25 gallon Cardiff reef build

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severum mama

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Joined
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HN1 and I found an amazing sale price on the Current USA Cardiff Aquarium. It was too good to pass up, so we had to bring it home! We have had nothing but trouble with the hang on overflow on my 29 gallon, so we decided to tear that one down, as well as the 30 gallon cube, and combine them into the Cardiff.

The 29 gallon will be sold, and the 30 gallon will move into the fishroom to become a FW tank.

Here is the first pic of the Cardiff. The tank fits inside the stand when it's all packaged up. You can see the filtration unit that it built into the tank behind a false back. There is even a skimmer and a small gravity-fed top off unit inside!
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This is the tank and stand right after bringing it into the house. This is not the permanent location, but I first had to tear down the 30 cube to get the Cardiff in place.
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The sand has been moved over and I've started to fill with live rock and water.
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And this is shortly after setup. Rock and water are in, and I have placed most of the corals. Water is still a little cloudy. As you can see, we did not buy the available MH pendant light for the tank. We already had this Sunpod 150W MH so there really wasn't any point.
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Left side
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Right side
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First thing the nekkid clown did when he got in here was to go find his "nem"! :p
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We are so excited to get this moved over and be done with the hang on overflow for good. We're loving the look of this tank so far! What do you guys think?
 
Crazy awesome! Man I so want a reef so bad right now haha. Too bad i'm broke :/ lol. You all did a great job. Love the clown btw.
 
awesome aqua scaping, im impressed. +1 for the different tank shape
 
what are you using for a bed? is it black sand?
 
Excellent scaping! I just got a cardiff and want to transfer the rock from my old 29 gal, but most of the rock has those pesky Aiptasia on it. I've tried the Kalkwasser injections into their mouths. Worked on some, but is painstakingly tedious, and a good many never died. Then I tried giving the rock a fresh water bath for 10 min. That did kill off most of the coralline algae growth on it, but the aiptasia came back in about 3 weeks time!

I don't want to contaminate the new Cardiff! any other 1st hand experienced advice? I'm prob gonna do the Kalwasser injections again.... Sigh......
 
Excellent scaping! I just got a cardiff and want to transfer the rock from my old 29 gal, but most of the rock has those pesky Aiptasia on it. I've tried the Kalkwasser injections into their mouths. Worked on some, but is painstakingly tedious, and a good many never died. Then I tried giving the rock a fresh water bath for 10 min. That did kill off most of the coralline algae growth on it, but the aiptasia came back in about 3 weeks time!

I don't want to contaminate the new Cardiff! any other 1st hand experienced advice? I'm prob gonna do the Kalwasser injections again.... Sigh......


We haven't had too many aiptasia problems. When we do see one, I'll kalk it quick. We also have a couple peppermints which may or may not be helping. My only advice is to spot treat what you can and control the feedings so that there is less leftover for the pests to feed on. Congrats on the new tank. I've never really been an all in one fan, but this tank is slick and easy. The little skimmer with it is actually doing a good job.

Welcome to AA! :)
 
Thanks for the advice! I got 3 peppermints and 5 mexican red legged hermits today. Gonna mix up more Kalk tonit and goto town on 'em!

Can you post more pics of ur setup in back and the reefscape again?
 
Be careful not to over due the Kalk treatment as it will raise your PH and you KH if over done.
 
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