"My Daughter's" Solana 34g

[rcharliesam]

I have always liked the look of saltwater tanks but never had the time or desire 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 shazaam paly polyp
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 from the forums on here 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 here 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.

*edit - Osmolator ordered!


I just put the water, sand and rock in on Tuesday, so it's going to be a while before I can do anything with this other than topping off water but I will update as things start happening.


Thanks for reading.

 

[rcharliesam]

Anybody know why the formatting through tapatalk looks like that?

 

[njreefer]

Cool tank... your a good dad

 

[rbtwo4]

awesome setup im thinking of doing the same for my nephew

 

[rcharliesam]

Cool tank... your a good dad

Aw thanks! Though at this point, it's just as much for me as it is her.

awesome setup im thinking of doing the same for my nephew

Thanks. Nano's are definitely a great way to introduce people to the hobby.

 

[rbtwo4]

yeah he drives me crazy always saying "we go to fishy store?" loves going there

 

[rcharliesam]

So the tank has been set up for a bit over a month now and I am not getting anymore ammonia spikes. I was feeding the tank mysis shrimp, and dosed a bit of microbacter7 at points.

I was never able to get a reading for nitrites, nitrates and only picked up small bumps of ammonia spikes. I dropped a piece of shrimp in there last week to see if I could get an ammonia spike and I am still getting zeroes across the board while the shrimp is clearly decaying in there. I am also getting diatom blooms. Shouldn't I at least be seeing nitrates?

I started with live sand and acid washed pukani rock. I was using the skimmer a bit, but it is off now.

Did I miss the cycle?

 

[rcharliesam]

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.

 

[dannyny]

#cooldad

 

[pweissma]

Great start. See you like the trim kit. I have it on mine as well but I thinned it a bit with a router so my HOB skimmer and some other items would fit better. The one mod that I think is worthwhile right away is the overflow mod which I haven't posted here but is easy to find if you google "Solana overflow mod".

Reefing is a great hobby to share with your kids. Good luck.

 

[rcharliesam]

The eggcrate under the overflow thing? I am currently not running a sponge. I have my water level fairly high in the back, so the waterfall sound is minimal, but I suppose some more filtration is a good thing. I will look into it, thanks for the tip!

As for the trim, I originally got it because I wanted the glass top to prevent jumpers and the possibility of my daughter throwing something in the tank. When I was first running the tank, I was watching the temps go up to the mid 80's on 70 degree days. I was home earlier (2pm) and checked the temp (in this heat) and I believe that it was only 80, with no ac running.

The design of the trim sucks. Mine is currently sitting on a slight downward slope because of the thicker wires coming out of the back, I was thinking about notching it out a bit to accommodate the cords. I would imagine it is made of some kind of MDF? Did you seal yours in anyway when you trimmed it down?

 

[pweissma]

I like the trim for the way it looks. To get it to sit right you need to remove a lot of wood. It's hardwood. I removed some wood from the bottom for cords and from the inside so it doesn't hang over the sump area and to make it thinner. I don't know if I removed anything from the very back.

If you have your water level high just to avoid the waterfall sound then I would suggest using the sponge and lowering the water level. The reason is that a high water level causes chambers 1 and 2 to join. 1 fills from the bottom and 2 drains from the bottom. Without the cascade from chamber 1 to 2 your water surface in this area will be stagnant. Also, chamber 1 is designed to be a constant depth to enable consistent skimmer performance. Depending on what skimmer you're using this may or may not be an issue.

 

[rcharliesam]

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 pricey 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 (from Jimmyr1rider on DBTC) that I am trying to nurse back to health.

Hopefully my next update will contain new rock-work.

 

[Awibrandy]

Pretty little tank, your a nice dad. That black coral will be okay, just feed it. Jimmy was kind enough to gift me one as well. It opened yesterday to eat which is a good sign.

 

[rcharliesam]

Thanks Awi. My black suns finally popped out the other day for feedings. Which was really welcomed as they started looking pretty bad. Jimmy was nice enough to give me two (I refused, he insisted) so hopefully I can get them well enough to return one back to him.

 

[Koyfam16]

the scape looks cool..you've gottena lot of coraline in those rocks..u dose with anything?

 

[rcharliesam]

Thanks. I noticed in the picture that it appears to be coraline, but I believe it is a thin layer of cyano. I just blew off and siphoned the thicker layer this weekend with the water change. If it (the thin layer) is in fact coraline I will be delighted. But I doubt it. I am not dosing anything at the moment.

 

[JonnyJ]

I really like the scape a lot. I wouldn't add any additional fish for a while. Let the tank settle in. Get a nice idea on how much you can feed and keep it to a minimum.

Sometimes having a lot of Rock is a good thing.


They are great little tanks..heres My old Solana...

 

[rcharliesam]

Thanks Jonny. Having seen your waterfall tank (your Solana was nice too), I take that as a huge compliment. The rock just seems a bit too bulky to me, but I understand the benefit to having more rock. Maybe I will just break out some voids give the fish some more space to hide and play.

I agree with waiting for another fish, I was just putting my future plan out there.

On a potential crappy note, I have not seen my neon goby in 3 days... The last I saw him, he was in the rock and I shined a light in and he peeked out a bit to see. I used to tap on the glass to let him know it was feeding time and he would dart out... now, nothing. I am hopeful that he is ok in there, but I am starting to become doubtful.

 

[rcharliesam]

It's been a week since I have seen my neon goby. I am confident that he is dead at this point as he has not had food in at least a week. Since he was staying in the rockwork, it is impossible for me to get him out of the tank. I am hopeful that due to his size, he should not upset the system too much. Poor guy.