12 week update on my Solana 34 gal

In a previous thread I showed my 34 gal Solana cube tank progressing over a 6 week period. It is now going into week 12 and I've had a couple minor failures but now seem stable. The first fish I added after my tank cycled were two TR Ocellaris clowns and one bi-color blenny. The clowns died within a week for no reason I could find. I did have a heater failure that caused the water temp to drop about 5 degrees in one day, but don't know if that had anything to do with it. The blenny hid for a while when the clowns were acting stressed but after they died he came around and began acting fine. However two days after I added a new fish – a pygmy angel - I found my blenny dead on the floor in my living room. Jumped the tank for some reason! Before adding more fish I made a top out of egg crate that I cut to fit.

Current fish: Pygmy Angel, Maroon Gold Striped clown, Diamond Goby – all are young and small and doing very well.

The goby does an amazing job on my sand! He works every inch and corner of the tank and has made more than one hole under different rocks for his own private caves. He seems extremely happy and always busy.

So my tank houses those 3 fish and the following corals: Long polyped toadstool leather, pulsing xenia, various zoas - pink, orange, green, 3 ricordia heads – yellow, blue, and orange/green combo, green star polyps, and various mushrooms. Inverts include 1 peppermint shrimp, 2 turbo snails, 4 astrea snails, 2 margarite snails, 1 Hawaiian fan worm, 1 CoCo worm.

Modifications to tank – removed skimmer because it added bubbles to tank, added 1 small power head in the back filter chamber for more oxygenation and current. It sits where the skimmer use to be and I have it pointed up a bit to break the surface of the water in the filter area. Live rock rubble in bio chamber rather than bio-balls. Added a Koralia 1 power head to display area of tank. Changed the pendant lighting from an HQI 14K metal halide bulb to a HQI 20K. I prefer the look of the tank plus I heard the corals will actually grow slower with that light. Since I have a small tank I really don't need the corals to grow all that quickly. I also added a moonlight.

Recap of tank specs:

34 gallons water
32 lbs. live rock
40 lbs. live sand
960 gallons per hour of water circulation via the 400 gph Koralia, 400 gph filter pump, and a 160 gph power head in the skimmer chamber (is that overkill?)
150 watt 20K HQI lighting on a timer, runs 12 hours daily
1 watt moonlight on timer, runs 8 hours
1 Stealth 200 watt heater – love it, temp varies LESS than 1 degree daily

Invert/Coral Food: Kent Coral Vite every other week, Kent Phytoplex every other week (alternating).

Water parameters:

Temp 78.6
PH 8.4
SG 1.024
NO 2, NO 3, Ammonia – all zeros

I'm going to try to let my tank just sit now, with the current livestock, and see how things mature. I will probably shop for a skimmer that won't add bubbles to the tank. If anyone has skimmer recommendations for my size tank please let me know! The attached pictures don't do the fish justice because they won't hold still!

Thanks for looking.

 

More Photos

A few more photos

 

Nice looking tank...

 

THANKS! Here's some live action as well.

 

I'm thinking about a Solana; did you replace the pumps that came with the tank?

 

Looks great!

 

I'm thinking about a Solana; did you replace the pumps that came with the tank?[/quote]

No. I didn't replace the filter pump. With adding the Koralia 1 and the other small power head I've got good circulation right now. However that's a thought for the future if I don't want to have that extra pump in the back.

 

Hey! Very nice tank! I especially like young diamond-spotted goby Thanks for sharing with us! K+

 

Very nice setup, well done

 

Thanks all. Here's a some shots playing with the macro setting on my camera. The last photo is for Camilsky .