Solana tank owner thread.

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Did you guys get a lot of micro bubbles coming from the stock skimmer? Set mine up yesterday.

I am running just the bio-balls that were in the skimmer and just the water skimming pad as well as the blue one in the second chamber on the shelf. As soon as I shut the skimmer off the micro's go away.
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14518322#post14518322 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Reefinabox
Yes you will get a lot of bubble from the skimmer until it can get a good slime coat built up on it.

Wow that may be the quickest response I have ever gotten on RC.

Thanks :)
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14518341#post14518341 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by ChrisMc73
I was told to remove all those bio balls...and sponges that came with it, read a few pages back at what people are using instead.

yea, I will remove them, I was just running the filters until the tank settles down a bit with the substrate particles floating around.
 
made this stained glass panel for the door of my solana

20538stained_glass_small.jpg
 
Howdy,

I am looking for some help with my Solana and a possible fuge. Currently I have the stock pump pushing water out of the center compartment to a current USA 1/15 chiller with a return to the third chamber. I then have a Mag Drive 5 pushing flow back into the tank. Question: I want to make the center compartment a fuge and create a closed loop from the third compartment to the chiller and then directly back into the tank.

To summarize:

Existing setup: stock pump (2nd compartment) to chiller to 3rd compartment with mag drive 5 returning water to tank.

New setup:
2nd compartment = fuge (chaeto and live rock at bottom)
3rd compartment = pump to chiller to return to tank (closed loop)

Questions???
- Will the fuge be a benefit or is it too small to matter?
- I am thinking about using a Mag drive 9.5 to pump water through the chiller (on the floor) and directly back to the return valve into the tank (no additional pump). Is the Mag Drive 9.5 too much? I am concerned the Mag Drive 5 won't deliver enough flow.

Thoughts? Any help would be appreciated.
 
ebony1

Not sure about the fuge.

I do think the Mag drive 9.5 is too much for the chiller that has a flow rate of 100 to 350 gallons per hour. Flow for a Mag drive is 950 gallons per hour at 1 foot and 700 gallons per hour at 6 feet, which is probably around the length you will have. I do not think the water will have enough contact time with the unit to efficiently chill the water. I think you could just hook up your Mag drive 5 to the return and the other end to your chiller and be fine. On a side not I think I would move the chiller intake to the third compartment as well. I have the current USA 1/10 chiller and run it through the return with a Maxjet 1200.
 
still research the skimmer between tunze and sapphire. Sounds like the Tunze 9002 has better performance if the water level is constant.
My question is how constant it needs to be? The normal ATO will be good enough or has to have a Tunze ATO?
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14522434#post14522434 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by noblerot
ebony1

Not sure about the fuge.

I do think the Mag drive 9.5 is too much for the chiller that has a flow rate of 100 to 350 gallons per hour. Flow for a Mag drive is 950 gallons per hour at 1 foot and 700 gallons per hour at 6 feet, which is probably around the length you will have. I do not think the water will have enough contact time with the unit to efficiently chill the water. I think you could just hook up your Mag drive 5 to the return and the other end to your chiller and be fine. On a side not I think I would move the chiller intake to the third compartment as well. I have the current USA 1/10 chiller and run it through the return with a Maxjet 1200.
noblerot,

Thank you for your prompt response. One point of clarification to your message. you said, "I think you could just hook up your Mag drive 5 to the return and the other end to your chiller and be fine." Did you mean I could connect the mag drive between the chiller return and the return to the tank so that the pump would would effectively be pulling the water through the chiller vs pushing?

Is that what you do with your maxjet?

Thanks again.
 
ebony1,
Yep, that is what I mean. Replace your stock return pump with the Mag drive 5 and hook the intake end of your pump to the return line from your chiller. Then put the intake line from your chiller into the 3rd chamber and let the Mag pull the water through the chiller and out into the display.
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14525760#post14525760 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by noblerot
ebony1,
Yep, that is what I mean. Replace your stock return pump with the Mag drive 5 and hook the intake end of your pump to the return line from your chiller. Then put the intake line from your chiller into the 3rd chamber and let the Mag pull the water through the chiller and out into the display.
Thanks, I'll give that a try.
 
Re: Re: skimmer

Re: Re: skimmer

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14517470#post14517470 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Reefinabox
You could build a silencer. Here is an example or another example I have also seen them built out of small PVC in a similar manner except the holes were drilled in 2 endcaps and the endcaps were mounted on a short (1"-2") piece of PVC with the holes 180 degrees from each other.

Also, one of the big reasons the Sapphire is so quiet is it comes with a silencer similar to the DIY jobs I linked to.

solana_01.jpg


It is the small cylinder with blue ends in the bottom right of this photo.

Nice idea on the silencer.
You could probably do it with a film cannister (available in any antique store :lol: )

Too bad my stock skimmer isn't loud enough to need one:cool:
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14521462#post14521462 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Hooked4life
made this stained glass panel for the door of my solana

20538stained_glass_small.jpg

You beat me to it!! I was going to have someone I know that does stained glass make me a door like that. I am also thinking about having her do a design with just beveled pieces so it just blurs out what is behind it. Yours looks great though!
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14525760#post14525760 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by noblerot
ebony1,
Yep, that is what I mean. Replace your stock return pump with the Mag drive 5 and hook the intake end of your pump to the return line from your chiller. Then put the intake line from your chiller into the 3rd chamber and let the Mag pull the water through the chiller and out into the display.

My mag 5 sits in my third chamber, the output from the pump runs to the chiller (sitting on the floor) and the output from the chiller is connected to the stock return in the tank, which is also in the third chamber.

Works great.
 
You beat me to it!! I was going to have someone I know that does stained glass make me a door like that. I am also thinking about having her do a design with just beveled pieces so it just blurs out what is behind it. Yours looks great though!

Thanks. I've had this project on my to-do list for almost a year. I considered beveled glass, but decided I wanted a "reef-theme"
 
Well, my solana is up and running. I've just added a raw shrimp in a baby teether (daughter doesn't use it anymore). Here are a couple of pics.

Close-up front view:
213857101.JPG


Close-up side view:
213857102.JPG


Some guy on nano-reef.com said to take the shrimp out but I think I'm gonna leave it to get my cycle going. What do you guys think?
 
Reefcentral.com won't allow you to post the words Nano Reef Dot Com unless you trick it...I saw his comment over there on the shrimp but I don't know what to tell you, I'm too new to the hobby.

I just don't understand why you have the shrimp trapped in a teether?
 
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