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Dutch27's Solana build/mod


dutch27

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So here's some quick backstory on myself in the salt side of the hobby. Started a JBJ NC24 back in February, now I'm an addict, with no space to go big (some day...). So I got inspired by someone's build in my local club on a 70g cube and decided to do something similar but with a smaller cube. Long story short, I got a great deal on a Solana and hatched my build from there. Currently the disco ball light is lighting my JBJ.

 

In my time reefing so far I've learned the importanct of nutrient control, I've also learned I love feeding my LPS and fish, so nutrient control is a bit tough for me, even with weekly WCs. So I'm hoping to build a system that will be more than adequate for the feeding I like to do and at the same time allow me to add some SPS and have a mixed reef.

 

In short I'm installing an external overflow, removing the chambers, custom sump and over the top return probably using the stock 3/4" locline with the "Y".

 

Here we go, hope you tag along and enjoy the ride.

 

Things to do:

Remove rear chambers

Cut notch in back of tank for external overflow box

Build overflow box/Durso

Build custom acrylic sump to fit in stand

Face back pane with black acrylic, cut weir for overflow

Plumb system

 

Equipment:

Solana 150watt pendant (possible upgrade long term)

Octopus NWB 110 Skimmer

Vortech MP20

Mag 7 return pump

 

So far I have removed the chambers, started building the sump (finish it next week) and pieced together the Durso. I'll be ordering the glass for the overflow soon and this weekend I may notch the tank. The notch is the scary part, but I've contacted Solana and got two seperate responses that the glass is not tempered and should be fine.

 

I'm going slow and my hope is to have this build finished and everything moved over to it around Jan.

 

Here's some pics of the removal of the chambers. It was extremely easy, popped right off. Used a utility knife to get behind the acrylic to get it started, then used a flat head screwdriver to pop it all off.

 

Before:

DSC01319.jpg

 

After:

DSC01320.jpg

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DSC01322.jpg

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  • 2 weeks later...

Some progress pics for anyone that may be looking, last week I finished the sump. Pics below. Probably going to use some egg crate to make a media rack in the return chamber, and yeah I know, space is tight. :P

 

Before adding the chambers I filled the sump to the top and it didn't fall apart or leak, so that was a relief.

 

Turned out I had enough room to get the skimmer in the stand and be able to remove the collection cup! Didn't think I would, thought I would be removing the bottom from the drawer for space.

 

MP20 arrived last week and is currently in my JBJ 24g. I love the random movement it creates with the reef crest mode, and it blew all kinds of crap off some rocks. Loving this thing so far.

 

Tank is a work-in-progress, should be finishing up the cutting/drilling this week. Ended up getting a small crack in the tank while cutting the notch, but essentially drilled a hole at the bottom of the crack to stop the spreading and think all is well. Will find out later this week when I wet test the tank.

 

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  • 2 weeks later...
Well i've never seen that done to a Solana until now :o

 

That's part of what I like about this... granted it would have been with a custom cube if a great deal on the Solana hadn't popped up.

 

Anyway, quick updates for anybody looking. Got some rock from bulk reef supply. Eco rox Fiji and shelf. Sent me some pretty nice stuff, pleased with it overall. Sent me more weight than I ordered, and I over ordered to start to make sure I had options when putting the scape together. Have a general plan for that tho that involves two shelves, we'll see how it pans out.

 

I notched the tank and built the overflow box, but haven't put it together yet as I need to find a good way to cut slots in my acrylic backing. Anybody have thoughts? I find a dremel routing bit sucks on acrylic, so far my best test case has been drill holes at either end of the slot, cut with a cutting wheel between and use a high speed cutting bit for finishing work.

 

Here's some of the rock:

DSC01354.jpg

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And the external box:

DSC01353.jpg

 

Have the rock curing in my kitchen right now, seeded with rock from my nano, hopefully it'll go somewhat quick.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Just thought I'd give it a bump and a small update.

 

Finished all the tank mods, rock is almost completely cured, rest of the plumbing is being shipped (had to order the locline stuff). Hope to have the plumbing finished and installed in a couple weeks and make the move!

 

Painted the overflow box black, and will be painting all my plumbing black as well since it'll be exposed with the tank's final resting place.

 

Cut the slots in the acrylic with a trim router using a carbide bit:

 

DSC01361.jpg

 

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In case anyone is wondering - the CO2 tank is for my next project - a new kegerator for my homebrew, not a calcium reactor. :P

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Great work! what is your tank size and skimmer using? Look very similar with mine. :)

 

Thanks!

 

I'm assuming you mean the sump?

 

The sump is 16"x16"x14", will hold 10" of water. I'm using an octopus 110 for a skimmer, been using it with my curing rock to break it in, and it's been pulling some good stuff. So far I'm pretty happy with it.

 

The tank itself is 20"x20"x20", 34g Solana. So total system volume should end up around 44g.

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  • 2 weeks later...
Is this guy still around? I would of loved to see that thank set up and running. :(

 

Lol, I'm definitely still around. Haven't had any major updates.

 

So far my plumbing is finished, but I'm painting it up and siliconing the joints. I literally just did a 100% WC on my cured rock because the water was yellow due to the all the dust and whatnot I didn't clean off before curing it. May have pumped a few gallons of water onto my floor during the process. :angry:

 

All I have left to do is cut some holes in the sides of the stand to install the fans I got. Trying to find a good way to do it. I don't have a hole saw, and the dremel is too tough to cut a circle with. Someone local might let me bring the stand by and use a jig saw, but I just bought a new cutting tool for my dremel that I'm going to take some test runs with.

 

I'll try to take some new pics of the parts soon and post them up. My goal is to have it running xmas weekend, all I'm waiting on is the cut-outs for the fans.

 

I realized today I have wwaaaaayyyyy too much rock, and my original aquascape ideas aren't working out, so it's gonna be alot of trying to get it right. Gonna be interesting trying to get enough water mixed up to make the switch and still keep my JBJ running so the rock in it doesn't die as I plan on selling it.

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Got it up and running today! I didn't document with as many pictures as I would have liked, but I found the tub I had my rock curing in was leaking so myself and my helper had to work fast to get that tub (and it's 30 or so gallons of water) emptied out. At one point I had my JBJ, the Solana, a 10g, and a 20g rubbermaid all with water, pumps and heaters. It was a complete mess, my apartment is still trying to recover from the chaos of this endeavor today.

 

Not really sure how it happened, but somehow I seem to have misplaced one of my neon gobies. :o Searched all my bins (still have two things of rock going), can't find it anywhere.

 

Here's some pics, it's still cloudy, but hopefully I can get more pics in the morning.

 

Cloudy FTS from the front, like the rock so far, but thinking I should try and go higher on the left side, opinions welcome, I have alot more rock the play with:

ftsps.jpg

 

Side shot, going to try and rotate that hammer a bit, it's at an awkward angle from the front:

sideshotps.jpg

 

Sump in action, running that octopus 110 at max water depth (10"), gonna wait and see how it runs. If I have to raise it I'll end up losing the drawer, and I'm planning on using that to house a gravity ATO. The holes in the side are for fans I need to install yet.:

 

DSC01407.jpg

 

The plumbing:

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While setting it up I had a visit from someone I was buying some corals from. Got some great zoos (blue shurikens and a bunch more I can't name right now) and my big zoo rock just needs to fill itself in. Also got a small red & orange blasto frag.

 

Will post more pics when it all clears up. I also had to do some work on the pendant as it's designed to be centered to the tank with the false walls in, so I had to try and get it centered to the tank without the false walls.

 

On my list right now for additions (in a month or so when it settles in):

 

ORA green birdsnest

Blue Millepora

Purple Bonzai Acro

Monti Caps - shooting for orange and red, or purple, or bright green... haha

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  • 2 weeks later...

Had some serious microbubble issues. Then I turned the return pump around so the bubbles from the waterfall caused when the level drops in the return wouldn't get into the pump.... no more bubble issues.

 

I added this guy, Bicolor Blenny, wanted some shots of him in the tank, but he hangs out in areas tough to shoot.

blenny.jpg

 

Most the stuff in the bottom right hand side of the tank shots above are coming out for some incoming blasto colonies I'm hoping to get next week.

 

Tried a small Millepora frag, didn't go so well. Bag arrived cold to the touch with tissue loss on the frag, no it's more or less just a hard white thing glue to my rocks. I'll leave it in there tho for kicks. All my LPS seem to love the new tank.

 

Here are some random shots of livestock.

 

Yuma:

yuma.jpg

 

Micro brittle:

microbrittle.jpg

 

Blasto Wellsi (slightly PS enhanced):

blasto.jpg

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  • 4 weeks later...

Almost forgot about this thread... let's get it bumped and going on.

 

Redid the 'scape after putting a PAR meter in the tank. This pendant's reflector turns it into a spotlight basically. Switched from an old Coralife 20k to a Phoenix 14k, down the road I'm going to switch to a Lumenbright Mini 250w DE pendant to get better coverage and be less restricted with SPS placements as I get deeper into them.

 

Here's an onslaught of pics.

 

New 'scape:

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My first acro - coming along nice. Arrived bleached two weeks ago.

acro2.jpg

acro1.jpg

 

LPS:

duncan1.jpg

duncan2.jpg

blastosps.jpg

lpsgarden.jpg

blastoking.jpg

 

Got a fuge light, and ordered some Macros - fuge will be viewable behind the glass panel of the Solana stand. Going to start by stocking it with Ulva and Red Gracilaria. I stocked it with some rock from my old JBJ, and managed to get a whole bunch of amphipods from my old rock to seed it. It's got pods crawling all over the place now.

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  • 4 weeks later...

Thanks guys. The pic of the frag I have marked as "frag from local reefer" really does it no justice. The tips are a fantastic blue. I'll have to try and get a better shot.

 

In the meantime, here's a shot of my purple tipped hammer I took the other day.

 

DSC01587ps.jpg

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i almost did the same thing here but wow that's a great job on the work you did. i should try to do this to one day. My tank is empty and sitting in the corner now. can we get more detail of your top back and bottom filteration? thanks

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can we get more detail of your top back and bottom filteration? thanks

 

I'm assuming by filtration you mean the guts of my overflow, plumbing, sump etc? I'll try to get some detailed pics and post up some more info on the details of how it all works together.

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I'm assuming by filtration you mean the guts of my overflow, plumbing, sump etc? I'll try to get some detailed pics and post up some more info on the details of how it all works together.

 

Alright, I hope this answers your question(s), here's some pics and more detailed info on the system.

 

First off, I had to get rid of the slotted overflow, it didn't provide enough area to match the return pump and I had the return dialed almost all the way down. Return pump is a Mag 7, does about 450gph at the head I have it at.

 

Overflow is a simple Durso pipe, design came from his website. I sized it so it's just the top elbow and then the reducer right into a 1" bulkhead. The overflow box is only about 7"x3"(ish) and I believe around 6"-7" deep. The overflow box is from glass I had custom cut at a local glass shop, 1/4" thick, painted black with some krylon fusion. I drilled the hole for the bulkhead with the help of my local club.

 

DSC01612.jpg

 

From there it goes down a 1" pipe, through two 45 degree bends into the sump.

 

DSC01613.jpg

 

I had issues with bubbles from the intake making the through the sump and into my return and therefore my display. I solved this in a two-fold solution. First, I turned the pump around so the intake was facing away from the water coming in from the fuge. That way the bubbles wouldn't immediately be sucked into the pump. This was a huge help.

 

The other was to take a large pipe (6" diameter PVC) and cut a piece out of the bottom. I cut a 1" high slot halfway around the pipe and put my inlet pipe from the overflow into this pipe. I then made sure to turn it so the slot (where the water can outlet into the sump) was facing the back of the sump to maximize any travel distance the bubbles had. Now.. no bubble issues in the display.

 

DSC01620.jpg

 

The intake chamber is where the skimmer sits. Yesterday I stacked spare acrylic to get it higher out of the water, and took the bottom out of the drawer. The skimmer is already creating more foam. Eventually I'm going to take some egg crate and PVC and just build a shelf so it's cleaner. My fuge chamber currently has 3 macros in it (thanks Zook!) along with a few pieces of rock.

 

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The light is a small 9" coralife, 18 watts total. One 10k and one 6500k lamp. So far so good, most of these macro is growing well.

 

From the fuge it's off to the mag 7, which goes flexible 1/2" > hard plumbed 1/2" PVC > over the top return. Return is locline, I used a "Y" fitting and split it into two lines. Biggest problem I have is keeping it exactly where I want. Haven't figured out how to completely secure it yet.

 

DSC01614.jpg

 

Only other issue I had to deal with was the light. The disco ball is intended to light the front of the tank because the back 4" is supposed to be a false wall/chambers. So with some zip ties I got it as centered as possible to the tank w/o the false walls (thanks to Zook for that idea too). Long term when I can I want to swap the disco ball out for a Lumen Bright Mini, 250 watt DE pendant.

 

DSC01411.jpg

 

I also have exhaust fans installed in the sump that eventually I will be hooking up to a controller to hopefully help with temp control. Before that I need to do an ATO system, which I'm currently trying to plan. Will be a bucket, float, aqualifter, and will require a one-way valve to avoid a siphon since my reservoir will sit higher than my sump.

 

Hope that answers your questions d'Espresso! Let me know if there's any other info you want, I'm happy to share.

 

And just for kicks, a DIY Mag Rock I built from a small piece of LR (bad pic). For now it's going to be turned into a zoo rock. With better lighting I may make another one, or use this one, and make it a place for a nice encrusting monti to overtake. Or maybe a chalice now that I think about it....

 

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