i have my mp10 on reef crest running at 75% and the stock return pump turned all the way up...never have had any issues with flow...

HELP!

My Solana seems to be crashing and I am not sure why. Everything has been going really well, but over the last fwe days things have been going down hill fast. All of the params are as follows:

Ammonia = 0
Nitrites = 0
Nitrates = 0
Calc. = 420
Dkh = 11
Phosphates = undetectable
Temp = 77.8
20K 400 Watt halide = 4 months old

I do weekly 5 gallon water changes with RO/DI water and use reef crystals. The RO/DI shows no phosphates and I use a phosphate sponge in the aquarium. The Solana has been running for almost 18 months. I try to clean out the back chambers (as best I can) every 6 months. The tank has a fairly light load including a firefish, Pygmy angel, and a spotted mandarine (he eats frozen and flake foods). I also have a number of SPS corals and frags, mushrooms, zoas, and pulsing zenia.

About a week ago I lost my clam virtually overnight, followed by my pink monti cap, and my green slimer. Yesterday morning many of the zenia have release from the stock and are floating around the tank. Not individual polyps, but the entire head. Now the Blue Cloves and my Bali deep water Acro are dying off. I did a 30% water change and did full maintenance on the system in hopes of fixing what ever is causing the problem. None of the fish, snails, crabs, even amphipods, seem to be struggling. I really don't want to lose all of my corals.

Any help would be appreciated. I hope that I have included enough info.

Please help.

I would definatly get some carbon.Daily water changes for a week as well.Maybe 10% a day..

I have already put carbon in it. I will deffinitely do daily water changes starting tonight.

Hey all,

I am finally fully running with my Solana (and now comes the dirty part of cleaning up my old 95 gallon to sell.... I always ind nastiness behind the old tanks).

Everything is going well, parameters are good, still using the glass top until it gets too hot, used the waterbottle over flow plate to mount my probes (drilled holes) and my ato float valve. Works grew I think.

I am still hang microbubble issues from the stock skimmer, but will see if it clears up in a few more days. I bought the inTank media basket and love the thing already. Well built, attractive, quite functional. Here are sme crappy iphone pics.


and



I'll get some better pics when my DSLR is returned and I have done some more aquascaping.

Michael

How often do you change out your phosphate sponge...? Those absorb only so much and then begin to leak back into the system. You mention that you "clean out eh back every 6 months". You need to change the sponges much more frequently. Also, what type of sand bed do you have and what is your maintence for that. 18 months is right around the time issues start. Search "old tank syndrom" or "two year tank syndrom " for some threads on that.

Don't loose hope. its something we have all went through.

I change outh the sponge every 2 to 3 weeks. As for my sand bed, it is pretty shallow. Maybe an inch and a half at its deepest. I used to have a sand sifting goby, but he caved the rocks in on himself. Now I have three super tongan nasarius snails that burrow in the sand and keep it pretty clean.

I have been doing nightly water changes and things seem to be getting better. At least I haven't lost any more corals. The xenia even stopped dying. I started with around 30 heads and now I have about 3.

please add my thread to the list

DSB 34G Solana

for those who have the tunze nano skimmer with the inTank collection cup, do you guys have issues with microbubbles, and how did you solve the problem?

let the skimmer break in...

its broken in. it's pulling out a green tea color skimmate with no bioload in my tank. i'll give it more time, but have any others found ways to mitigate microbubbles?

My god! A 400w over a 34g?! That's just absurd...

then its coming from your return pump...if you have a filter pad in the 2nd chamber there is no way bubbles are coming from your skimmer in the 1st chamber thru the pad and into a return pump sitting in your 3rd chamber...or you water level is to low in the 2nd chamber and the dripping/waterfall effect is causing it?....




lol...in America "bigger is better"...

My skimmer has been running for a few months now and was producing the good stuff from day one. Like an idiot, I decided to give it a cleaning the other day and now the sob is whistling and throwing out some serious micro bubbles. I keep on tweaking the air intake every other day but nothing is helping. The frustration is starting to get to me!

W aith sand bed that size you need to make sure you are vacuuming it. Its not deep enough to break down the nutrients. I had the same issue at 18 months untili started vacuuming the sand religiously. I also have a huge clean up crew as well. When if you decide to do this only vacuum a quarter of the sand bed st a time do you don't disturb too much.you will be amazed st what crap you pull out. This should solved your issue. I know It solved mine.

I had the same problem to and just started again to do deep cleaning water change along with cleaning the sand bed and adding new sand in at little time as possible. Now it just started to looking much better then before.

Mine came in a disaster. Got it from petsolution.com

yay box is here, dog is excited as me


inside the petsolution.com box, there is a tank box by current


now heres the original solana box


Inside, if you look at the middle chamber at back, you can see a crack already before I even touched the tank


Heres a focused crack 1st crack


If you look closley, the 1st crack, goes all the way down to the tank.


2nd crack on 3rd chamber, around 3? inches big

3rd crack is in the 3rd chamber as well, but it sits under the water pump, and i tried to take it, but too far for my camera to catch the crack

but anyway, this ones the 2nd crack


Skimmer part with a crack


Skimmer cylinder? not glues all the way in, bearly intact


Random plastic part I found broken. I dont know where this goes





Glass experts, what glass do you think this is. It looks pretty green, but vendors say this is low-iron glass

Just added these 2 guys to my tank....

Yelp. Just used a cheap wire coat hanger like they give you from the cleaners...

I thought I'd add some pictures from my tank....It's a work in progress...but it's progressing! I'm always open to feedback and advice!


_DSC4743 by RickwSmith.com, on Flickr


_DSC4691 by RickwSmith.com, on Flickr


_DSC4692 by RickwSmith.com, on Flickr


_DSC4693 by RickwSmith.com, on Flickr


_DSC4694 by RickwSmith.com, on Flickr


_DSC4697 by RickwSmith.com, on Flickr


_DSC4698 by RickwSmith.com, on Flickr


_DSC4699 by RickwSmith.com, on Flickr


_DSC4700 by RickwSmith.com, on Flickr


_DSC4702 by RickwSmith.com, on Flickr

_DSC4730 by RickwSmith.com, on Flickr


_DSC4761 by RickwSmith.com, on Flickr


_DSC4752 by RickwSmith.com, on Flickr


_DSC4766 by RickwSmith.com, on Flickr

(he likes to eat snails!)

_DSC4773 by RickwSmith.com, on Flickr


_DSC4775 by RickwSmith.com, on Flickr


_DSC4714 by RickwSmith.com, on Flickr

My Solana is done .... Got rid of it yesterday.
Swapped with a guy from my reef club for a 20" reef ready acrylic cube. He wanted an AIO and I wanted a sump so it was the perfect trade.

And now since I'm all kinds of obsessed with mantis shrimp after getting my G. Viridis, I think this new tank will have to house a pretty O. Scyllarus peacock mantis.

Updated pics with the new light finally mounted!

Hi! I'm starting my first ever salt water reef tank with a Solana 34 that I got a great deal on barely-used. however, it doesn't come with lights. What lights are you all using? Pros/cons? I don't especially love the look of the pendants. And I do want enough light to grow all corrals eventually. Suggestions?

rick4him - that is one nice corals you have in there! Wow, that montipora is very beautiful and it have grown alot!

jcieutat - the hanging kit for your light looking great! Do you have a closer FTS so we all can see whatcha working with in there. thanks

playapixie - Get you a Sol Blu AI or Maxspect G2 160w, works wonder!

I still can't get a decent shot with this Nikon DSLR. Not sure what I am doing wrong. I am going to rid myself soon of the leather on the right to make room for something more attractive. I lost my blue anthelia coral. I am not sure what happened because I do a weekly 10% water change and my parameters are always perfect.

Hi! Just finishing my aquascape in my Solana right now. But I have a question: how high should the rock go? Right now the highest piece is about level with the return pump nozzle (where it exits the tank back). I have one more piece that I think will look cool up higher, but wondering if that'll be too high for any corals? I do have lots of other lower spots for stuff.

I'll start my own thread later today, with pictures...!

Thanks,
Dawn

Hey Dawn - not sure there's a "right" answer to that one. My main scape-rock piece comes up about that high, & I have a huge hammer coral up top with plenty of room to spare.

Whew, my first saltwater tank is finally up and running, and here's my build thread:
http://www.nano-reef.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=271112

I'm afraid I got carried away with the epoxy putty (I want a shrimp-goby pair, and understand that the shrimp can dig and topple rock work, so I made it solid!) Unfortunately, I didn't know about purple reef epoxy until too late. How can I disguise this?

Love any suggestions and comments over on my build page.

And thanks to Gort for answering my earlier question. :-)

~Dawn

just added new people.. show some love by visiting their page plz. Welcome Playapixie and fiction101 and jcieutat on the Solana Club

mkizz- did you ever got your tank fixed?

Thanks for adding me!

hey buddy i got you on. no worries! your tank looks awesome! time for some FTS plz

I went ahead and cut out the center of the stock glass lid...i like it better then my old acrylic version...check it out...my midas blenny went tile diving the other day...RIP....

Wow you're a genius! Never thought of doing that to the glass. Did it cost alot to get it made like that?

That fish safety look very slick an clean! Awesome build bro!

thanx, took it to a local glass place $20 to get it cut...its the stock lid dat came with the tank....i can finally sleep at night now...lol...

Excellent idea I've been wondering how to go topless plus keep jumpers in without resorting to a net. I'm gonna print out that pic and take it to a glass place for a quote. I'll need side slots for the legs that support my lighting fixture but that should be doable..

welcome man...if you use the stock glass the cut was 3 1/2 " from front,left, and right of glass and 6 1/2" from back scope...and no the glass is not tempered obviously but delicate...

Thanx for the dimensionals - now I gotta see if I can find those crazy glass support brackets I took off a few months ago ..

yeah, i lost mine also but i contacted current usa and they sent me a new set within a week...they have great customer service...

Hey man went to two different glass places with my lid and both refused to cut it? Any idea how they did it? Drill 4 corners then cut or???? Thanks alot and genius idea!

Thanx, yes they drilled 4 corners then cut...they probably think the glass is tempered so they didn't want to cut it....i got 2 lids cut...

Yeah that is what they said but I told them it wasn't and both said no way not doin it. Oh well gotta find someone else I guess. Thanks,

just let them know if it breaks you wont hold them responsible that should take the stress off or show them mine so they can see it can be done...good luck either way...

I just purchased a Solana XL 60, and was wondering if anyone else purchased one and what pump came with their system?

I think stock is a Quiet One return or something like that.

Do you know if the glass top that comes with the Wood frame kit for the Solana, would be tempered? I would assume maybe that since its made by Current, that it would NOT be?

I broke mine washing it--it is not tempered. Been meaning to order a replacement...
Dawn

Here is a quick video of my spotted mandarin eating frozen Mysis from a turkey baster. He has been in my solana for almost 6 months now.

Add me to the solana list, This is my tank about 6 months old

Great pic....I do the exact same thing with mine going on 10 months

My 400 watt halide basically blew up on me the other day. I am currently borrowing a 250 watt halide from a LFS, but need to replace my light. I have decided to do a DIY LED build for the Solana. I have done a couple of smaller builds before and have had GREAT success.

I just want to know what others have done with LED's over solanas. What LED's did you use, how many, what colors, suggestions are welcome.

Here is what I was thinking: (keep in mind that I am the King of overkill)

12 - 19000 - 21000k Cold White 3W LED's
12 - 9000 - 12000k Cool White 3W LED's
24 - Royal Blue 3W LED's
6 - Blue 3W LED's
3 - Red 3W LED's
3 - UV Purple 3W LED's
total = 60 3W LED's
Also 4 - Royal Blue moonlight LED's

I was planning on 60 degree optics on everything except the Red, UV, and moonlights. I would have liked to do 80 degree, but 60 is the widest angle available for these LED's. All LED's will be run using 700mA dimmable drivers. I plan to have a total of 11 strings of 6 LED's consisting of 4 white strings, 4 RB strings, 1 blue string, 1 Red and UV string, and 1 moonlight string.

I know that this is a lot of LED's for a 34 gallon tank, but I like to be able to completely customize the color, by turning different strings down, and I am thinking about upgrading to a 90g corner tank and want to build the light so that it will work for that too. Let me know what you think.