Diary of 50G Cadlights Cube Tank

[manishkasera]

I'm probably one of those people here who read through many threads and posts and lure upon beautiful setup, landscape, fortune in all gadgets etc. etc.

Finally I decided to make one my own that can look even 50% as beautiful as some of the amazing tanks I have seen here.

I've taken several landscaping and other ideas from several of you, so any similarity here vs. some others are not a coincident

To start off, I looked at several options on Tanks and various other gadgets that are required to maintain a beautiful setup. There were couple of things that I was collecting for sometime now and some that I kept from my old setup that I had to sold for some unavoidable reasons.

I cannot afford to go crazy and buy everything that I dream of, so I am trying to afford a setup that will look good after a year as good as on day one or after a month......

Here is the list of some things that I'm starting off with:
1. Cadlights 5G beautiful cube tank system
2. Echotech MP10 wES (I bought it before new one came out )
3. AI Fyfty LED light
4. Cadlights NR-1 Pro reactor (planning to run Bio Pellets)
5. Tunze Osmoleter
6. Aqua Trend Evolution Doser ONE (planning to dose Calcium, Alkalinity and Mg)

In addition I have 2 Tunze 6005 controllable pumps and 6095 controller from previous setup. Though at this time I'm not sure if I'll use them.

So I ordered my Cacdlights directly. I worked with Scott primarily to order and ship the tank. Though things were handled efficiently on part of Cadlights, there are some hick-ups and bad experiences with shipping that I'm trying to solve with Cadlights.

When tank was delivered stand was damaged that I immediately reported and Scott proposed to send me a new stand that I agreed.

It's been more than 1 week and I have no date for the delivery of tank itself as it got stuck due to something, Jason/Scott from Cacdlights are working to get it resolved.

So to start things up here are some pictures of tank. To keep things spiced up I intend to keep it as visual as possible.

And yes, please chime in and make it as interactive as it can be online.

[manishkasera]

How do you insert pictures here? I created Flickr album and inserted the URL for individual pictures and still nothing is showing?

[james30ct]

I use the bucket one and just copy and paste the url here.

[manishkasera]

https://www.flickr.com/photos/8461266@N07/16713263077/

[Bman562]

image3 by manishkasera, on Flickr

Hopefully you get your new stand soon. Their tanks looks great.

To post images off of flickr do the following;
Lower right hand corner, click the arrow pointing right > BB Code > select size > copy that link/code > post

Hope it helps you out

[BtheK]

A fellow Ontarian and a fellow 50G CAD-light owner!

To post picture, I simply host to photobucket and use the "insert image" icon, where I provide the URL to the picture.

[jabudda]

I am very happy with my 50g Cadlights tank. It's been setup for 3 years I think. I have my build posted here, the stand used to be assembled by the consumer. I put lots of extra brackets & marine epoxy around the perimeter. Also, I placed the excess yoga mat under the sump to ensure whisper quiet operation. Up top, I went with a double Locline return & used some PVC rather than the provided hose. The Auto Top Off install will be tricky for you, ReefCreators makes a nice 1 Gallon acrylic container that fits nicely with the Aqueon Sump. I run the Skimz skimmer [SM 121] in the chamber on the far left, GFO & Carbon in the Bulk Reef Supply premium reactor & a extra power head in the sump to keep the water moving.

[manishkasera]

Few more pictures of damaged stand:







Jason from Cadlights is diligently working with FedEx to resolve the matter with shipping delay. But looking at the progress I'm doubtful that I will get the replacement this week. This means it will put me in 3rd week of overall waiting time that kind of sucks.

[manishkasera]

Thanks BMAN, that definitely helped as you can see above :-)

BThek, it's always good to see the fellow reefer from Ontario. From picture it seems you also have a fairly new setup. When did you setup your tank? Or is it just an old picture?

Jabudda, thanks for the tip. starting 2015 they seems to have made few significant changes in their stand. Now they are using real Maplewood plywood rather than MDF. So that should help. But I'll check and if feel additional support is needed I will add few brackets. Once I receive the new stand I need to figure out how to put everything under the stand, so keep the overall look of the setup clean. As it is going in the living room aesthetic is big for WAF.

Yesterday I bought the NIB APEX from a fellow reefer "Dennis" off the reefcentral forum. Below is the picture of the same that Dennis sent me:


With this purchase I think I got everything I needed for this dream setup of mine.

Question to all of you experience reefers with Cacdlights tank. What do you think about the included skimmer with this setup "PLS-100 pipeless 120 gallon"? With the rated capacity it should be more than enough, but just needed your opinion before I use it.

[jabudda]

My stand was also made of maple wood plywood, but when you are laying on your back looking up at a tank filled with water above your head as you tighten the bulkheads you will breathe a lot easier looking at those brackets.
The sump that comes with the tank doesn't allow room for an auto top off container to fit. Initially, I redid the sump & partitioned off 25% to be used as an in sump ATO reservoir. My tank also sits in the living room. The 70G cadlight stand came assembled & it was well built. When you assembled it yourself (50g) those locking cams were the primary method of securing the pieces. Like ikea furniture.

[manishkasera]

Thanks Jabudda.

I bought the AWM controller also for my AI hydra Fifty Two lights, so I can control it through my APEX.

In the meantime I'm still waiting on the FedEx and Cadlights to resolve outstanding issues so I can get my replacement stand

[Camps23]

Great looking tanks ! Another fellow reefer from Ontario here. There is a Cadlights dealer in Burlington at the Coral Reef shop if more help is needed. Good luck with the build. I will be following along....

[manishkasera]

Hey Camp23, Good to hear Where are you from in Ontario? I see you had a 140G before what prompted you to downgrade?
Share some pictures of IM.

[Camps23]

Originally Posted by manishkasera

Hey Camp23, Good to hear Where are you from in Ontario? I see you had a 140G before what prompted you to downgrade?
Share some pictures of IM.

I live just outside of Kitchener.
We decided to move out to the country and I decided it would be to stressful to try to move the big tank and all livestock with everything else going on. Went tank free for almost 2yrs and recently picked up the nuvo 38. I have a build thread started on a local site. Pm me if your interested in joining the site.

[jabudda]

Cubes are fun to configure everything in such a tight space.

[jabudda]

[IMG][/IMG]

[jabudda]

The Equipment List:
GFO/Carbon [BRS]
Heater [Cobalt]
ATO [Tunze]
Skimmer [Skimz 121]
PH Monitor [PinPoint]
Marine Pure Ceramic Bio Balls [5]
ATO Container [ReefCreators/ 1 Gallon]
Shelf [Cook N Home, 2 Tier] Amazon.com

[manishkasera]

Thanks for sharing Jabudda. It looks good.

Today I struggled to setup my APEX. Man it looks so easy on all the videos but it is hack of confusing and things doesn't work the way it is written in manuals.

I was setting-up my Hydra 52 with AWM on Apex. Initially pairing itself was not happening between AWM and Hydra. Finally pairing worked out, somehow. Then after setting everything I could not make the EB8 outlet worked. It was always switched off causing the light to be off even if the outlet program shows it will be own.

I saw many people are having this issue then someone on the forum suggested to just plug it in a simple outlet as it need to be on 24*7. So that's what I did and finally now it's working.

If anyone knows what was wrong having the light plugged-in in EB8 let me know.

I have clicked some pictures to show the progress that I will try to post tomorrow.

[dkeller_nc]

You can certainly plug the AI Hydra 52 into the EB8, but you have to set the outlet to be "on" 24/7. You control whether the light's on from the AWM interface, which is a virtual outlet. That's one reason folks don't plug their Radion or AI lights into the EB8; it can be somewhat confusing to have an actual outlet on their Apex dashboard that controls the light's power, and another that's a virtual outlet that controls the light's photoperiod and intensity.

BTW, You may find that you require 2 instead of 1 of the AI Hydra 52s over the CADLights 50g. That's specifically because of coverage rather than lack of intensity. Before I replaced them with a Radion G3 Pro, I had 2 Vegas over my 50g for this very reason.

[manishkasera]

Thanks Dkeller.
Quick question here:
1. When I look at "Hydra" outlet that is being created on EB. How do I know which outlet is it on EB8?
2. How do I set it to be on 24*7

Sorry first time with Apex and it successfully confused me

[dkeller_nc]

If you examine the EB8, you will see a sticker that denotes the outlet numbers (1, 2, etc... up to "8"). This is the physical mapping of these outlets to the program; if you look at the "outlet configuration" in the program interface, each outlet gets a code. On my unit, these codes are 4_1, 4_2, etc..., where "4" denotes the EB8 unit, and "_1, _2, etc..) denotes the physical outlet number.

Virtual outlets are similarly coded, but they'll have a different prefix. On my unit, I've several virtual outlets that are coded "3_1, 3_17, 3_6, etc...).

I'd recommend downloading and perusing the Apex Comprehensive Reference Manual found here. Also, I'd review the Apex Fusion Quickstart Guide - it details the use of Neptune's cloud-based software for configuring and accessing your controller over the 'net. Very handy to get e-mails/texts if something on your tank goes wrong (like the tank's temperature going out of a pre-configured range).

[manishkasera]

I'll go through their manual. Here is the screenshot of the Outlets. You can see as part of AWM setup it did create the outlet named "Hydra_4_1".

[manishkasera]

As promised here are some pictures of goodies and the progress on tank. I still need to mount my doser under the tank, fill sump with water and start the system.
I still do not have wave maker on this tank that will be moving from my QT. In the mean time I have a small Koralia doing the job.

To start with here is a beautiful picture of Toronto's skyline:


Some shots of Apex goodies:




Tankshots:


Closeup to show minimalistic rock work:

[dkeller_nc]

Originally Posted by manishkasera

I'll go through their manual. Here is the screenshot of the Outlets. You can see as part of AWM setup it did create the outlet named "Hydra_4_1

Reading the manual will help answer many questions, but until you get to it, here's some help with the specific issue (keeping an outlet "on" 24/7 so you can plug your Hydra into it).

Your EB8 has the designation "3", so outlets with this prefix are physical outlets on the energy bar. Your screen shot is from Apex Fusion; while you can do a lot with the Fusion interface, there are other functions that you can only access by directly plugging your Apex into your 'net router with a Cat5 cable and accessing the controller directly from a web browser on your computer (I recommend using Google Chrome - it seems to work better with the Apex than other browsers I've tried).

What you've pictured are the default naming and types of the outlets on the Energy Bar. You can access these configurations from the "Configuration>Outlet Setup" menu. Use the pull-down Outlet list to select the outlet you want to re-configure. From the specific outlet's configuration, you can re-name the outlet anything you'd like; change the "control type" to "advanced"; that will bring up a set of default code in the window below "Advanced Setup". Erase everything in the box other than "Fallback OFF" and "Set OFF"; change the "Set OFF" to "Set ON".

That's it - that outlet will now default to "on" (though you can still turn it "off" from the Dashboard) 24/7. The "Fallback OFF" statement sets the Apex so that if the controller malfunctions and loses communication with the EB8, that outlet will turn off. You want this to be the case, since it will prevent frying your corals if there's a problem with your controller.

In a similar manner, you can set up another outlet for your tank heater - simply set the outlet type to "heater" and set your "on" and "off" temperatures.

[dkeller_nc]

A couple of other tips:

I'd put your pump on the back glass. CADLights seems to use the harder type of low-iron glass (I've not scratched mine in a couple of years of operation), but the vibrations of magnetically-mounted pumps have been reported to etch low-iron glass over time. I'd much rather take the chance with the back glass than the sides or front.

Loc-line puts a lot of restriction in the flow path of a pump line. I replaced mine with a 45 degree elbow and straight piece of threaded pipe from the home store. I didn't measure it precisely, but I'd estimate a 30% - 50% increase in flow when I got rid of the loc-line. If you decide to keep it, you may wish to drill a small pinhole in the side of one of the links close to where it mounts to the overflow. Otherwise, if the return pump stops it will back-siphon to however deep the outlet of the loc-line exit nozzle is, which potentially could overflow the sump.