34G SPS Solana

[GreenSpottedPuffer]

I took down the big tank after accepting a job in Singapore and set up a smaller 34G Solana all in one cube that my younger brother was going to care for while I am gone. 3 weeks later and I have been offered an even better job here in Vancouver. A new animation studio is opening up this fall and its the best opportunity I have ever had so as much as I would prefer to go to Singapore, I kind of have to stay...

My fiance and I are going to vacation in Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand and the Philippines for two months before I start the new job, so not all that bad.

Also the big tanks had started to really consume my life and it's been nice to not have them around the past few weeks. I actually go outside again and do things non aquarium related. My fiancee couldn't be happier

34G Solana
DIY stand/light holder 'arm'
Vortech MP20
250 watt HQI LumenMax 3 pendant
250 watt Phoenix 14K
Pacific Coast 1/13 HP chiller
JBJ Auto Top Off
Aquacontroller Jr.

Lights are on 4pm to 10pm
Temperature stays around 80 so far, chiller kicks in at 81...seems to come on about once every few hours
5G water changes once a week with DD salt
I dose Ca, Alk and Mg manually each day but I will get some dosing pumps eventually

Skimmerless...the solana comes with a skimmer but I didn't want to bother since I want this tank to be really maintenance free.

Fish

Pair of clowns
Fang Blenny
Orange spotted sleeper goby

Inverts

some kind of small conch
5 peppermint shrimp
5 snails
Green gigantea carpet anemone

Corals are mostly SPS and zoas with a few gorgonians and a few LPS. All I really plan on adding to this tank are photosynthetic gorgonians and some more zoas. I had a AEFW scare and don't really want to mess with adding more acros since I can't QT them. I found some on a brand new colony I had bought and ended up tossing the whole thing

Stand being built:



Finished:



So same style as the old one as you can see here:



Honestly, the room is so much nicer without the big tank too...

[GreenSpottedPuffer]

My SPS browned really badly after the move. I guess the combo of stopping ZEO and moving was hard on them. I didn't loose any luckily except some that already were not looking too good before the move. About 3 weeks later and they are getting better and better but the color is taking way longer than I thought to come back. Mostly the bases of the corals look good but the polyps are brown. Anyone know why? Polyp extension since the move has been crazy though...so much more than before. It really seems kind of weird. Anyone know why this might be? Most of the corals are kind of fuzzy brown LOL. Once they retract their polyps, the corals are much brighter again. All I can think of is that maybe the polyps take longer to color back up?

Anyways....

The carpet nem made the move just fine:



Full tank:



Kind of a top down:

[Blom]

Always liked the Solana's, have to say your pads not to shabby either! Enjoy the trip and congrats on the new job.

[GreenSpottedPuffer]

Haven't had this long but I hope it colors up. I think it might be really nice eventually:



This one lost a LOT of color



Same here But you can see PE is still good.



This was white with purple tips...now brown with kind of purple tips:



Some nice zoas:

[GreenSpottedPuffer]

This frag is new. I can't get a good photo of it though. It's always blurry. It's still got some good color. Just need to figure out how to shoot it properly. I know this will be one of my favorites! Love anything with green tips...especially if the base is purple!



Used to be white with green tips and even greener polyps:



Haven't had this all that long but it's lost it's color too.



This one hasn't! Most all LPS look great still

[Myka]

Looks great!! Really nice nano goin on there.

Is your floor and wall bare cement? That looks kinda cool. You're in Van, so it doesn't get that cold there, but is it tough to keep warm in the winter?

[GreenSpottedPuffer]

This is new too. I really, really like this one. Going to be interesting to see what happens because so far anything that has a white base color has browned. But maybe that was just the move. I hope this one stays like this!



The Blenny

[GreenSpottedPuffer]

Originally Posted by Blom

Always liked the Solana's, have to say your pads not to shabby either! Enjoy the trip and congrats on the new job.

Thanks!

Originally Posted by Myka

Looks great!! Really nice nano goin on there.

Is your floor and wall bare cement? That looks kinda cool. You're in Van, so it doesn't get that cold there, but is it tough to keep warm in the winter?

Yes the walls and floor are unfinished cement. We really love it since you can be pretty hard on them. Most of the floors are heated underneath, so easy to keep warm. But actually we rarely used the underfloor heating because gas is free in the building and the fireplace is easily warm enough. Being concrete it retains heat and cold easily. So easy to cool in the summer and heat in the winter.

Oh and silent! We can be very loud in here and not worry about neighbors. Actually you can never hear the neighbors unless they really slam something on the ground.

[VFX]

Hey Justin nice Solana! Very sweet indeed.

I thought about putting my MP20 in the same spot as yours but i was scared that if the power ever fails & the return pump stops then the drive part of the Vortech will get submersed.

Did you build something in the back there to protect it?

ps. didn't know you were an animator. I nearly made to jump to Singapore too a couple of years ago but ended up coming to Vancouver.

.

[lobsterboy]

thats lookin sick Justin.