qwuintus Posted January 28, 2011 Share Posted January 28, 2011 08.28.2011 Update! 07.06.2011 Update! 06.16.2011 Update! 04.21.2011 Update! 04.14.2011 Update! 03.01.2011 Update! Hi guys, I'm starting this thread as motivation for me to venture into this hobby and complete my tank. I've kept freshwater fish in the past but life happened and now I'm shooting for a Solana build after bumping into a good deal. I've been lurking reefcentral for some of the most extensive nano and large tank builds for years so I'm excited to try this out myself. I am also building a discus tank too, but the nano got started first. . . . The way I started was by purchasing established tanks that were cycled already. This enabled me to start off with almost a turn-key setup and not worry about starting off on the wrong foot. I also like recycling, reusing, and not having to break the bank. . . . My idea is to keep the tank simple. I plan to focus on few corals that move and/or relate to the limited color pattern I am trying to follow. So far I know yellow and perhaps blue will be the dominate colors and I know I want a very large xenia or similar as one of the main focal points. The rock will be situated on different levels of sand and I will also attempt to capture depth and movement in the rockscape. This is all very important to me in achieving the look I want. . . . Here is my build list Solana 34g w/ stock skimmer Additional Rio50 was mounted inside the filtration with a hole for the outlet - I got this little pump used and although it's small, it sure is kinda loud and once in a while the impeller will start buzzing. Perhaps some sand is being kicked up? I was thinking switching the cover over the inlet to the cone fitting and giving that a shot. - Depending if the noise is muffled by the chiller and led fans I may just leave it be. 01.31.11 Update: The Rio50 mysteriously fell silent much to my relief! I had thought I turned it off the other night because of the noise, but when I went to plug it in I was surprised to find it already was. 02.05.11 Update: Got a good deal on an Aqua Illumination LED light so I will pick it up next week and use that instead of the Ecoray. I will be listing the Ecoray for sale shortly. Used for about 2 months from what Patrick from Deep Sea told me. Ecoray 60w LED hung w/ pendant Solana stand 20 lb live rock 20 lb live sand 30 lb fine sand from Petco Via aqua Titanium heater 02.05.11 Updated Inhabitants 5 Turbo snails 3 Hermit crabs 1 Other fish -FS or I will need to see if a LFS will take them for trade baby starfishes 02.05.11 Updated Things on my to buy/ to do list: ro/di Construct DIY pendant from Home Depot conduit - Buy conduit piping Setup Aqua Euro Chiller 1/13hp w/ Rio 600 - Buy longer 1/2" tubing Decide what ATO to buy and purchase related equipment -Sell extra unnecessary equipment -Search for Sapphire Skimmer -Research dosing Vodka Notes Tomorrow I have to empty the water in order to fix up the aquascape a bit, but the main reason is because I want to move the tank a few inches. PITA! Ouch... Good thing it's only 34 gallons My ebo jaber 100w is also way off so I just tested a titanium heater I had to open up and dry off with compressed air since I splashed water on it. So far it has maintained a 2 degree difference when read with a digital therometer. I will put that in the tank tomorrow as well. It's nice to have the external control for the heater. Pictures will be posted as soon as I get off my butt and upload/resize them. Edit: I drew up some layouts to start out. I want some strong first reads so somewhat like how planted tanks look I want to draw the viewer in with a large frontal area and add some depth with low rocks in the back. I also want different levels for the sand bed to create even more depth. 02.14.2011 Update! AI Sol Blue online! FTS!! So excited Link to comment
seabass Posted January 28, 2011 Share Posted January 28, 2011 Good luck on your new Solana. Link to comment
qwuintus Posted January 29, 2011 Author Share Posted January 29, 2011 Moved the tank to allow room to build my pendant as well as changed the rockscape a bit. I will have more rock on Saturday and the final layout will be done then. Pictures will be posted to update this post once the water clears. Titanium heater works and I removed the Rio 50 since it was making too much noise. Link to comment
qwuintus Posted January 30, 2011 Author Share Posted January 30, 2011 Waiting for the type to stabilize before I add some corals. pH 8.0 Alk 2.0 Ammonia 1.0 Nitrite 0.1 Nitrate 5.0 I have a separate container of corals I bought from another tank to transfer over. I was in an vehicle accident today and didn't have time until now to look at the corals and do a test. Here are the results of that container. pH 8.0 Alk 2.2 Ammonia 0.25 Nitrite 0.1 Nitrate 2.5 My Nitrates seem a bit high in the Solana. I've only had it running from a transfer for two days. I'm not quite sure when I can start moving the corals over. Perhaps a water change in the Solana to lower Nitrates or wait longer to see if it stabilizes on it's own since everything was just moved. Hmmm... Link to comment
Reef Casa Posted January 30, 2011 Share Posted January 30, 2011 lol I like the sketches I do the same thing when trying to make decisions IMO the bottom row middle sticky looks the best Link to comment
qwuintus Posted January 30, 2011 Author Share Posted January 30, 2011 I spent all night moving the rocks with the coral to the biocube I will eventually sell. I'm glad I still have this- heater/pumps/timers/lights are hooked up. There is a ton of green ricordea but I think I might sell them off as it wasn't on my list. I also need to battle cyano and hair algae as the tank was infested with it! Yuck! There is a large colony of hammerhead I believe that I will keep. I love the movement and the awkward shape the branches are. I hope they recover from the stress. With all the moving I lucked out and found a great looking center piece LR that I will clean off for my Solana- any ideas on what I should do when introducing rock with some old stuff growing on it? I don't mind picking it all off, but I'm just worried something may still transfer to my Solana. I also have some weird slime all over the corals. I'm guessing its from the stress of moving. Any ideas? I tried google but nothing looked like what I have. Here's also an update of my rockscape The blemy also didn't make it I'm guessing either stress or smashed by a rock... :*( Link to comment
bruce922 Posted January 30, 2011 Share Posted January 30, 2011 Good luck with your Solana. I would highly recommend an ATO from autotopoff.com. I have one of their models and love it. I have been using it for 2 years now. Good luck!!! Link to comment
bioload Posted January 30, 2011 Share Posted January 30, 2011 Waiting for the type to stabilize before I add some corals. pH 8.0 Alk 2.0 Ammonia 1.0 Nitrite 0.1 Nitrate 5.0 I have a separate container of corals I bought from another tank to transfer over. I was in an vehicle accident today and didn't have time until now to look at the corals and do a test. Here are the results of that container. pH 8.0 Alk 2.2 Ammonia 0.25 Nitrite 0.1 Nitrate 2.5 My Nitrates seem a bit high in the Solana. I've only had it running from a transfer for two days. I'm not quite sure when I can start moving the corals over. Perhaps a water change in the Solana to lower Nitrates or wait longer to see if it stabilizes on it's own since everything was just moved. Hmmm... I'd be more concerned with the ammonia and nitrites than the nitrates at this point. Link to comment
qwuintus Posted January 30, 2011 Author Share Posted January 30, 2011 Great news! The corals have opened up so I assume they are doing fine from the move. I will take some pictures soon. My buddy is coming over soon so more progress will be made today. However, I've developed a fever due to my weakened immune system from the accident. I still have so much to do! bioload - I will be doing some water changes and modifying my filter media this week as well. Are there some affordable ways to test parameters more quickly and not fumble with drops? Edit: Updated with pictures. Link to comment
qwuintus Posted January 31, 2011 Author Share Posted January 31, 2011 Good luck with your Solana. I would highly recommend an ATO from autotopoff.com. I have one of their models and love it. I have been using it for 2 years now. Good luck!!! Beautiful tank you have! I will check out the Solana owners thread in your sig. Glad to see there is an inside community for people with this tank! Link to comment
qwuintus Posted January 31, 2011 Author Share Posted January 31, 2011 I need some help ID'ing this coral. My friend thinks it's a Yuma Ricordea. I tried googling it but the pictures aren't too clear. Any idea? Link to comment
fluxkenji Posted January 31, 2011 Share Posted January 31, 2011 tank looks great, looks like a yuma to me, but i'm still a novice. maybe someone else here would know. Link to comment
yoshii Posted January 31, 2011 Share Posted January 31, 2011 Can't wait to see the finished scape Yep, that's a yuma Link to comment
peewee1467 Posted January 31, 2011 Share Posted January 31, 2011 yeah its a yuma. I'd move that frogspawn or wahtever that LPS coral is away from the yuma or else itll get stung. Link to comment
Gerber77 Posted January 31, 2011 Share Posted January 31, 2011 Very nice! Did that package get to you? Link to comment
qwuintus Posted January 31, 2011 Author Share Posted January 31, 2011 yeah its a yuma. I'd move that frogspawn or wahtever that LPS coral is away from the yuma or else itll get stung. Same thing my friend told me. Luckly it wasn't actually touching, but it now has a new spot in the tank further away. So that LPS looks like frogspawn to you... Interesting.. The tips are oval so my friend thinks it might be hammer. Very nice! Did that package get to you? Not yet. I'm in no rush for the package, but I will let you know when I receive it. Link to comment
qwuintus Posted January 31, 2011 Author Share Posted January 31, 2011 I should be sleeping but I'm up reading about dosing Vodka. I don't have the courage to try (also scared of cyano outbreaks) but the benefits + being all natural are extremely appealing. I will have to see how well the stock Solana skimmer works. (I guess I'll ask in the Solana thread.) I also have ton of chaeto algae but without a fuge I might try to incorporate it into the aesthetic of the tank with some careful or dynamic design. If anything I think it's slow decay will indicate that that vodka dosing is working. If I were to start, should I start dosing right away or wait... (What would I be waiting for?) Also, if I finally do dose (following the issue in reefkeeping or .25ml/25g) I think I may have to actually double that ratio because of my DSB which if spread out evenly is guesstimated at 4". I'd appreciate any confirmation or discussion. Link to comment
qwuintus Posted January 31, 2011 Author Share Posted January 31, 2011 I will be cleaning and fragging some ricordea this weekend hopefully and I'm not quite sure what I need yet. Here's what I'm guessing. Rubberbands Frag disks Tissue Scissors http://www.fosterandsmithaquatics.com/prod...mp;pcatid=12039 Anything else? Do I really need those scissors or can I use household scissors? Link to comment
seabass Posted January 31, 2011 Share Posted January 31, 2011 A new single edge razor blade works well to cut soft coral. Link to comment
qwuintus Posted February 1, 2011 Author Share Posted February 1, 2011 Removed carbon/chemi-pure elite from the Solana and placed it in the biocube. I will try to keep the Solana natural. Need to read about QT tank and update my to do list. I am trying to find a Sapphire Skimmer even though I just bought a stock skimmer- I read dosing vodka requires a really good skimmer. Just PM'd a guy on nano reef so hopefully he still has it. I also did some searching on conduit pendants and will be returning some elbows I purchased and instead buying the conduit bender for a clean strong simple pendant. A new single edge razor blade works well to cut soft coral. Thanks for the reply and cost saving. I have a ton of razors and xacto blades. ####! I just noticed the purple/yellow damsel in my tank is dead So far 2 casualties including the blemy that got smashed/killed somehow... The damsel had some sort of white dent on its skin but I just thought it was just a small cut from moving/rock. I suspect it may have been some disease now. Link to comment
qwuintus Posted February 1, 2011 Author Share Posted February 1, 2011 Took the damsel out but the small cut/damage on his body couldn't be seen. Perhaps he was dead for a while and his slime coat was effected in a way to cover up the damage- who knows. I put him under a large rock in the back yard so his body can return to the earth instead of being flushed I also took a picture of an interesting ricordea in my tank- it is all yellow! Perfect for the colors I am going. I also managed to get a picture of this guy. I acquired him and I think I will keep this one. The cardinal and clown will have to go later down the road. My girlfriend named him Kobe. Los Angeles Does anyone know if this is normal? The left corner has some black/dark substance in the DSB. Link to comment
qwuintus Posted February 1, 2011 Author Share Posted February 1, 2011 Ideation for my pendant and also an idea to hold mangroves if I ever decided to go that route. Yeesh... I have to work on my line quality in my sketches... Just being lazy haha.. I'm getting use to my wacom tablet... I think traditional sketching or taking some more time will help. Link to comment
seabass Posted February 1, 2011 Share Posted February 1, 2011 Ideation for my pendant... I'm not sure if the light support would be enough as drawn (assuming galvanized steel tubing). You might also want to check out Ajmckay's light support for ideas: Link to comment
qwuintus Posted February 1, 2011 Author Share Posted February 1, 2011 That looks nice, but I am trying to stay with the electrical conduit due to it not being copper but mainly because I like it's raw form. I'm also trying to stick with a single arm. I weighed my ecoray and it's about 7lbs. Here's the method I'll be using http://www.projectaquarium.com/plantedAqua...lightstand.aspx I don't feel safe using small elbows like the Ajmckays since I'm going for a single arm too, but it definitely works on his tank. Check this out. Link to comment
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