DD
"Rambo"
Greetings,
Welcome to the new build. I initially was going to upgrade slowly over the summer by buying all the components one at a time until fall. I was leaning towards setting up a 65 reef ready but ended up coming across a used 50 cadlights cube. So I bought it lol!
The only problem initially was that I had already purchased a sump with the intention of using it on a 65 gallon. The sump would have fit in the stand, or I would have built a stand for it. I was leaning more towards building a stand because I don't really trust manufactured ones. The sump ended up being too long to fit within the cadlights stand so I'm selling that off.
That left me with the problem of not having a sump to fit. I worked with Will and came up with some measurements. He sent me over a drawing and we decided to move forward. The sump he created fits perfectly within the stand now. I'll get some pics of it up as soon as I have a little time to mess around with the tank. This is my second sump from Will, and let me tell you, it freaking AWESOME!!! Will I can't thank you enough!
The only sad part of this build for me was taking down my planted 46 gallon bowfront aquarium. I've had fish of some sort since I was about 5 years old so FW will always have a place in my heart lol! The planted tank was something that I was never really able to pull off in the past. I finally succeeded a few years ago. Well anyways.....
Equipment List:
Tank: 50 Cadlights cube artisan 2 tank, stand, and light trees.
Lighting: Evergrow IT 2040 from the new group buy
Sump: Custom Luttman's Sump. Specific measurements and photos to come
Return pump: Eheim 1260
Skimmer: SCA 301. Just received it the other day. Otherwise known as the Ebay skimmer. I have one on my other tank and it works really well.
ATO: Avast Marine ATO. I am running this on my other tank. I like it because it doesn't rely on float switches and you can plug it right into a port on the apex head unit.
Water movement: MP40WES already have it.
Heater: Finnex 200 watt titanium digital heater. I know it's kind of pointless to have a controllable heater with an apex, but I like dual redundancy.
Dosing: Haven't really decided which route I'll go just yet.
Controller: Full Apex with lab grade ph probe.
Substrate: I'll probably go with one 20lbs bag of a coarser sand. I still can't bring myself to go barebottom on my tank. I am partial to wrasses so this is a necessity. I really like the aesthetics of sand as well. I'm just not gonna go with a lot.
Rock: 50lbs of Marco Rocks.
Top: I have the glass tops that come with the Cadlights, but I don't really care for glass tops. They tend to suppress PH so I ordered some mesh from Goat585.
Other equipment like test kits, refrectometer, etc. have already been in use for my other two reefs.
Here is a quick photo I took of the tank in place.
Next steps are to give it a really good cleaning. As you can see, it's pretty gross right now.
Once I clean it up, I need to shim under the front of the tank since it's not perfectly level.
I also need to remount the light bars for my fixture. I was going to do it now, but I may just wait until the fixture comes in.
Then on to plumbing it. Once that's done, I'll fill it with tap water and let it run for a couple days to make sure there aren't any leaks. Once it passes the leak test, I'll drain the tap water out, put rock and sand in, then start the process of making RODI and mixing salt.
Should be fun, I'll have more photos as I get into the process a bit. I'll do my best to photograph every step in order to help others who may have never set up a tank before, or are getting the same or a similar tank. I always hate researching threads on a tank I'm putting up and not seeing pics.
After all,
Welcome to the new build. I initially was going to upgrade slowly over the summer by buying all the components one at a time until fall. I was leaning towards setting up a 65 reef ready but ended up coming across a used 50 cadlights cube. So I bought it lol!
The only problem initially was that I had already purchased a sump with the intention of using it on a 65 gallon. The sump would have fit in the stand, or I would have built a stand for it. I was leaning more towards building a stand because I don't really trust manufactured ones. The sump ended up being too long to fit within the cadlights stand so I'm selling that off.
That left me with the problem of not having a sump to fit. I worked with Will and came up with some measurements. He sent me over a drawing and we decided to move forward. The sump he created fits perfectly within the stand now. I'll get some pics of it up as soon as I have a little time to mess around with the tank. This is my second sump from Will, and let me tell you, it freaking AWESOME!!! Will I can't thank you enough!
The only sad part of this build for me was taking down my planted 46 gallon bowfront aquarium. I've had fish of some sort since I was about 5 years old so FW will always have a place in my heart lol! The planted tank was something that I was never really able to pull off in the past. I finally succeeded a few years ago. Well anyways.....
Equipment List:
Tank: 50 Cadlights cube artisan 2 tank, stand, and light trees.
Lighting: Evergrow IT 2040 from the new group buy
Sump: Custom Luttman's Sump. Specific measurements and photos to come
Return pump: Eheim 1260
Skimmer: SCA 301. Just received it the other day. Otherwise known as the Ebay skimmer. I have one on my other tank and it works really well.
ATO: Avast Marine ATO. I am running this on my other tank. I like it because it doesn't rely on float switches and you can plug it right into a port on the apex head unit.
Water movement: MP40WES already have it.
Heater: Finnex 200 watt titanium digital heater. I know it's kind of pointless to have a controllable heater with an apex, but I like dual redundancy.
Dosing: Haven't really decided which route I'll go just yet.
Controller: Full Apex with lab grade ph probe.
Substrate: I'll probably go with one 20lbs bag of a coarser sand. I still can't bring myself to go barebottom on my tank. I am partial to wrasses so this is a necessity. I really like the aesthetics of sand as well. I'm just not gonna go with a lot.
Rock: 50lbs of Marco Rocks.
Top: I have the glass tops that come with the Cadlights, but I don't really care for glass tops. They tend to suppress PH so I ordered some mesh from Goat585.
Other equipment like test kits, refrectometer, etc. have already been in use for my other two reefs.
Here is a quick photo I took of the tank in place.
Next steps are to give it a really good cleaning. As you can see, it's pretty gross right now.
Once I clean it up, I need to shim under the front of the tank since it's not perfectly level.
I also need to remount the light bars for my fixture. I was going to do it now, but I may just wait until the fixture comes in.
Then on to plumbing it. Once that's done, I'll fill it with tap water and let it run for a couple days to make sure there aren't any leaks. Once it passes the leak test, I'll drain the tap water out, put rock and sand in, then start the process of making RODI and mixing salt.
Should be fun, I'll have more photos as I get into the process a bit. I'll do my best to photograph every step in order to help others who may have never set up a tank before, or are getting the same or a similar tank. I always hate researching threads on a tank I'm putting up and not seeing pics.
After all,
