Cali Kid Corals

Thomas' CADE Reef 1500 S2

Darkxerox

Darkxerox

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Welcome to my tank journal! ​

After 20+ years, it's time for a new tank! This is my first time building a large (glass) tank from the ground up, so we'll see if I actually learned anything from nearly 30 years of hobby experience.

Some of the discussion started here about peninsula vs. standard: https://www.bareefers.org/forum/threads/peninsula-tank-questions.36571/ and I landed on a pretty large option (not the Altumate that's 7" taller, sorry @Kensington Reefer) due to a 30% off Labor Day deal at Algae Barn! :

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Tank Specs
  • Dimensions: 1500 mm (L) x 700 mm (W) x 600 mm (H)
    • Tank – 59" L x 27.5" W x 23.6" H
    • Stand – 59" L x 27.5" W x 35.4" H
  • Display capacity: 540 L / ~143 gal
  • Sump capacity: 100 L / ~26.4 gal
  • Glass thickness: Sides 15mm, Base 19mm
  • Opti-Clear glass. Flat polished edges. White base panel.
  • Black laminated rear panel w/ gravity fed ATO chamber
  • Slimline Internal Corner Weir – left rear corner.
  • Twin intake weir – surface and low level intake vents.
  • Screw fit pre-fabricated plumbing.
  • Built in controller board and outlet switches
Equipment Plan
  • 3x ReeFi Uno 2.1 Pros​
  • 1x Kessil A360XE​
  • 2x MP40w QD​
  • Royal Exclusiv Bubble King 180​
  • Hydros X4 + XP8 power bar​
  • Abyzz A100 return pump​
Method
  • Modified Berlin method (strong lighting, flow, skimmer
  • Aged/seeded rock from @Coral reefer mixed with some live rock from other systems (no dry rock)
  • Kalkwasser only
  • No at-line testing
Livestock
TBD (Moving towards more community, less aggression, more dither type fish).
LPS dominant with some SPS

Delivery date: 09/12/2024
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Delivery:

The pallet did not come in great shape and things looked bad for the tank (split boards, busted pieces, straps broken). We had to put oak logs underneath because it was literally sliding off the side and down the middle.
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Hey, who kicked it!
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Inside looks like the tank is ok...
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Little scratch inside the stand but otherwise not bad:
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Small chip after the sump filter sock baffle for the emergency overflow opening not honestly not bad considering the shipping condition.
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Lots of help from @Srt4eric @Turkeysammich @Apon and @Invictus to move it into the house from the driveway!
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Master plumber Eric had it plumbed in less than 30 min!

Took me longer to figure how to get the doors on (turns out there's sliding brackets you screw to lock in), but after it looks pretty good.
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Glass is crazy clear (a little silicone overrun here but still nice).
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Need to source equipment soon but ready to water test!
 
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It's wet! Leak testing with @Srt4eric:

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Overflow is...interesting and initially loud but tunable to be near silent. I won't be blasting the return flow at 2,000 gph here that's for sure (the Vectra M2 was at only 20%). The good thing is that the emergency drain is super loud so you'll never miss an overflow. Eric noticed the lower overflow weir has a 1/4 inch glass panel to direct the water up and into the overflow to prevent back flow into the return chamber when filling.

This is still the fastest non-AIO setup I've ever done for a tank. Kudos to CADE and Algaebarn for designing a really user friendly system and really well thought out details like the media chambers, baffle designs, and disaster prevention overflow areas.

Still will need to figure out lighting arrangements, but thinking of an aluminum frame with legs to go behind and under the stand with "feet".

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Next steps: drain, get water from Bob, add GFCI outlets behind the tank, get a new return pump, heaters, sand (special grade), get my rocks out of jail in Kenny's sump, and start cycling.

Interesting notes: the tank and plumbing were made in 2024, but the stand and sump in 2022. Given the sale was on overstock items, I think I got lucky getting a new tank and older sump rather than old for both.

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derek_SR said:
Very exciting! I still say you should hang the light rack from the ceiling. Your proposed structure is going to need to be super beefy to not get saggy over time, and hanging is so much cleaner and classier!

IMO of course. Looks like an awesome tank.
Click to expand...
+1 for hanging the lights or DIY using the legs from a standing desk so you can adjust your lights up and down, but to be realistic how often do we really need to move the lights up and down. It's more for show :D

Awesome tank with lots of features. Seems like they thought of everything needed.
 
Darkxerox said:
It's wet! Leak testing with @Srt4eric:

View attachment 60636
View attachment 60637
Overflow is...interesting and initially loud but tunable to be near silent. I won't be blasting the return flow at 2,000 gph here that's for sure (the Vectra M2 was at only 20%). The good thing is that the emergency drain is super loud so you'll never miss an overflow. Eric noticed the lower overflow weir has a 1/4 inch glass panel to direct the water up and into the overflow to prevent back flow into the return chamber when filling.

This is still the fastest non-AIO setup I've ever done for a tank. Kudos to CADE and Algaebarn for designing a really user friendly system and really well thought out details like the media chambers, baffle designs, and disaster prevention overflow areas.

Still will need to figure out lighting arrangements, but thinking of an aluminum frame with legs to go behind and under the stand with "feet".

View attachment 60638

Next steps: drain, get water from Bob, add GFCI outlets behind the tank, get a new return pump, heaters, sand (special grade), get my rocks out of jail in Kenny's sump, and start cycling.

Interesting notes: the tank and plumbing were made in 2024, but the stand and sump in 2022. Given the sale was on overstock items, I think I got lucky getting a new tank and older sump rather than old for both.

View attachment 60639View attachment 60640View attachment 60641
Click to expand...
Looks like it's going to be great! My opinion on the light stand is I think it's more important to have additional bracing holding it straight vertical than wide legs. If you can attach the vertical section to the wall, or have an extension with a support against the tank, I think that helps a lot. Otherwise it's difficult to get the vertical section to stay perfectly straight, once you're hanging lights off the end.

I had two different tanks with different hanging light setups like that. One with a steel pipe and one with extruded AL, and both I couldn't get a floor mounted light setup to stay straight without that additional support.

If you go extruded AL and need some sort of attachment that you can use to connect it to the wall or rest against the stand/glass lmk. I can try and design/print something. But if going against the wall that easiest solution could be a simple cheap wall hook and a bit of fishing line. Hook in wall, fishing line around hook and vertical post to give it a bit of extra support.
 
Updates:

Drained the tank using a zero gravity pump from my on demand water heater descaling kit. Really impressed with how it works until there's almost no water left and still doesn't overheat:

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Realized after this that the stand wasn't level when I saw the water pooled to the left about 1cm. @Srt4eric came over to help level it, but we were confused because the levels all said the tank was fine when measuring at the top of the glass.

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Turns out you should put the level in the tank, then level things. One foot somehow was too short and popped out of the hole, so we wedged some wood underneath as a shim then reseated it.

Picked up an MP40 from @under_water_ninja and an AI Axis 90 return pump from @robert4025 (support your LFS!).

Picked up a Bubble King 180 skimmer from @phatduckk that is just dead silent.
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Saltwater Bob brought his truck down here with 200g and filled it up on Thursday 10/3 (helped keep the house cool during the heatwave). Added a 32g brute outside and working on other 55g cans.

Added sand on 10/6 (60lb Caribsea Special Grade) and we're off to the bacteria races! We'll call this the official start date.
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Made some RODI outside with a unit from @B the Nano Reefer. Nice to use the wastewater for the yard/pond.
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Cloudiness is going down, the mesh socks seen to really be doing a lot of the heavy lifting. Probably need another 60lbs of sand though.

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Darkxerox said:
Updates:

Drained the tank using a zero gravity pump from my on demand water heater descaling kit. Really impressed with how it works until there's almost no water left and still doesn't overheat:

View attachment 61372View attachment 61373

Realized after this that the stand wasn't level when I saw the water pooled to the left about 1cm. @Srt4eric came over to help level it, but we were confused because the levels all said the tank was fine when measuring at the top of the glass.

View attachment 61374
Turns out you should put the level in the tank, then level things. One foot somehow was too short and popped out of the hole, so we wedged some wood underneath as a shim then reseated it.

Picked up an MP40 from @under_water_ninja and an AI Axis 90 return pump from @robert4025 (support your LFS!).

Picked up a Bubble King 180 skimmer from @phatduckk that is just dead silent.
View attachment 61375

Saltwater Bob brought his truck down here with 200g and filled it up on Thursday 10/3 (helped keep the house cool during the heatwave). Added a 32g brute outside and working on other 55g cans.

Added sand on 10/6 (60lb Caribsea Special Grade) and we're off to the bacteria races! We'll call this the official start date.
View attachment 61376

Made some RODI outside with a unit from @B the Nano Reefer. Nice to use the wastewater for the yard/pond.View attachment 61377

Cloudiness is going down, the mesh socks seen to really be doing a lot of the heavy lifting. Probably need another 60lbs of sand though.

View attachment 61378
Click to expand...
Looks great, I Look foward to see what you can do with so much more real estate compared to your nano - it still looked awesome minus the space limitations.
 
Progress is slow due to my injury, but thanks again to @derek_SR and Kessil for helping me with the A360XE light mount. Finally get to use the raffle winning light! It's up here temporarily while I figure out hardware, rocks, etc. I've been ghost feeding and added one trochus snail from my main system plus some hitchhiking brittle stars and an asterina from the swap.

Panamensis pods added thank you @Coral Hub (Nathan) for the raffle prizes! One bottle of them was so packed, it basically covered all the glass areas in a 140g tank to about 20 per sq inch.
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Picked up my first new refractometer in 20 years yesterday to the day even!

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Tank is just sitting now until I'm able to drive again and pick up my rocks.

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Darkxerox said:
Progress is slow due to my injury, but thanks again to @derek_SR and Kessil for helping me with the A360XE light mount. Finally get to use the raffle winning light! It's up here temporarily while I figure out hardware, rocks, etc. I've been ghost feeding and added one trochus snail from my main system plus some hitchhiking brittle stars and an asterina from the swap.

Panamensis pods added thank you @Coral Hub (Nathan) for the raffle prizes! One bottle of them was so packed, it basically covered all the glass areas in a 140g tank to about 20 per sq inch.View attachment 62206

Picked up my first new refractometer in 20 years yesterday to the day even!

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Tank is just sitting now until I'm able to drive again and pick up my rocks.

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Click to expand...
That shimmer wow from one light, Can see it even in a still photo.
 
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