Spirofucci
New member
How is the basslett doing? I have a swales as well......very purdy fish but mine hides most of the time.
My Solana Superbrite Build
- Thread starter chad p
- Start date
Unfortunately you'll see a couple updates back that the Swales died. That thing was a super cool looking fish but it was beyond shy. It didn't come out, even to eat. I would see it get a couple pieces here and there but other than that it rarely left it's little den in the rock.
One day I looked in the tank to see my hermits feasting on it. I was bummed.
My anemone experiment is turning out to be a borderline failure. It parked itself in the back of the scape and my clowns have so far shown zero interest in it. I'm going to be moving in a few months and if it hasn't changed I'll be selling it.
My Royal Gramma continues to show ich and my naked clown shows it from time to time too. When I move I'm going to get rid of the RG, set up a hospital tank and treat the other fish and leave the tank fish-free for 8 to 10 weeks. It's going to be a huge pain but oh well. I want to be ich-free once and for all.
I believe after that I'll add the last of the fish and my final fish list will be:
-Sixline Wrasse
-Snowflake Clown
-Naked Clown
-Flameback Angel
-Yellow Assessor
-Blue Dot Jawfish (possibly)
Kind of heavy but I think it'll be fine with the skimmer and GFO reactor. I'm also going to add a light in the sump and a cheato ball pretty soon. Hopefully this will keep nutrients low and stabilize my pH at the same time. Currently my pH swings from 7.95 to 8.3. Probably not a real biggie but more consistency never hurt a reef tank I guess.
I'd also like to add a couple shrimp while the fish are in the hospital tank. My Royal Gramma has prevented me from dropping a shrimp in the tank. I don't think he ate my last one but he definitely showed some interest in it.
Other than that there's not a whole lot to report.
I can definitely see some better color starting in a bunch of pieces. I'm not claiming that I'm going to be the guy to put the whole LED vs. Halide debate to rest. Heck, I may still give LED a shot down the road. But since switching to the MH pennant I'm seeing the start of some good results. I'm really looking forward to updating with some before/after pics a couple or few months down the road. My Palmers Blue milli, Reefers Rainbow, Blue Matrix and others are showing improved color and I feel like I'm already seeing improved growth.
Stay tuned and thanks for following along! :beer:
Hospital Tanks Are Not Sexy
Hospital Tanks Are Not Sexy
So...not the most exciting update but I've got the hospital tank up and running.
Anemone went to the LFS and the Royal Gramma is a goner. The snowflake and sixline wrasse are in the hospital for a couple months while the display gets ich-free.
In the years I've been in this hobby I've NEVER quarantined fish. I always rolled the dice and it's only been a problem on 2 occasions. Well, I'm a QT guy now. Sure, it's a pain but not as big of a pain as tearing apart your display to remove a sick fish. I never want to have to do it again.
Today I picked up a cleaner shrimp so my main tank isn't completely boring to look at. I've gotta have some kind of action in there. I also picked up a black misbar Osellaris. I saw it at dreaded Petco and it caught my eye. I love so many of the cool designer clowns out there and was bummed to lose my naked clown but the common misbars always draw my attention. I figured I may as well pick him up now so I could treat him and QT him with the others instead of having to have the QT tank up for an extra 4 weeks. I think this will make a cool, oddball clown pair. I think the coolest oddball pair would be a platinum and a midnight duo but these guys will do.
Only Petco would bag a fish together in a small bag with a cleaner shrimp. I only had a short trip home so I didn't complain but it was less than ideal for sure.
I'm still really happy with the Cayman Sun MH pennant. This is the warmest time of the year in my area so I have had to manage heat a bit but it's been worth it in terms of the color I'm seeing making a come back. Even though it hasn't really been long enough to make any concrete judgements I can tell I'm getting better growth as well.
My scape really didn't change much after tearing apart my tank but here's a cell phone pic anyways. I wanted to move all rock away from the back panel to make it easier to clean and improve water movement. I'm getting a bit of cyano in low-flow areas.
I added a clip on lamp and a cheato ball too in the open chamber of my sump. I don't necessarilly think I need it with the GFO reactor but I'm hoping to reduce my pH swing and keep things stable when my GFO runs out of capacity. We'll see if it is something I keep long term.
I got the clip on lamp at Walmart for $9.99.
Works perfect for my setup. Right now I have it coming on for 10 hours at night. So far no change in my pH swing but the cheato has only been in there for a few days.
I also had to swap out my fan in my sump as it took a dump after a couple of weeks of use. This white clip on one moves more air and works better anyways. Got it on the bay for $14 or $15 or so. Sump area is as cluttered as ever but who cares? As long as I can get to my skimmer collection cup, filter sock and reactor I'm good.
Hospital Tanks Are Not Sexy
So...not the most exciting update but I've got the hospital tank up and running.
Anemone went to the LFS and the Royal Gramma is a goner. The snowflake and sixline wrasse are in the hospital for a couple months while the display gets ich-free.
In the years I've been in this hobby I've NEVER quarantined fish. I always rolled the dice and it's only been a problem on 2 occasions. Well, I'm a QT guy now. Sure, it's a pain but not as big of a pain as tearing apart your display to remove a sick fish. I never want to have to do it again.
Today I picked up a cleaner shrimp so my main tank isn't completely boring to look at. I've gotta have some kind of action in there. I also picked up a black misbar Osellaris. I saw it at dreaded Petco and it caught my eye. I love so many of the cool designer clowns out there and was bummed to lose my naked clown but the common misbars always draw my attention. I figured I may as well pick him up now so I could treat him and QT him with the others instead of having to have the QT tank up for an extra 4 weeks. I think this will make a cool, oddball clown pair. I think the coolest oddball pair would be a platinum and a midnight duo but these guys will do.
Only Petco would bag a fish together in a small bag with a cleaner shrimp. I only had a short trip home so I didn't complain but it was less than ideal for sure.
I'm still really happy with the Cayman Sun MH pennant. This is the warmest time of the year in my area so I have had to manage heat a bit but it's been worth it in terms of the color I'm seeing making a come back. Even though it hasn't really been long enough to make any concrete judgements I can tell I'm getting better growth as well.
My scape really didn't change much after tearing apart my tank but here's a cell phone pic anyways. I wanted to move all rock away from the back panel to make it easier to clean and improve water movement. I'm getting a bit of cyano in low-flow areas.
I added a clip on lamp and a cheato ball too in the open chamber of my sump. I don't necessarilly think I need it with the GFO reactor but I'm hoping to reduce my pH swing and keep things stable when my GFO runs out of capacity. We'll see if it is something I keep long term.
I got the clip on lamp at Walmart for $9.99.
Works perfect for my setup. Right now I have it coming on for 10 hours at night. So far no change in my pH swing but the cheato has only been in there for a few days.
I also had to swap out my fan in my sump as it took a dump after a couple of weeks of use. This white clip on one moves more air and works better anyways. Got it on the bay for $14 or $15 or so. Sump area is as cluttered as ever but who cares? As long as I can get to my skimmer collection cup, filter sock and reactor I'm good.
summoner12
New member
Are these two clowns going to get along? In my experience mixing them can be bad news.
Also, won't a cleaner shrimp help remove ick?
Also, won't a cleaner shrimp help remove ick?
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Well the clowns are technically the same species. They just have different coloration. I suppose it's possible for them to never get along based on their difference in appearance but it hasn't been an issue to this point. Interesting question that I hadn't even considered being that they're the same species. The snowflake got along fine with the naked clown that I used to have in there.
As for the cleaner shrimp...no, it will not get rid of ich on a fish. I wish it were that easy. Ich is buried below the surface where a cleaner shrimp can't touch it.
UUUGGGHHH!!
My snowflake clown Lloyd Christmas took a leap from the hospital tank. I'm down to just the sixline wrasse and my new black clown now. I've never lost so many fish in such a short time in all the time I've been keeping tanks. Good lawd! My purple firefish, Swales basslet, royal gramma, naked clown and snowflake clown all in 6 weeks or so!! One was too shy to eat, one took a dive on the hardwoods but the rest were victims of ich. I definitely waited too long to set up the hospital tank and treat them. :headwalls:
I know this whole hospital tank thing was a must but man it's been a pain! It's taken me a week to finally get the salinity down to 1.009. I wanted to do it over 48 hours but it's been tough to space the water changes out with my work schedule. I figured it's better to take a long time than to rush it. I finally got it there though.
I'm going to give it the 4 weeks and then slowly bring the salinity back up. Once I hit 8 weeks on the display tank (November 7th) I'll add my 2 remaining fish and keep the tank up for a while as a QT. At that point I'm going to order a black snowflake and a flameback angel and QT them. I'm not big on waiting and this whole hospital/QT deal is nothing but a waiting game. Well, at least I've got my cleaner shrimp in the display. That guy's living the life. 34 gallons all to himself. I might have to add a fire shrimp here this weekend.
RIP Lloyd Christmas...I hardly even got to know ya.
Still seeing improving color on a lot of my SPS. I'll update with good pics once it's really discernible. I promise I'll have more exciting and photo-filled updates down the road! :wavehand:
My snowflake clown Lloyd Christmas took a leap from the hospital tank. I'm down to just the sixline wrasse and my new black clown now. I've never lost so many fish in such a short time in all the time I've been keeping tanks. Good lawd! My purple firefish, Swales basslet, royal gramma, naked clown and snowflake clown all in 6 weeks or so!! One was too shy to eat, one took a dive on the hardwoods but the rest were victims of ich. I definitely waited too long to set up the hospital tank and treat them. :headwalls:
I know this whole hospital tank thing was a must but man it's been a pain! It's taken me a week to finally get the salinity down to 1.009. I wanted to do it over 48 hours but it's been tough to space the water changes out with my work schedule. I figured it's better to take a long time than to rush it. I finally got it there though.
I'm going to give it the 4 weeks and then slowly bring the salinity back up. Once I hit 8 weeks on the display tank (November 7th) I'll add my 2 remaining fish and keep the tank up for a while as a QT. At that point I'm going to order a black snowflake and a flameback angel and QT them. I'm not big on waiting and this whole hospital/QT deal is nothing but a waiting game. Well, at least I've got my cleaner shrimp in the display. That guy's living the life. 34 gallons all to himself. I might have to add a fire shrimp here this weekend.
RIP Lloyd Christmas...I hardly even got to know ya.
Still seeing improving color on a lot of my SPS. I'll update with good pics once it's really discernible. I promise I'll have more exciting and photo-filled updates down the road! :wavehand:
terrypercula
New member
Sorry to hear about the ich outbreak!
Thanks Terry. I gotta tell you...this whole hospital tank deal has been a royal PITA!! :headwalls:
First my snowflake took a jump and today my sixline wrasse died. Last week I added a small cherub angel to the hospital tank. I figured it was a good time to add him because I could QT him and treat with hypo all at the same time to be on the safe side. At first everything was fine. The cherub was a little shy but the sixline was roaming the tank and eating fine. I saw the cherub eat mysis and some Ocean Nutrition Formula Two.
However, in the last few days the sixline just stopped coming out of the PVC hiding places and wasn't eating. In the last couple of days the angel is hiding more and more and now I'm afraid he's going to be the next to kick the bucket. I haven't witnessed him eating in a couple days.
The water got cloudy a few days ago. Not sure if it was a bacteria bloom or what. Did some big water changes and it's cleared up. I check ammonia daily but my API test kit blows. It's pretty much useless. I've got to pick up a better test kit tomorrow. I wrapped most of the tank in paper grocery bag to try to make the fish calm and secure but it's impossible to keep things calm when you're doing water changes daily. UGGGHHH!!
I decided I'm going to abort the hypo. The sixline and snowflake from the display tank are gone and they never showed a single spot of ich. I'm going to sloooowly bring up the salinity to normal and turn it from a hospital tank to a QT until the display is fish free for 8-10 weeks. I'm hoping that maybe then things will be a little lower stress and I'll see better feeding from the angel...if it lives that long. I really hope to never have to do this again and it's killing my faith in QTing. I think it's a good practice in theory but it's brutal on the fish in terms of stress. My clown seems to be having the time of his life but I think it took a toll on the snowflake and sixline and now on the angel.
Anyways, sorry for the long boring rant but I had to vent on this one. This hobby is awesome but hospital/QT tanks aren't part of the good times. I almost want to abort this mission altogether...bring them up to 1.025-1.026 and put 'em back in the display. It's not even that I mind the constant water changes and extra work. I'm just afraid I'm not going to have any fish left to quarantine in another 6-7 weeks! :headwallblue: OK that's it...carry on.
I too am interested in this sump ended up doing a DIY for my Solana build. What an awsome tank OP happy i found this thread to help me with my Solana build :thumbsup:
Thanks for the kind words Vii and good luck with your build. I've been super happy with the tank and the way I've got it set up.
I really wish I could be more help with the sump guys. I scoured my ebay history and then remembered that I ended up purchasing it directly from the buyer. Then I searched through my paypal history to try and track him down that way but the paypal history is nothing more than a loooooong list of email addresses.
I'm afraid he's not making sumps anymore because I can't find him when I search sumps on the bay. It's a shame too because he had a bunch of sumps in all different dimensions including at least 3 or 4 cube sumps with different configurations of chambers. The price was cheaper than what it was going to cost me to build one too.
Anyways, not too much to update with on the tank. I've got 3 fish coming in today. A new Cherub angel and sixline wrasse and a black snowflake clown.
I'm at about 26 days with the display fish-free. My goal was to go 8 weeks but I may not make it that long. I know it's best to wait 8 to 10 weeks to really be "safe" but the QT has been tough. My black misbar is doing well but it's obvious that the ordeal has been stressful. I ordered the fish over the weekend, first because it was a good deal with a couple of them being on sale and to take advantage of free shipping. Also, I'd like them to be in QT for at least 2 weeks. However, if they have as tough a time as the previous sixline and angel I may end up putting them in the display this weekend and hoping for the best.
My hope is that it was the hyposalinity that was causing all the drama. My sixline stopped eating on about day 3 or 4 in the hospital tank which was right about when it was in hypo. Then it was the Cherub that stopped eating.
Not exciting stuff...I know. I'll update some of the improved color and growth on some of the frags at some point. I also removed some rock. The scape looks basically the same, just lower. I just felt like it was too full and I wanted better flow throughout the tank.
I got my fish in today. I've got to give a quick review on saltwater fish dot com which is where I ordered them from. This is my second order from them. They came on the recommendation of a local reefer. It can be a little sketchy buying fish sight unseen but I've gotta say I'm really happy with them after receiving my second order. They usually have pretty reasonable prices on most fish and they always have deals on shipping. I'd say at least every couple of weeks or so they offer either free shipping or $9.99 on orders over $99. Not bad for overnight shipping from FL to CA.
Fish have always been healthy and nice looking. Made me a little nervous to order a fairly high dollar fish but I'm pretty psyched with the black snowflake I got.
Not some little fragile young fish. It's nice sized and healthy.
Here's the tank with a trimmed down scape. Not a huge difference I know...just opened up a bit.
It's not usually cloudy in there. It's just that I had just finished rearranging the scape.
Fish have always been healthy and nice looking. Made me a little nervous to order a fairly high dollar fish but I'm pretty psyched with the black snowflake I got.
Not some little fragile young fish. It's nice sized and healthy.
Here's the tank with a trimmed down scape. Not a huge difference I know...just opened up a bit.
It's not usually cloudy in there. It's just that I had just finished rearranging the scape.
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Thank ya Reefed!
I may end up regretting this but I'm moving my fish back into the display. It's only been fish-free for one month. I know it's "ideal" to leave it free of any fish for 8 weeks and some people even say 10. The problem is that quarantining them has been brutal. After losing 3 fish and adding 3 more to quarantine I've only been able to get ONE fish to eat.
The black misbar has eaten fine even though he behaves like a very stressed fish. The others just never eat. I just couldn't watch the other 3 not eat and eventually get weak and die so I'm putting them in the display. I started with the sixline and the Cherub angel because they seemed the most stressed in the little QT tank. I'll add the clowns early next week and hope for the best.
Wish me luck that I don't see any white spots return. I'd say at a month without fish I've got about 60/40 shot at being ich-free. Maybe 80/20?? OK, I'm grasping at straws here...:worried:
Thank ya my man. No significant changes to update. Definitely feel like I've got improved growth since switching to halides but I'll post some before and afters once it's more impressive.
I had no fish in the tank for a month due to ich. I put my fish back in because the hospital tank was a nightmare. Unfortunately I think while I was fishless my nutrients got extremely low and all my SPS paled out a bit. My system is really low nutrients as it is with skimmer+cheato+GFO reactor but with no feeding and fish waste my corals were starving a bit.
Now I'm dosing Fuel and Brightwell AA. The tank is new enough that I'm still searching for happy balances with phosphates and nitrates etc. I think I've finally gotten there with light placement and flow but I think the nutrients have been too low up until this point. I'm planning on adding a few more fish and dialing in the dosing to find a point where I'm adding enough nutrients to get good color and growth without algae issues. I'll get there at some point.
I'll update with some pics in another month or so.
pleuralplexus
New member
really nice build. I wish I had selected this tank instead of the JBJ right from the start. Looking forward to watching the progress!
I've got an older solana with the false back/chambers. Always wanted to run a sump with it. This makes me want to try pulling off the back to the glass and getting it drilled to use a sump. Starting to out it back together next month after a long move. Hate having a dry tank in storage.
Thank you for the compliments and for following along!
Definitely like having the sump. I had a JBJ nano cube 28 and it was a great little tank for easing back into the hobby after a layoff. But in the long run I wanted the clean look of a tank with a sump. Not to mention I always felt like the chambers in the back were a pain to keep clean and ended up being a breeding ground for gunk.
There is at least one build thread from a guy who removed the rear chambers from his Solana and drilled it. Search around and you'll find it. There's definitely no reason why you couldn't.
Tank is doing good. Didn't leave it without fish for long enough to get rid of the ich but the hospital tank was like a torture chamber for my fish. I guess it will be survival of the fittest for fish in my display.
I'll update some pics when I get a bit more growth and the good color returns after going fish-less for a month.
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