Tidal waters glorified frag tank

[tidal_waters]

So I've been creeping the board now for a few months and thanks to everyone who contributed to making this such an informative and friendly board!

So I bought this here Solana from a fellow reefer back in February??? and started stocking late March, and I think the stocking stopped about a month ago! *L* I wish I had started this journal back then, just to see the growth of the tank. Everything is still on the small side in terms of size, however I'm imagining a definite upgrade in the next 6 months or so. Consider my tank now a 100 gallon in the making!

As this is my first SW aquarium I had my ups and downs ( more downs it seems) but things are picking up and looking good with the exception of a few pieces in my tank.

So a little about my current tank,

Solana 34 Gallon
250watt retrofitted sunpod
Modded stock skimmer
40ish pounds of live rock
2 clowns
Black Sailfin Blenny
Blue Assessor
Cleaner shrimp
Porcelain Crab
and the regular clean up gang

And here's a little aquarium porn for ya



















hope you enjoyed and will have plenty of more pics and questions for everyone!

Tidal

[Borderjumper]

That's a beautiful tank! What bulb are you using?

[tidal_waters]

Its a Coralife 250 watt 20K

I also have some Current USA powerbrite led strips supplementing the halides, pretty blue!

[tidal_waters]

I also have some pretty sweet looking actinic shots

[lastlight]

That's a color-filled and seriously stocked Solana wow! So you're upgrading to 100 gallons too? My Solana isn't that stocked but I found myself wanting something a little bigger.

[tidal_waters]

yeah they sure do seem to get cramp pretty quick! *L* But I'm going to let this one fill in as much as possible before I get the bigger tank.

[tidal_waters]

Well three hours later and its done!

My solana now has a 10 gallon sump!

pics to follow!

[tidal_waters]

Took a bit but here are the pics of the final outcome if all the chaos of sumping a solana.

So here's a top down shot of the back of the tank, you can see the 1st chamber with the stock skimmer, the second with the overflow intake, and the third chamber with the stock return pump and the sump return line



this is a little further down into the madness. you can see the two recently added reactors, one with pro bio and the other carbon. you may also notice the ass end of the sump sticking out the back of the stand. A cut to the back of the stand was in order to accommodate the sump.



and the inside and it is just as bad as it looks, however is functional! *L*



and a little closer



and the final FTS

[tidal_waters]

Well my 34 is no longer and in the wake of all the chaos my 75 gallon took its place. I didn't take any pictures of the build process, but I wanted to post monthly pics of the growth and progression of this here new tank.

75 gallon
48" x 18" x 20"
Mag 12 return
Vertex 100 skimmer
2 phosban reactors
Fuge 10 Gallon
30 Gallon Sump


First the FTS



The hidden stuff



And each rock formation






Thanks for looking!

[tidal_waters]

A few more pics from December 1