Reduck's Cad SAIO 75g build

revhtree · Apr 25, 2016

Nice!

Reduck · May 7, 2016

Nothing new to report. Still catching bristle worms. Now also fighting some heads of aptasia popping up. Aptasia X seems to work sometimes but not always. I'd love to add some peppermint shrimp but my last experience with them was costly. They ate quite a few expensive corals. I may try the nudibranches first if I can't get rid of these with the aptasia X.
We are getting close to reefapalooza so trying not to add much. If it's anything like last year it'll be great. It's also the first anniversary for this tank!
But I also know @hcker99 had a nice clam I've been eyeing so I may make room for it tomorrow!

Reduck · May 14, 2016

This weeks video post WC. Appears all is good....still battling the worms and aptasia.

Reduck · Jun 14, 2016

Been busy! Keeping up with tank. Most annoying aptasia outbreak. Nudibranches in my future!
Did a knucklehead thing last night. I must have turned the skimmer up in my sleep. Lucky I'm on vacation and home! Apex did exactly what I told it to do. Shut off the skimmer when the skimmate locker is full and send a message to me. Rushed to do a 15g WC. It was due anyway. Everything is fine. Only 2.5g of dilution.
Still - don't be me....leave it alone when you are sleepy!

Reduck · Jul 4, 2016

God, I hate aptasia! So I tried some rather expensive berghia nudibranches. I have not seen one out since I introduced them as instructed. Meanwhile the aptasia is multiplying. I'm almost at the point of adding a copper banded butterfly to the tank. Some of the corals are already showing signs of stress from the aptasia. So it would be a wash if the CBB does its job and eats some of it in exchange for it clearing the tank of that vermin.

If you have any other aptasia suggestions I'd be happy to entertain them. Peppermint shrimp are out though and so are emerald crabs. They are too hit and miss and I've had both decimate some expensive corals.

Other than that, we lost Frank III to an MP40 strike. He was getting too daring, eating film off the housing. And I guess it bit him.

On a good note, the harlequin is getting pretty big. He eats well. Two legs a week. Occasionally we give him a small sand sifter to "play" with..

mmw64 · Jul 4, 2016

Reduck said:
hello all!
There has been little published about this tank anywhere. So before RAP NY, I asked cad to please bring a 100g for me. Of course once we saw it in person we realized it was too big for our living room. So the build quality was very very good and we ordered the 75g to be shipped at a show special price. About 3 weeks later, it came. That was Monday of this week. Packing was incredibly good. The stand was prebuilt. It is piano black. Beautifully finished. Very, very well built. The tank, it's a beast. I think it's about 140-150lbs. I filled it in the garage to wet check. Last thing I'd need is 75g of FSW on our hardwood floors. So it ran overnight just fine. The pumps aren't the best but they will provide good circulation. 500gph rated x 2. So there it sits in the garage. Waiting for me to gather some muscle to move it in. I'm also waiting for the rubber mat to show up since they forgot to pack it with everything else. That could hold up all my plans!

I am transferring all the livestock from my IM40. New reef flakes substrate. new Cad skimmer. Upgraded one of my MPs to a 40wesqd. I'm going to try to get one of my MP10s to stick to this thicker glass as well.

So the plans are set. Hopefully we can do the transfer this weekend. I'd love to set it up and do a full cycle, but we don't have the room for both tanks. The live rock in my 40 is very live and coralline coated. I have also been cooking another load of rock for a while and it's just about ready.
I'll be posting up some pics to this thread as we progress.

Following! Love build threads.

MRRBW · Sep 18, 2016

sorry for the triple post, computer glitched on me.

MRRBW · Sep 18, 2016

I see you are here too. Appreciated the videos, tank is coming along nicely. From one of your videos you did a side view, how do you find the depth? It's definitely less deep than I expected. As for your aiptasia problems, here's a good link to Melev's Reef video on a laser he used: . In the description he has links to threads and where to purchase. Julian Sprung's "The Thing" can be used to target paste on solutions to kill the aiptasia as well.

Reduck · Sep 19, 2016

MRRBW said:
I see you are here too. Appreciated the videos, tank is coming along nicely. From one of your videos you did a side view, how do you find the depth? It's definitely less deep than I expected. As for your aiptasia problems, here's a good link to Melev's Reef video on a laser he used: . In the description he has links to threads and where to purchase. Julian Sprung's "The Thing" can be used to target paste on solutions to kill the aiptasia as well.

Aiptasia is nearly gone. Persistence in treatment was key.

s2nhle · Sep 19, 2016

I usually killed the aiptasia by mixing vinegar, voka, water and kalwasser and inject them to the aiptasia mouth. so far so good for me.

Reduck · Dec 10, 2016

Hey! It's been a long while. Life catches up with you and time slips by. Tank has been holding its own.

Had a major oops about a month ago that really wreaked havoc. My AFS lid fell off with my "help", and dumped a load into the tank! Scooped as much as possible before it got away but the damage was already done. Skimmer was going nuts etc. 3 15g water changes later it all calmed down. The ecosystem held its own with no major parameter spikes. Just really cloudy water.

Still fighting small aptasia break outs too. It got so bad a couple corals perished from proximity to the aptasia clusters. I got the bubble algae under control by less feeding and manual extraction.

We lost our Harliquin. I believe it was molting and got eaten by bristle worms. There was no trace of it at all. Sad really since we grew it from a little tiny thing to a good size creature. I will replace it shortly since we love watching them.

I'm about to upgrade the main pumps as they are starting to get noisy. I picked up a Jebao DC pump with a lot more flow than the two stock pumps. Have to build a little manifold to get it plumbed in, hopefully tomorrow morning. Also need to clean the sump section. It's mostly just LR but when shining a flashlight down there I noticed a MAJOR infestation of bristle worms. I've been using my hand held vacuum each day sucking them up from the detritus. I don't care that they are there as much as the layer of detritus they are living in needs to get cleaned up a bit. I know sumps are meant to collect this gunk so I will not remove it all, just a portion of the layer on the bottom. I'm considered putting a few pounds of sand down there with more LR. It may make a good home for the CC stars we keep to feed the shrimp.

Well that's about it for an update. I'll get a video or some pics up soon!

Happy Holidays!!

choss · Dec 10, 2016

Reduck said:
Hey! It's been a long while. Life catches up with you and time slips by. Tank has been holding its own.

Had a major oops about a month ago that really wreaked havoc. My AFS lid fell off with my "help", and dumped a load into the tank! Scooped as much as possible before it got away but the damage was already done. Skimmer was going nuts etc. 3 15g water changes later it all calmed down. The ecosystem held its own with no major parameter spikes. Just really cloudy water.

Still fighting small aptasia break outs too. It got so bad a couple corals perished from proximity to the aptasia clusters. I got the bubble algae under control by less feeding and manual extraction.

We lost our Harliquin. I believe it was molting and got eaten by bristle worms. There was no trace of it at all. Sad really since we grew it from a little tiny thing to a good size creature. I will replace it shortly since we love watching them.

I'm about to upgrade the main pumps as they are starting to get noisy. I picked up a Jebao DC pump with a lot more flow than the two stock pumps. Have to build a little manifold to get it plumbed in, hopefully tomorrow morning. Also need to clean the sump section. It's mostly just LR but when shining a flashlight down there I noticed a MAJOR infestation of bristle worms. I've been using my hand held vacuum each day sucking them up from the detritus. I don't care that they are there as much as the layer of detritus they are living in needs to get cleaned up a bit. I know sumps are meant to collect this gunk so I will not remove it all, just a portion of the layer on the bottom. I'm considered putting a few pounds of sand down there with more LR. It may make a good home for the CC stars we keep to feed the shrimp.

Well that's about it for an update. I'll get a video or some pics up soon!

Happy Holidays!!

How about a FTS?

Reduck · Dec 10, 2016

Lights are just warming to daylight...

s2nhle · Dec 12, 2016

Thank you for the update.

Reduck · Dec 18, 2016

So heavy week for testing. Did a full panel. I mean everything! Two things stood out. One, my rodi needs new membrane and resin. Silica off the charts high. Obviously my tds meter is lying to me. Ordered a silica buster membrane. I have new resin. If I would have paid closer attention to the color of the resin in BOTH cartridges I would have seen the back one was black!
Two, my potassium is low. I'll assume the monti and clams are uptaking more than RSCP and normal dosing can provide. Going to mix a batch per Randy's formula and add to my top off tank shortly to help replenish and raise it to acceptable levels.
Everything else was acceptable so my dosing regime has been spot on.

Got all the parts to install the new main pump. Time permitting I'll do it today.

If I'm not back before next weekend, Merry Christmas!