Solana tank owner thread.

[MedRed]

I didn't want anything collecting detritus which in turn would lead to nitrates. How long has your skimmer been running?

 

[cornjax]

its been running about 1 1/2 weeks. any suggestions on getting rid of hair algae? im in the process of getting a bunch of clean up crew and from maybe what i have gatherd the chemi pure does a good job of ridding of that.

 

[MedRed]

your skimmer may not be broken in yet. I think my skimmer took 2-3 weeks before it made skimmate. Chemi pure will help remove the nutrients that cause hair algae. I had a bryopsis outbreak when my tank was new. 1600 ppt of kent magnesium and my cerith snails cleaned it right up.

 

[cornjax]

did that cure it from coming back or do you haft to do something else to keep it from coming back besides chemi pure?

 

[MedRed]

keeping your nitrates and phosphates down will surely help. I've kept my mg @ 1600. I have one small patch of it that's still there, but the outbreak is definitely gone.

 

[cornjax]

where did you buy your magnesium from? you have a pic so i know roughly what to look for?

 

[herostar]

FWIW I have had great luck with turbo snails and hair algae.

 

[MedRed]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=15560114#post15560114 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by cornjax
where did you buy your magnesium from? you have a pic so i know roughly what to look for?

I bought it from my LFS.

 

[cornjax]

thanks medrad. how often do you change your chemi pure bag? i heard you nedd to change it quite often.

 

[MedRed]

I haven't changed it yet. I probably won't change it until my purigen shows it's exhausted or the middle of september... whichever comes first.

 

[Hooked4life]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=15560385#post15560385 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by cornjax
thanks medrad. how often do you change your chemi pure bag? i heard you nedd to change it quite often.

I change mine every 3 months. The first time I waited 6 months and shortly after I changed it got a nice coating of clear slime on everything. It was suggested to me that it was a bacterial bloom. I really don't understand that, but have since changed it every 3 without any problem.

 

[E.intheC]

Does anyone have pics of the back setup of their solana? I bought mine kind of used (lol..) and 'reconditioned by a local company' is better.. and i'm not sure it's setup correctly in the back.

The water level is only about an inch above the return pump in the back, and the water level in the tank is about 1 cm below the top of the glass.. that CAN'T be right..

 

[MedRed]

try adding more water and seeing if the level rises in the back but stays the same in the front.

 

[E.intheC]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=15576756#post15576756 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by MedRed
try adding more water and seeing if the level rises in the back but stays the same in the front.

I gave that a try, but it raised the display volume too much.

You have a nice tank medred.. how high is your water level in the back?

 

[MedRed]

OH maybe take your sponges out... take the one out for the overflow, the one on top of the tray in the 2nd chamber, and maybe take the tray out of of 2nd chamber and see if anything is on top of or below the lower tray in the the 2nd chamber. I quit using the overflow sponge and had to substitute something else for my blue sponge because they would clog stupid fast when it seemed like they shouldn't be. They were holding water back from making it to the 3rd chamber which caused the display to raise up too high while the 3rd chamber was way too low.


This is an older picture... but should give you an idea.

 

[E.intheC]

Thank you for helping out quickly. I tried adding water again, and the display actually didn't rise up, but the back filled up with more water. Not sure why that was exactly, but.. haha I'm not complaining.

I'll have to think of something else to use than the blue sponge.. I agree with you that it fills up quickly. Mine is pretty nasty looking after only a day or two being setup. Problem is, the sponge dampens the noise of the water dropping very well..

 

[MedRed]

you're welcome! filling up your back chambers just above the 2nd tray will lessen the noise.. I'm using the Marineland Rite Size A filter pads instead of the blue sponge.I think it's the best thing I've figured out for the Solana thus far.

 

[ejreyes6]

I'm looking to add some LEDs for night effect. I have the disco ball
and I'd like to be discrete about placement. Any suggestions on what type and where to put them so they're not seen?

 

[E.intheC]

I've heard of a few people trying to put them in the disco ball itself, but they had heat/melting issues so I strongly recommend against that. There are clip on moonlights out there that would work. You can clip them right to the rim of the tank

 

[Hooked4life]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=15583332#post15583332 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by ejreyes6
I'm looking to add some LEDs for night effect. I have the disco ball
and I'd like to be discrete about placement. Any suggestions on what type and where to put them so they're not seen?

I'm using this little guy Moonlight
attached to the back inner panel using this Magnet

It's pretty well hidden behind the disco ball.