Brie's 34gal Solana

Reef Aquarium & Tank Building Forum

Help Support Reef Aquarium & Tank Building Forum:

I've been meaning to update for a while...

I had a "bit of a crash" prior to my move. I left the tank at my parents house for a good while, and couldn't get over there to bring RO water so it got topped off with good ol Kent tap water for weeks. Algae went out of control, phosphate nuked alot of my sps... It was just all around bad. So in the end, alot of stuff died, and I essentially started the tank over again. Scrubbed all the rock, rinsed my sand like crazy, scraped and rinsed the tank, then moved it to my new apartment to set back up. Been running for a couple months now and doing great. Rockwork is totally different(took at least half of it out), and right now no fish. Lost ALOT of my corals which makes me sad... Still have my Hiller Aqua delight, sunset monti, some zoos, blue prostrata, and some other stuff... Will take some new pics here soon.
 
I had that happen with my 120 a few years back. Its hearting braking when you see it for the first time after the death of the hard work and time you put in to it.
 
I'm sorry about your tank, it was really cool looking :(



what happend to your fish?

Ick. :\ Lost my few little gobies to it, and am now letting the tank run empty for a couple months before addin new fish. I brought Sir Jumps-a-lot(peppermint hogfish) back to the shop, he was seriously suicidal, hunting night and day for places to jump out. Figured he wasn't happy as he's done that since the day I added him to the tank months ago. So i'll start over with new fish.
 
Sorry to hear about your tank crashing. I had a similar disaster when I left for college years ago. I left my old tank in the care of my parents and they weren't exactly as into it as I was, nor as knowledgeable, to say the least. So you can imagine what the tank looked like when I came back to visit: an algae forest. And, of course, nearly everything else had died.

So how's the recovery coming along? Got any new fish or coral?
 
A much needed tank update...

Still in the phases of bringing my tank back to its former glory.. Right now i'm finishing up killing the last of the bryopsis with Tech-M... Which is also helping to kill the red beard algae that has also somehow come back. There's lots of large trochus snails, a handful of emeralds, and a little blue tuxedo urchin in there all dining on it so hopefully they'll finish it off... If not it'll be time to Algae-Fix as well...

Tank is pretty bare of corals as i'm waiting to get all the algae killed off before bringing anything new in. So far I just have my surviving zoas and a few other things in there...

I'm going to be switching my tank over to some Ecoxotic LEDs, probably 2-3 Par38s... So i'll update again once that happens...

Here's a quick pic from this morning showing my updated rockwork... Went with more of a minimalist look, can't wait to get some coral growing on those shelves.

5393669860_7b5c62b045_b.jpg


I emptied my tank of fish due to an ich outbreak several months ago and am just now putting new fish back in... So far I have bar goby(will add another couple when I find more), and an oddball Lyretail Dartfish(Ptereleotris monoptera)... Can't find much about these on the net, but it was sent in as a blue gudgeon at the shop... Doesn't appear to be too common of a fish. I really love it. Can't really see it in the photos, but the edges of his fins are scarlet red, in contrast to the shimmery blue/green of his body.

(click pics for bigger)




 
Seeing your Lyretail Dartfish makes me miss the scissortail I had that decided to carpet surf :( Looking good for a tank in recovery :D
 
Brought a new light home from the pound today... A MaxSpect G2-400-160w LED... Decided, after playing with this fixture for the past 2 weeks at work, that I want to use this over the Ecoxotic PAR38 bulbs... For the price, and the additional features, I think it was the way to go. Right now, i'm only using the bank of 14 white, and the 14 blue/4 violet. With the 60w group on it makes my little tank glow like it has a 400w halide bulb over it. lol. So since I only have a few softies and a torch in there right now i'm going to stick with using less light until I add more.

Fixture includes: 2 30w white LEDs, 14 3w White, 14 3w Blue, 4 3w Violet, 4 blue moonlights. 3 individual banks of LEDs, each programmable with with built in timers for each group. Manual over ride buttons to so you can play with each group(turn em on and off).

Blue+Violet: White ratio ~ 1:2.33

0" 1100-1200 PAR
3" 600-700 PAR
10" 300-400 PAR
20" 150-250 PAR

DE Lightings - LED lighting

Had to take a dremmel grinder to the overflow behind the Tunze, to make an groove for the cord. Since the light sits almost flat against the top of the tank, it would be resting on the glass top if I didn't get it 12mm below the rim of the tank.. Was worried about the weight of the fixture and metal edges of the legs would break the glass top. Previous to the added grooves, the cords made the back side of the glass stick up above the rim, with the glass resting on a stack of cords... But everything worked out and i'm happy. :)

5417848486_5667540ca9_b.jpg
 
Last edited:
That's a cool new light fixture, Brie! What would you say is the approximate color temperature with everything on?

When I saw the model at the store it had a pink/purple hue to it--kind of like the other LED fixture over the tank by the Elos 60.
 
Well, i'd say it does still have a slight pinkish hue to it, but not as much as the Pac Sun fixture over the DeepSea at the shop... Esp with all of the whites on. With both panels of white on with the actinic, i'd say it looks pretty much the same as my 150w 14k pheonix bulb. On my tank, all three banks of LEDs on at once was WAY too much light. It looked like a 400w halide bulb over the tank. lol. So right now I just have one white and one blue. I changed to using the 2 30w bulbs and the panel of blue, instead of the bank of 14 3w white. The two 30w provide more of a halide look, more shimmer, and a little bit brighter.
 
Some more updated pictures since I have a boatload of new additions...

Some corals under actinics...
5462310534_9c7c45fe5b_b.jpg


5461706411_5eed16b88b_b.jpg


Recovering rainbow monti
5462310426_9257933161_b.jpg


Lavendar/Mint Green Lobo
5462309888_10d4f3e3ce_b.jpg


Neon Orange/Green Lobo
5461706917_297cc83ae4_b.jpg


And the new additions from the Bob Moore Frag Swap...

From the raffle. I got 3 great things; a Green Polyped Leather, a 3 headed duncan(not pictured, was still closed), and a really pretty candycane acan.

5461707493_1f6a94bc74_b.jpg


5462309574_d3d38098e6_b.jpg


Got a Garf Purple Bonsai frag, but cannot remember the name of the person I bought it from for the life of me. *smack forehead*
5461707319_02deb4aefd_b.jpg


And my 3 pick ups from Reef Koi...

Chili pepper monti
5461706961_31519d5b4e_b.jpg


Jedi Mindtrick monti undata
5461706803_7d384847c7_b.jpg


And what im going to call Chocolate Mint chalice, SO cool looking in person. Camera doesn't capture all the little sparkles, makes it look like one big green mass.
5461706879_3496ee11f3_b.jpg
 

Latest posts

Back
Top