FishTacos Posted February 21, 2010 Share Posted February 21, 2010 Ok, so I have been following NR for the past year, and finaly decided to post my own tank page. I have a Solana 34g thats been up and running for about 15 months. I bought the tank used from a LFS and got a great deal. I still consider myself new to this hobby. My goal is for a SPS tank, I have a few, but remain nervous about their long term ability to sruvive under my care. Wish me luck. Specs: Tank:Solana 34g Stand: Solana Protein skimmer: Tunze 9002 Return pump: Stock Lighting: Sunpod 20" 250w with 6 RB XREs (upgraded from disco ball 2/10) Circulation: 2 koralia nanos and a K2 Heater: 150W AquaClear Filtration: chamber 1, protein skimmer; chamber 2, phosguard/chemipure, chamber 3, return pump Lid: Coustom mesh lid (lost some jumpers) Maintance: Water Changes: Weekly 5g water change with DDH20 salt, RO/DI water Feeding: Few pellets for fish nightly. 2 times weekly frozen brine shrimp Dosing: brightwell 2 part (6cc each nightly) Cooling: Azoo fans Top off: autotoppoff.com Fish/inverts: Pair Black Ocellaris Coral: torch coral Purple tip frogspawn Purple mushrooms Orange Ricordea Eagles Eye Zoas Red Montipora Green Montipora with blue polyps Neon Green Acopora Blue Bottlebrush Acropora soul searcher favia nuclear dragons eyes Nuclear green zoa Maxima clam Dreasa clam Near future plans: MP10 Media reactor eventually pumps for dosing. Link to comment
Arkayology Posted February 21, 2010 Share Posted February 21, 2010 Not bad. A clam would really look cool in there. How long have you have that diamond goby? How is it doing in there? Link to comment
FishTacos Posted February 21, 2010 Author Share Posted February 21, 2010 Not bad. A clam would really look cool in there. How long have you have that diamond goby? How is it doing in there? got the goby about a month ago, he is doing well. My only concern is that when I first got him he would make the water cloudy with all his digging, but that is calming down with time. Previously had a red spot blenny to stir the sand but he jumped. IMO having a net top is the way to go. Link to comment
FishTacos Posted February 22, 2010 Author Share Posted February 22, 2010 Can someone help ID this SPS I picked up at the LFS yesterday, forgot to ask what it was called. Link to comment
FishTacos Posted April 13, 2010 Author Share Posted April 13, 2010 Just an update on my tank. Several new corals from Marine Aquarium Expo this past weekend!!! Link to comment
shan Posted April 13, 2010 Share Posted April 13, 2010 nice tank!!! watch out for clam addiction!!! Link to comment
FishTacos Posted September 30, 2010 Author Share Posted September 30, 2010 Well to update my tank, livestock is about the same, minimal growth over the past sevearl months. I am strugling with SPS and don't know why. Although test kits say 0ppm on phos, this may be the culprit. I am currently using phosguard in a filter bag in my middle chamber. i will next try a phos reactor to see if this helps. I do get some GHA. I did complete my LED build for solana today and added 6 cree XRE RBs (copied evil's design). These are really really blue. I think i would have done 4 blue and 2 white if i could do it over again. Despite this, these RBs add SO much to the tank. Link to comment
FishTacos Posted October 20, 2010 Author Share Posted October 20, 2010 After an avalanche earlier this week, the tank has been re-aquascaped. There are some FTS here but these looke washed out with blue, can't figure out how to make the colors more realistic. I recently switched from Brightwell salt to DD H2O, we'll see how things work out. Next updates are an MP10 as my circulation is not good enough. I am also looking into a BRS media reactor and running GFO (opinions welcome) Link to comment
d'Espresso Posted October 20, 2010 Share Posted October 20, 2010 I miss your old aqua scape but the new is pretty cool. Those nucs are sweet! Link to comment
kevantheman35 Posted November 11, 2010 Share Posted November 11, 2010 Hey man, I'm lovin the black and white clowns makes me want some bad. I'm looking into doing something similar for l.e.d actinics, was it very hard to put together? how much did it cost you? Also I see you have a yellow clown goby, i have been trying to catch mine for a month because it was killing all my sps, you might keep your eye on him since you said you have been having probs. Mine rubs up against them over and over at night till they just wither away. Link to comment
FishTacos Posted November 15, 2010 Author Share Posted November 15, 2010 Hey man, I'm lovin the black and white clowns makes me want some bad. I'm looking into doing something similar for l.e.d actinics, was it very hard to put together? how much did it cost you?Also I see you have a yellow clown goby, i have been trying to catch mine for a month because it was killing all my sps, you might keep your eye on him since you said you have been having probs. Mine rubs up against them over and over at night till they just wither away. PM me if you need help with the LEDs, they were very hard to figure out. My goby had an accident so we'll see how the SPS do now. I do really love my BW clowns but one problem is that they do not add color to the tank. Link to comment
FishTacos Posted January 21, 2011 Author Share Posted January 21, 2011 So update to the tank Specs: Salt DD H2O, weekly 5 gallon change Dose daily with about 10cc reefcode A/B from brightwell aquatics Lights Sunpod 250W phonex 14K bulb with 6 RB LED add on Circulation Vortech MP10, stock return, 1 K nanos BRS reactor with GFO Tunze 9002 skimmer Run chemipure in back Corals are still not "colored up". All params are fine, SG 1.025, alk 10, phosphate on Seachem reads 0.05 (which is as low as I get with this test even with fresh DI water). Any recs about how to color up coarls? I think my lighting is strong enough. Maybe another MP10? Link to comment
FishTacos Posted February 1, 2011 Author Share Posted February 1, 2011 So took someone's advice and tried taking pics with iphone 4G cam with HDR mode on. IMO works alot better than my point and shoot cam. These were with actinics on, I think it still looks too blue. Ill have to try again with actinics off. Link to comment
FishTacos Posted August 13, 2011 Author Share Posted August 13, 2011 New pic update (sorry about the bad quatlity iphone pics. New scape and new DIY stand. Just moved the tank from the bedroom to the livingroom. Still working hard at this hobby aiming for an SPS tank. Still cannot get my SPS to really survive in the long run and can never get good growth, color, PE. Updated equipment/maintanance: Sunpod 250W phoenix 14K w 6 DIY cree RBs drews dosing pumps w BRS 2 part 20cc each per day BRS phos reactor MP10 Currently using brightwell salt changing 5 gallons each week. chemipure in chamber 2 tunze 9002 skimmer Autotoppoff.com ATO want to add a second MP10 when i can afford it and am thinking about changing out the stock sunpod external balast for a new one. Link to comment
BOMBreef Posted August 13, 2011 Share Posted August 13, 2011 Clean tank Fish! The growth on your monti cap is great that piece really looks good. Seems odd that you aren't able to grow SPS with all that equipment to keep your water stable. As soon as I got my doser my SPS took off! Link to comment
FishTacos Posted August 13, 2011 Author Share Posted August 13, 2011 Clean tank Fish! The growth on your monti cap is great that piece really looks good. Seems odd that you aren't able to grow SPS with all that equipment to keep your water stable. As soon as I got my doser my SPS took off! Yeah, I am at the point where I dont know what else to buy to help with my tank. I did make a very noob error recently after 2.5 years of having this tank (I had been using a cheepo float type SG meter and just got a marinedepot refractometer; my SG has been above 1.025 this whole time and is now correct.) Hopefully that will help. My red monte is the only thing that has survived from the begining. I bought it as a 1" frag, but it still wont color up for me. I am hoping that between the SG fix and the dosing pumps things will finally start working out for me. I look at the TOTM pics (ie podpimp) and realize i have a long way to go. Link to comment
FishTacos Posted October 9, 2011 Author Share Posted October 9, 2011 Been doing some upgrades to my tank and thought I would provide an update of my overall system. Got the Hanna phosphate checker and love it, well worth the money. Going to get the Alk tester as well. I have very difficult time with color changes and have to ask my girlfriend to do all my testing, so the Hanna checker will make her very happy). Also just got a used Deltec MCE600 and am interested to see how it does in my tank. I have fussed around with the Tunze for a long time now and have never been happy with its performance. My red Monte is really taking off and I will need to frag it soon (for the first time), will be looking for local buyers in LA for pick up. PM me if interested, will sell for very reasonable prices. Specs: Tank:Solana 34g Stand: DIY Protein skimmer: Deltec MCE600 added 10/9/11 (replaced my Tunze 9002) Return pump: Stock Lighting: Sunpod 20" 250w with 6 RB XREs (upgraded from disco ball 2/10) Circulation: MP10, a second one is in the mail!! Heater: 150W AquaClear Filtration media: Chemipure in chamber 2 and ROWA phos in BRS reactor Maintance: Water Changes: Weekly 5g water change currently using brightwell aquatics salt Feeding: Few pellets for fish nightly for the clowns Dosing: BRS calc/alk via drews dosing pumps (about 30cc each daily), magnesium by hand once every 3-4 weeks. 5cc salifert amino acid weekly (started 10/10) Cooling: Azoo fan Top off: autotoppoff.com Fish/inverts: Pair Black Ocellaris Have a few snails and crabs. Had baught a CUC from reefcleaners.org, but most have either crawaled out of the tank and died on the floor or have just died off. Blue maxama Derasa clam Coral: Purple tip frogspawn Purple mushrooms Orange Ricordea Red Montipora soul searcher favia nuclear dragons eyes Nuclear green zoa Few misc SPS Will post pics soon. Link to comment
FishTacos Posted October 11, 2011 Author Share Posted October 11, 2011 Equipment closet Link to comment
FishTacos Posted October 28, 2011 Author Share Posted October 28, 2011 11/2011 12/2009 Link to comment
FishTacos Posted November 5, 2011 Author Share Posted November 5, 2011 New update!! I got my second MP10 in and am now running two MP10wES. I have one set up on each side of the tank and am running them on anti-sync mode. Should be plenty of flow now for my SPS. Also just got a dendros. Have it placed in a shady part of the tank below an overhang with little flow. He stays closed pretty much all of the time. I try to get him out with some oyster feast spot feeds. He will come out for about 30 minutes and than hide again. Any recs? Pics soon. Link to comment
FishTacos Posted January 9, 2012 Author Share Posted January 9, 2012 Just added a reef keeper lite level 3 to the system. Working well so far. This allowed me to add a Mg dosing pump as my Mg is always low. I think I may change salt. I am now using brightwell neomarine salt and the mixed calc/mg levels are super low. Link to comment
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