Cuttlekid's 34 Gallon Solana Tank Build

CuttleKid

CuttleKid

New member
After a lot of frustration my dad and I finally got the replacement filter media for our ro unit. Now after we put away the Holiday decoration boxes we are going to start making water and setting up the tank. I've done a lot of thinking and want the tank to mostly be gorgonians and azoo lps'. In fact I called around to see which of the few saltwater specialty stores around me and found out that they had the ro filter media that I needed. If I hadn't of gone their I would never have found my first coral. I know this is taking this to the extreme but I have a good connection with this store and they agreed to hold it for me until I get my tank up and cycled. If it was any other store I would never have trusted them to watch over a gorgonian for avfew weeks but they do everything right them.

Here is a photo I took
With my phone

http://s409.photobucket.com/albums/...ew&current=1291772620.jpg&mediafilter=noflash
 
looks like Guaiagorgia... they are quite hardy and decent growers once they get settled in
 
uhuru said:
looks like Guaiagorgia... they are quite hardy and decent growers once they get settled in
Click to expand...

I also believe that it is a Guaiagorgia, they can be even with great light and while they are eating, the polyps will spread.
 
Sorry it took so lonfg for updates. I have all the decoration boxes put away and today i just added some live rock. I would have taken pics earlier but ttheir was nothing to update. I tried to make it look decent because i am terrible at aquascaping.

It will be a while before any livestock goes in their but heres what happening right now
IMG_2286.jpg


IMG_2290.jpg


IMG_2288.jpg


IMG_2291.jpg


IMG_2282.jpg
 
I tried to create a cave/overhang because I really would like to have a school of assessors in their. I also plan to do some gobies and a mandarin fish pair. Maybe even a pipefish. I'll have to decide what I really desire. Does anyone have any suggestions of what benthic fish will complement the black live sand? I thought maybe a Dracula goby pair and a pistol shrimp. What do you guys think?
 
I would avoid anything that could decimate the pod and microfauna population before it has a chance to establish itself.
 
Now that the tank has no detectable levels of ammonia, nitrite, or nitrate I'm going to pick up a few corals tomorrow. Unfortunately the gorgonian that i had posted a link above that i had on hold someone came in and claimed they were the ones that purchased it. so when i went to the store yesterday to pick up some coral food the owner asked me "When did you pick up the sea fan." I told him i didn't and he got really ticked off that there are people who would do stuff like that. He was extremely apologetic and refunded all my money. He's even going to give me several discounts on other livestock.
 
that sucks about the gorgonian :(
Take it slow with adding coral though, since you'll be feeding them they'll be quite a heavy bioload. Adding a lot at once may cause trouble.
 
I finally got my first corals today. and at quite a deal. Because of the gorgonian incident the owner decided to give me a dendro colony for $50 from $90 and he also threw in a free tubastrea. He also gave me great discounts on fish/coral food, an extra LED strip light and he gave me the three way power adapter free of charge. Here are the corals after about 1 hour in the tank. The denro looks the best but the tubastrea is starting to open slowly but surely.

Here is my dendro
IMG_2347.jpg

My tubastrea
IMG_2344.jpg
Even though its not much to look at here is a FTS
IMG_2390.jpg
 
Last edited:
DarkXerrox Thanks for the tip. i didnt even notice the bubble algae.

1/1/11Update(Happy New Year)
I drove by an unfamiliar lfs so i went in and they had a gorgonian that they were neglecting and keeping with a bunch of butterflyfish that were eating its polyps so it was not open. I took a risk and bought. I am to no extent a seasoned nps coral keeper butni figured that i could provide better care then they were. When i got it home and was acclimating it i discovered two large bumps on the gorg that seemed to be moving so i took a closer look. And sure enough there were two parasitic snails that were eating the polyps. They were the exact same color of the gorg and it even had identical polyps on its back so i removed them and sent them on the porcelain express. I configured a simple and cheap way to feed continuosly that is working great. I took a small critter keeper and filled it with aquarium water. I then put coral food in it and placed an airstone to keep the food from settling. After that i cut an appropriate size piece of airline tubing and attached it to the critter keeper with a chip clip. I then used the method for drip acclimating by putting one end in the tub of food and the other on the surface of the water with a knot to control how much food drips into the tank. This sis working great for me so far. All I have to do is replace the water in the tub and put the daily amount of food int he tank and it lasts until the next day were i repeat it.
So in short i created my own affordable way to feed the corals continuously. I am also working on getting the sun corals and dendro to open completely by using the tupperware method. so far ive had some polyp extension and im going to keep trying.

Here is a picture of the gorgonian
IMG_2454.jpg



A close up
IMG_2457.jpg



And a FTS
IMG_2468.jpg


Everything is going well and i hope all of you (and your tanks) have a happy and healthy new year
 
I do some thing similar for continuous feeding. But I have an ice probe (mini chiller) in my food container to keep the food from spoiling. I still worry about the spoiling thing so I only put half a days worth of food at a time in, & clean the container every day. This may seem & be a little paranoid, but heavy feeding & really good if not perfect water quality is not an easy thing to maintain so better safe than sorry. Just a thought thrown out there. May be some others will share their thoughts on this too.
 
I think this will be a stunning display. I agree with the others that I wouldn't keep anything that will eat up your pod population, like mandarins (which also don't fare well with strong current--I've learned this through experience) and pipefish.

I do think one yellow assessor or a pair (I've heard mixed things about keeping more than one assessor in a small tank, so proceed with caution) would really pop against that setting and complement the corals, though--or alternatively (since they might not get along), one or a pair of orchid dottybacks. Assessors would love that overhang you've set up, and orchid dottybacks are actually often found among soft corals and sea fans in nature, so it would be an appropriate habitat for either species. JMO, though--feel free to disregard. ;)
 
I have 2 questions about my gorgonian. First: What species is it?

Second: For the past couple days t has been for lack of a better word "shedding." Its like a snake skin and it is coming off. but there i have not seen any effects to it. Is this normal?
 
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