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The Official All Solana Owner's Thread


d'Espresso

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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

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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!

Edited by d'Espresso
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TriggerHappyDude

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...

 

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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?

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TriggerHappyDude
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?

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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

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TriggerHappyDude
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.

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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.

 

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Edited by MedRed
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  • 2 weeks later...

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.

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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 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

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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?

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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.

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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

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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?

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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.

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Gasturbineguy

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 :)

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