H20COOL Posted April 23, 2012 Share Posted April 23, 2012 okey dokey... bought a 34 gal Solana from an ARC member here... along with the sand and water, but sans lighting and rock... in the interim, i had a 4-bulb T5 from my hydro biz left over so swapped out some of the bulbs to more blue so i have blue/white to just get things going... i planned on using Cerameco rocks instead of live rock to eliminate any unwanted critters- so i could add what i want and not worry about hunting down things i didnt expect later. Couldnt get a hold of the cerameco at first, so went with the Real Reef man-made rock by Fishheads... nice man-made rock that is already purple and appears crystaline out of the box - a plus... here are some shots of the tank with the sand and one of the rocks i put in for now... i built a box out of cardboard that is the same dimensions of the tank to test the rock formations i am building by breaking up the rock and re-gluing with Aquascape construction epoxy... some shots of the box, rock, etc... added a few fish i got from Hydro to help cycle the tank... a chromis and PJ cardinal... added a little rock tower in the front left that i built in the aquascape box, and a piece behind it to support another small column of rock going up the back left wall... then some critters for my daughter to hunt down and some tank cleaners (hermis, snails,etc..) i'm waiting on the epoxy to dry to finish up a few more columns of the real reef rock.. and finally got hold of a Cerameco retailer and bought a few pieces. Whether i use them in this tank or not we will see, i got 3 pieces (grotto, arch, and branch) but want to go with a "less is more" look and just have structure for the coral i intend to have in the tank future additions are an MP10, Radeon LED setup, Apex controller to control the above, and secret custom sump/refuge/skimmer being built for me that will go below the tank in the stand area at a later date to boost the tank filtration and life-support horsepower.... not the best look so far due to the sub-par lighting, and incomplete aquascaping, but its coming along...... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+KimP Posted April 23, 2012 Share Posted April 23, 2012 Great idea using a box to get your aquascaping the way you want it! That'll save you a lot of trouble later. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
H20COOL Posted April 24, 2012 Author Share Posted April 24, 2012 added rest of Real Reef rock for now... built another small column back left with cement.. and added to big rock.. had high nitrates so swapped out 10g of water, got them down to more manageable level... Cerameco rock should be in anyday now, not sure if i am going to integrate a piece of it or not... guess will have to see what it looks like when it shows up... Trying to go for "less is more" structure to allow corals to just have base to grow out and fill tank, so not trying to go "rock crazy" and pile it up in there... plenty of nooks and crannies in the Reel Reef rock, so that is good. When tank cycled and everything good, will start adding some coral... next on list is MP10 and LED fixture.. ah - Cerameco arrived - so editing post to show the additions... bought a few pieces, but the other 2 a bit too large to go in so will save for another tank.. this one is "Branch" and they also sent some little "pods" as samples, of which i put one in front right... will see if Branch stays where it is, for now i just tried to arrange where it fit.. will take a while to change color i'm sure to match rest, but no biggie.. great pieces with little cups for placing frags - and plenty of open spaces. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
All WYSIWYG Posted April 25, 2012 Share Posted April 25, 2012 looking good! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FarmerTy Posted April 25, 2012 Share Posted April 25, 2012 That's awesome, I got a kick from the cardboard tank idea. Very creative! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
H20COOL Posted April 25, 2012 Author Share Posted April 25, 2012 why thank you i read something about modeling things ahead of time and how the glass distorts objects once in the tank so made me think to build "to scale" outside of tank - i actually shrunk the dimensions an inch all around to make sure i didnt over-build the pieces so they had room.. of course, in the end a lot of it turned out to be just sticking rock in the tank and figuring out how it looked... i'm still not sure how to integrate this Cerameco piece as it seems to just be sorta sitting in the middle.. may be that it is such a different color (almost orange!) without coraline purple that its buggin me But don't want to overcrowd with just rock as they are simply the foundation for the corals.. trying for that "less is more" look as i said.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FarmerTy Posted April 26, 2012 Share Posted April 26, 2012 "Less is more" is definitely underutilized these days. The hard part is the patience to wait for everything to grow into it (or change color from orange to purple... haha). I feel you. Everything in my tank has grown from a 2" frag or smaller... except for my red monti plate and that giant RBTA in my tank. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
H20COOL Posted April 27, 2012 Author Share Posted April 27, 2012 ordered some mofications for the solana yesterday... upgrading skimmer to Tunze 9002 that will sit inside stock skimmer location, supposed to be much nicer. Also ordered skimmer cup mod for it to fit on solana from mediabaskets.com. Then when on that site, found a middle section replacement piece that has 3 levels... top for just filter pads, middle i intend to make a "mini refugium" for growing some chaeto, then bottom for a filter sack.. http://shop.mediabas...sket-SL34MR.htm got this neat little JBJ nano-glow 4 led light that sticks on back magnetically, to have little fuge in center chamber of new filter insert... http://shop.mediabaskets.com/JBJ-Nano-Glo-Led-Fuge-Light-JB10094.htm so maximizing the built-in filtration on back for not that much money.. little over $200 for all that... looking forward to getting help with removing the nitrates and removing more gunk - stock solana skimmer ain't that great... anyhoo - when its in, will post pics.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
(Bio)³ Posted April 28, 2012 Share Posted April 28, 2012 I've got the 9002 on my sump'd BC, when you get it or next time I am over we will do the airline mod on it to make it even easier and nicer for your setup. I also have the skimmer cup for the bc29, good built product that I also love. Keep it rolling!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
H20COOL Posted May 3, 2012 Author Share Posted May 3, 2012 ok...more goodies arrived. On tuesday, received the Tunze 9002 and JBJ nano glo light.. then yesterday, the inTank (mediabaskets.com) replacement skimmer cup for the Tunze, and a new center section drop-in for solana that has 3 shelves for holding different things.. inTank suggested filter floss on top shelf, a mini-fuge on second, and chemipure bag on bottom one.. i figured i'd try the mini-fuge idea, whether or not it really makes a difference, who knows. but worth a shot.. pics of new arrivals and media basket ready to go in.. had to modify the Tunze to fit in chamber one where existing one was, by cutting off magnet with hacksaw and re-gluing to different side of skimmer (man, harder than it sounds, went through 3 hacksaw blades!) then doing airline mod to Tunze to improve airflow. Had to epoxy magnet back on and fill a hole, then wait overnight to install. While doing so and removing old stock skimmer and bio-balls- i fished out 3 old sponges that had been in there from previous owners that were NASTY and brown with all kinds of gunk! no wonder i have been having nitrate problems and constant water changes... just disgusting. So thankfully got rid of those and got a little sponge holder to keep them from slipping down overflow in future. also suctioned out all the debris from chambers, and cleaned things out ahead of new media install... back of tank with new center chamber basket, with JBJ nano glo light stuck on to light mini-fuge. also pic of Tunze skimmer installed today Tunze puts out lots of nice bubbles, way more than stock skimmer... will take a while to break in i'm told, and i need to put an air valve on the airline to modulate airflow.. but one thing at a time Then today, more goodies arrived in the mail... The Apex controller i ordered and a JBJ ATO that i'm told is a necessity with the Tunze as its tempermental without the correct water flow level.. i'm going to setup the Apex tonight and play around a little with it, ahead of tomorrow's big deliver (you'll have to wait and see what that is! but its the END for now of equipment shopping (yeah, right ) ..... then critters and coral) stay tuned! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
H20COOL Posted May 17, 2012 Author Share Posted May 17, 2012 ok, so got a little behind in the progress... spent all weekend before last building stuff... my new arrivals showed up : So now lighting and waterflow handled via Radion and MP10.. nice although my "cheap" tank is no longer cheap... sigh. So playing with the Apex and reading gave me this great idea to somehow automate the water changes i've been doing a LOT of in the beginning of cycling the tank... so tired of siphoning and pumping from 5gal buckets when all my water is one wall over in the bathroom i use to make RO and salt... so decided to do a little demo and plumbing... and the resultant mess of fun on the other side of the wall where my office/tank is... i had originally conceived of this setup to pump RO from gravity fed tank on top of the shelf via a solenoid and tubing, topped off via pump from RO can in bathroom.. when i realized i was adding extra step - why not just pump directly from RO can in bathroom to the tank via the JBJ ATO i got.. which is what i ended up doing... the tubing no longer goes through the hole in the top of the wall as indicated in the photo above, that was there for the "gravity" idea which no longer was needed... Since i'm all about things looking NICE and not just super techy (the rest of my office serves that purpose with all my computers and screens) - i decided to house the Radion in something a little nicer a trip to Pier 1 and a nice brass lamp on sale did the trick... and the end result... nice and pretty and i got a new lamp for the living room (they also had cheap lampshades for $10 that weren't big enough for Radion so i swapped) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
H20COOL Posted May 17, 2012 Author Share Posted May 17, 2012 Then i got to adding creatures... Hydro sold me 2 golden dwarf moray eels... which are just the coolest creatures ever... and added some zoas, frogspawn, etc.. and a few more tweaks to the overall tank - running all water supply tubing and cords through electrical conduit box so they dont get squished, making sure air suction vents are in plumbing so water doesnt keep siphoning even when pumps off, adjusting this, that, and everything a gazillion times (and still doing so). Ran radion cord through the hole i had drilled for water originally, and hanging it via thin wire makes it seem to "hover" over the tank... a few more things added as water better... green star polyps (i know, i know, after buying i read all about how they take over), and a toadstool leather... mounted Apex on wall, controllers to side of tank, this and that... and voila! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
H20COOL Posted May 17, 2012 Author Share Posted May 17, 2012 so i may have gone a little crazy buying some corals... but that was entire reason for this tank personally.. fish are cool, eels are cool - but i'm all about the coral.. so got some more smaller pieces.. xenia, turbinaria plate, war coral favite, moved GSP down to sand up front so if it tries to take over i just carve it out of the sand, another LPS (alvelopora i believe), a single orange ricordia polyp, a single red mushroom polyp, some kenya tree soft coral (thought it was leather, found out its NOT and to watch out for it.. but was so cheap they almost gave it away.. hmm.. wonder why ). Anyway, all is good. water parameters didnt spike much at all, and my "auto" daily water changes via Apex that i just now had the courage to actually plug in and monitor is doing small 1/2-3/4 gallon changes daily instead of just once a week.. all in all, i'm loving it... just a matter of figuring out what likes what type of flow, lighting, etc... the mp10 is amazing, the radion is unbelievable at night when the blues kick in, everything just glows like a black light.. and the Apex controlling everything is what i like being a computer/software geek... not i just have to try and restrain myself from buying too much stuff! (as i head to Hydro's warehouse to finish my daughter's "bubble" tank - i'm sure i'll come back with something) thanks for looking! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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