Buying a 34gal Solana Cube tonight !

[spiffish]

Hello all! I've been doing some lurking on here among other forums for a while, but this site seems to be geared towards my interests.

 

Tonight, I am picking up a current-USA Solana Cube all-in-one tank + stand.

 

I am getting the tank + stand for $400, which is a nice deal. Then I am getting a 150watt MH light, either the weird silver-orb-spaghetti strainer style light for the kit, or a sunpod. Any input on what might be better?

 

With the tank, I am hoping to get pre-mixed saltwater (30 gallons) to start up, then later maybe go the RO/DI route and mix my own for changes.

Any ideas on a good way to transport this water?

 

I was thinking of picking up about 30-35 lbs or so of good live rock... they have it for $4.99/lb at a nice quality.

I am undecided on live sand. Depending on price, I may do one bag live, one bag dead.

Also, I got about a 'gallon' or so of 'live' sand from someone tearing down their tank, but its been sitting in a bucket for something like a month. Is this a good or bad idea to use this stuff?

 

Finally, I do already have a test kit, and some misc powerheads, heaters, etc. Anything else that I should pick up of importance while I am there?

 

And lastly, anyone set a solana up? Should the bio-balls be taken out... and replaced with what?

 

Also, the back glass is clear, so lighting a small refugium would not be hard... but I don't know what section I would do this? I want to have this thing ready so that when I get the fuge started, I don't have to tear down the tank.

 

Thanks for any info/feedback!

 

Here's a pic of the setup I am looking at.

[Maeda]

Yup that's an all-in-one.

 

The nicest of them, but still an AIO.

 

Ditch the bioballs in favor of nothing. Just leave it empty and decide later.

 

Screw bagged live sand. It's junk IMO. Just get plain aragonite sand, and let the live rock do the magic.

 

I would even consider getting mostly dead rock, and only a couple of lb's of live. It'll save headaches and money.

 

What kind of water flow are you thinking? That's if not the MOST important problem here. What are you keeping and how much water flow does it need? The solana, stock has very little water flow.

[spiffish]

Yup that's an all-in-one.

 

The nicest of them, but still an AIO.

 

Ditch the bioballs in favor of nothing. Just leave it empty and decide later.

 

Screw bagged live sand. It's junk IMO. Just get plain aragonite sand, and let the live rock do the magic.

 

I would even consider getting mostly dead rock, and only a couple of lb's of live. It'll save headaches and money.

 

What kind of water flow are you thinking? That's if not the MOST important problem here. What are you keeping and how much water flow does it need? The solana, stock has very little water flow.

 

Thanks for the input!

Good deal on the dead sand... sounds more in line with what I had original thought seemed right. I was thinking about getting some dead rock, but I want enough LR to insure I get some good bio-diversity, and so I don't have a super long cycle. I was thinking of tossing in a frozen coctail shrimp or two until the ammonia spikes to help things along.

 

As for stocking, right now I am not really decided. This is a christmas present for the wife and I, so we'll try and narrow it down soon. Some shrimp, and fish are important, aswell as perhaps some easy corals. I do eventually want a "reef" tank out of this, not just fish and LR.

 

As for flow, I have two zoo med powersweeps already, and I was thinking of starting out with those for flow. Any other suggestions for flow that isn't too obtrusive?

[Maeda]

Thanks for the input!

Good deal on the dead sand... sounds more in line with what I had original thought seemed right. I was thinking about getting some dead rock, but I want enough LR to insure I get some good bio-diversity, and so I don't have a super long cycle. I was thinking of tossing in a frozen coctail shrimp or two until the ammonia spikes to help things along.

 

As for stocking, right now I am not really decided. This is a christmas present for the wife and I, so we'll try and narrow it down soon. Some shrimp, and fish are important, aswell as perhaps some easy corals. I do eventually want a "reef" tank out of this, not just fish and LR.

 

As for flow, I have two zoo med powersweeps already, and I was thinking of starting out with those for flow. Any other suggestions for flow that isn't too obtrusive?

 

I say, you should consider that diverse doesn't always include 100% good creatures. You get the bad with the good, and most often, you get a LOT of bad macro algea, inverts, and horrendous crabs that'll emerge one day and kill your fish. After a few years in this hobby I start my tanks out with 95% dead rock to insure I don't get any critters I didn't buy. Just something to think about.

 

Have you decided on a general direction for your stocking? Soft Corals? LPS? SPS? Detirmining that right now will save a lot of headache. If you prefer to go with the flow I understand that too, but that's when the hobby gets expensive and stressful(and part of the fun sometimes).

 

If you can, try and return those zoo med powerheads in favor of something with a wider flow pattern, like a Koralia 4 or Tunze Nanostream 6025(after modification). Do you know how many gallons-per-hour your power heads put out? I would shoot for 20x the volume of your tank with 40x+ being a good goal to shoot for.

[spiffish]

As for stocking, the direction would be most likely to include one or two clowns. Maybe a blenny, and something else interesting. As for as corals, I don't think I'd be likely to SPS, but soft corals would be likely.

 

For the powerheads, I got those for free with some other used stuff I bought. The powersweeps would get me about 300 gph total to be conservative. So, with the tanks stock 11x turnover, plus these, that would be about 20x turnover. I may change those out though for something better.

 

I do also have a coralife power center thing, so I could program them to alternate every 15-30 minutes or so for a more random flow.

[spiffish]

Ok, got the tank home! Setting it up today.

 

The stand had some scratches on it, so I got 15% off the tank + stand! I also decided on a 150w sunpod as it seemed nicer in person.

 

I got 18lbs of LR, and 17lbs of dead rock. They were kind enough to cover the LR with plenty of water in my rubbermaid tub to get it all home safe. I've got a heater and a powerhead running with the LR now.

 

Today, I've got to get the water going. I am not sure whether to mix my own, or buy pre-mixed. I don't have an RO filter yet either. Hmmm.

[rmcgookey]

Ok, got the tank home! Setting it up today.

 

The stand had some scratches on it, so I got 15% off the tank + stand! I also decided on a 150w sunpod as it seemed nicer in person.

 

I got 18lbs of LR, and 17lbs of dead rock. They were kind enough to cover the LR with plenty of water in my rubbermaid tub to get it all home safe. I've got a heater and a powerhead running with the LR now.

 

Today, I've got to get the water going. I am not sure whether to mix my own, or buy pre-mixed. I don't have an RO filter yet either. Hmmm.

 

I set up a solana about 3 weeks ago. if you can, go with all live rock. It takes a long time to seed dead rock. I went with about 50 lbs of fully cured rock and had no cycle. I added CUC and some fish 1 week after setup, and some corals and more fish 1 week after that.

 

As far as flow, the stock pump is sufficent at 400 gph, in fact thats more flow that comes in a small all in one than most all other products. I added a Korilia 1 for additional flow and that is almost too much. (unless i put in some SPS) Korilia 4 would be WAY too much flow in that tank. the korilia 1 is almost too big visually and flow-wise.

 

go with the sunpod if you can, the disco ball produces a lot of heat unless you go open top and leave it far off the surface. Then you have to worry about fish jumping too. Esp. clowns and blennies if you get them. I already had a clown goby jump on day 2 it was in there so now i have the top on and a chiller attached to keep temp around 76-77.

 

def put refugiam in the middle chamber, thats really the only place you can do it. I plan on keeping the mechanical filtration in and putting in some chaeto with the chem filtration in that chamber and shinning a small light at it from behind. I wont do this for a few months though, want to see how the tank runs without it first.

good luck and enjoy the tank! Its a great tank

 

see my thread at http://www.nano-reef.com/forums/index.php?...c=137911&hl=

[spiffish]

Well, I finally got the tank up today!

 

The sand I had ended up being about 2" deep in the cube, which looks pretty nice I think.

 

I got the dead rock in first, then stacked the live rock.

 

My LFS had some nutri-seawater, about 20 gallons he was clearing out, so I got that uber cheap. a 5 gallon bucket of RO + Salt mix rounded things out.

 

Everything seems to be running well, the skimmer is bubbling nicely, though the air inlet tube is a little loud.

 

 

By the time I got all the water in the tank, the temps were pretty cold, but the 150watt MH is on, and I put a water heater in the back to bring it up to temp. But, have the cool water temps damaged my LR?

[Maeda]

No. Lr is pretty resiliant to most any kind of abuse you can lay on it(short of leaving it dry for a week).

 

rmc####ey has no idea whats going on. just pretend he's not here.

[spiffish]

Ok, got things going. Build thread started...