tank aiptasia free.

I've also been running the Red Sea 4 part now for about 4 months and it's keeping my parameters in check.
The medium kit which I got was only supposed to only last 3 months but according to my doser I've got at least a couple more months left as I've been dosing less of it.
As the 4 part goes off one calcium test a week and my calcium is close to where I want it means I'm only dosing 4ml calcium, 8ml alk, 2ml of iodine and potassium and 2ml of iron and bio elements a day. Apparently you're supposed to split the doses to hourly or 2 hourly but if I did that then I'd be dosing 0.1 of Iodine an hour which is pointless. So I've just split them up to dose every 6 hours which means a bigger dose and it's working fine.

Current parameters:
Alk 9.5
Cal 450
Mag 1350
P04 0.08
N03 25
pH 8.2
Temp 24.8

 

[DarkReefer]

Update:

The Apex has been running for about 5 weeks now and I'm really happy with how it's all going.
It's taken a while to get used to the Apex fusion app and I'm still learning as there's definitely a lot to take in, but once you get your head around it and take your time it starts to make sense and becomes easier to use.

In saying that last week I replaced my vectra S2 return pump with the COR-15 return pump and although it seemed easy enough to setup, I still don't even know if I've even set it up correctly lol. The way the pump is setup in the app just confuses me and I'm still trying to understand the schedule, user error no doubt but I'll figure it out eventually. The COR came with a union in the box which I'm guessing is to connect to a flow meter, so I might look at getting one of those down the track.

Also on the weekend my aiptasia eating Copperband died
I'm not sure whether he was bullied as my mimic tang didn't like him from day one, or because they're very passive eaters and he was pretty slack at feeding time as the other fish were always were in turbo mode.
Anyway I'm pretty bummed as he was such a great looking fish and kept my tank aiptasia free.

I've also been running the Red Sea 4 part now for about 4 months and it's keeping my parameters in check.
The medium kit which I got was only supposed to only last 3 months but according to my doser I've got at least a couple more months left as I've been dosing less of it.
As the 4 part goes off one calcium test a week and my calcium is close to where I want it means I'm only dosing 4ml calcium, 8ml alk, 2ml of iodine and potassium and 2ml of iron and bio elements a day. Apparently you're supposed to split the doses to hourly or 2 hourly but if I did that then I'd be dosing 0.1 of Iodine an hour which is pointless. So I've just split them up to dose every 6 hours which means a bigger dose and it's working fine.

Current parameters:
Alk 9.5
Cal 450
Mag 1350
P04 0.08
N03 25
pH 8.2
Temp 24.8

Tank looks great. Always so lush!
So jealous of all the colours and movement you have in that haha.

Sorry to hear about the CBB, I still miss mine. The Aiptasia doesn't though... got a few healthy sized specimens starting to rear their ugly heads.

Also, lookit the foam on your skimmer! Goals!

 

[shadyraro]

Oh dude, I didn't even see this post... wow.
Good thing you had it up and running properly then. Maybe I should make sure my notifications work after all.
That's crazy! Glad you were able to save it and had all the things in place to do it (like turning off the pump and powerheads remotely). Would've been a dang shame if you hadn't of caught it and something happened so really happy it worked out. The tank is too nice for something bad to happen!

I was actually coming to see if you had posted any thoughts on the CO2 scrubber and whether you've seen much of a benefit or not from using it. (remember you had gotten one but couldn't remember if you'd said anything about it).
Are you still enjoying it and think it's been worthwhile ? Any drawbacks ?

Yeah you really need to have the notifications setup for this exact reason and it's pretty easy to do, that's why I was pretty happy it worked out

The CO2 scrubber has been doing good but it was trial and error at the start, I was told to change the media every 2 weeks so I did but I wasn't seeing the PH boost I was expecting. I also thought if I keep changing the media this often then it'll be a pretty expensive reactor as the media isn't cheap.

Anyway after letting it settle in for a couple weeks and changing the media less often (currently been 3 weeks) it's now getting my PH up to 8.33 during the day and down to 8.14 overnight which is awesome. The AF reactor sits on a small base fill of sponges which you fill with water to help the media last longer and this works, I probably top it up every fortnight.

So all in all it's doing a great job keeping my PH up, but as it's warming up now I am curious to hang the tubes from my skimmer outside the tank to see how it goes lol.