Cody's 34g Solana, round two!

[cody6766]

I took my AIO Solana down when my wife and I moved around the living room, which freed up space for my new 120g. The Solana was going to be sold, but I kept getting the itch for a rimless cube again. I go the thumps up from my wife and I'm pulling down my 14g Biocube that is in the entryway and replacing it with the Solana. The BioCube is just not as attractive and is too low/closed off to really make a statement when people walk through the door. I'll be moving over some rock, zoas, rics and possibly a pistol shrimp from the BC to make it happen. Also, as my xmas gift from my wife, I was given a reasonable budget to buy some clowns and a BTA for the new tank. We didn't know what to ask of one another this year, so we just focused on the kids and shopped for ourselves.

Anyway, Here are the pics of the open scape. You don't really get a good feel for depth from the pics, but the burrow on the right and the little 'arm' in the middle-rear add to the arms of the structure. It shows a little better in the 2nd pic. I'm also going to scoot the big structure a little right to free up an inch or so between it and the left wall.




This will remain a pretty simple tank. Here's the future rundown:
Light - disco ball with 150w 14K Phoenix (have it)
Flow - MP-10 x2 (Currently Koralia Evo 750 until a good used one comes up)
ATO - Autotopoff.com double float (have it)
Controller - RKL, probably soon down the road
no skimmer, dosers, or any of that stuff. I didn't need them before, so I'm not worried about them now.

Stocking: Clowns and Anemones will be the feature
Fish:
- 2x clownfish (probably picassos)
- Pearly Headed Jawfish (using a screen)
- Maybe a shrimp goby if I add the shrimp
- Yellow Tailed Damsel
- possibly something like a flasher wrasse, but I don't know

Inverts:
- BTAs, probably green and rose
- Rock flower anemones
- all snail CUC

Corals:
- mixed reef with yumas, zoas, torch, frogspawn and frags from my 120g


I just filled the tank yesterday. The substrate is a mix of dry sand, crushed coral and rinsed/reused sand from a previous tank. I added some well established LR from the BioCube, so I'm going to give it a few days to make sure I cleaned the sand well enough and then start adding corals. When monties and birdsnest grow, I'll add the nem(s) and clowns.

 

[terrypercula]

Very nice! Looking forward to it coming together.

 

[1MP3R1AL]

Nice scape! Can't wait to see this grow out.

 

[cherubfish pair]

What's a disco ball light?

 

[terrypercula]

What's a disco ball light?

The light that typically came with the Solanas was a round metal halide looked like a discoball. Google Solana halide fixture something will probably come up.

 

[cody6766]

Nice scape! Can't wait to see this grow out.

Thanks, I'm pretty excited about it. it will be 'flowing coral' and anemone dominated. I'm picturing some SPS, torches and frogspawn billowing about and some rics and zoas adding color to the bottom.

What's a disco ball light?

As Dave said, just the stock Solana MH pendent that came with the tank. It's a brushed Al ball over the tank, aka disco ball.

Here's a stock pic from the interwebs. I ahve the same black stand as well

 

[cody6766]

double post

 

[cherubfish pair]

So it's a MH. Does it heat up the water?

 

[cody6766]

So it's a MH. Does it heat up the water?

It does, but not terribly so. I only had issues with temps getting too high in the tank under this light when the room temp was hotter than I wanted the water...which makes sense. When we had some AC issues last summer, the house would jump into the low-mid 80s and I'd need a fan on the tank to keep it cool. Turning off the light saved a degree or 2. I had to have a fan when I ran a 250w light over a 30g tank a few years back, but this 150w doesn't really need it.
In my case, it's really a moot point now. My wife likes the look of the Kessils on my 120g and more or less insisted that I replace the Solana's MH with one. I have an A350 on the way as of this evening. I also ordered an Eiehm 1000 to replace the noisy MJ1200 return pump that's in the tank now.

Today also bought some new things from High Def Corals. Luckily, I'm local so I ran by today and picked up a pair of da Vinci clowns, a green BTA and a few $10 frags (zoanthids, acan, chalice, shrooms). I'm not worried about a cycle because the tank was set up from dry rock, dry sand and some live rock pulled from a several year old tank. I set up my 120g this way, as well as a few other tanks, and had no issues.
Here are the clowns...cute little buggers.

 

[cody6766]

A trip to the LFS brought a couple of additions. I picked up a YWG to pair with the pistol shrimp in the tank and got a nice frag of neon green Nepthia. Here are 2 tank shots. One is straight on, the other is a little inclined to better show depth.

 

[Mose]

Great tank - I'm setting up a 34g too.

 

[cody6766]

Thanks. They're awesome tanks. They're big enough to hold a few interesting fish and to leave room for a nice, open scape, but they're not so large they dominate a room. When I took mine down to set up my 120, I really missed the little cube.

Mine's almost full up now (not counting livestock). I just replaced the noisy MJ1200 with an Ehiem that moves about the same volume/hr, hooked up my ATO and will have my MP20 on it as soon as the used MP40s I'm buying come in. Once the Kessil A350 comes in and I toss a RKL on the tank, I'll be set. It should shape up to be a really nice tank in a few months.

 

[cody6766]

My Kessil is on the tank and looking great. I pulled the disco ball off the hanger, ran the Kessil's cable through it and mounted it with some zip ties. I don't have a good FTS, but this is what I get to look at from my seat on the couch.



The only difference is I have the Solana pulled out a little bit so I can work on cable management. It sits at an angle between that column and the wall, so I'm looking through the right side glass.

 

[Dexter1258]

I took my AIO Solana down when my wife and I moved around the living room, which freed up space for my new 120g. The Solana was going to be sold, but I kept getting the itch for a rimless cube again. I go the thumps up from my wife and I'm pulling down my 14g Biocube that is in the entryway and replacing it with the Solana. The BioCube is just not as attractive and is too low/closed off to really make a statement when people walk through the door. I'll be moving over some rock, zoas, rics and possibly a pistol shrimp from the BC to make it happen. Also, as my xmas gift from my wife, I was given a reasonable budget to buy some clowns and a BTA for the new tank. We didn't know what to ask of one another this year, so we just focused on the kids and shopped for ourselves.



Anyway, Here are the pics of the open scape. You don't really get a good feel for depth from the pics, but the burrow on the right and the little 'arm' in the middle-rear add to the arms of the structure. It shows a little better in the 2nd pic. I'm also going to scoot the big structure a little right to free up an inch or so between it and the left wall.









This will remain a pretty simple tank. Here's the future rundown:

Light - disco ball with 150w 14K Phoenix (have it)

Flow - MP-10 x2 (Currently Koralia Evo 750 until a good used one comes up)

ATO - Autotopoff.com double float (have it)

Controller - RKL, probably soon down the road

no skimmer, dosers, or any of that stuff. I didn't need them before, so I'm not worried about them now.



Stocking: Clowns and Anemones will be the feature

Fish:

- 2x clownfish (probably picassos)

- Pearly Headed Jawfish (using a screen)

- Maybe a shrimp goby if I add the shrimp

- Yellow Tailed Damsel

- possibly something like a flasher wrasse, but I don't know



Inverts:

- BTAs, probably green and rose

- Rock flower anemones

- all snail CUC



Corals:

- mixed reef with yumas, zoas, torch, frogspawn and frags from my 120g





I just filled the tank yesterday. The substrate is a mix of dry sand, crushed coral and rinsed/reused sand from a previous tank. I added some well established LR from the BioCube, so I'm going to give it a few days to make sure I cleaned the sand well enough and then start adding corals. When monties and birdsnest grow, I'll add the nem(s) and clowns.

I'm setting up a 29 gallon Biocube and I'm a total noob. I bought mine Friday last week actually. I'm very curious about your top off solution. Can you go into detail about the set up. I'm most nervous about adding water and water changes. Here's a pic of my tank

 

[cody6766]

The top off solution is really simple. If your BC29 is like my old 14g, the left two chambers are connected at the bottom, therefore raise and lower together. You'll want to hang your ATO float switch in one of those two chambers. I use the middle one on my Solana. I have a double float switch system from www.autotopoff.com. It has one that is used to add water to the tank when it's low, and another that is higher up to shut it off if the lower switch gets stuck on. This just hangs in the chamber of your choosing. It's a relay system that pushes power to a powerhead when the float switch senses that the water is too low. You'll keep a fresh water reservoir near the tank with a powerhead attached to a hose that leads to your tank inside. You want this hose ABOVE the water line in your tank's chamber so you don't create a siphon that causes a persistent on/off cycle. An inch or two is fine. I use a trash can outside the stand, but it looks better to have container inside the stand to keep it hidden. ATO.com also has single switch systems (which I use on my 6g tank) for space constrained places. I don't know if you'll be able to fit a double in the BC, but it's the safest since you have the extra 'off' float.

If you need more info, PM me and I'll shoot some pics and draw up some super special MS paint diagrams to try to illustrate the point better. Also, the evap rate in a Biocube is really low because of the lid.

Oh, and for water changes, I just kill the return, powerheads, heater and ATO before draining the tank. I pull out the water, add new salt water until it's close to the proper level, turn on the return pump and top off as necessary to get the rear chambers where they need to be. Then I switch on the other equipment. Using an American DJ powerstrip helps with this. They're on Amazon for about $30 for an 8 outlet strip.

 

[Dexter1258]

The top off solution is really simple. If your BC29 is like my old 14g, the left two chambers are connected at the bottom, therefore raise and lower together. You'll want to hang your ATO float switch in one of those two chambers. I use the middle one on my Solana. I have a double float switch system from www.autotopoff.com. It has one that is used to add water to the tank when it's low, and another that is higher up to shut it off if the lower switch gets stuck on. This just hangs in the chamber of your choosing. It's a relay system that pushes power to a powerhead when the float switch senses that the water is too low. You'll keep a fresh water reservoir near the tank with a powerhead attached to a hose that leads to your tank inside. You want this hose ABOVE the water line in your tank's chamber so you don't create a siphon that causes a persistent on/off cycle. An inch or two is fine. I use a trash can outside the stand, but it looks better to have container inside the stand to keep it hidden. ATO.com also has single switch systems (which I use on my 6g tank) for space constrained places. I don't know if you'll be able to fit a double in the BC, but it's the safest since you have the extra 'off' float.

If you need more info, PM me and I'll shoot some pics and draw up some super special MS paint diagrams to try to illustrate the point better. Also, the evap rate in a Biocube is really low because of the lid.

Oh, and for water changes, I just kill the return, powerheads, heater and ATO before draining the tank. I pull out the water, add new salt water until it's close to the proper level, turn on the return pump and top off as necessary to get the rear chambers where they need to be. Then I switch on the other equipment. Using an American DJ powerstrip helps with this. They're on Amazon for about $30 for an 8 outlet strip.

Awesome detail. Do u need anything in the fresh water reservoir to keep water from getting stagnant? Like an air stone or anything?

 

[cherubfish pair]

The sides get a little slimmy from bacteria but stays out of the water, not a problem.

 

[cody6766]

^^^yup. I have to refill my ATO a few times a week, so stagnation isn't an issue. Everything will have a light slime layer, like he said, but it's not problematic.

 

[cody6766]

FTS with the Kessil A350

I"m looking forward to getting everything dialed in so I can load it with coral. I have a nice orange hammer I picked up that's in my 120 until I run a few test corals through the Solana.

 

[ddymond]

FTS with the Kessil A350

I"m looking forward to getting everything dialed in so I can load it with coral. I have a nice orange hammer I picked up that's in my 120 until I run a few test corals through the Solana.

How do you like the Kessil 350? I have a 29gl and I am crossed between the 360we and the 160we. I want the ability to add the controller, but not sure if the 160 is going to be enough for that size tank. Its a big cost difference but I don't want to get the 160 and have dark spots everywhere. The 350 seems to cast a big spread outside of the tank also. When your house lights are off, how much extra light is thrown outside of the tank??