LAST FTS 10/4/10:


Info:

• Tank: 34g Solana
• Light: 250w Sunpod controlled by a ReefKeeper Lite
• Stand: Custom Built
• Heater: 150w Stealth Pro
• Rock: Appox. 35lbs
• Substrate: 30lbs Aragonite .5-1mm
• Flow: 2x Koralia 1's + 1 Vortech MP10
• Skimmer: Tunze 9002
• ATO: Tunze Osmolator 3155
• RO/DI: Air, Water & Ice Mighty Mite 50gpd

Current Livestock:

• 2 Ocellaris Clowns (Amphiprion ocellaris)
• 1 Purple Firefish (Nemateleotris decora)
• 1 Pygmy Angelfish (Centropyge argi)
• 1 Banggai Cardinal (Pterapogon kauderni)
• 2 Sexy Shrimp (Thor amboinensis)
• 1 Peppermint Shrimp (Lysmata wurdemanni)
• 1 Scarlet Skunk Cleaner Shrimp (Lysmata amboinensis)
• 1 Porcelain Crab MIA since move
• 4 Turbo Snails
• Various Cerith, Dwarf Cerith and Nassarius snails

Corals:

• Frogspawn
• GSP
• Green Nepthea
• Kenya Tree
• Orange Montipora Capricornis
• Purple Montipora Capricornis
• Green w/brown polyp Montipora Capricornis
• Duncanopsammia
• Green Caulastrea
• Green Ricordea Yuma's
• Various Zoanthids

Previous Livestock

• Coral Beauty Angelfish - Died
• Six-Line Wrasse - Got aggressive and had to be sold
• Firefish - Just disappeared...
• Mandarin - Died after about a month. These fish are harder to train than you think.
• Chalk Bass - Disappeared...

Lighting Schedule:

• Metal Halide - 1PM-9PM

Vortech:

• ReefCrest Mode - 100% Throttle!

Miscellaneous:

• Water Changes - 4g once a week
• Feed - Once a day (alternate between frozen mysis, frozen Hikari brine, Hikari Marine-S pellets, Formula Two small pellets, Tetra micro-crabs, and Formula One flake)
• Salinity - 1.026SG

DOB: 11/18/09
Tank Moved: 9/16/10

Well the tank arrived today! Here are a few pics from when I leak tested it.

Edit: I still have to build a stand. This is temporary.













Skimmer:

nice I can't wait for mine to come in!

I'm still searching for a light

Hopefully my Nova Extreme Pro comes today... and in one piece.

You getting the 18" bulb one? I would go 24" so you can get other bulbs besides Current! but that's just me hehe. I absolutely love Solana's, gorgeous, gorgeous!

Nice, That seems like you got it pretty fast, who'd you order from, I've really considered lately upgrading to a solana from my 20H but what's holding me back is Im more of a sump guy instead of AIO and Im sure I could modify it but then that kinda defeats the purpose of getting one I suppose.

Yeah I'm not too thrilled about the lack of bulbs for the Nova. But it was either that or metal halide. And I'd rather not deal with the heat of HQI. I would get a 24" fixture but it would overhang on either side of the tank and that would bug me.


I got it from PetSolutions.com. It's the only place I've seen online that sells the Solana tank separate from the stand. And it did arrive fast. Apparently their warehouse is just up in Ohio so it shipped on the 12th and I got it the next day.

also no such thing as a 24" NEP, maybe NE but not pro

Did not know that... that's silly!

I just wish Current would get their act together and make some better bulbs!

Nice to see the setup. btw, the color with the NEP is better than I expected. Heres a pik of mine with my reefcleaner rocks, and a couple of Naked clowns(my daughter made me do it! lol).

-Mike

Looks great Mike!

I got my Nova today. Unfortunately my Coralife Aqualight LED moonlight shipped separately and won't be here until the end of the week. So I won't be able to test that out. But the Nova works great!

A friend of mine has that same fixture over his Solana and he put two powerbrite LED strips strapped onto the sides of the light so he gets good shimmer. Just thought i'd toss that out there, it looks really cool!

I fell into the Twilight Reef Zone. I have a Solana and a Salt and Pepper Schnauzer

Anybody else find the Nova Extreme Pro's fans to be quite loud?

the ones on my 36" NEP were fine, not loud at all.

These are are really loud. I may end up replacing them.

hmm, are they whirrring? does it sound like they are catching? if so something is wrong.

It doesn't sound like there's a problem with them. They're just... really loud. I'll contact Current and see what they say.

ya, they're loud. But my old tank was loud too, so I'm used to it. But there has to be an easy upgrade to minimize the sound. Why don't you be the guinea pig, and try some different fans?

You know what else is loud, is the skimmer. When I replaced mine with a Sapphire aquatics, the noise went almost to zero.

-Mike

I started to take it apart last night to see if I could replace the fans with some fairly quiet PC fans I have laying around. But it looked like it was going to be a little more complicated than I thought so I stopped. I may give it another go later. I'll take pics of the process if I do.

I haven't fired up the skimmer yet. I'm still undecided as to whether or not I'm going to use it. I'd like to upgrade to the Sapphire one but I've spent enough money on this tank for the time being.

Ya, lemme know about the fans. You do have to admit tho, the lights run pretty darn cool with the fans, huh? Also, The stock skimmer actually works pretty well, you should give it a try. Altho it does take a few days to break in. Yes, the Sapphire is better, but the stock one was better than I was expecting.

-Mike

Got a reply from Current about the fans in the Nova Extreme Pro:



So I guess there is nothing wrong with the unit and it's just me. But I think I will upgrade the fans to some other ones, probably SilenX. But aside from the noise I'm really happy with the unit. It puts out a sh!t ton of light without the problems of HQI.

Well maybe I won't be replacing the fans in my Nova Extreme Pro. Current said it would be easy but it doesn't look easy to me:

wire them up externally to a 9v? lol or get a reducer?

btw check solana owners thread, I need your input!

If you want better fans, I would suggest looking into computer forums. There are numerous tests done on different types of fans to see which move the highest cfm and and what sound db. I built my computer rig with their recommendations and ive got one hell of a quiet computer. right off the bat, i would say if u can find brands like scythe and sanyo denkis. i dont know what the silent-x fans are, but i know there is a brand called silen-x. if they're the same, dont believe the crap, their fans dont move jack squat for their quietness. i'm going to replace the fan on my extreme soon and will probably be going with scythe as i can find them locally easily

Still need to attach the door and paint it.

Looking good.

-Mike

Almost done...

Finished!

sweet, now get some water in there! btw, how are you attaching your moonlight? And do you like it?

-Mike

It attaches to the side via 3 suction cups. So far I like it. It might be a little too bright but we'll see once I get some water in it.

Still haven't received my rock. Hopefully it will come tomorrow. But in the meantime I went ahead and made the RO/DI water in the tank into saltwater. After 20 cups of reef crystals salt my SG is a little high, so I'll have to fix that. I got it pretty close though.

The mess I made:


Salt slowly dissolving:


Also, I'm using a 100W Stealth heater. It should be powerful enough for this tank, right? I ask because after 2 days with it on it has only gotten the tank up to 75F. Even though I have the thermometer on the heater set to 80F.

Well, here she is all setup and running. Still waiting on my rock to arrive...



I may have to buy a 150w heater, though. I don't think the 100w I bought is powerful enough. Also, I ordered the wood frame top kit from Current. The glass top that came with the tank just wasn't going to work with Nova Extreme Pro.

Houston, we have rock! This is the first aquascape, let me know what you think.

looks good. You can also try a "C" shape.

looking great man! what type of rocks are those because it is good for placement for corals! My rocks don't have much texture so i had to come up with a plan A and B. i had to ziptie my rocks together. lol

i think its great. Lotsa room for corals, and ample sand space in front.

good job,
-Mike

Thanks! The rock is from Reefcleaners


Thanks, Mike!

Sandstorm!

All ready to go!

Well I finished moving everything over from my Aquapod. So far everything is doing great!

Some more pics:

Coral Beauty:


Female Clown:


Male Clown:






And a video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V2Wsg122dIA

Wow. How fast did your tank cycle?

All the live rock is from my old tank with some dead rock.

Looks very sharp with the trim kit and T5's

Good job keeping the rocks off the back wall!

Sweet. Liking your scape.

Thanks!

Have you ever noticed any aggression from your sixline? I noticed in your tank thread you had it with two clowns in a 12g. I have always wanted one but am scared that it will bully my other fish.

Yeah, I had the Six-Line in my 12g for a few weeks. I haven't noticed any aggression at all. It and the clowns seem to get along perfectly fine. But it's a very small Six-Line, so that may have something to do with it.