Bryan's Cadlights Artisan II 70G Mixed Reef

Something about that just doesn't sound right lol.

So I'll just leave this here
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I'm still holding on to the skeleton of my yellow plate. I've read that one guy had his sprout babies after a year and a half of being "dead". That yellow plate was the brightest thing in my tank. :(


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Hey there, Bryan. Thanks for all the info and inspiration. Gorgeous tank! I got a 42g Versa I'm putting together. I bought an extra sump so I believe I have the same one you have. 27.5" long? Is there any advise you'd give before I start setting everything up? Thanks buddy!


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jimmers said:
Hey there, Bryan. Thanks for all the info and inspiration. Gorgeous tank! I got a 42g Versa I'm putting together. I bought an extra sump so I believe I have the same one you have. 27.5" long? Is there any advise you'd give before I start setting everything up? Thanks buddy!


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Hey jimmers - the most important advise i can give you is to replumb your tank right now before you fill it with water! don't use the Cadlights provided metric plumbing kit because they are cheaply made and will break on you and when they do, don't count on Cadlights to help you at all...they will not answer their phones, emails, or anything...so do everything right before you start or you'll have headaches later like i have

only other thing i can suggest to start out with is get a better return pump...the one that came with mine, i have the 70g Artisan II, was very weak...and also build your own top if you think you'll need it for fish that may jump...they sell kits at BRS
 
ThePorkchopExpress said:
Hey jimmers - the most important advise i can give you is to replumb your tank right now before you fill it with water! don't use the Cadlights provided metric plumbing kit because they are cheaply made and will break on you and when they do, don't count on Cadlights to help you at all...they will not answer their phones, emails, or anything...so do everything right before you start or you'll have headaches later like i have

only other thing i can suggest to start out with is get a better return pump...the one that came with mine, i have the 70g Artisan II, was very weak...and also build your own top if you think you'll need it for fish that may jump...they sell kits at BRS
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Thanks a bunch, porkchop! Ive already had a few issues with them and they seem to be getting half resolved. Haha. For instance the picture of the sump on the website has a larger middle area where you can put a fuge. But the one you get is tiny and they just said its a stock photo for all the Versa's. Further investigation I found they used a sump for the picture it looks like they don't even put in any of the Versa's. And I ended up paying for it anyways cause I wanted it so bad. Anyways...So should I plum it in PVC you think? And they gave me a Japanese pump which I believe is around 600gph but I could be wong
 
jimmers said:
Thanks a bunch, porkchop! Ive already had a few issues with them and they seem to be getting half resolved. Haha. For instance the picture of the sump on the website has a larger middle area where you can put a fuge. But the one you get is tiny and they just said its a stock photo for all the Versa's. Further investigation I found they used a sump for the picture it looks like they don't even put in any of the Versa's. And I ended up paying for it anyways cause I wanted it so bad. Anyways...So should I plum it in PVC you think? And they gave me a Japanese pump which I believe is around 600gph but I could be wong
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yea they switch out parts interchangeably depending on what they have at the moment...mine didn't come with a fuge light and it took several months for them to ship one out to me...didn't look anything like the nice modern light they have on the site either, it was just some really cheap Chinese brand light which i used for a few minutes and ended up throwing out...their customer service is atrocious and will never buy from them again, it's just not worth the headaches...with that said the tank itself is great, it really is when you run into problems that the issues get magnified because you can't get help from the manufacturer...so take them out of the equation - plumb it yourself

i would definitely use a better pump...mine was rated at 550gph but it's so weak that the head height makes it far less...flow barely trickles out of the return...i do have a Jebao DCT-6000 DC pump that i used for 3 mos. that's been sitting around...it was great until i plumbed in a frag tank to the existing system that then made it too weak which i can sell...PM if you're interested...or wait until you get everything plumbed and test the pump but i can almost guarantee it'll probably be very weak
 
ThePorkchopExpress said:
yea they switch out parts interchangeably depending on what they have at the moment...mine didn't come with a fuge light and it took several months for them to ship one out to me...didn't look anything like the nice modern light they have on the site either, it was just some really cheap Chinese brand light which i used for a few minutes and ended up throwing out...their customer service is atrocious and will never buy from them again, it's just not worth the headaches...with that said the tank itself is great, it really is when you run into problems that the issues get magnified because you can't get help from the manufacturer...so take them out of the equation - plumb it yourself

i would definitely use a better pump...mine was rated at 550gph but it's so weak that the head height makes it far less...flow barely trickles out of the return...i do have a Jebao DCT-6000 DC pump that i used for 3 mos. that's been sitting around...it was great until i plumbed in a frag tank to the existing system that then made it too weak which i can sell...PM if you're interested...or wait until you get everything plumbed and test the pump but i can almost guarantee it'll probably be very weak
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What's the best pump for my situation you think?
 
ThePorkchopExpress said:
that's up to you what you want your turnover to be...generally i believe the rule of thumb is 7x your total volume but i've seen some say 4x is good enough...good thing about a DC pump is they are controllable
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So confusing if the actual flow rate is much lower than stated. Is that 7 X rule take in affect the long run? Should I go 10 X just in case?? Is there a downside to over doing it besides the cost?
 
jimmers said:
So confusing if the actual flow rate is much lower than stated. Is that 7 X rule take in affect the long run? Should I go 10 X just in case?? Is there a downside to over doing it besides the cost?
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they have calculators out there you can use but you have to take into account how high the pump needs to push the water...you lose a lot of pressure the higher you go...with the pump they supplied me, and i'm sure yours is probably completely different, the water was basically trickling out of the return and that's no good...i first replaced with an Eheim 3000 rated at 800 gph and felt it still wasn't strong enough so i replaced again with a Jebao DCT6000...that one was fine but after i added the frag tank i wasn't happy with the huge loss of pressure so i went up to the DCT15000...now i'm happy, i have all the power i need for both the FT and DT and i can dial it up or down...i highly recommend controllable pumps

and yes the obvious downside to getting an uncontrollable return pump that's too powerful is you'll flood your overflow if the drain can't handle all that flow...it'll then start to drain out through the emergency...if they both can't handle the excess flow then say good bye to your floors, lol...of course you can always get a ball valve or something to control the flow after the pump
 
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Nothing with cad or topic but about pumps. I had a 1200 gph that felt weak for my 6ft long tank so i installed a dc12000 last week and the stream of water starts at one end of tank and can see the flow 2.5 ft to the other side and thats only at second setting the flow and turn over rate is amazing. In 2 days i saw a difference in my sandbed as the settling i had moved around and detrious got stirred even what looked like diatoms/cyano on samdbed from deadspots.

The problem is that after 4th or 5th setting my return pump chamber drains faster than my overflow so eithet i get air bubbles from low water or overfilled tank...
I also went from a 3/4 return line with a jet stream to a 1in straight pvc to display the flow is amazing.
 
#theMatrix said:
Nothing with cad or topic but about pumps. I had a 1200 gph that felt weak for my 6ft long tank so i installed a dc12000 last week and the stream of water starts at one end of tank and can see the flow 2.5 ft to the other side and thats only at second setting the flow and turn over rate is amazing. In 2 days i saw a difference in my sandbed as the settling i had moved around and detrious got stirred even what looked like diatoms/cyano on samdbed from deadspots.

The problem is that after 4th or 5th setting my return pump chamber drains faster than my overflow so eithet i get air bubbles from low water or overfilled tank...
I also went from a 3/4 return line with a jet stream to a 1in straight pvc to display the flow is amazing.
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yea that's one of the reasons i like to have a high turnover...a lot of detritus gets sucked right up into the overflow and into my sock or skimmer or ATS...it leaves my DT pretty clean and thus algae now grows in my sump...my sump is disgusting, it's got so much hair algae and other crap in it but my DT and FT are practically algae-less with only occasional dusting on the glass

i can actually put my 15000 on full blast and the sump can handle it because my drain pipe in the DT is 1.5" and the frag tank is 3/4"
 
speaking of detritus and overflows:

Tip of the Week: Crytal Clear Water

If you want crystal clear water, buy some Calcium Carbonate (CaCO3) minimum 97% purity. Amazon sells this. It's basically chalk in fine powder form. Mix 5TB to 230ml and put it into some squeeze bottle. At night time squeeze out about 4-5ml of it into your water. Your water will be cloudy for some time but in the morning it'll be crystal clear. The CaCO3 does not dissolve and does nothing to your water chemistry. What it does do is bind to detritus and helps push it into your overflow. This is basically the active ingredient in KZ Coral Snow but without the Zeovit price.

Crystal clear water on the cheap.

http://www.nano-reef.com/topic/364821-diy-kz-coral-snow-with-97-purity/
 
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ThePorkchopExpress said:
speaking of detritus and overflows:

Tip of the Week: Crytal Clear Water

If you want crystal clear water, buy some Calcium Carbonate (CaCO3) minimum 97% purity. Amazon sells this. It's basically chalk in fine powder form. Mix 5TB to 230ml and put it into some squeeze bottle. At night time squeeze out about 4-5ml of it into your water. Your water will be cloudy for some time but in the morning it'll be crystal clear. The CaCO3 does not dissolve and does nothing to your water chemistry. What it does do is bind to detritus and helps push it into your overflow. This is basically the active ingredient in KZ Coral Snow but without the Zeovit price.

Crystal clear water on the cheap.

http://www.nano-reef.com/topic/364821-diy-kz-coral-snow-with-97-purity/
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rockhead said:
Work pretty well have been doing this for about6 months now.
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i did it sometime back and then stopped, i didnt see much of a difference though .
 
tinman said:
i did it sometime back and then stopped, i didnt see much of a difference though .
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yea if you already have crystal clear water then there's no point doing this...if you see organics or anything floating around or clouding/tinting your water then this helps quite a bit

this does not help with microbubbles either
 
Thats what i have now. Micro bubbles...idk where the air is coming from. Its a 1in flex pipe to pvc from supply pump to DT. I see tons of micro bubbles coming out.
 
#theMatrix said:
Thats what i have now. Micro bubbles...idk where the air is coming from. Its a 1in flex pipe to pvc from supply pump to DT. I see tons of micro bubbles coming out.
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i have them too and i can't figure it out...i've had them for months now and changing the pump nor plumbing has helped at all...i think mine are coming from the sump somewhere but i've turned off skimmer as well as ATS and i still get them so i don't know...i kind of just gave up
 
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