New video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xQAzq-V-d6w

tank looking very nice, hows the wrasse doing? with the sunpod 250W and closed top are you noticing high temps? are you running a chiller? how long do you have the light on a day?

sorry for all the questions, i just ordered a solana, i was buying a 150W sunpod off a member here, but he said its not working right, so looking now at tthe 250W as I can't find the 150W. i have the wood trim lid as well, so curious about heat issues. thanks much!

- james

Thanks! The wrasse is doing great! Kind of hard to believe but it's swimming around out in the open and seems fine. I'm not having any temperature problems with the closed top and the 250w Sunpod. And I'm not running a chiller. But I do have the tank in my basement. So that probably helps a bit. The tank stays a constant 80 degrees F. I have the metal halide on from 1-9PM. The white LEDs come on an hour before and go off an hour after the metal halide. Then the blue LEDs are on all night. The Sunpod is a great fixture and I'm very happy with it. I'm glad I got the 250w. To be honest, I can't imagine the 150w being enough light.

Some new pics:

thanks, the tank is looking great and don't see any more hair algae, and hanks for the review of the sunpod, so given you've been using it for a while now, you still prefer it over the NEP you had? they're about the same price and i know both have pros and cons, leaning toward the sunpod 250W though. thanks again.

- james

Tank is looking great!!!
Your pictures look amazing as well!!!

I think the Nova is a great fixture and I don't think you can go wrong with it. However, I do like the Sunpod better. Mainly due to the lack of bulb choices for the Nova and the cost to replace them all. Plus, the Sunpod has blue and white LEDs. The Nova has no moonlights.

Thanks David! It's been a stressful few weeks with this tank but things are looking better now.

The Porcelain Crab came out as I was feeding the tank. Managed to get some video of it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ka1PErpiAI

love the crab, i'm so excited i just set up my solana this weekend. Is this below frogspawn? its something i want to (eventually) add to my tank. have your clowns paired with it? glad to hear the algae is under control.



[/quote]

Congrats on setting up your Solana. It's a great tank!

Yes, that is frogspawn. It's an awesome coral and is probably my favorite. Unfortunately my Clowns haven't paired with it. I wish they would. I've been thinking about getting a BTA but have decided to wait on that for the time being.

2/11

Except for regular maintenance I haven't done anything with the tank lately. No new corals or anything. And to be completely honest... I've kind of gotten bored with my tank. I guess all of the new tank excitement is over. I don't think I'm going to get out of the hobby. I'd really like to setup another tank. But I don't have the time or money to do that. So I need to find something else to do for awhile.

On a side note, while feeding the tank today I noticed some aggression from my Six-Line towards the smaller of my two clowns. If it keeps that up it will be coming out and going up for sale. Everybody has been getting along fine up until now. But I won't tolerate anybody picking on my clowns. Also, my duncans aren't looking to good for some reason. Not sure what the problem is. Maybe it's because I haven't been target feeding them? So today I did target feed them. We'll see if they look any better in the coming days.

NICERAWK!

Tank is still up and running well. I haven't been around here lately so I figured I'd do an update with some pictures I just took.

3/19

Well the stock skimmer that came with the Solana seems to have stopped working correctly. The pump still works and it's producing bubbles. It just doesn't seem to be pulling anything out of the water. The collection cup gets full and it's just clear water. I guess I'll have to break down and buy a new skimmer. I'll probably go with the Tunze 9002.

4/16

Unfortunately my Six-Line Wrasse was showing some real aggression towards my male clown. So, with a fish trap made out of a plastic bottle, I managed to catch the Six-Line. And he will be in my 7.5g pico until I can find a buyer. I also caught my Peppermint Shrimp and put him in the pico. That shrimp was the worst at stealing food from corals. My Cleaner shrimp shows zero interest when I feed corals. But the Peppermint was just a devil. So now I'm considering another fish for the tank to replace the Six-Line. I'm thinking about getting a Banggai Cardinal. But I've read a little about their endangered status and I don't want to buy a wild caught one (which is all my LFS has). Any fish recommendations?

4/19

So with the Six-Line gone I decided to get another fish to replace it. And after doing a lot of reading both here and on ReefCentral I decided to get a Mandarin. Now, I fully understand the issues related to caring for this fish. They are difficult. But after doing my research I'm confident that I will be able to get this guy to eat frozen foods. Here are some pics of the new guy:









And also an FTS of sorts:



And a short video of the tank that I shot today:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hsfpHSywoOU

GL

Thanks!

A short video of the mandarin:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lSs4UI3MAFY

Top down during water change:






Mandarin:




Multi-headed duncan and candy cane:


Green rics:


GSP:


Multi-headed frogspawn #1:


Monti-cap that has grown quite a bit since I got it:


Frogspawn #2:

I took a time lapse video of my first attempt at creating a Mandarin diner. Unfortunately it didn't work too well. The piece of frozen mysis shrimp eventually floated out of the glass cup I was using. I'm going to have to find or make a different contraption to use as a Mandarin diner. Any thoughts?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H7RRtni6NxE

Unfortunately I broke my glass top today. I'll have to find a glass shop around town to see if they can cut me a new piece to fit. But in other news my second attempt at a Mandarin diner nearly worked. This time the Mandarin went in. I'm not sure if he ate any of the Mysis shrimp as I wasn't watching the entire time he was in there. But hopefully he's getting closer to trying it!

Another video of the Mandarin!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jk7CmImmpos

Up until today I hadn't had much luck with the Mandarin eating any of the foods I had, including Mysis shrimp. But at Petsmart, of all places, I was able to find both Hikari Brine shrimp and Hikari Spirulina Brine shrimp (I also bought some Hikari Marine-S pellets after hearing good things about them). After feeding the other fish I placed a 1/4 cube of the brine shrimp in the diner and waited patiently. Slowly the cube started to melt and eventually the Mandarin made it's way over to the diner. For awhile it sat on top of the diner stupidly trying to eat through the glass. But finally it went into the diner and started to chow down on the brine shrimp! Next step, switching it over to Mysis shrimp.

looking good. good job on training

Thanks! Haven't trained it yet, though. But it's nice to find something that it will readily eat so I don't have to worry about it starving to death. I'll have a video of it eating in the diner here soon...

Video of the Mandarin eating in his diner:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DK11EIySdiI

A new FTS and a video walk around of the whole tank:



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rsDm7rFtk6U

So I decided to take out the stock skimmer today and remove the bioballs and the piece of foam holding them in. And to my surprise the skimmer was NASTY. So much crap had accumulated in it and the skimmer pump. I had to hose it down outside it was so dirty. Unfortunately in the process I kind of broke it. No big deal though. Nothing that some superglue can't fix. I ended up taking an entire side off of the skimmer (the non-transparent side) to fix it and then glued the piece back on. So once it dries completely I'll put it back into the tank. It'll be interesting to see how it runs without those bioballs in it.

Ugh. I just went down to feed the tank and noticed that the temperature was above 85. I'm guessing it's the metal halide causing the temp to rise. It usually stays right at 82. So I may have to go back to my Nova Extreme Pro fixture with the T5's. But for the time being I put a good sized fan on top of the tank to see if it makes a difference in the temperature.

Sweet scape, man....

I'm likin' the setup.

Thanks!

So I've had the Mandarin for about 2 months now. And let me tell you, these guys are simply not worth the trouble. It's my favorite fish in the tank. And I have it eating frozen food. But it's so much more work than I had imagined it would be. Even with mine eating frozen I'm still concerned as to whether or not it's getting enough to eat. So if you're thinking about getting one of these guys I would strongly recommend against it.

Mandarin is MIA.

love this tank and new light man.. sorry about ur mia mandarin

Hey thanks!

I just got a Vortech MP10! Pictures shortly...

A few pics of the Vortech:

let me guess...the mp10 is really loud?

No, not at all! Even on the highest setting it is pretty quiet.

well mine sure was, i could here it in my bedroom at full blast. now that it is broken in it barely makes any noise. if i couldn't see the prop moving i'd be wondering.

6/24 ordered from Premium Aquatics:

-Tunze DOC 9002 Protein Skimmer

-Tunze Osmolator 3155

A video I shot earlier when I fed the tank:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vJlvZpiagDQ

hey now i know where my light came from. did you ever replace the fans? the tank is amazing. i have always wanted a tank with a manderin but refuse to get due to the work involved. sorry for the loss.

Hey, thanks!

No, I never replaced the fans. I opened up the light but it was too much work to replace them.

And regarding the Mandarin. They simply aren't worth the trouble, IMHO. A beautiful fish for sure. But unless you have A LOT of free time to devote to one I wouldn't attempt it.

Well my new toys arrived today, a day after I ordered them. I ordered them from PremiumAquatics.com and it turns out that they're just up the road a few hours from where I am. Ordered yesterday and received it today with free shipping! So far I've hooked up the Tunze Osmolator. It wasn't difficult and only took about 30 minutes to get it working. This thing is amazing! I don't know how I managed without it.

Here are some pics:

Tunze Osmolator and 9002 Protein Skimmer


The mess


Osmolator unboxed


Success!




The next project

nice set up

that froggy is looking sweet

Thanks!

Two questions for you other Solana owners:

-Are you using the spacer with the Vortech MP10?

-Do you have to remove the magnet to use the Tunze 9002 skimmer in the Solana (first chamber).

i'm not an owner but i have heard you have to remove the magnet for chamber one. i was going to get a solana so i looked into it. Which means you have to prop it up i believe but not sure.

on a side not i just ordered my tunze 9002 skimmer and it looks like you got an old model without the new silent pump...are you aware of that? the new pump cords are way thicker.

That's the first I've heard about a different pump. I'll look at my pump when I get home.

Well, I got the magnet off of the Tunze 9002. Only problem is that I cracked the case of the skimmer in the process :