My cadlights 8g nano

[plankton]

So I wanted to make a sleek looking minimalistic setup, and I think I achieved it:

Lights Custom LED Lamp, bridgelux 3 watt each:6 whites, 8 blue, 1 red, 1 purple.
Skimmer: no skimmer
Tank Cadlights mini 8g
Filtration: Fiji Live Rock, planning to do weekly water changes of 25% with minimum bio load
Sand:Fiji Pink
Stand: custom made by me and a friend.
ATO: custom made with Aqualifter pump
Other equipment: KORALIA 2

white lights only:

http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y131/avillax/IMG_3149.jpg
http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y131/avillax/IMG_3150.jpg
http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y131/avillax/IMG_3152-1.jpg

All lights on:

http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y131/avillax/IMG_3158.jpg

Look at the beautiful color combination:

http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y131/avillax/IMG_3163-1.jpg



Now with LR:

All lights on:

http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y131/avillax/IMG_3167.jpg

4 blue, 1 purple:

http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y131/avillax/IMG_3170.jpg
http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y131/avillax/IMG_3173.jpg
http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y131/avillax/IMG_3179.jpg
http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y131/avillax/IMG_3180.jpg
http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y131/avillax/IMG_3208.jpg
http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y131/avillax/IMG_3210.jpg
http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y131/avillax/IMG_3215.jpg

Moon lights:

http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y131/avillax/IMG_3204.jpg

Detail of my DIY ATO (by the way, I bought the sensor on ebay for $4 including shipping, but the floater is too small and thus not sensitive enough for a nano, if you know the link where I can buy one with a bigger floater for less than $10 please send the link.
http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y131/avillax/IMG_3166.jpg

Comments appreciated. Thank you.

[50 cube]

very nice but the lights seem kind of high, are they dimmable?

[plankton]

The ballast is non-dimmable but can get one if I want to, they're about 16" above the tank, it looks aesthetically nice, I think is enough light though, since it would have been just fine with 8 LEDs for this size of tank, they're really bright.

[50 cube]

as long as you like it! just seems like a ton of light spillage

[plankton]

Well I actually re measured the distance and it's 13" so its ok, I actually think 16 3-watt LEDs are more than enough for this tank, and the color blending looks great, when you get the lights too close then you see a lot of spotting, I used to have that with a previous setup that had 60 degree lenses, and I hated the light effect.

[plankton]

Update, it's been running for 4 months now, bought a male Mackosker's wrasse beautiful and doing excellent.

Have some SPS such as :

- purple cap

- tri color acro

- yongei acro

-blue stag

- blue thunder acro

- sunset monti

- superman monti

- montezuma's revenge zoas

http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y131/avillax/IMG_3296_zpsa40366e8.jpg

http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y131/avillax/IMG_3317_zpse80f696d.jpg

http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y131/avillax/IMG_3293_zps4e98b8c3.jpg

http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y131/avillax/IMG_3292_zps5a1087e8.jpg

http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y131/avillax/IMG_3290_zps8970c867.jpg

http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y131/avillax/IMG_3289_zpsd74539af.jpg

Corals seems to be browning out, think it might have to do with me lowering the lamp to about 8" from water level, I've raised it again to about 13" today to see what happens, will prob start adding Part A and B and want to try sea water that I can get from Scripps, CA when I go surfing. Looking to improve coloration. Enjoy.

[ChouDawg]

Coloring out is usually a sign of excess nutrients if you have ample lighting and water flow, SPS in ultra low nutrient systems will be the most colorful. Looks like you ended up not selling the tank and setting it up after all. Looks great, very sleek for sure.

Here's the float switch I added to my existing RKL ATO, it looks similar to the one you have though, the tiny ones should be more sensitive if anything to water levels than a bigger one.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0056EWADA/ref=ox_sc_sfl_title_3?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=A1THAZDOWP300U

[plankton]

Are you the guy who came check it out when I was planning to sell it?, hehe, yeah I changed my mind, way too cheap for good good it was, people missed out.

I think that's exactly the one I bought, but didn't work. The small size just makes it really unstable, the one I burned before that was twice the size and worked like a charm, the bigger the better in nanos, but I haven't been able to find that size online..

I think my browning out problem has more to do with the lights, things started browning out when the fish was gone, so nothing was contributing to add nutrients. I've just raised the lamps again, and adding kent nano part a part b. And pray for improvements, I wanted to go scripps water but several people have warned me it does have its fair share of nutrients causing algae.

[ChouDawg]

Oh, is your issue that the float switch is too sensitive? Cause that's an issue I had as well, I made my own slosh guard and it works fine now.

[plankton]

Well not too sensitive, more like the tank needed to lose a lot of water for the switch to turn on and then it wouldn't turn off until the water was about to pour out. On the other hand when I had the floater that was twice the size then I would do experiments in which I would take out a bit of water with a glass and it would immediately turn on, then added the water back and would turn off, it was working like a charm, the secret was a floater which was bigger, it was this one: http://www.grainger.com.mx/articulos.php?I_ee=1&L_sessionCode=9a7n6ftx8fq&I_sessionId=12774&S_itemCode=2A554 it's 1.5" in diameter. I had bought that one in Mexico, if you know where can I get one that size in here please tell me, that size works great.

[ChouDawg]

Weird, I must've got lucky then, mine work fine.

Here's the Madison M8000 you linked to, but it looks like it's 1" not 1.5"

http://www.amazon.com/Madison-M8000-Miniature-Polypropylene-Pressure/dp/B00909404Y

McMaster-Carr up in LA has a large selection of float switches as well

http://www.mcmaster.com/#liquid-level-switches/=lew2fl

[plankton]

It's true, it's about 1" and I did find the same model: http://www.grainger.com/Grainger/MADISON-Switch-2A554?Pid=search

the trick is that since it's bigger it floats more therefore keeps better track of the waterline. When smaller it floats less and thus does not react quick to changes. I'm ordering it.

[Sandbags]

Bro this is a sweet nano. I've always liked cad lights tanks. It's just I've heard really bad news about their shipping and customer service. On nano reefs some guy got the tank 4 or more times and it was cracked each time. But lucky you you got a good one! Haha. What filtration are you running?

[plankton]

Thanks bro, yeah cadlights shipping and costumer service sux, in my case the tank arrived in good shape but the splashguard was totally cracked and had to call them and took them like a week to decided on finally sending me a new one. I lost a few of the splashguard clip holders and have never been able to buy some replacements on the internet, the only way to do so is calling them, but I'm too lazy about dealing with their customer service.

As far as filtration goes, I only use waterflow and weekly water changes of 20%.

[Sandbags]

Nice water changes are good enough for a nano of that size! Well for sps maybe some row-a-phos and purigen or chemipure elite. My 16g is running rowaphos, chemipure, and filter floss. Works great.. Along with water changes:D what I did for my clips is I got those plastic black binder clips took the metal off.. Glued some rubber on the top of the clip and set it on the tank walls. Ghetto but works:P

[Sandbags]

Oh and how's the McCoskers? I was thinking of getting one in my 8g

[x3thelast]

How much and what are you feeding the tank? My advice would be to do your heaviest feeding and then do a massive water change hours later when everything is nice and full. I change about 50+% in my 5 gallon.

Other than that, this tank is coming along very well. Looking forward to more :)


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