Kevin's 60G Cade Cube

[Rjukan]

Thanks! The sand has been drifting a bit on the side opposite from the Gyre. I'm a big fan of fine sand beds, so intend on making this work somehow! I'm planning on getting some sand from TBS which is pretty coarse, so I'll put that in the high flow ares. Hopefully when I get some clams and things plopped down in the sand that should also help.

I did the exact same thing with some tbs sand haha.. but it's still pretty fine. I ended up using crushed coral for the higher flow areas and it seems to have worked out well. But still, if you get any sand sifters or burrowing creatures they will lift it up into the water column. I'm wondering if flow directed at the overflow would help to remove it and send it down to the sump. I was going to start a thread asking about it sometime.

 

[ksliech]

I thank you for sharing this information as I am awaiting my Cade 600 and plan on getting same skimmer. Was your sump running higher than recommended?

Yeah, running higher than the recommendation for the skimmer, but seemingly the right height for what Cade designed for. That's basically set by the baffle height going into the return pump chamber.

 

[Ospreys48]

Yeah, running higher than the recommendation for the skimmer, but seemingly the right height for what Cade designed for. That's basically set by the baffle height going into the return pump chamber.

Thanks for the clarification as I realized I didn’t specify.

 

[ksliech]

More progress! Things are going well, and I've now got some livestock:

• 3 green chromis
• ~6 hermits
• 3 trochus snails
• 1 emerald crab
• A couple of mushrooms and some button polyps

Water chemistry looks great, and I've dialed in my alkalinity and calcium to roughly 9 dKH and 430ppm using B-Ionic. Did my first water change today: 10 gallons with TM Reef Crystals, which had been cooking for 48 hours in buckets with pumps and heaters. Blew out all the rocks with a powerhead, and man did the ReefMat take care of the cloudiness quickly.

Algae-wise, I'm getting some hair algae and what looks like the beginning of diatoms. The dead marcorocks are very slowly getting algae on them, which I'd really like to hurry up because I hate the sterile look!

Inside the cabinet, I added some LED strip lights that turn on when I open the front door. I wanted them to turn on when I opened either door, but there wasn't a way to do it with this particular setup. This is what I bought: Amazon link. Here's how it looks inside all lit up just by 3 of these light bars, I'm super happy with how it turned out. Door open sensor is in the top right corner.

Lastly, I finally got the equipment panel to close. The Neptune Apex Pro A3 unit *is too thick* to mount on the panel and get the door too close on this Cade stand. The Energy Bar can be mounted in there with the door closed when using flat power plug extension. I tried velcroing it in like everything else, but it wouldn't reliably stick. Instead I drilled a couple small holes and mounted the bracket to the panel, thens lid the energy bar on. The power cords are so numerous and thick that all this crap barely fit!

You'll notice my IM Helio heater controller finally working, as they sent a replacement for it and that one worked right out of the box. I can't believe how stable the temperature is compared to the Eheim temporary heaters I had in there.

Another challenge was the Apex Pro, which never reconnects to wifi after losing power. Luckily I happened to have a power line ethernet adapter, which is too slow for normal internet things but not so for this little guy which only needs a trickle of data. As soon as I hooked that up, I got a nice and stable connection. The Apex Pro and its power line ethernet adapter sit next to the tank waiting for me to get a nice little cabinet for them (along with an eventual Trident).

 

[ksliech]

2.5 months old and a lot of progress!

Current inhabitants :

• 3 green chromis
• Mystery wrasse
• Flame angel
• Skunk cleaner shrimp
• CUC consists of a number of trochus, astrea, and cerith snails, with some hermits and an emerald crab.
• A couple mushrooms (which are dividing!) and some zoas

Added cheato to the sump, lit at night with a white Tunze Eco Chic, to help combat the green hair algae that was getting pretty bad. The filter sock compartment is perfect for this and the light mounts magnetically right to the side of the sump (see pic) and is fully waterproof. Been going for a few weeks and seems to be helping (and at least stabilizing the pH). Things also got pretty hot in San Francisco, so I also installed some fans on the sump connected to the Apex that fire up if the tank goes over 79. Sump is now real full of stuff, but manageable!

I added a Nero 5 running opposite my Gyre and I'm kind of sort of happy with the flow in the system now. May swap this out for a second Gyre running vertically on the back, but we'll see. I really wanted the Nero to go on the back glass on the left, but the overflow compartment has two separate panes of glass and is too thick for the magnet to hold on the pump.The equipment panel is now extremely full but miraculously, the door closes.

I've got pretty good control of my water chemistry now, dosing 10ml of B-Ionic alk per day (maintaining a stable 9 dkH), and CA every couple of weeks based on testing. A few weeks ago I put in a bottle each of the two colors of coralline algae in a bottle and I'm happy to report that my dead, white rocks are now getting some growth!

I've got a Kraken lid in the works, and will soon set up a Trident (then later a Dos for 2-part).

 

[Eric Cohen]

Looks awesome! You could dose with my Flux Rx and clean up the rock a bit. You would have to remove the chaeto in the sump but other than that it’s pretty straight forward.