Hey solana owners!!!

bpro32

Member
What do you think of your solana? Pros and cons? I'm thinking about getting one and want to know what everyone thinks of theirs...
Oh and what extra ph's do you have in there?
Thanks in advance!!!
 
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hershey1999

Guest
pros: the cube is nice looking from all three sides, actually, the whole set up (cube, lights, and stand) really looks good. the tank was easy to set up; however, the stand was a sort of a pain
cons: skimmer is a little noisy and the ato is not the best setup in the world
I removed all of the bioballs and added chemi pure elite and floss in the middle chamber. I added a SEIO 530 gph pump, but I wish I would have spent $30 more and got the Tunze 6025 because I will probably need to add more water movement if I continue to add sps corals.
 

bpro32

Member
from what i've seen the ato is pretty awful... once the water touches the salt molecules spread out into the resh water reservoir. So when the bottles start to empty, the sg is actually going up. Good thing they are small i guess...
 

johnvic

New Member
The glass top sort of looks good but it gets covered with evaporation and it raises the temperature by a lot.
The ATO does suck but the salt issue is not the problem. You're not adding salt because the bottle touches. The reservoir is literaly the 2 lttle bottle. It just does not last long enough, and it's not even summer yet. Also the dripping sound is annoying. I bought an ATO from autotopoff.com
I'm a noobie so I can't say if the skimmer is loud.
 
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hershey1999

Guest
I usually have the lid off but I purchased a skiddish lawnmower blenny and put the lid on until he got used his new home. The tank looks good with the lid on but the tank's temp runs warmer and I don't have a chiller. So, it depends on the type of fish, if you buy jumpers, you are gonna want to leave the lid on.
 
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hershey1999

Guest
The stock skimmer works okay, about like a CPR skimmer. It does pull the stuff out. The problem is the stock skimmer is noisy. I have read elsewhere that several Solana owners are replacing the stock skimmer with a Sapphire Aquatics skimmer. The mods to this skimmer are made for the Solana. You can google and read about their skimmers. They sell for around $130.00. That will probably be my next upgrade.
 

bpro32

Member
Originally Posted by hershey1999
http:///forum/post/3030358
The stock skimmer works okay, about like a CPR skimmer. It does pull the stuff out. The problem is the stock skimmer is noisy. I have read elsewhere that several Solana owners are replacing the stock skimmer with a Sapphire Aquatics skimmer. The mods to this skimmer are made for the Solana. You can google and read about their skimmers. They sell for around $130.00. That will probably be my next upgrade.
I'm thinking I'll go with a tunze 9002 nano skimmer. There is one being sold on my local reef club site so the price will be reasonable and it already has the collection cup mod to fit in the back chamber.
 
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hershey1999

Guest
Originally Posted by bpro32
http:///forum/post/3030847
I'm thinking I'll go with a tunze 9002 nano skimmer. There is one being sold on my local reef club site so the price will be reasonable and it already has the collection cup mod to fit in the back chamber.
I have seen some good comments about the tunze nano skimmer as well.
 

bpro32

Member
hey what added flow do you have in there besides the return? I'm thinking of putting a k2 in there but worried about sand blowing all over the place...
 
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hershey1999

Guest
Originally Posted by bpro32
http:///forum/post/3031447
hey what added flow do you have in there besides the return? I'm thinking of putting a k2 in there but worried about sand blowing all over the place...
I have a SEIO pump 530 gph. I have the pump/magnet fairly high in the tank because it blows sand around if not.
 
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