Downsizing??? Really???

[GQuinn]

Nice set up. Are you using a styrofoam sheet or a pad between the tank and the stand?

[Ron Reefman]

CadLight provides a foam pad that is very much like a yoga mat to put between the tank and the stand. I used a yoga mat under my old 180g tank, so I'm pretty comfortable with it's ability to conform as needed. I'm also using the styrofoam that came under the sump in the packaging and will keep it for under the sump.

[Ron Reefman]

Today I have made a 'drip tray' or 'splash pan' or 'stand liner'... whatever you want to call it, for inside the stand. It's 3/8" PVC that is glued & screwed together. It fits snug to the inside measurements of the stand. And when it's done, it will have a PVC rim at the top to prevent anything from getting down between the PVC tray and the stand. I'm pretty happy with the way it turned out.

Here is the tray after it has been glued with PVC glue.




And here it is inside the stand. You can see the gap at the far end between the tray and the side of the stand due to the corner ribs of the stand. I'm going to make a rim out of the same PVC material that will fit on top of the tray and attach to the stand. BTW, the back of the tray is taller than the sides so the top of the tray will be just above the top of the sump. That way 'stuff' won't get down between the tray and the sump either.

[neiltus]

I really like that idea. I also would like it in some sort of slide out like you would put in a cabinet for servicing the sump. Doubt rails would hold the weight of the sump though. Just a thought.

With your sump in there, how much space do you have around the sump? How tight a fit is it?

[Ron Reefman]

Thanks, I had a flexible pvc shower pan liner under my last sump (8'x2'x18") and it saved me from several spills, like a leaky pipe and a leaky external pump. And as much as I like it, my wife sees it as pretty close to absolutely mandatory! LOL!

The slide out would be cool, but that would mean flexible pipes and extra lengths... blah, blah, blah. Besides there are 2 vertical bars that fit at either edge of the center door. Just knowing I may want to get in there and move the sump or the tray, I'm not using wood screws to hold the vertical supports in place. I'm replacing screws by putting helicoils into the stand and using small bolts that will thread into the helicoils. That way taking them in and out several times won't tear up the threads like the wood screws would. I pick up the helicoils from Granger tomorrow. I hope to have the stand done by the end of the day Saturday.

The inside of the 'tray' is 17 1/4"x55" and the 35g sump outside measurements are 12 1/2"x43"x15". So there is some room to play. With nearly a foot at the end I expect I can fill it with something!

The 36" kitchen cabinet going next to the stand will have a 2'x2'x20 display refugium on top. And inside there will be a 10g reservoir for the auto top off, a dosing pump and two 1g jugs or 2 1/2g jugs for Ca & alk and a reactor for whatever I need (GFO, carbon, etc.) and my Apex equipment.

[neiltus]

Helicoils are pretty darn cool, they have saved my butt on many occasions. I have used them mostly for repairing old boilers with seized fasteners, have a machinist cousin who uses them on engines, motors, etc. Very good idea on your part.

[clownaround2]

Following along also. Great thread! Was playing with the idea of a Cadlight Artisan, but was holding off. Nice to see your experiences with them and how you are putting everything together.

[mikeatjac]

Looks great Ron. Nice stand liner. All looks clean and well thought out.

[Ron Reefman]

Originally Posted by neiltus

Helicoils are pretty darn cool, they have saved my butt on many occasions. I have used them mostly for repairing old boilers with seized fasteners, have a machinist cousin who uses them on engines, motors, etc. Very good idea on your part.

I use to race sports cars (still do... kind of) and used helicoils when stuff stripped out. As my wife said, it's probably overkill for this stand, but if I do it, then I'll probably never have to take it apart!

Originally Posted by clownaround2

Following along also. Great thread! Was playing with the idea of a Cadlight Artisan, but was holding off. Nice to see your experiences with them and how you are putting everything together.

So far here are the good and bad points.

The tank is awesome, the stand is very close to perfect and the glass sump is extremely well put together. I love the extra room around the sump compared to the Red Sea stand. I'm not a big fan of euro-brace tanks, but now that it's sitting in my house, it looks just as good as a rimless from the front. The DC pump looks like all the other DC pumps and I'm upgrading from their 3000gph to a 3500gph that I already own. The skimmer looks very familiar (the lid says 'MODE' with a fish in the middle of the O) and I think it will do the job. I'd rather use my AquaMedic Turbo 5000 that was in my 400g system, but it won't fit in the sump.

CadLight did forget to load a box of plumbing parts with the other stuff in the tank. So I didn't get the metric bulkheads (metric... what a pita), loc-line nozzles, ball valve and other plumbing supplies. I called on 8/16 and was told they would get the box out UPS that day. Two days later I called for a tracking number... oh, it's shipping tomorrow. Argh!!! Normally I wouldn't care about the delay, but I have fish, corals and inverts in small tanks all over the house with no filtration due to my 180g tank failure. Doing water changes to keep everybody alive is getting old after 2 weeks and this delay didn't make me happy. We'll see if I get a tracking number today. Oh, and there were no instructions for putting the stand together either. But it's a 6 sided rectangular box, how hard could it be?

Originally Posted by mikeatjac

Looks great Ron. Nice stand liner. All looks clean and well thought out.

Thanks. There's more work to do, but it's moving along. I can't wait to get started on the rockscape or for the 36" kitchen cabinet to get here.

[lg2725]

Looking good. I do have a question..Do you actually remember what each of those wall switches controls by memory or do you have a cheat sheet?? I know what my answer would be.

[JoeTSI]

Sounds very familiar to my frustrations when they didn't include my plumbing either. I ultimately switched everything over from metric to normal plumbing using SCH40. If I remember correctly the smaller holes are around 1/2inch or 3/4inch bulkhead fittings and the large one for my 100gal was a one inch. I am using the 1 inch as my drain (Durso) and using the two smaller as returns.

[Ron Reefman]

Originally Posted by lg2725

Looking good. I do have a question..Do you actually remember what each of those wall switches controls by memory or do you have a cheat sheet?? I know what my answer would be.

Ha! Great question. My memory isn't that good and a cheat sheet could get misplaced. And there are others (my wife) who need to know what's what when it comes to the switches and timers. In fact we go away for long weekend a lot and and have a friend who feeds our cat and takes care of the tanks. So she needs to know what's what as well.

So to make things easier, I made generous use of our label maker. I even labeled hardware and electrical wires and plugs (at both ends). Then my wife took photos and made an aquarium maintenance notebook with photos, explanations and descriptions of everything. How things work, if this happens-do this and this to fix it, water levels should be here with pumps on and here with pumps off... just about everything. It helped my wife learn the system and it provided a workbook so our friend could do a lot of troubleshooting on her own before she would need to call us. And I couldn't help much if I'm face down in 3' of water over a shallow reef 2 miles from shore!

The sad part is, with a new bathroom cabinet going in behind the wall with all the switches and timers, I'm probably not going to be using them any more. All the electrical connections were inside the old bathroom cabinet and I'm not going to butcher up a new cabinet the way I did the beat up old cabinet that was almost 30 years old when I set the switches up. I have an Apex that I got from a friend with lots of EB8 and EB4 power strips, so I'll probably move into the 21st century and computerize the system!

[Ron Reefman]

Originally Posted by JoeTSI

Sounds very familiar to my frustrations when they didn't include my plumbing either. I ultimately switched everything over from metric to normal plumbing using SCH40. If I remember correctly the smaller holes are around 1/2inch or 3/4inch bulkhead fittings and the large one for my 100gal was a one inch. I am using the 1 inch as my drain (Durso) and using the two smaller as returns.

Interesting... Joe, did you do a build thread? How long have you had your CadLight tank?

I have the 1/2" bulkheads that just fit the 2 smaller holes and a 1 1/2" that fits the bigger hole. I have my old loc-line 'Y' nozzles that I was going to use anyway. I'm considering drilling a hole in the bottom of the tank near a back corner and doing an emergency drain there. That way I can use the 1 1/2" as the main drain and the 2 1/2" to feed the 2 loc-line returns. A black pipe against the black background wouldn't be too obtrusive.

I'm doing a manifold so I can feed the main tank, a display refugium, a 1hp chiller in the backyard, a reactor, a water change drain line to the bathroom sink and a spare.

I just want to give CadLight some grief for their mistake and it gives me a chance to test their customer service. So far, product is really good and customer service is... 50:50. I'll know more in a week!

[JoeTSI]

No, I never did a build thread unfortunately. I may start a blog now that I have a new job where I am traveling every other week. I did eventually receive my plumbing but let's just say it isn't impressive to say the least. I had some pics of my plumbing on my phone but a certain dummy (me) never backed it up and I lost most of them when my phone did a most spectacular belly flop into the pool. I will get some pics over the weekend but I am thinking of using one of the half inch drains as a durso emergency drain and the 1 inch for continuous siphon.

[lg2725]

That's a lot of dummy switches you'll be left with or a bunch of holes to fill.

[Ron Reefman]

Drywall repair is a piece of cake... assuming I take them out.

The other option is to pull the wires up into the attic (SW Florida HOT) and drop them down the wall behind the stand and pull them out for use. It really all depends on how well the Apex works. I've been totally out of the loop on them so a friend has offered his help and he has his set up very well. So I'm hoping for the best!

[Ron Reefman]

I've started to make the 'rim' or 'lip' for the drip tray. As you can see in the photo below, the vertical braces in the stand keep the drip tray from fitting flush against the sides of the stand. The gap is only about 1" and you just know something small is going to fall in there and I'd play heck trying to get it out. There is a similar gap at the back of the stand and the tray is much taller back there so it would be even harder to get something out back there!




So I'm taking some of the scrap material and making pieces that will fit in between the vertical braces and block off the openings between the drip tray and the stand.




I also intend to drill the drip tray and stand near the bottom of the back wall for a small bulkhead. That way I can run a pipe from the drip tray out through the outside wall of the house in case there is ever a BIG leak. The hole in the outside wall is already there as well as holes for pipe that go out to and back from the 1hp chiller that sits up against the back side of the house on a north wall (shaded from the scorching Florida afternoon sun)! I intend to box these pipes in with a removable cover made from pvc boards as they will be exposed for about 2' from the end of the cabinet to the outside wall. I may even make a small shelving unit out of pvc boards on top of the box that hides the pipes. Might as well use the space for something!

[SCARYBO]

Love the idea and construction of the drip tray. That is something I plan on doing going forward.

[lg2725]

Looking good RR.

[Ron Reefman]

Originally Posted by SCARYBO

Love the idea and construction of the drip tray. That is something I plan on doing going forward.

I had a flexible pvc shower pan liner in the stand under my 180g. When the silicone blew out, having the water run down into the liner was a life saver! Today I installed a bulkhead and will run a pipe out of the house. Makes it as close to foolproof as I can get.

[SCARYBO]

Such a smart idea Ron. I guarantee some company is going to make that standard set up.

[NeilFox]

Awesome setup Ron! I am glad to see you back after your disaster. This will be a great build thread to follow. I also got the ************ lights, mostly after following your advice on the LED thread. They are really great and grow anything. I just got a Jebao crossflow delivered also. You will like it. I have the regular Jebao wavemaker but I had to take out one of the pumps the flow was too much. When I turned on the Crossflow, I couldn't believe how much detritus was stirred up, I thought I had really good flow.

Really looking forward to following your build.

[Ron Reefman]

Originally Posted by SCARYBO

Such a smart idea Ron. I guarantee some company is going to make that standard set up.

Here in SW Florida the idea has been spreading around and a lot of our local club members who done new builds (or rebuilds) have done pans or drip trays. I wouldn't do a new build without one. Some use plastic drop clothes, or shower curtains, or flexible pvc. I think mine is the first pvc sheet goods tray. And it's so easy to work with.

Originally Posted by NeilFox

Awesome setup Ron! I am glad to see you back after your disaster. This will be a great build thread to follow. I also got the ************ lights, mostly after following your advice on the LED thread. They are really great and grow anything. I just got a Jebao crossflow delivered also. You will like it. I have the regular Jebao wavemaker but I had to take out one of the pumps the flow was too much. When I turned on the Crossflow, I couldn't believe how much detritus was stirred up, I thought I had really good flow.

Really looking forward to following your build.

Thanks Neil. I'm watching yours as well. I wish I could go faster for the sake of my fish and corals in small holding tanks for 3+ weeks now!

We can say brand names on here. I assume you mean the Reef Breeders Photon? Did you get the V2 version? I've lit mine up just to look at it and I like it a lot. But then I liked the old Photon just fine. I'll have 2 of the 32" units that are 4 years old for sale after I get everybody back in the new tank!

I've had a Crossflow running in my 25g frag tank for about 6 or 8 weeks now. I love it! I have 2 Crossflows and plan to put one at each end of the 125G. Then 2 Jebao RW8 wavemakers on the back glass. That's got to be way more flow than I'll need. But then I'll try to make them do a tide flow with some overlap as soon as I get the Apex set up.

Today I'm working on the acrylic filter sock holder (two 4" socks) and a splash guard around the top to keep water in the sump. The 1" drain is hard plumbed with a 'T' at the end and barbed hose fittings for two 1" flexible hoses to go down to the socks. I'll do some pics at the end of the day.

[Ron Reefman]

Custom plumbing in tight spaces with multiple size pipes is such a PITA! LOL!

I just finished the tank and sump plumbing. The display refugium and chiller will have to wait. I want to get the tank wet! I know what I should do... I should fill it with freshwater and make sure it all works so far. Then drain it and fill it again with saltwater. But I want so badly to skip the freshwater phase... But that would be rushing it. I'm just glad all the valves that are important are new gate valves and the are a number of unions as well, so taking it apart shouldn't be a big deal. I even prepped a 2nd pump with some pvc fittings so the old one can just disconnect at the union and a new one can slip right in it's place, reconnect the union and start the new pump!

I'll take some pics tomorrow while I'm filling it. I'd do it now but I'm tired and dinner is just about ready... at 8:00pm!

[Ron Reefman]

Finally, photos!

Here is the plumbing in the sump. There is finish work still to do, but the main system (DT and sump) is ready to get wet. The chiller and display refugium will get finished later.

From left to right: there are 2 filter socks (so I can change them less) and the drain is split to both socks. Then the skimmer from CadLight. The green hose is the emergency overflow drain. The ball valve directly in front of that is for a hose to pump water out of the system for doing water changes or filling a 5g bucket when selling big corals. The first gate valve is for the Next Reef reactor which is already sitting in the sump. The next gate valve is the flow back to the tank from the sump. The first gate valve past the 'T' above the pump goes to the chiller and the last gate valve will go to the display refugium.