Dweebikus Solana

[dweebikus]

I had my Solana up for about a year (pretty much exactly since the last picture update I did was 1 year and 7 days ago) and after surviving a move, we got a tremendous heat wave in Seattle that I was totally unprepared for and lost a good share of my tank.

 

LOG:

 

7/30/09 - Cleaned up all of the skeletons, did a approx 5g water change siphoning off as much of the cyano that had bloomed since the heat spike. Test params tomorrow (7/31) if ammonia's present do another 5g water change, if everything else is normal but nitrates and phosphates are high, do a 5g water change saturday. Get some pictures up this weekend.

 

5/10/10 - This is almost embarrassing how long I've been making half assed attempts at getting my tank back in shape, but here it is. Thought I'd add some pictures of my progress. After lots of manual removal, and lots of water changes. Replacing my skimmer, replacing my heater...dosing mag. I'm almost comfortable to start adding some new coral.

 

Equipment:

 

• The solana orb w/ Reeflux 150w 20k bulb
  
• EuroReef Nano Skimmer
  
• Stealth Heater
  
• ChemiPure Elite in the back
  
• Koralia 1 on the side wall
  
• Koralia 2 on the other side wall
  
• JBJ ATO
  
• Rio Sun Moonlight (haven't been using it lately)
  

 

Current Livestock:

 

• Ocelaris Clown (Jelly...my wife loves that name)
  
• Orange Spot Goby
  
• Some GSP
  
• 3 ric heads (3 orange)
  
• a plug of small lime green zoas
  
• Bartholomew the Pom Pom crab (I've had him since my 10gallon nearly 2.5 years)
  
• Scooter Blenny (I've been breeding tigger pods and dumping them in the tank every couple of days or so)
  
• Rainsford Goby
  
• cleanup crew
  

 

Sorry for the cellphone pics.

 

This was before finally starting to get a hold on things.

 

This is after my last water change. Progress!

[Dooderino]

Lighting:

 

4.36 upgrade asap w/ 1x50/50, 2x 10k, 1x Actinic Get 2 Actinics, 1 50/50, 1 10k

Chamber 1's contents:Remove false floor, install heater. Ditch the stock filter.

 

Chemipure Elite

Purigen

 

Chamber 2's contents:Fuge is a good idea. Get a HOB skimmer. Cut your drip plate in half, use a suction cup to support the side the is on the back, glass, wall. Put you filter pad/floss there. Also open up the water dam between 1 & 2.

 

I'm torn, do I move the LR and chaeto from my AC70 fuge on my 10g in and get this:

Fuge light on nanocustoms

or, do I add this when the cycle is over:

Sapphier Skimmer for BC29

Opinions on this would be great...

 

Chamber 3: Ditch the sponge. Ditch the 90 degree elbow that connects the pump discharge to the false wall. The heater in here is bad idea in case your water level gets too low.

 

Rio 6HF

Filter floss

Stealth 100w heater

 

Main display:

 

30lbs of aragonite (i've got about 10lbs of larger grain aragonite in my closet and i'm planning on picking up a 20lb bag of sugar grain size)

15 lbs or so of LR to start and 15 more coming out of my 10g for a total of about 30lbs

 

Corals:

Mostly LPS and Softies

 

Feesh:I had to teach my mandrin to eat brine/mysis. It took a couple of weeks. 24g is not enough to support one. Do your self a huge favor and rinse the sand. You will have a dust storm for a week if you don't.

 

Well, this is a sticking point for me. I want the small grain sand so I can keep one of the burrowing gobies, but i'm also wondering if the fuge in the back would produce enough pods to sustain a mandarin goby. Any thoughts on that?

 

So yeah, there's my big tease. It'll be up soon though.

[dweebikus]

Chamber 2's contents:Fuge is a good idea. Get a HOB skimmer. Cut your drip plate in half, use a suction cup to support the side the is on the back, glass, wall. Put you filter pad/floss there. Also open up the water dam between 1 & 2.

 

I've already got an Aqua C Remora that I could easily slap on, but I really am going for the all in one look of the all in one tanks, so a HoB skimmer is out for that setup imho.

 

Feesh:I had to teach my mandrin to eat brine/mysis. It took a couple of weeks. 24g is not enough to support one. Do your self a huge favor and rinse the sand. You will have a dust storm for a week if you don't.

 

Re: Mandarin, I might try that, or I might just pass on the mandarin. Re: sand, totally, definately not the first tank I've setup, this'll just be my first AiO.

[JRizzle]

Ive had a mandarin in my biocube 29 for almost two years now. He eats frozen brine, but to be honest I don't feed it to him to often. I always see him hunting away, he's fat and happy. Makes me wonder about all the naysayers.

[dweebikus]

So, in a funny turn of events, my wife decided she didn't like the biocube look and instead wanted me to get a Solana, so I obliged. I'm picking it up today after work. I'll post pictures tonight probably.

[dweebikus]

Whelp, the moment of truth. I picked up some LR from the store I picked my Solana up from and moved some LR from my 10g in (poor thing's looking bare).

 

Here's a pic of everything post putting together:

 

 

And here we are with a lot of bubbles from being filled...

 

 

Now I wait.

[dailydriven911]

Looks like you made the right choice! Looks great!

[dweebikus]

Thanks! I've been reading your thread a lot and love the bare bottom look, but I really wanted to try some nice fine sand. I took some night pictures last night and I'll take a FTS tonight since the bubbles are clear and update.

 

So far everything's stock except for chemipure elite and filterfloss in the center chamber.

[dailydriven911]

Thanks! I've been reading your thread a lot and love the bare bottom look, but I really wanted to try some nice fine sand. I took some night pictures last night and I'll take a FTS tonight since the bubbles are clear and update.

 

So far everything's stock except for chemipure elite and filterfloss in the center chamber.

 

 

I sometimes wish I would have gone with sand. I think they both have their advantages and disadvantages. Great I'd love to see more pics! How's the skimmer working out for ya?

[dweebikus]

Whelp, I know I promised more pictures, but my battery in my camera is dead and I'm not sure where I put it when we unpacked from Costa Rica....soooo...here's a night shot as best as I can do w/ my camera.

 

As far as the skimmer, well...it's been up 2 days. The first day the cup immediately filled up with basically clear water. I emptied it and rinsed it, checked it this evening and it doesn't look like anything has collected so I lowered it a bit. I imagine I won't have a whole lot to report about it until my tank actually starts cycling or has a bioload, which since I'm using 50/50 cured rock from the LFS and rock out of my established tank I may not have much of one.

 

[dweebikus]

Well, I finished adding the live rock from my 10g, and also moved over its inhabitants. Here're some pictures:

 

 

My clown seems to love her new tank:

 

[dweebikus]

Posting a weekly update. There was a nice sale this weekend at one of the local stores so I picked up some $10 frags that I wouldn't normally try:

 

Acro

 

Monti

 

Frogspawn

 

Aaand the FTS:

[dweebikus]

It's been a couple weeks since my last update. I had an odd dKH drop, probably from trying a different water source. I think the swing caused my frogspawn to die and my Zoas to trap shut for a good week. Now that I've corrected the problem, my zoas seem to be opening up again. I also did a little rescaping. Anywho, here's a new SPS, which I wouldn't mind an ID for:

 

 

One of my ric heads that's getting pretty large:

 

 

And the FTS from tonight.

 

 

I also picked up a "Hi Fin Red Banded Goby." He's hiding right now, hopefully he'll get a little more bold as he acclimates to his new home. His dorsal fin is broken halfway down and bends at a 90 degree angle, which honestly gave him a little character and I couldn't resist. Any who, hopefully I can get a picture of him later.

 

Oh, I also had a question. My wife hates that Acro finger sitting on the plug up at the top. Would it be terrible for it if I broke it off of the frag plug and just glued it to one of the end branches of that rock it's sitting on?

[rainydave]

Where did you get the Solana?

[dweebikus]

Blue Sierra in Isaaquah.

[rainydave]

Blue Sierra in Isaaquah.

Thanks!

[agoutihead]

what are you using for a moonlight? Just a little clip on?

[dweebikus]

I'm actually using this:

 

Taam Rio Mini Sun

 

At first I thought it might be too bright, but I've grown to really like it. It's also got a really nice long flexible gooseneck which lets me basically extend it up near my pendant without getting close enough to burn and being high enough that it's hard to see from the front of the tank.

[dweebikus]

So, after our record heat in Seattle, I lost all my SPS, might lose my rics (they're all fairly small, and angry, but responsive). One of my fish (the pygmy angel), and a bit of my CUC. So, that inspired me to start a log of the restart basically. I'll drop a log up at the top of the page.

[Kozo]

Hey how do u like that Euro-reef skimmer, could u take some pictures of the skimmer in your Solana as well as some pictures of the skimmate that you get from the skimmer.....thanks for the help

[dweebikus]

I finally updated my thread, it's been a long arduous battle since the heat wave I noted last year. As for the Euro-reef skimmer, I'm hit or miss with it. Strangely I'm on my second one.

 

The first one i couldn't get seated low enough in the water and it burned out it's pump. They were cool about replacing the pump, but I finally just ordered one of the new body styles and it's breaking in right now. Give me a couple weeks before I weigh in on this one.

[gix600]

yes i do have to say that heat wave last year would have got me too if i was in the hobby then. I'm kinda worried for what might happen this year. Good luck on getting things going again. I always like seeing fellow seattlites. Now if only i could receive an un broken solana and stand.

 

do you go to any lfs?

[dweebikus]

Thanks! And yes, I go to a couple stores.

 

Blue Sierra in Issaquah is where I go to pick up my salt (DD H20) and it's where I actually got my Solana in the first place.

 

A Red Sea Aquarium in Shoreline is where I like to go to pick up coral frags and general "stuff."

 

Barrier Reef in Renton is just sweet. They've got some really nice high end test kits and some really nice larger corals.

 

Finally Saltwater City over in Bellevue is pretty hit or miss, but from time to time have some nice clams there, but their corals are usually geared towards the high end and expensive larger colonies.

[gix600]

looks like i'm not missing anything then i do the same. Just found barrier reef a few weeks ago due to their sale and i couldn't pass up the mp10es for their price. Yeah a red sea is the closest to me so that is my general place, once he moves he'll be even closer to me.

[dweebikus]

Oh no! Did I miss Barrier Reef's yearly sale?! It's usually in June, I use it as a reminder to change my MH bulb.