Rudy's CADE Reef 1800 S2

[Wayne P.]

Ok Ben, you wanted a hat, I got you a hat. I'm a Bears fan, but my GF loves the Steelers. Guess which helmet came in first?

 

[Vyper]

“People “ have written that the ATO is a pain. After you have lived with it for a while you might giv your assessment.
These tanks look much better than the competition, mainly due to the aluminum stand.

I have only had mine running a few weeks but absolutely love the ato. I used an apex ATKV2 to auto fill it about halfway. I put my mp40s on the back wall. very clean and well hidden. filling ato right off of rodi unit with a solenoid.

 

[AcanthurusRex]

I have only had mine running a few weeks but absolutely love the ato. I used an apex ATKV2 to auto fill it about halfway. I put my mp40s on the back wall. very clean and well hidden. filling ato right off of rodi unit with a solenoid.

MP40's on the back wall? Did you put the dry side in the ATO?

 

[Vyper]

MP40's on the back wall? Did you put the dry side in the ATO?

Yes I put it in ato Just fill ato halfway with atkv2. Have 3 levels of protection to stop the water from overflowing. I figured if it all fails I have more to worry about than the dry sides. little worried that condensation could be an issue at some point and then I will have to make some sort of mods. So far so good.

 

[shamewow]

Did you order the screen cover? Or is that part of the package?

 

[Vyper]

Did you order the screen cover? Or is that part of the package?

Part of the package. I just modified mine to a two piece to make it easier to handle. Red Sea parts are the exact same except for the little logos

 

[Wayne P.]

Did you order the screen cover? Or is that part of the package?

The screen cover came with it. Biggest problem with it is cords going into the tank. I'm going to have to make some openings for the cords to go through. And then make sure I don't have any corals directly under the frames. Seems to work for now, but I may try and build some sort of canopy and hang the lights from the inside of that. Still very much a work in progress.

 

[shamewow]

How is the build quality compared to company like redsea? It went up from 4200 to 5500 for the package. Quite a bit more than the redsea.

 

[Wayne P.]

How is the build quality compared to company like redsea? It went up from 4200 to 5500 for the package. Quite a bit more than the redsea.

Build Quality is excellent. The cabinet is aluminum not pressed wood like Red Sea has the sump is built right into the cabinet comes as one piece even at $5500 it’s probably worth the money I really enjoy this tank.

 

[Cali-Saltwater-1st-Timer]

Love that it comes with a screen cover, underrated feature. For what tanks this size cost all of them should include a screen top!

Not sure if addressed already but what's the deal with the light mount? Seems to be sagging a bit in the middle.

 

[Wayne P.]

Thanks. I cut the bar a bit short so it looks like it's sagging. I'm debating on whether to hang the lights, buy a new bar or build a cabinet on the top and hang the lights inside that.

 

[Cali-Saltwater-1st-Timer]

Thanks. I cut the bar a bit short so it looks like it's sagging. I'm debating on whether to hang the lights, buy a new bar or build a cabinet on the top and hang the lights inside that.

Hanging the lights looks really sleek imo! I had the same AI light rail, it's fine but hanging them just looks a lot cleaner imo. A cabinet would look good as well but kind of takes away from the overall look of a rimless tank.

 

[Wayne P.]

You are correct on both counts. Having a hood means a little less evap, and hopefully a little less chance of carpet surfing. Or in my case, laminate surfing.

 

[Wayne P.]

Watching the tank after lights out tonight. Introduced a condy nem, and some other CUC on Wednesday. Everyone was ignoring the nem, and did not really like the skunk shrimp. Lights out tonight, one chromis, seemed to be trying to host the nem? What? My ocellaris pair noticed and charged in, chromis runs. Then more chroms run in. Clowns win. Kinda crazy but cool. Monitoring the situation as it moves on. So far, 2 clowns beat 10 Chromis!

 

[Wayne P.]

Been a minute since my last update. Everyone seems to be having fun, except the condy. I got my tang gang, hippo, powder blue and a naso. Condy got a hold of the powder blue. Tried to QT the PB, but he went into the fish tank in the sky. Then the condy went into the toilet. Big enough tank, I thought everyone would be OK, not.

Last week on Question of the day it seemed that folks were big fans of the Clairsea filter rollers. After much research I went ahead and got it. It came in yesterday.

As you can see I plumbed it (kind of) from one of the ports meant for reactors. It's just a half-a**ed plumbing job at the moment. However, it's only been operating for 12 hours, and even in the dark I could tell a difference in the water quality! Expensive, but a keeper, and I don't have to keep the socks. I kept getting finer and finer on the socks and could not get better water quality. Problem fixed, at least I hope so.

FTS shows I'm still fighting the dino wars. Picked up a couple of fans, but they seem too big. They would still end up pushing flow the same direction as it is going now, so I'm thinking a couple of smaller ones on the back wall may do the trick.

Chromis doing well, although one decided to go carpet surfing a while back.

Garfield and Odie are out making a mess, covering up my sand dwelling corals. SNAFU.

Overall, real happy with the tank, maintenance is a breeze, and hopefully will be much better with the Clarisea.

 

[danieyella]

I didn't go with the Clarisea because I didn't want to get into all the plumbing, I didn't even think about using those ports and now I feel extra dumb. I did get a klir drop in despite reading a lot of "you have to modify the cade sump for it to work" - I didn't have to do anything but add the diverting cap and it works perfectly from the start

 

[Wayne P.]

Been a bit on my updates. Things are going pretty well except for the dino carpet. All of my zoa's are growing really well. Got a blueberry encrusting thing that spread out pretty good. The Gorgonian is doing well. I adjusted the calcium up a little because it was getting low and the gorgonian closed up for a couple of weeks, had me worried but it has opened back up. I have a Mint Julep Blasto that is really doing well. My Duncan has about 5 new heads. I lost a few of the chromis, down to 5 but they seem to be doing well. I may have had too many. I also added a Sailfin Tang and it is doing great. If I could just get rid of the red stuff I would be happy. That killed off my horseshoe crabs. Pics to come later.

 

[Wayne P.]

Hi all, Been under the weather for a while and have not been doing maintenance as I should. I did keep the ATO filled but still have dino's everywhere. Feeling a bit better so I took advantage of the Black Friday sales at BRS. Picked up an Apex system and also got a UV. Hopefully once I get the UV plumbed in that should help knock out the dino's and excess algae. Sailfin Tang was not eating it as advertised.