Khris' 34g Starphire Solana

[bananahands]

My wife and I just bought our first house and I decided to celebrate with a new tank! My previous/first reef tank has been setup since June of last year. It was a 29g so as far as space goes this isn't much of an upgrade but as far as looks goes, this tank is AWESOME.

 

Ok so I won't bore all of you with a bunch of ranting, i'll just give you an equipment and livestock rundown then on with the pictures!

 

Tank: 34g Starphire Solana

Lighting: 150w Sunpod w/ 14k Phoenix bulb.

Circulation: Undecided, for now it will be a couple of koralia 1's but thinking about an MP10

Skimmer: stock

 

 

Livestock that will be moved from the 29g:

-fish: Flame Angel

Black and white Occelaris

Orange Occelaris

 

- Coral:

 

I'll fill this in later. I'm going to re-evaluate my coral selections.

 

 

PICS!!!

 

 

Freshwater test, all is good!

 

Float switch for my autotopoff.com setup (already had this on my 29g)

 

Just after adding sand and rock. I couldn't even see well enough to properly aquascape.

 

Here's what it looks like tonight after the water cleared up a bit and I totally re-did the aquascaping.

 

Not sure if i'm going to add more rock or not. At first it looked a little empty but its growing on me. Besides, that top section should be perfect for a good amount of SPS.

 

I'm working on making the glass in the stand door a little less transparent.

Other then that the tank will be ready to be stocked after a few days and lots of water testing. Roughly half of that rock came from my 29g so hopefully the cycle won't last long. I'm using the stock skimmer and I'm actually pretty happy with it. Its pulling all kinds of stuff out of my water. Its not as loud as I was expecting considering all the complaints about it. I think a diy air intake silencer should quiet it down a lot. I'll report back when I find out, although I'm sure many people have tried it.

 

That's it from here. All suggestions and criticisms, bad or good are welcome.

Thanks,

Khris

[dyer_maker]

Cracked glass lighting panel is the way to go if you want to make the glass less transparent. Lowes or Home Depot.

 

http://www.nano-reef.com/forums/index.php?...4&hl=solana

[bananahands]

Cracked glass lighting panel is the way to go if you want to make the glass less transparent. Lowes or Home Depot.

 

http://www.nano-reef.com/forums/index.php?...4&hl=solana

 

 

Thanks. I'm actually spraying the glass with a "frosted glass" spray paint. Its drying as I type this. I'm really happy with the way it came out.

[bananahands]

Finished up the glass for the stand door. I'm really happy with the way it came out. I think it looks very clean and allows very little to be seen behind the door.

 

 

Here's the spray I used.

[ALNN]

oo nice tank love your scape work too! your fish are gunna love that cave.

[csal1-175]

oo nice tank love your scape work too! your fish are gunna love that cave.

Nice setup ...sprayed my glass as well.

[TAttel]

I used the spray on mine and after a while it starts to flake off, I found the plastic from lowes/depot to be a little too brittle so I just went to a glass shop and had them cut the dimensions it was not that expensive at all.

[bananahands]

Got some new hardware in the mail. I can't wait to try it out! Unfortunately it arrived as I was leaving for work so I can't try it out until tomorrow . Oh well. I'll have some updates soon.

 

[d'Espresso]

Nice new hardware! Can't wait to see it all going!

[roboppe]

Where did you buy the tank? The sunpod isn't being sold anymore and I'd love to get my hands on one.

 

Thanks,

Rob

[bananahands]

I bought the tank at a LFS here in San Diego. The owner told me that Current is no longer making Solanas so he scooped up all he could. I haven't looked to verifiy this.

As for the sunpod I bought it used, locally. They're pretty common here on the boards in the classifieds section but you have to jump on them quickly! They don't last long.

[d'Espresso]

Any new updates? Pics?