Cade Reef 1500 S2

[midgaar]

Question for you... as I am currently looking between the Cade and red sea max s... are you happy with your choice? What other tank were you looking at if any???

Yes, I love the CADE. I also looked at the Pro Clear Pro Star tanks and there are similar but much cheaper. They seemed a little less quality but the price tag did reflect that.

Now that the new Waterbox tanks come on an aluminum stand and larger dimensions, I would be tempted to go that route. Algae Barn has some amazing deals on the CADEs though and they stand behind them.

 

[midgaar]

Update 12-24-20

The tangs have arrived and are doing very well. 5 out of 6 were exploring and eating within 15 minutes of being introduced to the tank. They were acclimated for about an hour. The yellow tang is the shy one, it took him a couple days be he's showing him self more and more. This marks a big milestone as the tank is now fully stocked. 3x Chromis, 3x PJ Cardinal, 2x Clowns, 3x Wrasse, 2x Fire Fish, 1x Blenny, 1x Goby, 1x Mandarin, 1x Purple Tang, 1x Yellow Tang, 1x Sailfin Tang, 1x Blue Tang, 1x Lieutenant Tang, 1x Whitetail Brissletooth Tang.

Coraline algae is continuing to grow and I have moved over a few corals that were not doing so good in my smaller tank. Hopefully they will recover. GHA is pretty much gone but now red cyno has started to crop up. I'm treating with Vibrant weekly and if I can't get it under control after 6 weeks I will nuke the tank with chemi-clean. I have taken some time off work in January to break down the small tank and move the rest of the corals and equipment over, Jan 6-10.

Prior to adding the tangs I was having a difficult time keeping NO and PO in the tank. I was feeding heavy twice a day and NO was 1-3ppm and PO was .03ppm. After adding the tangs and increasing the food (6 tangs) I'm now at NO 5-6ppm and PO .1ppm. Pretty much right where I would like to be. Hopefully I can maintain that.

I have also added the EcoTech battery backup and have the return pump wired to it. I will be adding a DIY battery backup with a much larger battery for the return pump in the future and just run the Vortech's off the smaller battery. I also have the apex auto feeder ordered, a well feed tank is a peaceful tank.

Enjoy the video.

 

[lafarrow]

Update 12-24-20

The tangs have arrived and are doing very well. 5 out of 6 were exploring and eating within 15 minutes of being introduced to the tank. They were acclimated for about an hour. The yellow tang is the shy one, it took him a couple days be he's showing him self more and more. This marks a big milestone as the tank is now fully stocked. 3x Chromis, 3x PJ Cardinal, 2x Clowns, 3x Wrasse, 2x Fire Fish, 1x Blenny, 1x Goby, 1x Mandarin, 1x Purple Tang, 1x Yellow Tang, 1x Sailfin Tang, 1x Blue Tang, 1x Lieutenant Tang, 1x Whitetail Brissletooth Tang.

Coraline algae is continuing to grow and I have moved over a few corals that were not doing so good in my smaller tank. Hopefully they will recover. GHA is pretty much gone but now red cyno has started to crop up. I'm treating with Vibrant weekly and if I can't get it under control after 6 weeks I will nuke the tank with chemi-clean. I have taken some time off work in January to break down the small tank and move the rest of the corals and equipment over, Jan 6-10.

Prior to adding the tangs I was having a difficult time keeping NO and PO in the tank. I was feeding heavy twice a day and NO was 1-3ppm and PO was .03ppm. After adding the tangs and increasing the food (6 tangs) I'm now at NO 5-6ppm and PO .1ppm. Pretty much right where I would like to be. Hopefully I can maintain that.

I have also added the EcoTech battery backup and have the return pump wired to it. I will be adding a DIY battery backup with a much larger battery for the return pump in the future and just run the Vortech's off the smaller battery. I also have the apex auto feeder ordered, a well feed tank is a peaceful tank.

Enjoy the video.

Looks great my man!

 

[Firthy13]

I can't believe how similar my tank is to yours.

How are the tangs going? do you think all 6 will comfortably live in the 1500 until full grown? i currently have a Yellow, Tomini and Whitetail and looking to add a purple and powder blue.

 

[midgaar]

I can't believe how similar my tank is to yours.

How are the tangs going? do you think all 6 will comfortably live in the 1500 until full grown? i currently have a Yellow, Tomini and Whitetail and looking to add a purple and powder blue.

I’m not sure. The whitetail is pretty big and nearly full grown already. The purple is about half its adult size I would estimate. I don’t think I will be able to keep all 6 once full grown. I plan on trading down though.

Right now they seem to have plenty of room and everyone seems happy. Once the corals grows out the tank will seem a lot smaller too. Maybe for a FOWLR I could keep them.

 

[midgaar]

Big things happening over the next 6 days. Taking down the frag tank, moving the apex over. Purchased some CO2 scrubbers, a fleece roller, and a pax bellum algae reactor, done with the refugium.

Also ordered some 40 gallon water storage tanks for a proper mixing station.

Stay tuned!

 

[lafarrow]

why Abandoning the fuge? Not doing what you wanted?

 

[midgaar]

why Abandoning the fuge? Not doing what you wanted?

The light spill makes a mess of my sump. Algae is dying not growing. Wanted more space for a fleece roller. Cleaner look. The only reason I didn’t do it off the bat was I didn’t have the $800 for the Pax Bellum.

 

[midgaar]

Sump all pulled apart. Wasn’t sure which adapter I needed so I got all the sizes. Guess which one fits...yeah...none of them do. I have another idea but this is silly. Why can we all just be on the metric system?

 

[lafarrow]

Dude I’m with you on metric! I’m figuring out light spill too. Not tossing in the towel yet.

 

[midgaar]

Removing the filter socks and refugium section was a major pain in the butt. Dental floss worked well on the parts I could reach and get at. I ended up braking some of the glass but in the end I was able to get it out without any damage to the sump.



Everything installed and my knees are killing my. The fleece roller was installed using a 1 1/4 rubber/flex coupler. I used some rubber/water proof tape on the 1" pvc to make it snug and clamped it down. The metric drain already fit pretty snug so I didn't even clamp it. I will be replacing the clamp with a plastic one. I can't get my sump water level any lower than 8.25 inches, no matter how much I adjusted the float valve. The valve only seems to change the water level in the return section of the sump so maybe the flow is restricted in the media section? I ended up picking up some ceramic tiles from the hardware store and placed the roller on top, making it sit at just under 8 inches of water.

I also have the skimmer sitting on three tiles so it's sitting at about 7 inches of water. Need to readjust the skimmer now, it's running a bit wet. My skimmer has two air intake tubes so I picked up two medium sized Icecap CO2 Scrubbers. Wow, they work much better than I could have ever hoped for. Previously my PH would bottom out at 7.8 at night and hit 8.0 during the day. Let it run all night and at 11:00 a.m. the PH was 8.2. That's 2 hours before my lights turn on. At the same time for the past two days my PH was 7.8.

For the PaxBellum I just purchased a 350gph pump. I couldn't find any clean Cheato so I'm using Red Ogo algae for now. @AlgaeBarn, hook it up with some Cheato stock! Someday I'll plumb it off the return manifold but I didn't want to bother with the 1/2" to 3/4" adaptor and mess with the overall flow. I'd have to adjust the valve each time I turn it off to harvest the algae and figure out the flow setting again. I want to add a flow meter to the apex so maybe after I do that I'll use the manifold. The flow meter is a ways off, this metric plumbing is just too hard to work in imperial plumbing.

Apex is mostly moved over. Probes and Trident are up and running, still need to set up the power bar, DOS, and auto feeder. Final light is mounted, need to cit the lid to fit the last light. Also need to clean up the cords and glass before I take video/pictures.

 

[Phil D.]

Did you ever replace the metal clamps in the ATO?? I would have done that first thing. Even though the ATO is fresh, they WILL rust and contaminate your ATO water.

 

[midgaar]

Did you ever replace the metal clamps in the ATO?? I would have done that first thing. Even though the ATO is fresh, they WILL rust and contaminate your ATO water.

Not yet, I have a 56pcs plastic clamp set coming tomorrow. I will be replacing it this weekend.

 

[midgaar]

 

[zbryant91]

Nice build. I’m mentally planning a new build that I’m hoping to start in the next few months. I think I’m going to have a custom tank built but the dimensions will be similar to yours.

I know it may be early to tell, but are you anticipating the lighting to be adequate for some sps towards the top? I was thinking I was going to need 3 xr30’s but 15’s would save a good chunk of money.
But the main difference is I am leaning towards a 30” front to back tank without the ato built in so that may be the deal breaker for me.

How are you liking the pax bellum?

 

[midgaar]

Nice build. I’m mentally planning a new build that I’m hoping to start in the next few months. I think I’m going to have a custom tank built but the dimensions will be similar to yours.

I know it may be early to tell, but are you anticipating the lighting to be adequate for some sps towards the top? I was thinking I was going to need 3 xr30’s but 15’s would save a good chunk of money.
But the main difference is I am leaning towards a 30” front to back tank without the ato built in so that may be the deal breaker for me.

How are you liking the pax bellum?

The XR15s are plenty for a mixed reef in my opinion. I have three and the par meter is reading approximately 200 par across the top of my scape and 100 par near the sand. Now some spots drop as low as 50 par at the sand bed but that’s more to do with the scape. I have my lights at 50% intensity so plenty of wiggle room.

It’s really to early to say on the Pax. I will say that it really cleans up the sump. No more algae and slime all over the sump. I just put cheato in it last night, that stuff is hard to find at the moment. It’s been growing Red Ogo pretty well though.

 

[ajthomps73]

Really cool tank - awesome job on the build! I’m considering one of these down the road and had a few questions:

1. Did u consider an algae turf scrubber instead of pax bellum? I’ve heard micro algae is more efficient at removing NO3/PO4 than macro algae and don’t have asexual problems. I like ur clean sump and would either do an ATS or pax bellum w/ a skimmer and bag carbon like u did. I would plan no socks/felt pad to simplify maintenance and allow good stuff to not be removed by socks.
2. would u consider getting light mounts that mount to back wall behind aquarium vs on ATO section of glass. U could run 2x4s horizontally attached to wall studs, then attach mounts to horizontal studs. U wouldn’t see them behind the tank
3. Is there any potential for dual intake weir (the bottom one) to empty DT or is it designed so it would only empty until DT water is below top weir. I don’t understand this well enough...

thanks for all your posts. Nice to learn from all these pics and feedback u provided.

 

[midgaar]

Really cool tank - awesome job on the build! I’m considering one of these down the road and had a few questions:

1. Did u consider an algae turf scrubber instead of pax bellum? I’ve heard micro algae is more efficient at removing NO3/PO4 than macro algae and don’t have asexual problems. I like ur clean sump and would either do an ATS or pax bellum w/ a skimmer and bag carbon like u did. I would plan no socks/felt pad to simplify maintenance and allow good stuff to not be removed by socks.
2. would u consider getting light mounts that mount to back wall behind aquarium vs on ATO section of glass. U could run 2x4s horizontally attached to wall studs, then attach mounts to horizontal studs. U wouldn’t see them behind the tank
3. Is there any potential for dual intake weir (the bottom one) to empty DT or is it designed so it would only empty until DT water is below top weir. I don’t understand this well enough...

thanks for all your posts. Nice to learn from all these pics and feedback u provided.

These are great questions. I will try to answer them all. I did not consider the turf scrubber due to lack of knowledge. The Pax Bellium really cleans up the sump and I would never go back to a regular refugium for just that reason. However, I’m running into the same issues with the PB as I was with the refugium. My chaeto isn’t growing wry well and seems to be dying off. I’m currently trying to figure out what’s going on with that and am currently dosing Chaeto Grow daily. If I can’t get this figured out I may try the scrubber.

I really liked the look of lights mounted to the rear of the tank and it worked out for me, in that regard I did not consider mounting to the wall. It seems like a viable option though.

The bottom weir cannot drain the tank, there is a glass box behind it that connect the two wiers so it will only drain to the top weir.

 

[midgaar]

UPDATE: 01-30-21

TLR No new live stock, Chaeto growing, water change station built.

Nothing really exciting to share, did a couple things. Let's start with the Chaeto/Pax Bellum. I've been really struggling with Chaeto, killing a couple batches of it now. I'm on my 3rd batch and I'm pretty sure I got it figured out. I'm pretty confident my issue was Vibrant. I had been dosing Vibrant and it was slowly killing my Chaeto. I've stopped dosing Vibrant about 2 weeks ago and instead of slowly dying it now is growing and looking very healthy. There's not a lot in the picture but it's about double what I started with and it stays together when taken out and rinsed off. This is great news for me, this has kept me up at night. Instead of slowly leeching NO3/PO4 into my system it's now removing them. Went from .23ppm PO4 to .1ppm in a week without using any NOPOX or BW Phosphate remover.

That's Red Ogo on the bottom, it's also doing good even though it looks kinda sad.


I've held off on any new coral until I get my system stable and NO/PO where I don't have to dose to keep them under control. Purple tang is getting evicted as soon as I can catch him, he's eating the sailfin's fins and is a big bully.

I also built a water change station, not sure what to say about it.

 

[Mr Mumblez]

I’m wondering with the floor plan there. Looks like a staircase to the left? If that’s the case, would the tank be supported by a support underneath? Which way your joists go will affect the weight it can carry. They usually suggest place one tank on an outside wall with as many joists under it as possible going perpendicular to the tank length. You may want to consult an engineer if this is t the case at your place. If it’s an outside wall and your joists run the right way your good.