Bryan's Cadlights Artisan II 70G Mixed Reef

Rasengan · May 19, 2015

Hey guys, been a while but I never posted tank pics. Well I recently moved to a bigger place which allowed me enough room to finally upgrade from a 34G All-In-One to a 70G plus 30G sump. I imported everything over from the 34G except the sand because the Tropic Eden Aragasnow sugar sized sand I was using kept blowing around after installing my Maxspect Gyre. So I went with the bigger grain Tropic Eden Reefflakes sand this time.

Tank/Stand: Cadlights Artisan II 70G
Lights: 1x AI Hydra 52, 2x AI Prime
Flow: Maxspect Gyre 130, Ecotech Vortech MP10
Skimmer: SCA-302

New tank has really only been up for a little over 2 weeks and everything is doing great. I do have a diatom bloom from the new sand but I expect that to go away any day now. I'm going for the minimalist look. My 34G was far too packed for my liking and I decided to not add anymore rock. I will only be adding more fish to get my nutrients up since I'm always measuring 0/0 NO3/PO4. I'd like to get a little bit of nutrients in there because of all my SPS.

Livestock is SPS dominant but a true mixed reef. I have anything from xenia to cespitularia to bubble corals to z's and p's to acans to plates to montis to many sps. Actually the current star of my tank is a $400 true yellow plate coral. I can't even capture how bright this piece is on camera...

Some of my livestock include:

SPS
Acros
RR Orange Passion
ARC Fireworks
TCK Goldrush
TCK King
PC Superman
WWC Somewhere Over the Rainbow
Tierra Del Fuego
UC Bali Shortcake
ORA Red Planet

Montis
UWW Starburst
Jason Fox Aquaman
Jason Fox Speedbump
RR Nautispiral
Reeftec Starburst
Superman
Rainbow
Darth Maul

LPS
True Yellow Fungia
Rainbow Golden Hammer
CC Wonkavision Chalice
Yellow Torch (w Blue tips)
2x True Orange Hammers
Neon Yellow Hammer
Scoly
Fox Coral
Bubble Coral
Rainbow acans

Softies
Z's/P's
Rainbow Rhinos
Rastas
Pink Krakatoas
Scarface
Everlasting Gobstoppers
Goblin's Fire
Electric Oompa Loompas
Scrambled Eggs
Sunny D's
Woodstocks
Maraschino Cherries

Blue Cespitularia
Frilly Mushroom

NPS
Dendros
Tube Anemone

That's about 3/4 of what's in the tank that I can remember the names of. A lot are no names.

Pics:

I'm terrible at taking pics of my SPS. They never come out right so I'm not even going to try...

heathd.hd · May 19, 2015

Great tank awsome aquascape!

Lacktaters · May 19, 2015

Where did you get that hanging kit? That looks awesome!

Rasengan · May 19, 2015

That's from iQuatics in the UK. Not sure if they sell them in the US, I've never seen them in stores. But they are very high quality stainless steel.

d_adler · May 19, 2015

you say the 130 gyre was blowing away your sand... at what % was this? i was contemplating the gyre 150 for my cad lights 50 gal long (36"). Im currently running 2 jebao rw 4's and it just isnt doing it for me. too many dead spots. how do you like the gyre? why do you still run a mp 10?

sorry for the 21 questions im just really torn at the moment.

Rasengan · May 19, 2015

well aragasnow is sugar sized so the particles are very small and easy to blow around especially in a cube...i only had it at around 20% at most, anything above that my sand would blow...in the new 70G that's 3 feet long, it's no longer a problem with reefflakes which is much bigger...i now have both the gyre and vortech at 100%...in fact, maybe i don't have enough flow now :/

as for the gyre, it's an awesome piece of technology that can only be made perfect once it's programmable for random flow...that is the only thing it's missing, hence why i'm still running the mp10 - i have it in reef crest to add random flow

d_adler · May 19, 2015

Rasengan said:
well aragasnow is sugar sized so the particles are very small and easy to blow around especially in a cube...i only had it at around 20% at most, anything above that my sand would blow...in the new 70G that's 3 feet long, it's no longer a problem with reefflakes which is much bigger...i now have both the gyre and vortech at 100%...in fact, maybe i don't have enough flow now :/

as for the gyre, it's an awesome piece of technology that can only be made perfect once it's programmable for random flow...that is the only thing it's missing, hence why i'm still running the mp10 - i have it in reef crest to add random flow

that being said do you think a gyre 150 would be over kill? my though is worst case scenario i could run in only the lower end (10%-50%)

Rasengan · May 19, 2015

d_adler said:
that being said do you think a gyre 150 would be over kill? my though is worst case scenario i could run in only the lower end (10%-50%)

nah, it's better to have more flow than you need than to not have enough...like you said you can always turn it down

d_adler · May 19, 2015

Rasengan said:
nah, it's better to have more flow than you need than to not have enough...like you said you can always turn it down

thanks for the help. btw nice tank! definitely off to the right start

kidtango · May 20, 2015

You can turn the whites up on ur leds to to help with the white balance while taking pics. Nice tank and very clean setup.

Rasengan · May 20, 2015

kidtango said:
You can turn the whites up on ur leds to to help with the white balance while taking pics. Nice tank and very clean setup.

Yup that's what I did to take those shots up there of the tank and they turned out ok. I just can't get nice actinic shots of the corals fluorescing. Always comes out really blue. I just need to read up on how to do it.

Thanks for the complements of the tank.

Arron209 · May 20, 2015

Sweet tank! That light hanging fixture is clean! Can't wait to see everything grown in.

softy · May 20, 2015

Very nice tank, with an extremely clean setup! Great Job!!

Lilmatty5dimes · May 20, 2015

very clean set up. love the tank. you've got a great taste/collection on sps.

AI NO KEA · May 21, 2015

Nice set up. Can you tell me about your light bar?

SmartChoice · May 21, 2015

nice pictures

SaltCube · May 21, 2015

Looking great!

Rasengan · May 21, 2015

AI NO KEA said:
Nice set up. Can you tell me about your light bar?

Please see above. It's made by a UK company called iQuatics. It's stainless steel, very high quality and not all that difficult to assemble. They make light fixtures as well as mounting kits for all types of lights, including the universal one that I have.

Rasengan · Jun 7, 2015

2015.06.07 - Small Update

Added this month - WD Tenuis, Joe's Rainbow Acro, Reef Raft Pretty in Pink, RMF Red Devil Nasuta

I've been playing around with the camera more trying to get better shots. Still not great but I did take a few acceptable shots

Naoko's Fairy Wrasse

Rainbow Acan and CARs

McCosker's - RIP buddy. He got hit with ich and weakened, he couldn't survive the bullying of the Naoko and went into hiding.

Naoko's, Yellow Tang, and Bluestreak Cleaner - I've found the ones from Africa will take mysis shrimp but it's 50/50. I've had 2 from Africa in the past that ate like champs but always found a way to jump out. There's just something about the Bluestreak I love.

Last but not least my newest SPS to the tank. I figure now is a good time to start a progress thread. This is my new WD Tenuis. Not much to look at currently, he had a rough shipment and he actually broke in half at one point when I was picking him up! But he's been showing great polyp extension lately and is healing up. Top left of WD is an RMF Red Devil Nasuta, far left is a TdF, and to the right is an ARC fireworks...of course this pic is non-representative of their actual colors, I'm still learning how to take these pics :/