Finally got a tank. 60g Solana

[Trike]

After many years of lurking here and other sites, I'm finally going to start my first tank. I got a solana 60g cube setup. I waffled for a while between building my own setup and picking this setup. I ended up getting this mainly because it fits better in the room cosmetically and I got a decent deal on it. It would have cost about the same if I pieced it together, but having a good looking stand was a must.

I noticed the stand was a 4 legged stand. While moving it, I noticed that there is a square section in the bottle middle of the stand. I felt a little better knowing that the load was spread out more evenly.

I have to finish up some renovations in the room before I can place it where I want it, so it'll be a few weeks before I can fill it. I still have a lot to research anyways.

The sump is 23"x10.5"x16". I'm going to pick up a BM NAC6A skimmer to put in it. I'll need to get some glass and add some baffles to get the water height correct. Should I add a fuge section even though it'll be small? I'll have around 6-8" for a fuge section once I baffle it. Worth it?

The sunpod is a little louder than I expected. This is going in the family room and I'm trying to get it as quiet as I can. Some options I'm considering are, replacing the fan with a quieter one, add another fan to the other side of the sunpod and reduce the speed of both, or just reduce the speed of the one. I need to take some temp measurements first to see how hot it gets.

I'm still debating on what to do about flow. Two mp10's, or one MP20. After reading some reviews, I'm a little concerned about noise.

I'm still not sure what to do about the sand bed. I have some bags of caribsea arag alive that are about 6 years old. Needless to say, what life was in there is dead now. Is there any better looking sand out there? Should I just use it and seed it?

Sorry for the long post. Here are some pics and I'll have many more questions to come.

 

[lvsuckerfish]

looks like a good start nice tank......

for the fan not sure if you really want to mess with it as it will help cool the fixture

vortex no comments good or bad to say on them as I am a tunze fan and never used a vortex.

the sand rinse it good and you can seed with live rock the tank will have to cycle anyways so after a rinse you will be ok. IMO

and for a section for a fuge I would say yes you can hold macro algea in there to grow and will help stop the known issues in the display like green hair algea. and what not.

I am sure others will chime in and give there opinions also

 

[troylee]

Put the sand in a pillow case and hang it from your bath tub spout and let it rinse for awhile..

 

[Trike]

Thanks guys, I'll have to see how many bags I have left of the arag alive. I was thinking of having a 2" sandbed. I'd like to have a yellow watchman goby and a pistol shrimp. Hoping that they pair up.

 

[mfinn]

That's gonna be a sweet looking setup when it's done.

The Vortecs are suppose to be all the rage now, but I sure see alot of them for sale on RC.
I've been to peeps houses that have them and you can hear them ramp up and down a little. But I'd bet it's that way with all controllable pumps to a certain extent.
I hear my Tunze 6055's ramp up and down on the Tunze controller.
I hear the seio's ramp up and down on their controller. I think they all make some noise.

I'd rinse that agro sand and just when you think you are done rinse it again.

 

[MGDMIRAGE]

Wow congratulations that is gorgeous, i didn't even know there was a 60g cube solana, i thought they only had the 34g and the 67g(non cube).

 

[Trike]

I'm excited about setting it all up. Still a lot of things to do before I fill it with water. I'm thinking about building a rock wall to cover up the overflow, and just seeing what's going to look best in the tank.

finn,
It does seem like the vortech's are all the rage right now, but they're still pretty pricey. I know noise levels is pretty subjective, I'll have to listen to them in person and see.

I still haven't decided completely on what to stock it with yet, but I'd like to get a rbta to host a pair of clowns, firefish, pajama cardinal, variety of soft corals, and once I get enough experience, I'll have a try at some sps.

 

[mfinn]

might find some ideas here.


http://www.reeffrontiers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=51967

 

[Chichas01]

If you have the $$, a single MP20 will really move the water in that thing and they really are not that loud. I run 2 of them. I'd recommend running it in lagoon mode.The plus with the MP20 is that if you go to a larger tank, you can upgrade it to the MP40. Looks like a great build btw!

 

[minhmattmai]

Nice looking setup. Patience is the key and this cannot be over stressed. I'm beginning to think of this more as a discipline than a hobby

 

[Trike]

Thanks guys. I need to get a patch of carpet repaired before I can place the tank where I want it. I'm also waiting for the NAC6 skimmer to come back in stock. Once I get that I can start to baffle the sump.

 

[Trike]

I've been looking on ebay for a refractometer, and the rhs-10atc seems to be popular. How accurate are these assuming I also get the calibration fluid?

 

[Trike]

I got a NAC7 cone skimmer coming, ordered 60lbs of reef saver rock from BRS, and got a rhs-10atc refractometer coming from BRS as well.

I'm going to take a look at Trido's live rock that he has for sale and may pick up about 50lbs from him to seed the base rock. If I pick up some rock from him, i'm going to just put it in a tub with a heater and a pump for circulation until I have the tank ready. I'll probably have the tank ready in a few weeks.

 

[jgalvin]

i can't wait to see this set up! I love my 34G solana, but your tank makes me feel really inadequate.

I got a NAC7 cone skimmer coming, ordered 60lbs of reef saver rock from BRS, and got a rhs-10atc refractometer coming from BRS as well.

I'm going to take a look at Trido's live rock that he has for sale and may pick up about 50lbs from him to seed the base rock. If I pick up some rock from him, i'm going to just put it in a tub with a heater and a pump for circulation until I have the tank ready. I'll probably have the tank ready in a few weeks.

 

[Trike]

Thanks jgalvin,

I'm pretty excited about it as well. Carpet guy is coming tomorrow to patch in some spots at where I want the tank. I should be able to start setting it up.

I still need to get some glass and baffle the sump. I picked up about 60lbs of nice live rock from trido's on saturday. Hopefully I'll be able to come up with a decent aquascape.

 

[Trike]

I got some live sand to seed the sandbed once I get it running, It came with some feather dusters. This morning, I noticed one jumped out of his tube and lost his crown. he's just laying there not really moving.

the sand is inside a tupperware container with a few other feather dusters that seem to be ok. The container is submerged in the same tub as the live rock.

I read that feather dusters need calcium to regrow their tubes. since I'm just storing the rock and sand inside a tub, there's probably little to no calcium.

Should I dose some calcium into the tub? or make some limewater and dose the tub? This would be an attempt to keep whatever corals on the rocks and the feather dusters alive. I have a 4 bulb compact fluorescent light over the tub to give it some light.

 

[apollothesun]

if you got the live rock and sand from trido then you probably only need to do regular saltwater changes. that will keep the parameters in check until your tank is ready. once you get the live rock in the display, i would then invest in some test kits to see how it progresses. make sure you use ro/di for your water!

 

[Brie]

OOOooo sweeet! That thing is gunna be awesome. I wanted the 60gal soooo bad, just out of my price range. Maybe next time. But for now I can just live vicariously through you.

 

[Trike]

Apollothesun,

I did get it from Trido, Curious why I wouldn't need to do any dosing and only a regular water change is needed? I'm using RO/DI water, I got my RO/DI all plumbed up and mounted in the garage last weekend.

Brie, Thanks. I originally wanted to get the 34g solana, but I knew I was going to end up upgrading it and I managed to sell some stuff to afford the 60g.

 

[Trike]

Here's a crappy sketch of how I plan to baffle the sump. Does this look ok to you guys?

The skimmer needs about 9.5" of water, and I tried to keep the baffle spacing at a minimum of 1". I wanted to get as much Fuge space as I can get, so I didn't add more baffles on the return side. I'm hoping that microbubbles wont be an issue.