Reefer911's CADE S2/P 1200 build

[Reefer911]

This is the thread for my CADE S2/P 1200 build. I won this in the 2022 Partner Drive. I'd like to thank CADE, Algae Barn, Rev, and the rest of R2R for their generosity and support! Yes, that sounded a little NASCAR/F1/Indy-esque, but the night of the drawing was a nail biter for sure lol. This is the biggest thing I have ever won and I think its only right to give a little back to the community with this build thread...although it will probably help me more than anyone else.

Enough rambling, lets get this thing started!

-Brian Bearden

 

[Reefer911]

The crates are still in transit and should be here in just a few days. I am making preparations but won't immediately be able to set it up because the new aquarium will be going in the exact spot my Reefer 250 is currently sitting. So, with a little help, I will move the 250 across the room, but of course drain it and move all the inhabitants in a temporary spot for a couple of days while the relocated tank settles down and clears up. Thats the only part about this that I dread...moving my current tank.

 

[Reefer911]

No 150 gallon aquarium should be placed in an 85 year old home without a little bolstering under the floor! Running parallel with this support is a load bearing wall about 19" away so a sturdy beam runs along side this. The floor is solid but there was no way I was going to sit over 1000lbs on it without doing this.

Had to get it level! Money!

 

[Reefer911]

In the basement I plan on setting up a mixing station and it will be really easy to run drain, feed, and RODI lines through the crawl space and up through the floor to the tank. I'll need a hole saw. I'll be able to tie into the house water drain but I need to find out if regular salt water dumps will do anything to a septic tank's established bacterial colony.

This is where the mixing station will go. I will hang up my RODI unit on the wall to the right, just outside the view of the pic. All wastewater when making RODI goes into the washing machine. We're on a well.

Four consecutive posts with a lot of typing...I'm done for now. Next, I will talk about equipment I have planned/or already purchased.

 

[Reefer911]

Change of plans. I received the aquarium today and it arrived in great shape. We placed it in the basement just to get it inside until we could deal with moving the other tank. We decided to set it up in the basement instead of the living room, which means all that crawl space work I did was for nothing lol. That’s ok though because now I can orient the aquarium as a peninsula was meant to be oriented.
This is also great because I’ll have access to all the doors!
This aquarium is built very well…still can’t believe it’s sitting here with me!

 

[Reefer911]

The aquarium will back up to that plug on the wall.

 

[Reefer911]

Hanging lights will be a breeze because how we did our basement ceiling.

 

[Reefer911]

Finally got some friends over and we lifted the aquarium onto the cabinet today. Three guys using 6 of those suction cups for moving glass and there was nothing to it. I’ll work on plumbing tomorrow after church. We have a Christmas tree lighting to attend downtown.

 

[Reefer911]

Getting some plumbing done this AM over coffee

 

[Reefer911]

Thought I was missing gaskets for the union fittings but I found them with a little help from the CADE Facebook group

 

[hikebikebrew]

Excited to see you build this out! Will be following along for sure, as I have a 2100 on order with AB.

 

[Reefer911]

That 2100 is gonna be frikkin sweet! Love the CADE aquariums!

 

[Reefer911]

Ok I got a few parts in that I’ve been waiting on. Just like on Isaac’s build, I’m going with those plastic hose clamps instead of the metal ones. He also gave me the link for the cabinet lights he used so I went with them too. And they are bright! Very nice!

 

[Reefer911]

For a protein skimmer, I decided to go with the Ultra Reef UKS-180 and it fits just right in the skimmer chamber.

 

[Reefer911]

For return pump, I got the Red Dragon 50w by Royal Exclusiv. It’s a tight fit but it fits much better than the 100w version which I had. I’ll be returning it.

I also have a Vectra M2 that I had been planning on returning but I may run my 25w Aqua Ultraviolet in a closed loop with that pump. I’ll use the chiller port in the cabinet for the UV return to the tank and may just drop a PVC intake into the refugium chamber to draw from.

 

[ScubaShane]

This is Awesome!!

 

[Reefer911]

This is Awesome!!

Thanks for joining!

 

[Reefer911]

I got the plumbing completed last night. Initially, I didn't want to go with the stainless steel hose clamps provided by CADE, but after snapping a plastic clamp, and hearing from others who have used them for years without corrosion, I decided to go with it. Since I plan on running the UV on a closed loop, which will feed into the return downstream from the main return pump, I want to install a check valve to prevent the UV pump from pushing water back into the main return pump outlet. This would only occur during times in which I have the main return pump off for maintenance. If its too much of a hassle, I'll just resort to turning off both pumps when performing maintenance.

Still deciding on a filter roller. I will likely go with the Clarisea SK-3000 but will need to modify the sump. I purchased the Red Sea sump modification kit and will hold off on modifying the sump until I get the filter roller.

 

[hikebikebrew]

Good progress! Where did you get those pumps? Never heard of Red Dragon, are they DC?

 

[Reefer911]

BRS has them. Made in Germany and my understanding is that they’re high quality. It’s definitely heavy, and the controller feels like it’s well build too. Not quite as expensive as Abyzz though. And yes it is a DC pump.