I have been doing a lot of searching and seem like no one have started a thread post for us Solanas! but i'd like to see this tank and the designs people have used. Also Pictures, DIY, Custom modds, question, answers, and feedback is a plus. So lets see whats out there and have FUN!

34G Solana tank owners link:

d'Espresso, DAHNIC561, reefrider, MedRed, TriggerHappyDude, Osric, davidr2340, TJ_Burton, Ryanmilo,GentleBen, hyperboy, Southstar066, Lone-Wolf, dayron, 34G, Jason7504, RLC, Chief, bruce922, 96gts, Appys, Ace1204, Kevin_McG, ezcompany, bwp, PodRod, Mattdog, Aspec, ximmortaldeathx, bxz, MolokoPlus, Amerijuanican, Solana34Hog, Slaychild, dekand, jigraham, pprwngs, paja55gl, AJ, flinster, simon2629, Bloke, phamily, archx, alex101, spiffish, Kozo, nova65ss, S2k, dailydriven911, Quorky, Dweebikus, rufousreefer, atlweb, Hlander, Clavius85, Pudge957, burnofvengeance, NivanaandTool, kthehun89, jonc, Dutch27, dmarkham, r3dr33f, rick4him, FishTacos, Ipsouth1987, Reefur, jonny roks, Csal1-175, Jae4571, Bananahands, LivingStrong08, Zuzu, Captivating_Reef, Wazupjames, Wdubosemsp, rck, Captivating_Reef, Shan, JoeVic, Donatello, sefrayser, Playapixie, jcieutat, mmaattppllaayy, BOMBreef

25G Solana Ecocube tank owners link:

bluenassarius
fiction101

60G XL Solana owner link:

MedRed

67XL Solana tank owner link:

LivingStrong08
bluebastion

IF THERE IS ANY NEW COMERS LET ME KNOW OR CONTACT ME BY PM's THANKS!
UPDATED: 7-18-2011 newly added new comers

You rock, I was searching for all the Solana threads.
I'm starting one up in the near future, so my name will be on here soon.

its all gone

Here is mine again...

Thanks everyone for posting again. Due our lost post please post your post here again thanks for sharing!

Nice shot David I like your acans and paired clowns

here is my G34 Solana:

FTS:

Stupid Server

I have a topic to start discussing...is my tank leaking?

For the 2nd time this month, today and a few Sundays ago when my RKE head died on me in the middle of the night, I've come into the tank room to find water puddled up on the front lip of my stand with a little bit dripping down into the glass door below. I don't see where it would have spilled over from the top, no traces of it doing that, it appears to be coming from the bottom of the tank. The entire left side of the bottom of it appears to have the soft pad on the bottom soaking wet. The first time I thought it was due to the RKE killing power to everything and maybe a bit of overflow from no pumps running, today everything was running fine and I found the puddle on the front lip of the stand...so you tell me what you think?

I don't want to jump to conclusions yet, and will see if I get any more puddles in a few weeks or so...but if this thing has to come down due to a leak, I don't know if I'll set it back up, so I might have some stuff for sale soon...

We'll just have to see.

Upon further review, I think water was leaking out from the plastic clips that hold that glass lid on, and might have been slowly draining down and underneath the tank, causing the puddles. Its just weird that two times I've seen a large puddle, the length of the front of the tank, just sitting there. Why up front? You think if it was leaking and soaking up in the back then the pressure of the tank forced it up front to where it gathered and puddled up?

My MP20 is on Full blast reefcrest mode. When it goes into full blast. It initially kicks a dribble or two of water out of the tank and down the front glass... and sometimes down the side where the clip is as well. I think I will be adding the upgraded top over my solana.

Very cool... thanks for doing the work I will be following this one

i'm under the radar

Ok Solana owners, specifically those who own the Sapphire Aquatics Skimmer as well. I know most of you all turn off your return pump during feeding, do you also turn off the skimmer?

For me I've tried both and both ways seem to frustrate me. If I leave the skimmer on, when the return pump goes off, the back chambers fill up and the skimmer floods, causing me to have to pull the skimmer up out of the water and let it drain somewhat before I get the fizzy bubbles going again.

Well, really the same thing happens when I turn the skimmer off as well, either way I guess I have to pull the skimmer up out of the water and let it drain until it hits a certain level, then the fizzy stuff starts and I can put it back into the water. Is this expected? Normal behavior for this skimmer? Just curious.

+1 I have the same problem also and try to solve that problem but I kinda broke the pump spindle. I notice when I go to feeding mode I turn it off and turn it on after feeding have been done. I notice a funny noise in my skimmer. So I took it out and examine the skimmer and do a clean through when I got inside the motor I notice the little black piece broke off and I try to super glue it back and it start function again. Who ever have a sapphire skimmer just becareful not to break the motor. It's PITA!
Good luck trigger on finding your answer sorry I was no help because mine is half broke.

I have the MP40w, I can't go full blast...

Haha

i upgraded to the mp40w... I can't go full blast now either :-(

I just ordered a solana and want to add a vortech. I'll be keeping a little bit of everything, mostly softies with a couple sps on top...

Which vortech should I order? MP10? MP20? MP40W? What are the differences? sizes?

Are there any advantages/disadvantages to each one in these tanks?

Would it be better to just use the tunze 6025 that I already own and hide it out of view?

Depend how u want to put out, I have a mp20 and I love it but everyone else would say go with the mp40 and that would be a great upgrade!!

I don't know I bought the MP40w with the mindset of upgrading to a bigger 100+ gallon tank one day and using it, if its just for a Solana now and forever, either MP10 or MP20 is a good choice, MP40w is too, but I don't hardly get to use it to its potential...it stays on lowest setting mostly, maybe 20% full blast now and then.

I think the mp20 would be the best decision. It will fit with a large variety of applications... and it will upgrade to an mp40w with the upgrade kit for not much more than buying an mp40w from the get go.

Add me to the solana owners link.
http://www.nano-reef.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=204153

I really didn't do anything custom except for the stand. I pulled all the crap (that's exactly what it is) out of the back of the solana a put a deltec MCE 600 + phosban reactor back there.

Ok I will add you later tonight when I get home from work!

Welcome back!

You can add mine up there. I re-started my thread since I'll be almost restarting my tank this week.

Hey,


Can you please add me as well?

Here is the build / diary thread that I will be updating as time goes on.

http://www.nano-reef.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=204384

Thank you very much and nice to join a great site.

I do not turn off my Sapphire skimmer when I turn on the feed cycle because ever since I added the modified impeller, I have had some restart issues that required me to blow in the vent tube to restart the pump. The improved impeller really has added a lot of foam and the skimmer works better. I just remove the skimmer cup when I feed to keep it from flooding. During feeding, some bubbles flow into the back chamber, but I never see anything in the display. When I restart and add the skimmer cup, it seems to start skimming again right away. I usually clean the neck while I have it out.

Hey d'Espresso,

Thanks for doing the legwork on this! Great to know that there's a ton of other Solana owners out there. I like to get ideas for future projects!

--Matt

No problem bro. just helping out everyone on finding yours or other solana owners on here!

All are up dated to the lists! Let me know if any of you guys wanna be on the list also to make it easy to find one another. thanks!

Here are some pictures of my newest members to the tank, after months of just a CUC I finally made a plunge and bought some fish; 3 Blue/Green Chromis (2 died the next day), and 1 Yellow Watchman Goby...so of 4 fish I now only have 2, but they are doing fine and dandy, and after one week are finally getting used to me and not hiding as much when I come around...

Awesome! your tank is a lot older than mine... where is all of your coralline?

I'm just now getting some small spots of it on the back wall. All over it. So I don't know, I wondered that myself, if I was not using enough light or what? Right now I only use 2 of 4 bulbs in my light fixture. I don't like the look of the two I turned off, they make the tank "blue" and I'm not into that look right now with no corals that need or use it. I have 4 other bulbs to try out, I just haven't messed with putting them in there yet. But I really know know about the coralline, any suggestions?

Coralline needs calcium to grow. You need to make sure that you're around 400ppm with your Calc and you'll get plenty of coralline. In another piece of advice, I didn't see if you had your Solana's top on, but with that watchman, you'd better or it will carpet surf. I wonder what happened to your Chromis? They are extremely hardy members of the damsel family. Good luck! It's looking great, BTW.

--Matt

I think the 2 Chromis that died were picked on "to death" and I was warned of this, especially in a small group like 3, so it was my own mistake. I just didn't think it would be the day after I got them and then the next day. The one that lived is doing good. I do have a screen I put on the tank at night, so far he hasn't been seen swimming off the bottom or rocks. I have another screen I plan to build, to keep on at all times, but I can't find the right "mesh/screen" stuff that doesn't block light. I have the frame etc, just trying to find the right screen material.

So, I did add the wood frame lid. It took a little while to fit all of the cables and what not through the 2 cut outs to make it fit.

I decided not to use the glass hinges, and im just pushing removing the panes if i need to. The front pane is fairly small and has a little handle on it, so it's easy to feed and what not. If i remove that pane, I can slide the back one forward and it's completely out of the way for maintenance to the chambers. The sunpod rests on the frame... so I don't have to remove it to remove the glass panes... so much easier!

I no longer have any dribbling, and I have peace of mind that the tank is completely covered. I performed a water change on Saturday. I left to go out of town at 5 am monday morning and returned thursday afternoon. The tank looked normal. I looked under the tank at the 5 gallon ATO reservoir to see how much water it'd used. It was still filled up to the brim! My first reaction was that the ATO had filled up the tank to the tube and it'd back siphoned into the reservoir. I took a peek into the back of the tank and it was still at the perfect level. The wood frame kit had virtually eliminated my evaporation!

I've given up the rimless look, and I'll have to clean the glass once every week or two... but I'm happy with knowing my jawfish won't be carpet surfing, and evaportation will be cut way down.


P.S. I've not had any issues with overheating with it either. I have the AC set to 70 degrees. My tank starts at 77-78 in the morning and warms up to 80-81 by lights out.

TTT!!!

Hey solana owners... I will soon be posting pictures from mine, I still want a few more corals to make it look a bit better before posting it up, but I have a question for you guys.

Today I randomly came into my room to notice that my water level in the back of the tank was extremely high (almost over flowing) and my pump was flowing all bubbles, and the level in my tank dropped like 3 inches. In any case, after I removed the sponge in the first chamber, all the water finally drained to the other side with the pump, but it nearly was a big disaster.

Has this happened to anyone? Does anyone recommend a good sponge to put in the back for the mechanical filtration? Any other good ways to filter out? I am still debating putting in a protein skimmer or not.

i r has solana i need to find/start a thread for it tho

I had that problem with the stock sponge... I tried using filter floss, but it kept floating after filling up with micro bubbles.

For the heck of it, I decided to see if a Marineland filter cartridge would fit... It fits perfectly in the 2nd chamber. It's nice because it fits snugly inside the dimensions of the 2nd chamber tray so it doesn't move/float, it doesn't clog easily, it already had activated carbon in it, and it has two cut outs so that if it clogged... water would still have a way of draining through it.

The pads are Marineland Rite Size A. They are kind of expensive, but i found them pretty cheap on Amazon:
http://www.amazon.com/Marineland-Penguin-R...9229&sr=8-1

That makes perfect sense, I really appreciate it. Last night my sponge clogged up, and my tank was almost overflowing before I noticed it. That would NOT have been good.

But yeah, I will definitely try to check out a new sponge that will not build up bubbles and fit in well.

How often do you change your sponge?

I'm changing it once a week. I'm sure I could go longer. I've used them in FW applications with a much higher level of detritus and used them for several weeks.

This is very strange! i just found out we have two solana thread? but please everyone just use this one because the other one will be deleted

?

can we merge them? some of the info is different

Yea I can try to merge the info on the other thread to here. We need more fts people of your tank, let's share!

last known FTS:

Any of you guys use the glass lid? I think I am going to put it on because I plan on adding a sixline soon and want to keep him in the tank. Any recommendations on ways of putting it on? Keeping it clean? Etc.


Is it okay to leave it over, or will that cut down on oxygen? / will it get hotter?

I used the glass lid and then switched to the full wood frame glass cover. It will hold heat in and raise the temp, but it will also drastically cut down on evaporation. A paper towel and some vinegar will easily clean off any hard water spots and salt deposits. Just rinse it and then dry it off with another paper towel or cloth. I do this once a week or once every other week.

And i dont think mine came with any clamps? It is okay to just lay it across? And it won't effect oxygen?

the clamps would have been black plastic pieces. I think they were packaged in the 2nd chamber on mine. the glass won't mount with out some sort of aid.

thanks for merging for us Jeremai! d'Espresso can copy his 2nd post into the first one and then we're good to go.

Question for you Solana owners out there (sorry if this is an inappropriate thread to post this).... I'm in the planning stages of my Solana and have a question. Has anyone come across a build thread where someone removed the Back panel and went drilled with a sump/fuge? I've seen some questions regrading the drilling and such on other forums but no build threads thus far.

Appreciate any help and i'll throw my name in the owners thread when the build commences