Another take on the Fluval Edge

Good Day to all Manhattan Reefers.

Been procrastinating on putting up this thread since i have set up the edge as a mini reef since January and now I finally had the drive to put up my own thread.

First off I got this Edge about a year ago when I was just in the planning stage of getting an aquarium set up for our apartment.
When I accidentally stumbled upon the fluval edge while googling, I immediately fell in love with its design.:inlove:

After more googling about it, I stumbled upon Picod's tank thread:wow: on her edge set up and the more that I wanted to get one of my own.:banghead:
So I took the plunge:tub: and bought one for myself having the vision of one day having a tank as beautifully executed as Picod's.:scratchch

So I did more research.:type: until it hit me that doing a reef set up will be costly. So i scrapped the reef project and had it planted instead.
Here is the tank during its planted state:



While having been contented for quite a while, I still did more reasearch on equipment, other mods, supplements and other miscellanous for the tank to transition it to a reef set up.
After long hours of thinking and figuring out about light set up and the cheapest mod I could do for easy to care for corals, :Lurking: and having a few messages sent to Picod asking for advice, I finally had the guts to go on and finally give reefing a try.

So i took the planted tank down and got some live sand and live rock for this tank to start the transition.


The initial DIY Led set up I made


I started out with some easy corals given a few members here (You all know who you are) to try out and see how the light goes in keeping them. Thanks for helping me out in my initial stages into reefing.



Slowly getting it stocked little by little with some livestock, frags bought from other members and from MA.


It was too white and most likely has the inappropriate spectrum for most corals so I hit the Marketplace and was able to find some used powerbrites I can use for another light MOd (You never can stop trying to find a new mod for the Edge's Sucky lights):knockedou

So now this is what i came up with







And Having shifted to those Powerbrites really made a difference in the Corals currently in the tank.
They are all more vibrant and seem to be responding well.
So the battle with the light upgrading seem to be over for now.

Here is the latest tank pic a little more than 3 mos after the transition from Planted to Reef..




So Far it has been doing ok and its time to just watch the tank grow as i don't have anymore space to stock in more stuff which is a bit of a pro for me as I won't have to spend more to get new stuff.:biggrin: I hope..
Getting a bigger tank is not an option for me as this is what the wife will do :fishhit:if I get another one. She says 2 tanks are enough..

very nice, and what are you doing for maintanance, wc ect

Thanks.
I do 1 gallon water change every 10 days, seachem reef fusion 2 part dosing 1.5ml every other day.
As for feeding I throw in a mix of frozen mysis and cyclops every night.

Oh and I forgot to mention that it still has the stock filter with coarse sponge, biomax media, filter floss.
There is a koralia nano 240gph powerhead for added circulation.
There is also about 7-8lbs live rock and 10lbs live sand when I started out this tank.

Livestock includes 1 true perc, 1 false perc, 2 peppermint shrimp, 1 sexyshrimp, 1 left handed hermit and a red legged hermit.
I used to have a yellow clown goby but he didn't make it.
Since I had him, he already was difficult to feed and became emaciated as weeks go by.

Corals are mostly softies, zoas, palys, mushrooms, orange ric, war coral, krypto candy cane, GSP, pompom xenia, leathers etc.
I just added a couple of acans and will see how it goes.

very nice.. Did you stick with the stock filter? - I have an empty fluval edge and im thinking about setting it up now... lol

Thanks man. How's your tank and new lights going?
Your old 20 long has been set up by the friend of mine who got it as her goldfish tank.:goldfish2
Yup its still the stock filter.
I've always contemplated on doing an overflow for it but thought the upgrading will never end.
Somehow the stock filter works for the others who had an edge reef set up so I said to myself, why complicate things?:smash:

The main problem with the edge will be lighting if you try to maintain its stock look.
I gave up on the edge stock look to make lighting mod a bit easier.

mine is doing ok i guess... just upgraded to a sump i built and i think that caused my tank to cycle again... Now its just the wait...

looks nice... glad to see it coming along so well.

Hey Skene thanks for those red mushrooms you gave me. They are growing by the week and has given off a baby shroom already.

i like the tank.

I saw A lot of Tanks while deciding on and eventually cycling my tank. Looks like you had some algae on the sandbed. How did you deal with that? I have the same issue right now among others.


Sent from my iPhone using Reefs.

The FTS was taken probably a month and a half ago when I had some hair algae and diatoms/cyano on the tank. I think I was runnning the light too long then. Around 12-14 hours. I had my light schedule now 8 hours a day and that seems to have conrolled the problem.

Got it. I think I'm running my lights too long too. I'll try a shorter period and see how it goes.


Sent from my iPhone using Reefs.

Love the tank...it's beautiful...and it looks like it's time for a new FTS...

looks really good. what a great addition to the nano tanks section of the site!

Thanks for the compliments.


@meangreeneyes - How are the frags doing in your tank?
It was a bummer one of my Powerbrite led link conked out when you left so I had to find a new one to replace it.
I kinda like how the different light temps give emphasis to certain corals that's why I still went for the same fixture.
Luckily I was able to find one online at a great price.


Here is the Ghetto light rig whipped up with on hand parts as a temporary light until the new powerbrite link arrives.

@meangreeneyes - How are the frags doing in your tank?
It was a bummer one of my Powerbrite led link conked out when you left so I had to find a new one to replace it.
I kinda like how the different light temps give emphasis to certain corals that's why I still went for the same fixture.
Luckily I was able to find one online at a great price.



Looks like we both had some crappy luck. The Mushroom and palys are doing great. I used super glue gel to attach the xenia to some l.r. rubble when I got home...didn't stay attached. Turned the lights on the next morning to find it split in 2 pieces in the back of the tank. So I attached them to 2 separate pieces of l.r. rubble but they haven't opened up...they just kind of droop down. :banghead: Hopefully they'll be ok. I'll post pics on my thread Saturday...hopefully they'll be looking a little better by then.

That really sucks about your lights. :sigh: At least you were able to find a replacement at a good price. In the meantime...ghetto is the way to go! :pimp: I mean whatever works to keep the corals alive and well, right? The wife might try to kill you...but since it's her favorite tank hopefully she'll understand. lol

It's hard to find the powerbrites as they were discontinued by current and was replaced by their truelumen led strip line. Most store if they carry the 2 blue and 2 white led powerbrite configuration basically overcharge by way too much than SRP.
They got rid of the aluminum casing and its now basically a LED strip (similar to those car/undercabinet LED strip lights). It is thinner and a bit cheaper but I like the old powerbrite look for my tank.
Well just waiting for the new powerbrite link to arrive to get rid of the foil and screw in bulb.

The wife immediately noticed how the tank looked and as she says, why did the corals loose their "ooomph".:lol2: The colors where a bit drab with the coralife CFL compared to the powerbrites where they are all vibrant and real attention getters.

The pompoms usually take a bit more time to adapt. I observed the same when I initially got them but opened up fully after a couple of days.

I like what you've done with the lighting, it looks great.

Thanks dazarooney.

Just a little update on what is going on..
Here is something I got in the mail today.


It's been only a few days but I've been tired of looking on the makeshift light rig.:tired:
Like a kid in a Christmas morning, I immediately opened it up and got to work on my lights..:smash:


Now here it is restored back to life with a new Powerbrite 2,10k and 2,460nm Blue.:approve:




Now for a little close up.. (only 2 clownfishes in there but the other clownfish joined in again on second half of photo)

great little tank you got there buddy...