DJ88's 34 gallon Solana build....

DJ88©

DJ88©

Premium Member
Yup. I am back. :) After way too long. As the days go by I will post shots of what I have decided to work with. I have all the equipment from my last 100 gallon acrylic tank so this was a pretty easy set up so far.

Quick trip to the LFS to pick up;

  • Current USA Solana 34 gal rimless tank
  • Cappuccino stained Current USA stand
  • Hamilton Caymen 250HQI reflector
  • Galaxy 250W HQI electronic Ballast
  • Phoenix Hexarc 14K blue HQI bulb

And we were off to the races.

With the lighting we have we will be doing a primarily SPS tank with some zoa's for the wife so she can have fun too. :)

All in all a fun day. Went into the store room to dig up my old medical doser, BAR aquatics Kalk stirrer, Tunze nano streams, RODI, Ecotech Marine Vortec and some other odds n ends. If need be have a Schuran Ca reactor, and all the goodies that go with it. :)

Time to start cleaning and putting all the pieces in place.
 
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Nothing too creative this time. Going very plug and play. Just want to document for once. :) will get a website setup in short order to link to.

cleaned up some tunze's and a vortech.

solana 001.jpg


solana 002.jpg
 
Sounds good, let me know how that works for you. I have a solana I am setting up as well and would love to put the vortech there. Goodluck with your build.
 
Welcome back, you might want to do what I was planning to do with mine.The back wall is rough and it makes for cleaning a pain so before you add water get some 1/8" black or blue acrylic and have it shaped to the back wall and just slip it in,put the return back and your good to go.Makes cleaning a breeze,hope this helps.eric
 
Doug! Nice to see you are still around. :) It feels good to be planning a tank again. Can't wait to add water. Have a few more pieces of the puzzle before I get that far though. ;)

Thanks for the advice and welcomes. :spin2: Not to worried about the back getting covered in corraline. :) Welcome it. the glass I will clean. A lot. ;)

did some thinking and scheming and here's the gadgets going with the previous list for lighting etc. Most I already had from previous tanks so it makes the pill to swallow a little less bitter. ;)

  • Tunze 9002 nano skimmer
  • Tunze Osmolator for top off
  • precision Medical doser for kalk dosing
  • BAR aquatics Kalk stirrer
  • Tunze Aquawind fans
  • Tunze nano streams (6025) x 2
  • Maxi jet 900 or Eheim 1250 return

Going to either fabricate a 5-7 gallon RO reservoir or get a 5 gallon glass tank for top off/kalk feed.

Trying to go for a clean and simple look.

Decided not to use the Vortec. I think I will have enough flow with the Tunzes and return. If I need more I still have it. The battery backup I have for it will be nice in a pinch though. so who knows.
 
Planning on having a small sand bed. Have a 20lb bag of Fiji Pink to put in there. Looks only. We will see what is going to happen to it. ;)

Also have rebuilt my RO/DI and bought the Tunze 9002 and a bucket o' salt now.

Just need LR and we are working with fire. :)

mounted the pendant to an adjacent wall instead of suspending it. Huge PITA to suspend it. Just have to fill the hole I put up there trying it out. ;) :p
 
Well 23 lbs of LR and a Tunze Silence 1073.2 return pump later and we are cooking with fire. :D :beer:

As soon as I can find my camera cable I'll upload a few shots.

Sure feels nice to have a tank with water in it again.

Final build was

  • Current USA Solana 34 gal rimless tank
  • Current USA Cappuccino stained stand
  • Hamilton Caymen 250HQI reflector
  • Galaxy 250W HQI electronic Ballast
  • Phoenix Hexarc 14K blue HQI bulb
  • Tunze 9002 nano skimmer
  • Tunze Osmolator for top off
  • Tunze Aquawind fans
  • Tunze nano streams (6025) x 2
  • Tunze 1073.2 return pump
  • precision Medical doser for kalk dosing
  • BAR aquatics Kalk stirrer

I am sure if Roger sees all the Tunze stuff he is gonna love me. :)
:spin2:

I re-routed the return because I couldn't stand having it come out half way up the back wall. Using a 3/4 locline return as well now. Also Decided as well I didn't want to modify (hack) the Tunze skimmer so I mounted it in the center chamber instead of the original skimmer chamber.
 
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Here's a couple of shot with my phone. kinda crappy. but there is water in it now. :) and rock. ;)

fans are now mounted as well as an additional tunze powerhead. Nano stream 6045.

:hmm4: lots of flow now. as you can see how the sand is blowing around. :)

solana 003.jpg


solana 004.jpg
 
I like your scape man.

I'm trying to figure out the flow for my solana. Is the mp10 and the two nano streams that you're running working well? I'm thinking about running an mp10 and a koralia nano
 
thank you. :) I think I lucked out on the rock. Only one piece I am not a fan of.

not running the MP anymore. Three nano streams. :)

2 x 6025 and one 6045.

And the tunze return. I need to open up my overflow slots some more so they can handle the flow from the return. Have the old return hole open right now so that the overflow can keep up.

MP is for emergency use only in event of a power failure with the battery backup. I'll figure out how to mount it later on.
 
After all the messing around I have done over the years its easy to set up a small tank like this. :) no fussing around like some of my other builds....... :)

This was about as plug and play as they come. I haven't really cut or modified anything other than the return and some minor acrylic shaping to make the skimmer fit without any mods to it.

Took me more work to get the RO/DI ship shape. It's been sitting for a while unused... >.<
 
Welcome back Darren, with that much flow I'm guessing its going to be primarily an SPS tank?

Keep us posted!
 
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