Upgraded! to the solana. tank is up and running!

[JonnyJ]

hey all i upgraded from the 24 aquapod to the solana!

I ended up going with a new bag of live sand instead of using my 2 month old sand.

Well if anyone is wondering this is how i did it.

I started out by laying out 5 [5 gallon] buckets and started to siphon water out from the aquapod. Filling each one about half way.

Then i removed all the rock, evenly distributing them in all 4 of the buckets.

Then removed the fish [2 clowns and 1 sixline wrasse] and put them in the 5th bucket with an airline and a rock.

then i started to carefully place the rock in the solana , when each bucket was rockless i added the water.

then i put the bag of live sand in the water fully submerged and cut a hole in it to reduce cloudyness.

Then added roughly 10 gallons of water.

next i let the system run for about an hour in a half

next i proceeded to acclimate the livestock by setting a drip line for an hour.

then added the fish and they are doing great!



i love it. the thing looks amazing and it didnt even fully clear up yet ! lol anyways it looks like a mess but i figured i would start a thread so i can check bak on the progress.

anyways just thought i would share a few pics before i aquascape. Figured i would let the fish settle in for a couple of hours before disturbing them again.

they are swimming around like crazy and seem too love it! SEEM much more active than in the aquapod.

 

[JARRETT SHARK]

Looks good Jonny, Did you get the water clear yet?
Are you going to add more rock?

 

[OneTimer]

Love it good luck

 

[OneTimer]

What powerhead are you using

 

[JonnyJ]

Water originally cleared up in around 3 hours. Then when I tried to aquascape a little it got real cloudy again because their was so much sand on the rocks.

I am definitlely tempted to buy more rock. I'm not sure how this is going to look with the amount of rock I have now. I don't even have a base design idea so I don't know exactly what rocks to buy - size or shape wise.

Fish seem to love the spaciousness of the solana compared to the aquapod.


I believe it's the original pump. Maybe?
Thing is really really strong compared to a mj1200

also have a koralia 1 in the top right

Thinking bout a vortech mp10
I'll upload some more pics tomorrow forsure.

 

[georgelc86]

Looking good JR

 

[JonnyJ]

Some updates:

Forgot to mention when i upgraded i changed the location of the tank from next to my bed. I now have it in front of my bed near the door, boy is it nice to watch from bed.

So far its been 3 days. Checked everyday so far with API tests and the results are the same. no spike.

The few coral i have, actually look better than they have ever which is great!

My 2 Clowns definitely paired, they hang out all day long and eat like beasts. They host my calerpa prolifera lol
MY sixline is no longer afraid of me and he has been swimming loops around my koralia lol...[wtf?] he goes to bed early tho lol. not sure where! but somewhere. he only comes out when the white lights are on. once they go off and only actinics are on he goes somewhere unknown

-----------------------------
Recieved The current Solana Trim on the tank today. wanted it to cover the chip. I previously said i was going to silicone it on but i dont know yet. i put it on with the glass and decided my rooms hot enough and rather just stay open top. so i took off the large half of the glass and left the smaller fish feeder part to cover the rear chamber part..



Also aquascaped a little. pretty contempt on the design. anyone think i should add more rock ? lemmie know

 

[jackson6745]

The aquascape looks great. I wouldn't add any more rock. You need room for all your future corals

 

[OctaviousMonk]

Tank looks great. Wondering what you used to support the extra inch or so at the back of the tank on that stand. I am plannig on using the same one and figure I will just attach an extra 2x4 or whatever fits the best from my scrap pile of wood.

 

[Breakin Newz]

Looking good! 1 suggestion why not put the heater in the back chamber?

 

[xlotus123x]

I love solana's. nice job with yours. :givebeer:

 

[JonnyJ]

Tank looks great. Wondering what you used to support the extra inch or so at the back of the tank on that stand. I am plannig on using the same one and figure I will just attach an extra 2x4 or whatever fits the best from my scrap pile of wood.

I didn't add anything, the tank fits almost perfectly, if you look at the picture a little bit comes out only on the front two corners, the back lines up perfect and the whole front is on perfectly with the exception of the front two corners.


only screw up i did was place it like 2 inches away from the back wall which is going to restrict me from getting a hang on skimmer :smash: guess im going to have to go with the new sapphire.

heres some pics to show what i mean

 

[JonnyJ]

and im missing a knob on the stand! going to go pick one up now lol, pretty embarrassing lol

 

[OctaviousMonk]

I just switched the handles on mine, let me know if you want to old ones. The front corners poking out is what I was talking about earlier. I want to extend the back of the stand like 1/2 to 1 inch so that the corners don"t hang over the edge.

What skimmer are you thinking of? There are a few that fit nicely in the back chamber like the Tunze 9002 and the Saphire like you said.

 

[JonnyJ]

Yea the corners of the solana do stick out but it's very minimal so I don't think it's an issue to worry about. It is very little, so if you wanted to add some wood 1/2 inch to the rear will do the trick.

I'm thinking the new sapphire over the tunze. Reason: they just made one specially for the solana Cardiff and the tunze is more of a universal amongst nanos. It's definitely a good skimmer but I don't want to have to tweak it to much to get it running. Waiting to hear how the saphire works for chief as we speak.

 

[JonnyJ]

two night pictures with [2] rio mini LEDS on

 

[JonnyJ]

finally picked up my CUC

went to animals and things in nj, had 30 dollars store credit, ended up leaving with

2 turbo snails
2 Margarita snail
2 hermits crabs?
1 Scarlet Hermit Crab

i left there and went to a more reputable place and they said that the magaritas weren't good for the tank because of the temperature so he advised me to buy trochus snails so i bought:

2 trochus snails


i also picked up a peppermint, what do you guys think? i added them all. temp is around 77

 

[OneTimer]

Really nice- like the layout

 

[JonnyJ]

changed the scape a little

 

[JonnyJ]

just some update pictures, i picked up 3 more pieces of rock and a bunch of frags, i didnt do much with the scape, i will probably do it tomorrow i dont want to disturb everything to much.

the calerpa is growing like mad lol [ i actually like it in the DT makes it look natural ]


pictures taken with iphone

i like the shot of the sixline