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Osric's 34g Solana Build Thread


Osric

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Good luck with that angel.. and the sally lightfoot. :mellow:

 

Uh oh - you think 34g is too small for the flame? Or is it the eventual nipping on corals?

 

The sally lightfoot ... I've read so much mixed info on them. I just love the crab, but she'll have to go if she eats a fish. She's grown tremendously since getting her, and she seems to graze less now.

 

The bottom line: I'm really interested in the specific behaviours/problems you think I should watch for, because if these guys are mistakes I'll want to fix it later.

 

Osric

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Obviously I've been a bit out of touch lately - didn't even see replies to my own thread!

 

@reefrider: I'm using the stock fixture, I think it's great. I haven't replaced the bulb yet, but everyone says the phoenix 14k bulbs are good. Will switch in a month or two ... heat is a bit of an issue but not so bad that I need fans or a chiller - about 82 at peak.

 

I"ve added a galaxy coral and a sixline wrasse since last posting, and had a major avalanche of rockwork that means I need to redo my rockscape. However here are the current pictures...

 

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Osric

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  • 1 month later...

Thanks guys!

 

@d'Espresso - I have a Canon Digital Rebel XT and I take a lot of pictures and use the best ones. I don't like to turn the pumps off so I usually focus on shooting at a slightly higher ISO and shutter speed at least 1/60 or faster to try to get a clear shot.

 

Osric

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I spent the whole shopping around for good camera for future purposes and it all came down two camera I would love to get my hands on. I can't decide which is better or quality. I agree on the canon product is good. I'm not sure which to get: Canon rebel T1i or Nikon D90? But I love how your pictures turn out really great!

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I spent the whole shopping around for good camera for future purposes and it all came down two camera I would love to get my hands on. I can't decide which is better or quality. I agree on the canon product is good. I'm not sure which to get: Canon rebel T1i or Nikon D90? But I love how your pictures turn out really great!

 

So when I bought it had come down to Canon or Nikon too. And in the end, it's a very personal preference thing; both cameras take great pictures and have good lenses. For me, the canon won because its flash recharged much faster (good for indoor casual family snapshots) and it had a smaller grip (I have small hands). But for others the bigger grip on the Nikon was better...

 

In the end I recommend you try to borrow or test drive both cameras for a few hours so that you can pick. Nothing else will really help you make the choice! Although it is sort of win-win no matter what you do as they're both great manufacturers.

 

Osric

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So you're saying you added Pinky and The Brain?

 

:lol:

 

 

Sadly the pink hammer died - I think I starved it to death with too much travel - and the brain is in a shaded cavern trying to recover from getting bleached :(

 

I'm going to just not add much to my tank for a while, to ensure that everthing that is in there is doing well before perturbing things.

 

Osric

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  • 9 months later...

OK it has been a very long time since I have posted an update here. My tank is still going, though it's been an interesting tale of mortalities for many of my creatures.

 

My sun coral was starving, so I got into the habit of removing him from the tank to feed him in an external container, then hanging that container on the side of the tank until he was done eating and finally putting him back where he goes. Unfortunately, one of those times, I left the container there and he got totally fried by my 150W metal halide lighting totally overheating the little container. There are still a few polyps hanging on and I'm feeding these intermittently, but it's a sad looking sun coral compared to the glory that it was.

 

The brain coral never did feed, and died, and I lost both the yellow watchman goby and the six-line wrasse to jumping. Fish wise, the tank currently contains:

 

1 Flame Angel

2 Ocellaris Clowns

1 Algae Blenny

 

Coral wise, I have

 

1 Frogspawn

1 Ricordia Rock

1 green mushroom rock

1 tiny blue mushroom

1 small zoa colony

1 galaxea

1 metallic green trumpet coral

1 acro

 

Inverts:

 

1 cleaner shrimp

1 purple-bodied boxer shrimp

1 maxima clam

1 coco worm

4 Green BTAs (children of 1 original)

 

My current problems are the acro and the trumpet coral. Both of these were recently added and neither seems to be eating. I think the acro is slowly dying of starvation; the trumpet I can't frankly tell. Any advice appreciated

 

Osric

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  • 5 months later...

I started building a CSD for my tank today and thought I'd document it. I ruined the first bucket so i wound up using this one:

 

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and I am using basic threaded PVC materials from home depot:

 

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First, drilling the bucket - multiple pilot holes are useful, or you could wind up cracking the base of the bucket like I did with my first one:

 

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Then thread the pipe through the hole. The metal nut is there to create a tight fit, which I'll later seal with CA once I am sure all is final. As it stands, this already doesn't leak:

 

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Inside the bucket, put a joiner, and join onto it the pipe length that'll create the size of surge you want:

 

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Finally, over that standpipe you need another pipe to create the siphon. I used 1.5" drain pipe and drilled the bottom; I have solvent to cap the top (pictured in materials above) but didn't need to use it. A friction fit of the cap was airtight enough that the siphon works and creates the surge.

 

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So far I have only tested this in my bathtub. I need to set up a pump to put water in this from the tank, and figure out a secure way to put this about 12" above my water surface.

 

Osric

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  • 1 month later...

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