A nano tank to replace my 140g setup

[tgunn]

Very nice setup. I keep thinking of a nice solana or jbj setup in my future.

Thanks! I definitely like the simplicity of having everything tucked into the one package. One minor complaint is that the cords on my Koralias, headers, pumps, etc are all a little bit short, meaning it was a bit of a stretch to get all the cords plugged in inside the stand. If you do get an HQI Solana like this, my other tip would be to locate the ballast on the back of the stand or on the floor underneath the stand. I found the inside of the cabinet got WAY too hot with the ballast located in there.

Now, that said, I DO miss my old 140g setup. I guess I primarily miss some of the larger fish like the tangs.

Tyler

 

[powers2001]

I have two heavy magnetic ballasts for my 150 watt pendants. I set them on a baking cooling rack so they are off the ground and air can get under them. This has cooled them significantly.

 

[tgunn]

I have two heavy magnetic ballasts for my 150 watt pendants. I set them on a baking cooling rack so they are off the ground and air can get under them. This has cooled them significantly.

That's a really simple and good way to get the air flow increased around the ballasts! Great idea!

I've got my mounted to a piece of plywood with some little standoffs but from 1/2" PVC scraps. This ensures that air car flow all around the ballast.

Thanks,
Tyler

 

[melev]

Back when I used a PFO ballast, I put it on some ceramic tiles. I felt the tiles were a better way to dissipate the heat and reduce the risk of causing a burn on the carpet one day.

 

[tgunn]

Ca reactor?

Ca reactor?

In an effort to keep my Ca and Alk more stable, I've been dosing Kalk to my nano using my Masterflex dosing pump. It has definitely been helping to keep my Ca/Alk more steady. HOWEVER, it's raising my pH far too much for my liking. I normally sat around 8.7 as read by my pH controller. Now I'm up to 9.0. I backed off the dosing a tiny bit yesterday and by this morning the pH has dropped to 8.9.

ASIDE from manual dosing (I HAVE tried this and am NOT consistent enough with keeping up the daily dosing), what else have people tried with their nanos?

Would a calcium reactor be a good idea?

The LFS here has these tiny HOB Ca Reactors:

I already have the pH controller, regulator and CO2 tank from my old 140g tank, as well as a big container of media. So it'd just be the reactor I'd need.

Tyler

 

[tgunn]

Well, that's disappointing. My scooter blenny died yesterday.

I'm just not having luck with fish in my nano! I'm back down to my bicolor dottyback.

I had added a scooter and a cardinal about a month ago. I slowly acclimated them in separate containers hanging in the tank for over 45 minutes until the salinity of the water stabilized (LFS is notorious for having low salinity around 1.020 - 1.023). Each sat for a couple days after coming home in a mesh "condo" I hung into the tank. The idea there was so they could settle down after the move and adjust without worrying that the dottyback would beat up on them.

The cardinal died as soon as I released him from his "condo". The blenny seemed to be doing well, but then perished just yesterday. I suspect the spike in pH from dosing Kalk may have been the stressor that did him in.

Any tips? I seem to be losing fish whenever I try adding them to this tank. I can't see what is causing this as I'm VERY careful with acclimation.

Tyler

 

[tgunn]

DOH! I think she's leaking!!!!!!

DOH! I think she's leaking!!!!!!

Well, that's certainly frustrating. The past few days I noticed that there was a whole bunch of salt creep built up along the front right corner of my solana. I thought, "MMm, must've spilled some water over the side". So I wiped it up and let it be. Except it kept coming back.

SO, I used a damp paper towel to wipe it all away thoroughly and then dried it completely. I left it overnight, and AGAIN the bottom right corner has salt creep. So I've cleaned it up YET again and will see tonight whether it re-appears.

So I guess I better call CurrentUSA since my warranty will be up in March. I'm not looking forward to potentially having to get a new tank if this indeed leaking. It was hard enough to get the Solana here in the first place; I had to get it delivered to some little hick-border town and drive the US to pick it up since nobody ships them to Canada.

Anyone know if CurrentUSA requires you to ship back defective goods like this? I wouldn't want to have to ship back a tank at my expense.

Tyler

 

[tgunn]

Sumpin' it up...

Sumpin' it up...

Well, it appears the Solana is NOT leaking afterall. Phweew! I guess I must've spilled some water and it crept under the felt pad under the tank and the salt was slowly working its way out.

On the fish-front we picked up a pair of tank raise clowns. They're both doing great and eating like pigs. Also picked up 10 trochus snails, who are chewing through the algae on the overflow like mad. I still feel there's an excess of nutrients in the tank that are fueling this nutrient spike though. As an experiment I stuck my Tunze nano skimmer into the Solana last night. It's already pulled a 1/4 cup overnight.

I've been making an effort to monitor my Ca and Alk now that I'm dosing kalk using my dosing pump. One thing I have noticed is that the Seachem Ca and Alk test kits I got are next to useless. Well, the Ca one seems okayish, but the Alk one is completely useless as it has such a low resolution.

Doing all these tests lately has made me realize how much I miss the basement fishroom setup I had with my old 140g tank.

With that in mind I've begun thinking about what it would take to get a sump set up for my Solana in the basement.

I'm thinking I'd need:
- Build an overflow box like what Giannis86 describes here. This would be my first acrylic adventure, but could be fun!
- Sump -- no problem as I have my old 35g QT tank. I just need to patch a hole I had made in it for a bulkhead, along with a crack in the side pane. Not a big deal since I have a load of 3/8" glass kicking around from my old 100g sump.
- Return pump -- I have a load of pumps kicking around including a PCX-40, PCX-70, and monster Sequence 1000. All of these pumps are FAR too big. I'm thinking a Blueline 30 HD would work well for my application. At 10' head I'll get around 300gph out of it, which would work nicely. Another option is the Blueline 20HD which would give me around 190GPH, but I think that's getting a bit too low.

This would give me more water volume (stability = good), and allow me to run a fuge to help with nutrient export. Plus it'd make water changes easy - no hauling buckets upstairs with my gimpy arthritic hands.

 

[tgunn]

I figured it was well past time to update on my tank!

First a FTS:

My cap:

Digi:

Stammacorra:

Rics:

Acro:

Top down of the cap, complete with a random bubble algae that drifted over.

I had a strange occurence recently where all sorts of little starfish poured out of the rockwork:

 

[tgunn]

All in all things are going well. I'm doing a POOR job at maintaining Ca and Alk. I haven't tested in a long while and really should. I had a kalk reactor set up, but the replacement Osmolator can't seem to pump against the reactor so I'm back to zero calcium supplementation. I really should figure out something for that I guess... Perhaps it's time to make up a batch of 2-part...

I'm still battling aptasia. My electronic zapper seems to work for some, but for others kalk seems to work better.

Bubble algae seems to be receeding for whatever reason.

I figure it's well past time to replace the lamp in this thing. I'm still running off the original 150w HQI bulb from April 2009. Lol. I think I'll go for a Radium 20k.

Tyler

 

[geldof]

The pictures look great a nice minimalistic approach to aquascaping and everything seems to have settled in nicely with lots of space to grow. You should consider NTOTM for May.

 

[tgunn]

The pictures look great a nice minimalistic approach to aquascaping and everything seems to have settled in nicely with lots of space to grow. You should consider NTOTM for May.

I was inspired by the Bonsai reef thread. Though I honestly can't say I'm deserving of a NTOTM award at this point.

Lots of space to grow for sure; I just need to get a proper dosing regimine established so I can keep the Ca/Alk up to where it needs to be.

Tyler

 

[tgunn]

Mini update:
Unfortunately my cleaner and a small fish disappeared over the past little while. Not sure what was up there.
I continue to battle a massive case of aptasia. I'm about to rebuild my zapper in hopes of finally fixing the design flaws in the old one. Well see how that goes.

My aqua safe rodi is consistently producing suboptimal water so I've got a brand new unit from brs on the way.

I also just realized I'm at 2 years on my current halide. Oops. A 150w radium 20k hqi is also on the way.

We've had a few longish power outages lately. I scavenged an apc smart ups from the trash at work though. It just needed new batteries and it works perfectly. With all my koralias, the solana return pump and skimmer I don't even register a single blip on the power usage meter. This thong has two 20ah batteries so I suspect it will last at least 6 hrs with my load. The other big plus is it has a true sine wave so the pumps don't even notice the switch to backup power. Heh it even has an Ethernet nic on it for remote monitoring.

Hmm I have a feeling they won't be chucking one of the monster 6000w rack mounters that powers our development robot. One can only hope. Hehe

Nearing the end of my masters degree and that has me thinking of the unfinished basement and how an 8 ft x 4 ft tank would make a nice start to finishing the space. Been reading up an think a peninsula plywood glass hybrid would work really well.


Tyler