Toadpapa Posted September 1, 2020 Share Posted September 1, 2020 (edited) First a little background. My son is the one driving this project, when he was around 7 years old he found a love of cuttlefish, he is now 18. Recently found a bit of his art from age 7 where you can see his love for cuttlefish. Last year we were lucky that we got to go to the Monterey Bay aquarium and get a behinds the scene tour of the cuttlefish breeding program. Met a lot of great people who gave us email addresses and knowledge and my son came home saying Poppa I would like to try to raise cuttlefish now. So we have no background in fish, I used to raise poison dart frogs so fish are totally out of my wheel house so we both started learning together. First step build a salt water mixing station. Never done any sort of plumbing before, were intimidated as heck to try it but thanks to @SuncrestReef build he listed out all the parts he used and really made idiot proof. Next we started researching the different options of aquariums. We got a NIB nano and quickly set that up and started learning the ins and outs of water chemistry and cycling and all that. We thought we were going to go red sea 425 but started looking around a bit more. Had a look at the neptoniam and the waterbox but then we saw a few videos on the cade. Was scary to buy something online and something we didnt see in person but we said what the heck and bought one from AlgaeBarn, which I must say was easy peasy and were great to work with. Shipping was quick, one week and we got the cade this morning. It comes packaged like a tank both stand and tank and I didnt have any fear that anything was damaged in shipping. And wow are these things heavy. Getting them into the house was a family effort and anything bigger we couldn't have done it. Next post will be all the equipment, which is arriving in the next week. The only thing we haven't picked out yet are the lights we are going to use. Talk about analysis paralysis. In any case we are excited to be undertaking this journey together. Edited September 1, 2020 by Toadpapa 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lazyreefer Posted September 2, 2020 Share Posted September 2, 2020 Nice I will be following along I’m sure it will be an amazing time getting that going! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
xxkenny90xx Posted September 2, 2020 Share Posted September 2, 2020 Looks great! Keep the pics coming 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
half-astronaut Posted September 2, 2020 Share Posted September 2, 2020 (edited) OK, I've been waiting YEARS to raise cuttlefish. I got a couple cuttlefish for a neuroelectrophysiology lab project I did in college back in the aughts and it got me hooked on reefs. I got specimens from the UT medical branch in Galveston where they raised cuttlefish for research only. Over generations they got bigger and longer lived individuals, but they really only live a year and a half in the wild. Unfortunately, they really can't be raised in a traditional tank, they need a soft-sided tank like an above ground pool with a frame kinda thing. Otherwise when they get spooked they jet into the wall and get "butt burn" and usually die from an infection. You're better off with octopus, but ya better have a good lid. Tank looks sweet! Edited September 2, 2020 by half-astronaut 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CuttleFishandCoral Posted September 3, 2020 Share Posted September 3, 2020 I'm really excited about these tanks. Looking forward to the build! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Toadpapa Posted September 4, 2020 Author Share Posted September 4, 2020 (edited) Getting more and more excited as equipment arrives. Still not sure on what sort of light we will use. And figuring out where to put the uv is a bit daunting. Also thankful that my son is ocd and really enjoys running the cables and stuff cause I'd just throw it all in a heap with a few zip ties hah Edited September 4, 2020 by Toadpapa 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spectra Posted September 4, 2020 Share Posted September 4, 2020 Looks great and as for a light dont go Red Sea.................... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bboileau92 Posted September 5, 2020 Share Posted September 5, 2020 Getting more and more excited as equipment arrives. Still not sure on what sort of light we will use. And figuring out where to put the uv is a bit daunting. Also thankful that my son is ocd and really enjoys running the cables and stuff cause I'd just throw it all in a heap with a few zip ties hahhttp://pnwmas.org.s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/monthly_2020_09/20200903_165510.thumb.jpg.929bbac4848aec7420e6d1e74bd31526.jpghttp://pnwmas.org.s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/monthly_2020_09/20200903_175333.thumb.jpg.de4d6c4907daf8fac060d67a702a6b85.jpghttp://pnwmas.org.s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/monthly_2020_09/20200902_101819.thumb.jpg.7716e5f1dba8fbd41870e6a1a9dd4b3b.jpghttp://pnwmas.org.s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/monthly_2020_09/15991822631117374075420737512976.thumb.jpg.a388596a09ba14b5b4f99c39c6d34b66.jpgThat looks awesome. How do you plan to use the apex vs. the cade outlets?Sent from my SM-G973U using Tapatalk 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Toadpapa Posted September 5, 2020 Author Share Posted September 5, 2020 Hah we went back and forth about the Apex power brick. Think we settled on Apex stuff or things Apex can control will plug into that and everything else into the cade plugs. But we really are just making it up as we go heh. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SuncrestReef Posted September 5, 2020 Share Posted September 5, 2020 1 hour ago, Toadpapa said: Hah we went back and forth about the Apex power brick. Think we settled on Apex stuff or things Apex can control will plug into that and everything else into the cade plugs. But we really are just making it up as we go heh. Feel free to hit me up with any Apex questions. That's sort of my thing around here... 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Toadpapa Posted September 5, 2020 Author Share Posted September 5, 2020 Oh I’ve been reading your stuff on reef2reef. Great stuff. Thanks for the offer! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bboileau92 Posted September 19, 2020 Share Posted September 19, 2020 Random question...In the small media reactor cube section, if you remove all of the cubes, are there still baffles remaining, or would it be an open chamber at that point? Sent from my SM-G973U using Tapatalk Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Toadpapa Posted October 13, 2020 Author Share Posted October 13, 2020 Missed this question. Still baffles so if you remove those, which we will probably do, there is a small chamber Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Toadpapa Posted October 13, 2020 Author Share Posted October 13, 2020 Had to wait for a few orders but we are dangerously close to putting water in. Everything is plumbed and cables and everything are nice and neat. One gotcha is the light has to come out from the wall about 4 inches. So tomorrownwill paint a couple 4x4's and attaching them to the studs and attaching the lights to them. One step forward and one back hah 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sroberts Posted October 13, 2020 Share Posted October 13, 2020 A really great looking setup. Keep up the good work. I will look forward to seeing how it progresses. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
obrien.david.j Posted October 13, 2020 Share Posted October 13, 2020 5 hours ago, Toadpapa said: One gotcha is the light has to come out from the wall about 4 inches. So tomorrownwill paint a couple 4x4's and attaching them to the studs and attaching the lights to them. One step forward and one back hah If you want something nicer than 4x4's sticking out, checkout making a strong light rack using 8020 parts. (8020.net, it's what I built mine out of) Checkout this video for the basic idea: 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Toadpapa Posted October 17, 2020 Author Share Posted October 17, 2020 (edited) Water is in. Lesson learned check the over flow connections first by putting a little water in there first as it will alleviate the panic the sets in when a connection leaks. We won't do that again hah. Connor has plans on covering the gray cement on his rock structure up not sure how but we will see. He might not even care. Next the long wait for cycling and him learning how to program the Apex stuff. Edited October 17, 2020 by Toadpapa 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
xxkenny90xx Posted October 17, 2020 Share Posted October 17, 2020 Led strips around the top of the stand... Genius! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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