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Matt's 34g Solana Reef Diary


mattdog

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Does anyone else's maroon clown shake his tail in the sand and kick it up repetitively? I makes the water column all cloudy and is kind of annoying.

 

My Maroon doing the same to me))))))LOL. He doesn’t like me to invade his privacy.

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Thanks Matt,

I sometimes can not help myself everytime I walk into the store and they have something new..My xenia has split and the split is starting to split :o Just put on my ATO and everything is running fine, yours is coming along very nice.

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TriggerHappyDude
Hey Trigger,

 

I got the dual switch. I figured can\'t be too safe. Haha. I just used the kit that he sells on the site to set it up. I had a Maxi-Jet 1200 laying around and put it to good use. What I did is had a 1/2\" ID tube go off the PH and then used a down-converting coupling to connect to a 1/4\" line. Works awesome! All I did from there is use a 1/4\" drill bit to drill two holes into the bracket and fed the line through them and pointed it down toward the tank. It\'s working great!

 

I see now, you drilled the holes in the bracket that holds the float switches...

 

Here is how another Solana tank owner did his, but he has the Tunze Osmolator...he also has two holes drilled in the side where his dosing comes in at...

 

IMG_2814.jpg

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shao-lin nano

Welcome back, I've been out of the loop as well. Just dropping in to check out things out. Good luck with this tank.

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Welcome back, I've been out of the loop as well. Just dropping in to check out things out. Good luck with this tank.

 

Thanks! :D Welcome back!

 

Trigger,

 

I never thought about doing it that way. Looks pretty sweet. Maybe if I start having automated dosing, I'll do something like that!

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Oh no!!! I've done something (or not done something) to cause a severe diatom bloom! Worst thing is that I had to leave town for a couple days and when I come back, I have no idea what to expect! I did a 10g water change before I left, removing all of the film that I could find. I also moved the chemi-pure elite pouch into the bottom of chamber 1. Hopefully, this will help. I'll update again when I get home.

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Well...good news is the diatoms weren't out of control when I got back home...The bad news is, they were still around. I had a 1/2 size of the Chemi-Pure Elite in there. I guess it wasn't enough. I went ahead and bought the full-size jar. We'll see how that does. All my water parameters are great:

 

79.6 F

1.023 SG

9 dKh

0 N03

0 N04

0 Amm

414 calc

 

Matt

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Okay....I think I figured out where my silicates came from! When I bought the Solana off of another forum member, he didn't have the loc-line that branched off of the return pump back into the tank. So, I ordered one off of eBay that came from China. I didn't even consider this as a possibility until I saw an article on eggcrate made from polystyrene causing the same problem. So...I took it out and soaked it in vinegar for about 6 hours. The tank is ALREADY noticeably diatom film free. Hopefully it stays that way! You'll know in the next 24 hours if it worked as there will be new pictures of all the new corals I have picked up! Wish me luck....

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Ok...so I took some new pics. My 3.1MP camera from 2001 gave me everything it could :D Geez I need a new one! The pics do these guys no justice. Anywho, keep in mind that this was shortly after the lights came on and not everything is fully awake. Plus, some are pissed off because of the 15g water change I did yesterday. Had to slow down the diatom frenzy. Hopefully I'm done with that. :fingerscrossed:

 

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Full Tank Shot

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Left Tank

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Right Tank

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Top looking down

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Big Sniffer Zoas

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Blue Anthelia

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Blue-tipped Acro

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Eagle eyes

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Green Digi

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Kenya Tree

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Orange Zoas

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Pink Palys

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Polyp Garden

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Purple Zoas

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Red Planet

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Toxic Waste Zoas

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Yellow Polyps

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Still fighting the silicates and diatoms....now adding a new kink in my nano-armour, dinoflagelletes. Woohoo!!!! So...my pH is like 8.0...gonna be fixing that over the next week..slowly raising it with the eight-four stuff. Also, my ALK is low...6 dKH...explains the pH. Funny how a new test kit can give you the ugly truth...so...I have no real clue how my silicates are so high... 2ppm, but I got some Rowa-Phos to take care of that. The chemipure elite helped, but didn't knock it out. Hopefully, this is gonna finally be under control. I cut my lights down to 4 hrs in the evening as well. Gonna kinda be less scenic in the house at least until Tuesday :( Any suggestions?

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  • 2 weeks later...

Well...after beating myself silly trying to eliminate my silicates naturally, I gave in and got some Ferric Oxide (RowaPhos) and got it taken care of. No longer an issue. I think my silicates came from an emergency Wal-Mart "RODI" topoff water fill. That won't happen anymore. Got my own RO/DI that I know is doing it's job. My frogspawn died for some reason after I got my levels back in check. SPS and softies are thriving. Sucks, but better than losing everything.

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Looking really good Matt. I've been out of the hobby for two years now and when I decided to get back in, I bought the Solana also. If you could, could you post some detailed pic of the ATO system. Thanks

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  • 2 months later...

nice tank, yasha goby looks very nice. It was just a little hard to feed. if you have other fast swimmer, it barely get the food. My yasha died because of this:(

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nice tank, yasha goby looks very nice. It was just a little hard to feed. if you have other fast swimmer, it barely get the food. My yasha died because of this:(

 

Actually, the way that I have been feeding him is to use a feeding stick with a mysis shrimp on it and stuff it in his burrow. He gobbles it up, spits some out for the shrimp...case closed. I also feed cyclop-eeze. Some of that gets close enough that he grabs it.

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Actually, the way that I have been feeding him is to use a feeding stick with a mysis shrimp on it and stuff it in his burrow. He gobbles it up, spits some out for the shrimp...case closed. I also feed cyclop-eeze. Some of that gets close enough that he grabs it.

 

He's awesome bro!!!

 

I lost a pair of 'em in my NC. :tears:

 

Good luck with yours... They are beautiful!

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Well..came home from my ball game and some how he found a way out of my solana...I have the top on it and had covered all the corners. The only way he could've gotten out was to jump out of a crack that was less than 1/8" wide...anywho, he was on the lid, cooking under the MH...:(

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Well..came home from my ball game and some how he found a way out of my solana...I have the top on it and had covered all the corners. The only way he could've gotten out was to jump out of a crack that was less than 1/8" wide...anywho, he was on the lid, cooking under the MH...:(

:tears: Sux bro... I know the feeling!

 

Sorry...

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live and learn..stay away from the expensive ones!!!

I'm starting to think the same way... I've lost a pair of Yasha Hase, and a Blackcap Basslet!!! Almost $200 in three fish!!! omgomgomg

 

B)

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I'm starting to think the same way... I've lost a pair of Yasha Hase, and a Blackcap Basslet!!! Almost $200 in three fish!!! omgomgomg

 

B)

 

Ouch! Well..I've had the tank for around 6 months and to date, I have lost 2 peppermint shrimp, a frogspawn and this goby. It is to be mentioned that the 2 peppermints were lost after the addition of the yasha and the pistol shrimp...Mr. Pistol shrimp had himself a snack. I think I'll get him a cheaper goby...Is there any of them that are LESS likely to aspire to being a world champion carpet surfer?

 

--Matt

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