adambreakey Posted February 25, 2011 Share Posted February 25, 2011 Hello everyone -- I have created this thread as a way to journal my experience with nano-reefing with my 34g Solana. As of yesterday I have salt water in my tank along with some of the dead 'reef builders' rock. Updated 6/22 Tank: 34 gallon Solana (w/ starphire) Controlled by ReefKeeper Lite 20lbs of ReefBuilders 'dead' rock Solana stand in black Current brand light brackets Lighting: BoostLED Mu 135w LED fixture Looking for a Moonlight to add Substrate: Bare Bottom Baby Flow: MP10es Stock return pump Other: Stock Skimmer Removed BioBalls inTank Media Basket Chemi Pure Purigen Manual Top Off (for now) Titanium Heater Stocking Plans: Pair of False Perc Clownfish 1 Firefish 1 Cleaner Shrimp CUC Current Coral: Green, Red and Purple Monti Caps Very small frag of green millipora Green Montipora spongodes Fire and Ice Acans (11-12 heads) Green Frogspawn (3 heads) Radioactive Dragon Eye zoas Tubbs Blue zoas Gorilla Nipple zoas Eagle Eye zoas Video from 6/21/11: 6/22/2011 -- Here is a pic of the tank as of 2/25. Please excuse the heater being in the display tank and the wires not being tied down yet. I will be completing the clean up of that sort of stuff this weekend. I will be adding one piece of live rock from the LFS also this weekend to get the cycle started. 2/25/2011 Link to comment
jcieutat Posted February 27, 2011 Share Posted February 27, 2011 Welcome to the Solana club. I wish I would have went with your light fixture. Link to comment
PSL123 Posted February 27, 2011 Share Posted February 27, 2011 Adam: Great Start! as JC said, nice lighting solution. PEACE Link to comment
qwuintus Posted March 1, 2011 Share Posted March 1, 2011 Nice build. Looks like you have a very nice tank in the making. Link to comment
adambreakey Posted March 1, 2011 Author Share Posted March 1, 2011 Thanks everyone -- the tank is now in mid-cycle. My parameters are looking good. My kids are ready for 'nemo' to be added... but I constantly tell them we need to move slowly. Nemo will be here, but not for a few weeks. I am trying to do this right, slow, simple, good products, good advice. If anyone sees me take a misstep, please let me know! :-) Thanks again. Adam Link to comment
adambreakey Posted March 2, 2011 Author Share Posted March 2, 2011 Here is the aquascape as of today. I have one large live rock and a couple of pieces of live rock rubble in there right now. The cycle has begun - ammonia is up to 0.25 and the Nitrites are slowly rising, they are now at 0.1-0.25. --- My PH is sitting at 8.0. Anyway -- here are a couple of pics. Link to comment
adambreakey Posted June 22, 2011 Author Share Posted June 22, 2011 Here is an update. This is a video (with some still pics) that I just made last night. It shows the current status of the tank. Please excuse the bright white rocks, I just added those last week and they have yet to color up. I like the height they add to the aquascape a lot. What do you think? - Adam Link to comment
absolon Posted June 22, 2011 Share Posted June 22, 2011 tank looks great. Your clown fish seem to like that one corner have they started laying eggs? Link to comment
adambreakey Posted June 22, 2011 Author Share Posted June 22, 2011 tank looks great. Your clown fish seem to like that one corner have they started laying eggs? Thanks for the compliment. I am pleased with the progress. No eggs yet - but you are right, the larger clown loves to stay in that calm dark corner. The smaller one spends much of the day swimming about the tank, but the big one only really comes out to feed. I was thinking shyness was the reason, but I am not certain. - Adam Link to comment
absolon Posted June 22, 2011 Share Posted June 22, 2011 i'm new to all of this so take everything i say with a grain of saltwater but the bigger one is the girl and it looks like she is nesting. It may take a few months for them to settle in but i'm willing to bet when she finally does lay down a bunch of eggs it will be in that corner. I would take it less as a sign of shyness and more of a sign that she is happy in your little corner of the ocean. Link to comment
adambreakey Posted June 23, 2011 Author Share Posted June 23, 2011 Here are a couple of pics of my new frags in their new home: Gorilla Nips with the Tubbs blue in the foreground: Very Happy Tubbs Blue Zoas: The Fire and Ice Acan loving life in the Solana: All of the new frags shown in context with each other: And the FTS: I want more zoas/palys for the right side rock, which will eventually hopefully be a beautiful 'garden'. Thanks again for the compliments. - Adam Link to comment
absolon Posted June 23, 2011 Share Posted June 23, 2011 Gorilla Nips LMAO i love these names. Link to comment
adambreakey Posted June 24, 2011 Author Share Posted June 24, 2011 Yep -- I had to laugh also when I heard Gorilla Nipples was the name of them. But after looking at them, it makes a lot of sense! - Adam Link to comment
adambreakey Posted June 27, 2011 Author Share Posted June 27, 2011 I finally bit the bullet and ordered a Tunze Osmolator ATO system. It is scheduled to be in later this week. I am looking forward to an automated top off system rather than my current manual top off system. After adding this, I feel I will have a decent setup with some great products. Someday I might upgrade the stock skimmer, but I am in no hurry. My connector for my RKL temp probe broke this weekend, so I had to order a replacement - oh and I added some moon lights (LED) to the order, so those will be in soon as well. Now we wait for things to grow! My zoas are currently growing like crazy, especially the dragon and eagle eyes! Oh, and my frogspawn is now spawning its 4th head! Things are going well... knock on wood! - Adam Link to comment
DAHNIC561 Posted July 9, 2011 Share Posted July 9, 2011 Are you scraping your coralline algae off ?... Link to comment
adambreakey Posted July 11, 2011 Author Share Posted July 11, 2011 Are you scraping your coralline algae off ?... No -- I guess the pics don't show it well... but it is actually growing like crazy. Don't forget that this tank was started with all dead marco rock with one small piece of live rock to seed it. - Adam Link to comment
DAHNIC561 Posted July 11, 2011 Share Posted July 11, 2011 No -- I guess the pics don't show it well... but it is actually growing like crazy. Don't forget that this tank was started with all dead marco rock with one small piece of live rock to seed it. - Adam that doesn't really matter just add 5ml of Mag twice a week and you will have so much purple in a month you'd think Barney was in your tank...lol.. Link to comment
adambreakey Posted August 17, 2011 Author Share Posted August 17, 2011 Here are some updated pics of the tank. Things are going well - new zoas in the garden, spongodes growing well, monti caps looking healthy, milli is encrusting.... all is well. On to the pics.... Link to comment
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