My 34g Solana build

Crazyeyes

Crazyeyes

Member
Hey everyone, I think I already made one of these but I can't remember. I had a 75g tank but I recently downgraded to a 34g solana. Tank has been running since April 21st and seems to be doing well. Pretty basic setup, no skimmer, no media just LR, powerheads, light and filter floss. It's completely fishless and is going to stay that way with just a mix of inverts (skunk cleaner shrimp, pom pom crabs etc). Right now I have a few zoas, a 3 head frogspawn and a small frag of short tentacle green plate. Let me take you through my adventure (photo dump), shout out to Sirrealism who told me about the forum.

Day I got the tank, knew I didn't like the stand and I knew I was going to build one. And Binx the cat giving his input.

So we built a stand for it. Uses 2x2 select pine for the frame and 3/4" furniture grade wood.

Not wanting to paint it black, brown etc I decided to "age" it.

I then picked up 25lbs of Marco rock and made a structure.

The other thing I did was remove the original solana AIO false wall and made a new one from black 1/4" acrylic.

Cut the overflow and silicone it in place, also picked up a piece of white acrylic for the bottom, because barebottom.

Picked up an AI prime but, didn't like the AI hanging kit so I hard mounted it to my light bar.



Speaking of the light bar, it's made from 3/4" copper pipe which then got clear coated to seal it.


Then filled it up.


This is where I am now, littered with zoas, just letting it stable out before adding SPS. Thanks for looking.

 
D

DaveK

Well-Known Member
It's a nice looking tank, but it looks like your using copper pipe to make the mounting for your lighting fixture. Even though it's painted, considering how corrosive SW is and how toxic copper is to inverts and corals, I would replace that with something like rigid PVC pipe. Long term your really looking for problems with copper around an invert coral tank.
 
Squatch XXL

Squatch XXL

Well-Known Member
DaveK said:
Long term your really looking for problems with copper around an invert coral tank.
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Man that light fixture does look cool, but I cannot help but agree with DaveK on this one. Copper and SW tanks with inverts does not work well together. Eventually the saltwater will break down the clearcoat, and will attack the copper.

Aside from that assessment, your tank looks splendid. I really like the the "arm" in the rockwork that is reaching up. Its a really nice effect.
 
sirrealism

sirrealism

Well-Known Member
Oh ya he prob will sell it before any issues anyway. Mike "Carzyeyes" has admited to me that he really enjoys the build more then having a full running system. His last system took about 6 months and it was full for maybe 2 weeks then broke it down and sold it all off.
 
Crazyeyes

Crazyeyes

Member
sirrealism said:
Oh ya he prob will sell it before any issues anyway. Mike "Carzyeyes" has admited to me that he really enjoys the build more then having a full running system. His last system took about 6 months and it was full for maybe 2 weeks then broke it down and sold it all off.
Click to expand...
Well in my defense, that thing was a heap lol


 
sirrealism

sirrealism

Well-Known Member
Ya right. It was a really nice set up. You had all the right equipment. God you spent months and months on that DIY light. Had one of the baddest skimmers made. The tank was brand new TWICE! Ya it was a heap
 
sirrealism

sirrealism

Well-Known Member
Oh not to mention the coast to coast overflow you made out of glass. Thats were I got my idea to do it from.
 
Crazyeyes

Crazyeyes

Member
Tank has hit a bit of a speed bump, I never washed the Marco rock before adding it to the tank so its leaching po4 and causing mass amount of GHA. Ohwell, I will prevail and get through this nightmare.
 
nanoreefing4fun

nanoreefing4fun

Well-Known Member
RS STAFF
after the cycle... a good cuc of snails will devour it in a couple week or so... very common, in a month it will all be gone
 
Crazyeyes

Crazyeyes

Member
It's not the normal uglies that most tanks go through, its definitely leaching phosphates but with enough rowaphos and phosphate rx and low micron socks it'll be gone soon enough.
 
Crazyeyes

Crazyeyes

Member
Update. Tank still sucks. Removed all the coral so I could run it without lights. GHA doesn't seem to be quite as bad, have been running rowaphos and dosing Microbacter7 to build up beneficial bacteria. Hopefully I can add the coral again in a few weeks. Oh yeah, drilled the overflow part on the tank so I could run a sock. Am either going to build a media basket for it or buy an IM desktop reactor to run rowaphos in.

 
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