• Folks, if you've recently upgraded or renewed your annual club membership but it's still not active, please reach out to the BOD or a moderator. The PayPal system has a slight bug which it doesn't allow it to activate the account on it's own.

CADE Aquariums

tylr9m482

tylr9m482

NJRC Member
Does anyone here run a CADE aquarium? Curious to get some perspective from actual users in the community. I am looking at pulling the trigger on either a Waterbox reef pro 180.5 or a CADE 1500 S2. Currently leaning toward the CADE but there seems to be a much smaller community of tank owners with this company. I've watched a bunch of youtube videos one both, now wanting to heere what you have to say.

Let me know what you all think!
 
Mark_C

Mark_C

Staff member
Officer Emeritus
NJRC Member
Moderator
I have a small Waterbox setup from a couple years back when they started. The skimmer failed and was tossed, the heater failed 'on' in about 3 days and raised the tank to 85 before I caught it, and the included LED has about 6-7 LEDs non-functioning at this point.
Initial plans were to use it as a small frag tank but I didn't trust it, so it became, and still is, a freshwater small plant and mollie tank.
The tank itself seems nicely designed though and has given me zero leakage.
It's like they designed a decent tank, then outsourced all the components to the cheapest bidder, or just went with the cheapest Chinese bulk supplier for the filtering, heating, and return systems.
This was a few years back, and with their big releases I'm guessing they have better quality control, but, personally, I wouldn't pick one up myself after the previous fails, but I'm tainted with an initial bad experience.
 
B

brokereefer

I think CADE aquariums are only now starting to pick up in the US. They're popular in Australia (which is where they're from I think). Check out some of the build threads on R2R. Beautiful looking tanks (though Waterboxes are nice too).
 
tylr9m482

tylr9m482

NJRC Member
From what I can tell CADE has been around in Australia for a while now, 10+ years, and seem to be one of the top aquarium brands there. Seems like about 2 years ago they became available in the US, Algae Barn is the only retailer I am aware of. Really what draws me to CADE over Waterbox right now is the stand, it is very sleek, aluminum and glass, 100% waterproof, which comes preassembled, so no IKEA skills needed! It also comes with a screen top included and their usage of sump space better meets my goals for the way I would want to set up a sump, which means I don't need to go buying an expense sump for a system that already comes with one! Not to mention the already integrated control board and 16 switch energy outlets with toggle switches. I don't see anyone else doing a lot of these things!

I will say they use 15mm glass while Waterbox has a thicker 19mm glass but I feel the 15mm is more than sufficient.

I am not crazy about having the ATO compartment behind the display in the false wall area, but I do think it's cool how they have a line gravity feeding the sump. I'll just need to figure out a fail safe for this design and a way to potentially auto fill the ATO reservoir. I currently have my RODI feeding my ATO container so I never have to worry about filling it! I don't really want to downgrade from that type of convenience.

Again, I'd love to hear everyones views on these two brands, especially pertaining to the 5 foot tanks I'm looking at. Any pros or cons you guys see that I might have missed would be appreciated.
 
tylr9m482

tylr9m482

NJRC Member
I did consider going a route similar to coast to coast with glass cages, but ended up finding I like the finished product of these all inclusive systems better.
 
DangerDave

DangerDave

NJRC Member
That’s cool, but coast to coast and glass cages are nothing alike. that’s like comparing TSM to Petco, just sayin.
 
tylr9m482

tylr9m482

NJRC Member
Fair enough but regardless I am not looking for that style of tank and was more interested to get options on CADE and Waterboxes in this thread. Thank you for the suggestion though. I did check out their website and it does look like quality work!
 
B

brokereefer

Really excited to see your build. Please start a thread. Both of those tanks look amazing and I'd love to see what cool stuff you can do with it.
 
tylr9m482

tylr9m482

NJRC Member
Thanks! Im planning on trying to build a NSA scape, like seen on the BRS youtube video, for a mixed reef. Currently have a running 75 gallon mixed reef that will slowly (hopefully) be getting transfered into the new tank, once I make a final decision and get teh tank and new rock cycled. I'll def be doing a build thread on R2R.
 
N

NickC

I'm a Cade 1500 owner and just started adding livestock to the system. This is my first real system so I'm still learning. The quality of the glass and stand are top notch. The plumbing and sump are on par with red sea. Overall I'm very happy with the tank and would certainly recommend them to others.
20201024_184235.jpg
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top