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MedRed's 34 Gallon Solana


MedRed

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The tank has lift off!

 

Sorry for the cloudy water... I was moving sand around with the vortech on and ended up with a cloudy mess. I will not be keeping the bulb long term. It's a left over 10,000K Ushio I had lying around. I'll be using a 14,000K Phoenix bulb. I didn't want to waste the new bulb while the tank was cycling.

 

 

2ro427n.jpg

 

 

Equipment:

34 Gallon Solana

Solana Black Modern Stand

Tunze Osmolator Universal 3155

Vortech MP20

Custom Dry Dock (Thanks Davey Jones Locker!)

Sunpod 150w with 14,000k Phoenix (planning a 250w w/ Actinic upgrade at some point)

Sapphire Aquatics Solana/Cardiff NanoSkimmer (arrives this week)

150w Stealth Heater

 

 

 

I've had quite a few hitchhikers already...

 

1 hermit crab

24errkp.jpg

 

3 of these corals (I have no idea what they are)

s6r53m.jpg

 

I also have noticed some tiny starfish, a few bristle stars, and a few small zoas I forgot to take a picture of.

 

I'm sorry to disappoint on the scape. I couldn't find inspiration this go around. For that reason, I will be doing another tank once I have some experience under my belt and figure out a sick design.

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Thanks tidal,I never hooked up the stock skimmer. Not a drop of water has touched it. lol.

 

Thanks Bob! I'm going to swing by on Thursday to purchase another piece of LR. I've got a hole I need to fill in the scape.

 

Can anyone identify the coral in the picture? It hope they will make the cycle. They seems happy enough. They open during the day and kind of close up at night. Someone was wondering if it was a mini carpet anemone. I don't think so, but I have no idea. lol

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I kinda like the pile of rocks off center. The standard scape for a nano is to have a pile of rocks in the middle, for the exact reason of space limitations and wanting 3 sides for coral. However, I think that the rocks off center give this tank a really neat look. Kinda "cliff-side" type of look. Its interesting and I think it has a ton of potential. You could even do a little "mini pile" in one of the corners on the open side and make it like a zoa hill or Ricordea or something along those lines.

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Thats an impressive equipment list. Cant wait for the review on the Sapphire.

 

The coral appears to be a green hairy mushroom.

 

As for the aquascape, its totally up to you, but heres what I think...

FOR ME...its easier to keep the tank looking clean when you can get to all panels of glass to clean them. The only exception would be if this is in a corner, and you only have 2 viewing sides.

Otherwise...Its looking great! keep up the good work.

 

Are you planning on hooking up a chiller?

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Thanks everyone. I purposefully shifted the rocks to the left. The vast majority of tanks I've seen have a pile of rock in the middle. Since I didn't find inspiration for this tank, I was going for a different look. I should have taken a picture of the right side of the tank as well. The shape of the rock is actually like a three toed dinosaur foot.

 

foot.gif

 

I took care to position the rock where none of it touches the glass, and the magfloat reaches all but two small areas that will require a long handled scraper. I can also reach my hand into the back of the the left hand side very easily. The tank won't be very viewable on that side and the scape is canted towards the view I will see most, the diagonal from the front right corner to the left rear corner.

 

I'm willing to accept the coral bug might bite me. If so... I'll have another excuse for a new tank!

 

I think I can get away without a chiller. My FW tanks with metal halide and glass tops stay around 78 degrees. My AC is set on 73 degrees.

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Been gone a couple of days. The tank is all clear now. Diatoms have set in already.

 

29z4j93.jpg

2n22o3n.jpg

 

Here's a better picture of the coral

2q0uctj.jpg

 

Lucked out on some truly live rock!

345ekcy.jpg

kehyqp.jpg

 

Just noticed this monster today... there were two near each other, now there's only one. Time for some apt killin'!

2cr7lf9.jpg

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looks like a rhodactis mushroom and they can take over in the right conditions and the polyps look to be protoplays which can also take over I wouldnt recommend eitheir if your doing a hard coral dominated system as both can be hard to control growth wise and are both toxic so tend to not be held back by many corals.

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Looking good. One of the aquascaping tips I read recently suggested keeping the rocks or central focus of the aquarium off center a bit. I don't recall where the link is off hand but somewhere here there was a short discussion about the guest speaker from the last meeting. In that discussion I posted a link to another forum where they outlined a few of the tips ha gave at a similar meeting. At any rate whether it was intentional or not your choice to keep the rocks slightly to one side is a good move.

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You may be able to get a little LFS credit' date=' for the mushroom. Just make sure to get ALL of it, or it will grow back. Best way is to chisel off a little bit of the rock along with the shroom.[/quote']

 

I murdered them with a syringe and some vinegar. "Out damned spot!"

 

Looking good. One of the aquascaping tips I read recently suggested keeping the rocks or central focus of the aquarium off center a bit. I don't recall where the link is off hand but somewhere here there was a short discussion about the guest speaker from the last meeting. In that discussion I posted a link to another forum where they outlined a few of the tips ha gave at a similar meeting. At any rate whether it was intentional or not your choice to keep the rocks slightly to one side is a good move.

 

Thanks Rick, the offset was intentional. dead center aquascapes in frewshwater are a big no no. I understand in SW that a lot of scapes are function over form. The object is to make it easy to clean the glass, increase the area that can be used for corals, and to showcase everything equally. I personally can't bring myself to end up with another middle mound like the other nano tanks. In hindsight... I should have gone with the smallest rocks so I could better build a unique structure.

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