# Cablemike's Solana 34 gallon, aint it perdy.



## cablemike (Jan 7, 2009)

Well after running the 20 for nearly 3 months








I found an incredible deal on a complete solana 34 gallon with stand and metal halide pendant. I transferred everything over








and two days later I can already see my corals are loving the halide. Only problem I'm experiencing is how much water evaporates daily, an auto is in the near future.


----------



## cablemike (Jan 7, 2009)

Updated tank shot, a cyanobacteria bloom in full effect, gonna buy some phosban tomorrow. Everything looking happy, bought a browned out acro and Monti for ten bux rack from sea u marine and they are already colouring up. Monti is going orange and across looks like going blueish green.


----------



## Syed (Oct 20, 2010)

Looks good bro. Your cyano looks better than the crud I had in the beginning. Man that's one sweet metal halide fixture.


----------



## cablemike (Jan 7, 2009)

I love the dome fixture too. But I can't play darts anymore  oh well its worth it though 
I've had cyano blooms on every tank I've had so I'm not worried.


----------



## J_T (Mar 25, 2011)

cablemike said:


> I love the dome fixture too. But I can't play darts anymore  oh well its worth it though
> I've had cyano blooms on every tank I've had so I'm not worried.


Cyno - Comes and goes  Just the first sign that something is up!


----------



## cablemike (Jan 7, 2009)

I'm assuming its phosphates and I don't have a phosphate test yet so I threw in some phosban. Well see if it improves. Corals don't look stressed. Monti has decent polyp extension already and acro polyps are starting to show. I did use the sand the guy gave me with the tank. It was in a bucket but not too wet. He said it had been that way for a couple days. I'm assuming there was a good deal of die off in it but I wanted his mature sand to seed mine. I see starfish and many pods since I set up this tank with his sand. Also bristle worms ( my favorite scavenger). But I've also noticed a life explosion on my live rock, millions of feather dusters and sadly several aptasia and only on the stuff from north american. Also if you look at the orange polyp colony you can see what looks to me to be a huge manjo. But I'm still questioning it as it doesn't seem to bother the polyps. I've never had manjos before so I'm not sure how they behave and how near by corals react.


----------



## Shoryureppa (Jul 1, 2011)

sweet tank mike! thanks for the advice btw


----------



## cablemike (Jan 7, 2009)

Thanks, this is only the beginning. When I'm done you wont be able to see a single piece of rock  .
I don't think I'm gonna buy any more colonies, just frags so I can glue em to the rock and watch them spread. The sand bed will get an orange plate coral as I've always wanted one and a multi coloured open brain. I will have polyps and Lps like candy cane on the first few inches of rock then a couple plate montipora, one on each side mid way up the rock. Then mostly sps above. The Xenia will probably stay where they are. I moved my gsp to the back top to start growing on the back wall, after 3 days it already attached to the back. I'm in love with this tank. Its a good size, I can do a lot with it. I just need to get a top off because I'm adding about a liter a day and though its not a lot my heater keeps getting exposed below its minimum water line. For some reason the guy gave me a 400 watt heater with this tank. I only need a 200 at best. Anyone have a 200 watt submersible heater they want to trade?


----------



## Windowlicka (Mar 5, 2008)

Looking good, Mike... I seriously considered a Solana before happening across the cube(-ish) we picked up - they're a great footprint to work with.

I can't stress the value of my ATO's enough. On my last tank I kludged a direct feed from my RODI filters straight to the sump, with a float valve suspended off an acrylic bracket I "made" with a few sheets of thin acrylic glued together and a cigarette lighter! It was inconsistent, and a PITA to be honest. I bit the bullet and spent a small wad on the Tunze ATO, and they're worth every cent. Reliable, consistent and accurate in helping to keep salinity in check, and to stop evaporation leading to micro bubbles when the return pump runs out of water to pump!

Are you running a sump off this, or do you have space anywhere in the back to hurl some chaeto to help with phosphate removal? I find that stuff better than GFO.


----------



## cablemike (Jan 7, 2009)

I put chaeto in the middle chamber on the back with a 13 watt cfl for light.


----------



## cablemike (Jan 7, 2009)

My tank has gone through a rough couple of weeks and i have bought an RO unit due to the high ammonia levels in my tap water which ran my tank into a continuous cycle. No one showed any interest in my previous 20 gallon tank so we upgraded my wifes 10 gallon planted to the 20 as well as the lights that were with it so now she has 130 watts on her planted tank. i need to install the co2 generator thats been sitting here for two months as im sure its gonna need it with all that light. my corals are starting to recover but my tank aint to pretty as i have a huge ball of chaeto in the display until i get an Auto topoff for the sump side because the levels keep dropping too low to keep the chaeto in there.


----------



## cablemike (Jan 7, 2009)

Got a new coral tonight. I was at big also in whit by and they had a leather I've never seen before. So I bought it. They didn't even know what it was and when I came home I hit my books and still can't find it. Any one know what this is?








And here's an updated fts.


----------



## cablemike (Jan 7, 2009)

Got more rock and some new corals. Time for an fts.


----------



## sig (Dec 13, 2010)

Looks better and better. I surprised how this green favio (probably wrong) does well so close to the lights

*100% free webcam site! | Awesome chicks and it is absolutely free! | Watch free live sex cam - easy as 1-2-3*


----------



## cablemike (Jan 7, 2009)

Well its mid way up and my light is a foot above the water.


----------



## sig (Dec 13, 2010)

Mike, I will say one thing, but it is really just my opinion and probably others will disagree.

I hate this dirty look of the deep sand on the front glass. I always put skirt of the stand ~ 2" higher than a bottom of the tank and it is covered view of the sand.
Probably, there are many beneficial stuff in the deep sand, but I do not care. I even able to siphon (clean) the sand, without scare of release toxins

Just have a look what view difference it makes when no dirty sand is visible


*100% free webcam site! | Awesome chicks and it is absolutely free! | Watch free live sex cam - easy as 1-2-3*


----------



## cablemike (Jan 7, 2009)

I love the rimless look myself , I always had a rim and it hid some of the sand but I'm just loving the look plus I love to see the life in my sand bed. I actually love steel stands because I can see the bottom from under and see the life in the bed.


----------



## J_T (Mar 25, 2011)

Power to the dirty front.










Posted with my Xperia, using Tapatalk 2


----------



## J_T (Mar 25, 2011)

Dang, phone has the picture turned.

Just over 6" of sand there  Tube worms galore! And some algae from the light going down the starfire glass.


----------



## cablemike (Jan 7, 2009)

J_T said:


> Power to the dirty front.
> 
> 
> 
> ...


Can I get an Amen.


----------



## cablemike (Jan 7, 2009)

That's actually not dirt you see in the picture anyways. Its the argonite I got with the tank and above is the oolite that came from my 20 gallon. The oolite is super white and the dark spots are shells and coral skeletons that were mixed in the argonite. This tank has star fire glass and the light travels down about an inch also which make the two different substrates so noticeable. The tank is still too new to have that much dirt. But as I can see it could be seen as dirty substrate. I've never had a dsb before, this is about 3 1/2 - 4 inches deep. What should I keep an eye out for? And what critters should I add to keep the sand bed healthy? I have 3 nasaraus snails (doubt that's spelled correctly). Was thinking of getting a sand sifting goby. Considered a sand sifting star but I had one before and it caused an avalanche of my live rock before.


----------



## J_T (Mar 25, 2011)

Nothing to look for! It looks like it is well on its way to doing its job. It will get "funky" looking. 

Cerith snails, nassarius snails, and if the tanks has a 2' x 2' area of sand, a fighting conch. These will keep the top inch moving, and clean. Everything deeper than that, well, mother nature looks after that!

Posted with my Xperia, using Tapatalk 2


----------



## cablemike (Jan 7, 2009)

I picked up a sand sifting goby tonight, my tank is a cloud. He's making a huge cave. I hope once he's done he will just go about cleaning it like the one I had years ago. I hope I don't come home tomorrow and find all my corals burried.


----------



## cablemike (Jan 7, 2009)

Well this tank has been a battle, I've been fighting a nitrate problem for about two months and a few corals paid the price. I never had a system like this with built in sump and well I didn't realize I had to take everything out of the back and vacuum it out from time to time. So after doing 2-3 water changes a week and no improvements I decided to remove the skimmer, filter media, chaeto, and return pump from the back. In each of the three chambers I found an inch of waste on the bottom. After I vacuumed it all out I waited a couple hours, tested water and zero nitrates. You live and learn, and this was a stressful lesson. Anyways I bought a used Galileo led unit and also added some DIY LEDs and the tank is recovering rapidly.


----------



## zk4444 (Mar 8, 2012)

Yeah I remember the battles you;ve had with this tank. It even made you switch from tap to RO/DI just to get over the challenges. 

Hope everything is on track, your tank looks well established


----------



## PACMAN (Mar 4, 2010)

cablemike said:


> Well this tank has been a battle, I've been fighting a nitrate problem for about two months and a few corals paid the price. I never had a system like this with built in sump and well I didn't realize I had to take everything out of the back and vacuum it out from time to time. So after doing 2-3 water changes a week and no improvements I decided to remove the skimmer, filter media, chaeto, and return pump from the back. In each of the three chambers I found an inch of waste on the bottom. After I vacuumed it all out I waited a couple hours, tested water and zero nitrates. You live and learn, and this was a stressful lesson. Anyways I bought a used Galileo led unit and also added some DIY LEDs and the tank is recovering rapidly.


Tank looks awesome! I had the same issue. I havea biocube with a chamber used as a refugium. if you dont remember to clean it, the back gets pretty darn dirty.


----------



## cablemike (Jan 7, 2009)

Its been a learning curve, I've had a sump before but it was under the tank and I could see in it to see if it was dirty. I need a freaken ladder to get to into the sump on this.


----------



## cablemike (Jan 7, 2009)

Say goodbye to my solana, got me a new tank.


----------

