CadLights 39G Signature

[Oscar]

So I called Eddie at Cadlights to request replacement panels for the cabinet. I had thought about fiberglassing the cabinet panels but since they are wieght bearing I figured I should at least start with the right components.

So I opened up the box with the aquarium. The signature series comes with the following:
- pin wheel skimmer
- pump
- UV sterilizer
- bio balls
- 2 filter pads
- refugium light
- cooling fan
- lockline
- Hydor 360 degree wavemaker
- glass tank top
- lights with HQI, actinics and LEDs in one box
- (no heater included)

But does not come with installation instructions. For a newbie this is a bit of a problem but it all worked out.

I had never handled a skimmer before so I was perplexed when I opened the box and discovered the air line and a little piece of black plastic in the skimmer cup. After scratching my head for a couple of days I realized that the black piece of plastic was actually the nipple leading from the pump to which the rubber hose is to be attached.

The nipple is that little black thing on the styrofoam.




So I got out the fiberglass epoxy and glued the nipple to the faceplate on the skimmer pump.

[mseepman]

I'm a little dissapointed that "instructions" are not included. You'd think that with all the time they've been doing tanks that they would include something.

Glad to see that your build thread is coming along though. You can bet you'll see me next time I'm in Summerland.

[Oscar]

While I was waiting for the cabinet panels to arrive I decided to set the tank up on my work bench. This gave me a chance to test out all of the equipment and since it is my first SW gave me a chance to figure out how the full package works.

You will see in this photo, although not very well, that there are 4 chambers. First has bioballs, 2nd has the pin wheel skimmer, the 3rd is the refugium and the final has the pump and heater. The UV sterilizer will also fit in here if necessary.

The red tape is my water reference line for top up.

The large foam pads I installed to reduce the microbubbles from the skimmer. I do not have the lights installed at this stage.





This photo shows the chamber layout a little better.

[Oscar]

So of course once the tank was set up and I kind of figured out how everything worked I needed to do something! So I contacted Chris at InteriorReef and he set me up with LR, LS a heater, test kit and a shwack of other stuff.

I started by running the skimmer and rock in a Rubbermaid tub but had a real problem with temperature stability. So I put the live rock in the tank with the skimmer, pump and heater running.






Then I got the lights setup with timers and went to the Coast for the Easter weekend.




But it turned out the timers were not set properly which meant that my actinics ran for possibly 48hrs straight. That blew one tube and let the algae go wild.

So I went to the local pet store a picked up a couple of hermits and phosphate test kit. You can see the hermits in the lower left. The phosphates are low, although not zero. And the hermits did very quick work on the algae, much more sustantial than I expected.

[Oscar]

When the replacement parts for the cabinet arrived it meant that I had to pack up the current temporary installation, drain the tank, then reinstall in it's final location. First step was transfering the LR and some of the water into the Rubbermaid tub.




Due to the layout of our house I was limited in the number of placement options. This limitation also help lead me to the decision to go with a smaller tank. The photo below shows the final location with water. The light box has not yet been added so that I could add salt.




Then the substrate was added. 20 lbs of live sand and 10lbs of non live. It only took about 6 hours for the water to totally clarify.




Then the live rock was transferred which stirred up some of the sand. No rock scaping as yet. And the hermits were slowly acclimated to the new water.

[mseepman]

Any new updates Oscar?

[Oscar]

Thanks for the reminder, I can't believe my last post is a month old already.

The last photo shows the tank just after I moved it to its final location. Since then I actually did some aquascaping, installed the light canopy and have seen quite a growth in baby feather dusters.

Then over the weekend I visited Interior Reef for some more rocks and critters.

I will try to post some more photos this evening.

[mseepman]

Bump....

[Oscar]

My last post in April was just after getting the cabinet constructed and the tank moved to its permanent position.

Next I had to wait for some replacement parts to get the lights up and running again. One of the actinics had blown over the Easter weekend and had burned out one of the sockets. It took a few weeks for the replacement parts to arrive.

Here is what the tank looked like with the lights installed and the actinics in place.






This first batch of rock is Cuban LR that I picked up from Interior Reef. Lots of great shapes, coraline algae, and as it turned out lots of interesting growth, expecially feather dusters.





A couple of weeks ago I went back to Interior Reef to get some additional LR and a couple of more hermits. After a serious rearrangment of the rock the tank now looks like this:

[mseepman]

Looks good. What are your plans for stocking? How do you find the flow in the tank with just the stock return pump?