StPatrick's 60 Gallon Solana XL

Stpatrick

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Here we go again...


So we bought a new house and I don't have the area I had in my old house for me tank... I broke down my 112 Rimless reef.. I've been tank-less for a little while. I found a 60 Gallon Solana XL, tank, stand and sump from baherrick in Mission Viejo.

I am doing some major changes. I will be going back to metal halides. I will be running 250 watt Radium. The ballast will be the Aqua Medic Reeflex Cube M80 ballast. I will be running 453 nm leds strips for accent, dawn and dusk.

The sump I will be using came with the Solana. Small but I am very limited on space so I will make it work.

I will be using a SWC 160 protein skimmer. I currently have it on my temporary set up in the garage. Seems to be doing a decent job.

Another big change is my scape. I am going from my huge tank down to a 24X24X24. I will be building one pillar for the center front and then I will cut dry rock and wrap it around the overflow. In my mind it looks awesome, we will see. It is still 3 dimensional and will provide plenty of space for sps and lps.

I will be running a JNS Alpha 1 Biopellet Reactor loaded with 125ml of Warner Marine ecobac,

Thats a brief snap show of the build. No lets let the pictures roll.

Here is what my old set up looked like. :beer:
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The new set up.
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This is my set up in the garage. Everything has been in this 35 gallon Tupperware container for 2 months and are growing like crazy. I did initially lose a few nice corals.
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More to come soon.
 
So here is the tank before I started cleaning it up. After I got is home there where a ton more scratches on the tank then I thought. There is a compound I bought that you mix with water. it turns into a paste. I guess you use it with a buffing wheel. I will keep you posed on that.

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Here is the stand before it's face lift.

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Very nice old tank! Can't wait to see the new finished product!
 
Me too, your old tank was looking awesome, looking forward to this one.
 
Update time :) Tank has been repainted. More on that later. I finished my scape. So I had this idea about wrapping the rock around the overflow box and building one pillar in the front center. The rock was to chunky and I couldn't piece it correctly to make it look natural. So I was thinking :xd: . I can use my hand saw with my 4" diamond blade and cut a V in the rock and place the pieces like Lincoln logs. I cut the first piece, put it in place then went to cut the second piece and almost cut my thumb off :violin:. Well an emergency room visit, 5 stitches and 3 hours later, I finally got home. Needless to say I was very lucky. The blade cut into my bone and fractured it. I have some nerve damage but missed all the tendons. Not sure how I missed them all. I will spare you the gore. Here is the clean version of my injury.
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Here is how I cut the pieces.
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And the finished product. I think it turned out better then I imagined it would. Granted, I almost lost a finger in the process.
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Here is the picture of my newly painted stand and rock work.
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Next update will be sump install and water going in.
 
Holy smokes man, be careful! And thanks for saving the gore, I've cut two fingers off so I can't handle seeing gore anymore...

The tank looks great so far! It looks like you have some great livestock there to get it going with too.
 
Sweet setup you got there, gonna enjoy watching the progress

Thank you Zack

Holy smokes man, be careful! And thanks for saving the gore, I've cut two fingers off so I can't handle seeing gore anymore...

The tank looks great so far! It looks like you have some great livestock there to get it going with too.

Hey Skinz. No live rock. I am adding a couple raw shrimp & MB7 to get this up and going. Everything I put in this system will getting dipped to prevent pests. I will be using Bayer advanced.

DIY Coral Dip (Kills AEFW, Montibranch's, Red Bugs and all other know pests) - YouTube
 
The new white stand makes the tank look modernized. It's what I am planning to do with mine as well.
Awesome build, can't wait to see the livestock in it.
 
The new white stand makes the tank look modernized. It's what I am planning to do with mine as well.
Awesome build, can't wait to see the livestock in it.

I think the stand turned out great. Better then I imagined. Everything this build is going well. Except for my little accident. :attention:Are you going to post your 120 build?
 
Yeah! Tank full, salt added and cycling. Here is a couple vids of the sump, JNS 2 reactor and SWC 160 running. I can tell I am going to miss my Octo 2000 skimmer. Time will tell.

[video=youtube;fTgMdWGpnUc]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fTgMdWGpnUc[/video]

[video=youtube;EH2hxW0UKeU]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EH2hxW0UKeU[/video]
 
Very nice build. Stand looks great but I would paint the trim of the tank white too.
 

IF YOU HAD TO TAKE A REEFING EXAM, WOULD YOU PASS?

  • Yes!

    Votes: 32 45.7%
  • Not yet, but I have one that I want to buy in mind!

    Votes: 9 12.9%
  • No.

    Votes: 26 37.1%
  • Other (please explain).

    Votes: 3 4.3%

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