"My Daughter's" Solana 34G

[richardcharliesam]

Current shot - 08/14/12

 

 

I have always liked the look of saltwater tanks but never had the time or motivation to start one. Then I had a child. She took a liking to finding nemo, and when we would go to pet stores, she would be obsessed with the fish section. For christmas, I decided to surprise her with her own reef tank. I showed my wife the fluval edge and immediately she was on board due to the form factor. Plus I thought I could get it started for a low cost. Lol.

 

 

Here is a top down shot of the current state of the fluval edge. Pardon the dirtiness of the sand, I need some more CUC in there. Also, I can't seem to get a good picture that captures the brightness of the LED fixture.

 

 

 

 

Equipment

Fluval Edge 6gal

Wingo Fluval Edge Savior LED fixture

Stock heater

Vortech MP10w es (bought with the Solana in mind)

Stock AC20

 

Livestock

1 occelaris clown

1 neon goby

1 cleaner shrimp

1 emerald crab

3 banded trochus snails.

 

Coral

Eagle Eye Zoa colony

radioactive dragon eyes

1 polyp of Shazaam paly

gsp

tan hammer

dendros

green torch

ricordea florida

blasto merletti (not looking too hot right now)

short tentacle green plate

 

So 6 months later and my daughter's interest is still piqued, she knows the names of all of the corals and fish in there, plus names of fish that I don't even recall mentioning to her. I felt bad going with her to the fish store (just) for food and not being able to pick anything up. So an upgrade was in order.

 

 

I picked up a second hand Solana 34g and started to compile parts.

 

 

For lighting I was going to go with AI, but one LFS was swaying me from them for what seemed like the wrong reasons, and another LFS was swaying me from them for what seemed like the right reasons. I ended up picking up an Ecotech Radion (basically new) from a member on a different forum at a great price. Without even having it over a tank, as soon as I got it home and plugged it in, I knew I would be happy with the fixture. It's insane.

 

 

I purchased some pukani rock from BRS. Since a lot of people mention trouble with phosphates with this rock, I gave it a bath in muriatic acid. Wow, this stuff is dirty.

 

 

 

Not wanting the radion hanging from the ceiling, I made a fixture from 1/2" conduit and a pipe bender and painted it black.

 

 

As of today

 

 

Equipment

Jager 150w heater

Stock Skimmer (loud)

Stock return pump

Koralia 750 powerhead (This thing is huge and will be kept for salt mixing only)

 

 

Future equipment will likely include a tunze osmolator (trying to find a decent price on one) and possibly a skimmer change as I am not sure I want to hear the hum of the current one.

 

 

I just put the water, sand and rock in a week ago, I am already getting some testable levels of ammonia, so it looks like things are starting to happen!

 

 

Thanks for reading

 

 

FTS

06-20-2012

[2 f15hy 4u]

You are such a good father! lol That's all i have to say... well and how nice this tank will most likely be.

[richardcharliesam]

You are such a good father! lol That's all i have to say... well and how nice this tank will most likely be.

 

Thanks!

 

This was taken the first day with the Solana at my house. A two year old fits very nicely on that bottom shelf, her nemo toys are on the top shelf with room to spare.

[RedStang]

LOL! Nice! My kids are into the reefing big time too. My 9yo daughter(crap she turns ten Sunday! Where'd the time go!) will be getting by BC29 when I get the 135 up and running some time this fall. She knows the name of every fish and coral in the tank. When we go to Sea World or the GA Aquarium she can sit there and spout off the names of most corals and at least the types of fish in their reef aquariums. It's a great learning experience. Good luck!

[richardcharliesam]

LOL! Nice! My kids are into the reefing big time too. My 9yo daughter(crap she turns ten Sunday! Where'd the time go!) will be getting by BC29 when I get the 135 up and running some time this fall. She knows the name of every fish and coral in the tank. When we go to Sea World or the GA Aquarium she can sit there and spout off the names of most corals and at least the types of fish in their reef aquariums. It's a great learning experience. Good luck!

 

 

Awesome, your daughter will have a bigger thank than most on here and soon enough she will be teaching you about this stuff.

[Genj]

I bought my first tank for my first kid. Turned out to be a little bit more for me than expected.

 

I had also purchased the pukani for my latest project, and am very happy to have let it cure in a vat with heaters/skimmer for 8 weeks. The water was the color of a cup of black tea. I did 2 water changes on the vat alone. I'm very pleased with the results so far. PO4 is exactly where I like it at 0.02. Just enough for happy corals.

[richardcharliesam]

I bought my first tank for my first kid. Turned out to be a little bit more for me than expected.

 

I had also purchased the pukani for my latest project, and am very happy to have let it cure in a vat with heaters/skimmer for 8 weeks. The water was the color of a cup of black tea. I did 2 water changes on the vat alone. I'm very pleased with the results so far. PO4 is exactly where I like it at 0.02. Just enough for happy corals.

 

 

Even setting this one up, I went in with the same thought 'oh, it won't be so bad, just need the tank and light'..... and RODI system... heaters... powerhead... more salt... rock... sand... Lol. Next time right? Next time I can just transfer over what I have to a new tank....

 

That's the beauty of forums, it gives an opportunity to learn from the mistakes (and successes) of others. Without reading their experiences, I most certainly would have just dropped the rock in the tank without cleaning it and would have been dealing with the inevitable problems as a result.

[msscha]

Thanks!

 

This was taken the first day with the Solana at my house. A two year old fits very nicely on that bottom shelf, her nemo toys are on the top shelf with room to spare.

LOL! My kids love that I have a "Nemo" fish, even if my tank is at work and they mostly get to see pictures. Someday, when I'm home more hours of the day, I'll start a tank at home.

[richardcharliesam]

Current state, pardon the sleeping corals, I just turned the light on. It looks very blue as it's still in the ramping-up-to-sunrise part of the program. I added the fish last weekend, and everything went well. I introduced a new clown at the time of the transfer, the older clown (Now named Marlon as the new clown is smaller and my daughter decided that the new one is Nemo now, 2yo logic) was not too happy with sharing the tank at first. After a few days of chasing and nipping, they are now friends, or father and son, which will be really fun explaining if they lay eggs.

 

Coral placement is not permanent at the moment, though I like my minor adjustment of the rocks, I am not sure I like the bulkiness and limited scape possibilities due to larger pieces. Also, I am not a big fan of the pukani rock as I have already had to rescue a few snails and hermits that got trapped into the larger voids.

 

 

[Tbone675]

nice solana! i have a radion over mine too.

[richardcharliesam]

nice solana! i have a radion over mine too.

 

Very nice! I like your rockwork, looks MedRed inspired.

 

I think I am going to have to break out the hammer and chisel, and go to town on the rock.

[Tbone675]

thanks i only regret having sooo much rock....not enough room for corals to grow out

[richardcharliesam]

Tbone, It doesn't look like too much from the pictures, but we certainly see our tanks differently than others will.

 

 

What kind of program are you running on your radion?

[richardcharliesam]

Current shot. Still not happy with the rock. I have to get around to breaking it up and figuring out a different layout.

 

 

Picked up two new fish over the last month or so, a Royal Gramma (Daughter has been requesting this fish for a while now) and a Yellow Wrasse. The wrasse is certainly a favorite, very active and interesting fish to watch. I think I am pretty much at or near the limit for fish now, 2 occelaris, neon goby, yellow wrasse, royal gramma. I might end up getting a watchman goby eventually, or some other small and interesting fish. Water seems fairly clean, weekly 5 gallon water changes, 0 nitrates, skimmer working well, but not over producing if that is any indication of the water quality.

 

My neon goby is apparently hiding and not coming out for food. I saw him in the rock that he normally dwells in a few days ago and have not seen him since. I have noticed that the Royal Gramma has been sleeping in the same rock, so I am wondering if the Goby is being territorial of that rock and is afraid to leave it as he might give up his space.

 

I still get a decent amount of cyano and a considerable amount of algae on the glass throughout the day, phosphates are good, somewhere over 0 but well under .25 (Api test ) New tank still? Radion? (Not sure about that though as I have taken all of the red and green out, finally putting it back in when the algae was not going away or getting better with the change) Something else?

 

I bought a frag rack (sorry, purists) from blackrockreef (MR3.M), while pricy for what it is, it is of outstanding quality. The magnets on the rack itself are enclosed in the plastic of the rack and the magnets for the outside are in a rubber coating.

 

Also picked up a few new corals in the process, some red mushrooms, paly's, a leather coral, zoas, an orange leptastrea, a nice little acan frag and some black sun coral that I am trying to nurse back to health.

 

Hopefully my next update will contain new rock-work.

[richardcharliesam]

Update

Tank is done, 9 days without power, the last fish was plucked out a few days ago. Poetically the last one to go was the first fish I bought. I will be back, will rebuild slowly.

[msscha]

Don't know whether to cry or scream or both! I do know the struggle with power, though -- in the 2004 hurricanes, we lost power for 13 days the first storm, 8 days the second storm, then a handful for the remaining few. I didn't have fish back then, though. So sorry for the losses!

[richardcharliesam]

Thank you msscha! While looking at the number, I couldn't imagine 13 days, but I am certainly nearing that as I am on my 10th day. Without worrying about electrical dependent pets, I would guess that it's a bit easier to handle, while still being relative. Obviously people around my area (and NJ) do have it worse than I do.

 

Thanks to Finding Nemo, my daughter has been ok with hearing that the fish 'have gone back to the ocean'. I am relieved that they are no longer suffering, but kicking myself for not anticipating the worst and just giving the fish away. I will pick up a generator (and gas cans) once the power comes back and the demand completely dies.