Fluval Edge 6 gallon

[BigAl07]

6500K is VERY low and will quite possibly give you an amazing "algae growth". It's very low in spectrum for coral growth (although it will grow some corals it will grow algae great. I'm running 6500K over my fuge and my Chaeto is growing almost out of control.

[pauly1705]

Hi Guys I am new here; I just thought I would share my EDGE with you all. All the ones I have seen here look fantastic....

Paul Stoner's Photos - Fish | Facebook

Regards

[Cloudburst2000]

Looks nice! I haven't checked my tank in the last few days because I've been out of town. It probably finished cycling while I was away. I'll check it today, and if it has finished cycling, I will really start addressing the lighting issue. I saw a set-up someone else did with an interesting way to add new lighting in. Just have to figure out where he got the lights. The mod really doesn't look that difficult.

[Cloudburst2000]

Well, the tank just finished cycling. Now, I will really start looking at lighting and I will get a CUC from reefcleaners.org

[djustice]

All,
I finally got around to ordering heat sink, LED's and other stuff to do the lighting mods. I had run it for a couple of months with a Coralife 18w mini fixture, then a 36w. Various mods to the stock hood just didn't do what I wanted, and I've wanted to do an LED project for a long time.

So, here's what's in the stock hood:

12 Cree XRE - Q5's 107 lumen cool whites
3 Cree XRE - Q5's 60 lumen Blue
3 Cree XRE - Q5's 60 lumen Royal Blue
2 Cree XRE - Q5's 60 lumen Reds

Driven by 2x 1000mA dimmable buckpucks and 2x500mA dimmable buckpucks.

I split the colors and whites into 4 groups, 6 each whites on a 1000mA buckpuck, the Royal Blues and one Blue on a 500mA, and the remaining Blues and the Reds on another 500mA.

Two low profile PC fans running in series off of a 12v wall wart handle cooling.

LED's are driven off a 19.2v 3.2A Dell laptop switching power supply that was "repurposed".

Corals really popped open after the light was switched out for the LED setup.

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[djustice]

First thing to go, besides the wimpy light setup, was the filter. Although the one packed with the tank is labeled "Edge", it's exactly the same as a Fluval AquaClear 10.

There is just enough room to install an AquaClear 20 if you trim the supports for the stock light out of the way. Running in the filter are a layer of live rock rubble in a bag, a layer of tribase pelletized carbon, and a 1/2 kit of ChemiPure Elite. The filter is run at the lowest possible flow rate, which appears to be just right. A Koralia nano powerhead is tucked in a corner behind a piece of live rock, and I'm using the standard Fluval Edge heater in the tank, again hidden by live rock.

The tank was setup using live rock rubble, live sand, and several pieces of live rock from my 45 gallon custom and 24 gallon AquaPod.

The chemistry on the tank has been zero Nitrates, zero Nitrites, zero Ammonia, and a pH of 8.2 since day one. SG is 1.025, temperature stays 78 degrees. All other critical chemical metrics are monitored, phosphates have never registered, nor have silicates. The tank never actually "cycled", even though the chemistry is monitored every other day due to the size of the tank. A small bottle of SeaChem Purity was used during the initial 7 days, but was probably not necessary. I have used the TriBase Carbon/RightNow! from Hiatt for starting and maintaining my tanks for several years now. Just didn't have time to order the RightNow! bacteria, and I had 10 lbs of fresh TriBase on hand, and I took some "seed" carbon for the filter from the 45. The TriBase is for housing bacteria more than anything else. Hiatt's research is sound, but seldom endorsed by the community at large. This combination of filtration is the foundation of what is used on all of my tanks, from an Eclipse 12 to the 45, and for me, this works very well. I've experimented using other things like Purigen and PolyFilter, but I keep coming back to using the bag of ChemiPure Elite with TriBase carbon and tons of live rock and rubble in all of the tanks I have.

I use various additives to maintain other chemistry, (iodide, molybdenum, etc) almost all from Kent Marine. CoralVite is an every other day supplement of 2-3 drops.

Many of you will criticize the bio load, or not believe that it is what it is, but I'm going to tell you anyway. I firmly believe in the filtration/waste management system, and I haven't lost a single critter due to chemistry. I have a long history of salt water back to the 1970's, and my background in marine ecology and conservation biology help me make informed decisions on how to manage the biotope. A jaw fish managed to jump out the small opening in the top, and the arrow crab took out the skunk shrimp during moulting, but other than that, no losses. The skunk shrimp was moulting for the second time since introduced on day 1 when the arrow crab got him. That's what happens when you moult out in the open i guess............

Fish:

Yellow head jawfish
Yellow box puffer
High fin goby/pistol shrimp pair
Purple dottie back

Inverts
Arrow crab
Red Leg Hermit Crabs (4)
Emerald crab
Brittle starfish (3-4 in) and about 3-4 very small hitch hikers from the other tanks, also a couple of tiny chocolate chip stars have appeared on the glass over the last few weeks.
Nassarius snails (3 very small)
Turbo snails (2-3)
Astrea (2-3)
All kinds of hitch hiker stuff has shown up too, worms, etc. from the live rock brought over on startup.

Corals
Several small mushrooms, a colony of zoos, a toadstool leather, a colony of "waving hands", a colony of green star polops.

The star polops and the toadstool have grown at least 20% since introduced to the tank.

Water changes are 20% every two weeks, using premix from my LFS. Makeup evaporation is replaced daily with distilled water I buy from the grocery store. No RO system at the office, and I've been too forgetful to bring some from home. Here's a pic under just the Blues/Red string combo.

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Many of you will criticize the inclusion of red LED's. Photosynthesis of the algaes in soft corals that occur at shallow depths require red light, especially those with blue or purple colorations. Chlorphyll production is at its peak in most soft corals at 620-640nm. There will be the argument of overstimulating other algaes, but I will monitor and adjust over time.

Here's a pic of some of the denizens before I started messing with the hood. Everyone went into hiding for a little while....

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Lessons learned so far:

I mis-measured the heat sink size. If I build another, I'll go with one that covers edge to edge in the hood. This would help with the dark spots in the corners, and simplify the permanent mounting of the light/heat sink to the hood with some small screws through the side of the hood, or a bracket of some type glued in the right places inside the hood.
I've yet to experiment with any kind of optics or diffusers, which may also help with light distribution.
I'm not yet protecting the LED's or the heatsink with any kind of sealer or coating. I'll probably mask the lenses and spray the whole thing with a poly sealer of some kind, at least where exposed to the salt water. A diffuser mounted in the hood and sealed in place would probably work too.

I've assembled everything with hot melt glue so far, makes it possible to take stuff apart as I evolve the design.

More later..............

[minicrazy592]

looks good to me

[Cloudburst2000]

Bio-load isn't even my biggest concern with your tank. My biggest concern is that every fish you have is rated for aquariums well over 6 gallons. The dottyback is rated for a 20 gallon aquarium, the goby and jawfish for a 30 gallon, and the box fish for I don't even know what size aquarium but they get big. These fish won't be happy in a small aquarium. They need swimming space that just isn't provided for in a 6 gallon aquarium. I could see maybe one very small fish in this aquarium and that's a big maybe. I think I'm mostly going to stick with a few corals, sexy shrimp, and maybe a pom pom crab.

[djustice]

And every one of those fish, and yours as well, come from an ocean rated a lot bigger than any tank any of us maintain. I won't even begin the philosophical debate of humans keeping any life form for entertainment. How big should a bird cage be compared to the sky? And I never said that these specimens were going to stay forever in this tank, nor should you assume that. I rotate livestock routinely among my tanks. I think it's a pretty good indication of the validity of the biotope design when diverse life forms thrive as well (or better than) they would in the wild. That is really all any of these exercises are, experiments after a fashion. Some of us experiment more than others. If you would rather that I not share the results of my experiments because you fear I'm being cruel to fish in a tank, your have choices. Either don't read, or continue to flame those of us who are just sharing experiences with the community in an attempt to advance the body of knowledge. In either case, you'll be where you are, and we will be somewhere else.

[Cloudburst2000]

I wasn't flaming. I was listing my concerns with your tank. I've seen too many people keep fish in unsuitable systems for long periods of time. If they will only be in there short term, then that's fine. I was just pointing out possible problems. As far as I know, that's what this forum is for. Flaming would be calling someone names, being rude, condescending, etc. I didn't do that as far as I am aware. I just listed some concerns and support for my concerns.

[koolcat]

Hi, I have the same tank and are new to this. I am just in the process of letting it cycles through. I was just wondering what kind of lighting you went with if you have decided already. I Like the led idea but don't really want to modify it too much. I was just wondering if I can just use this? LEDwaves.com: LED Light Bulbs: MR-11 & MR-16: Illum MR-11 LED Light Bulb 2-Watt (Cree® XLamp® XRE LED): We Specialize LED light bulbs, LED light bars, LED signage light, LED recessed light. Leading LED Revolution.
Will this be enough to grow some corals and maybe a fish or two? Sorry im new to sw tank and the lighting seems to be the toughest.

[Cloudburst2000]

Well, I actually ended up getting a Coralife 8" light fixture that contains a 10,000K CFL bulb and a blue actinic bulb. I decided that I would rather mod the cover a bit then try waste alot of money and time modding a light fixture...especially since I am not an electronic-savvy person. The Coralife fixture is just a tad too wide for the cover to fit over it. I am going to build a cover that hopefully looks quite like the current cover but be just a tad bit bigger. And I plan on removing that swing are that holds the halogen lights. I also like that the lighting system that I bought has a cover between the bulbs and the water. That really bugged me about the way the Edge was set up...no cover between the lights and the water. I was initially worried that the Coralife lights would cause the water to get really hot, but it doesn't seem to be a problem at all. The light system normally runs about $40-$50 new, but I bought a lightly used one on ebay for like $12 and $8 shipping so I saved $20-$30. I like ebay

My tank finished cycling like two weeks ago or so, maybe a bit more. I have since added some corals that I removed from my main tank. I also changed the rockwork. Today, a friend gave me an itsy-bitsy yellow clown goby from his tank. It was getting harrassed in his tank by some of its other inhabitants. It's only like maybe 1/2" long at the moment. He actually gave it to me to put in my main tank, but soon that tank will be hosting my brother-in-law's tomato clown while we rebuild his tank. I think the clown would beat up on the goby so it's going in the Edge for now. The little goby is still acclimating at the moment. I'll post some pics tomorrow of the tank with all the corals and the new fishy inhabitant

[mle]

I'm curious as to how the TS's lights turned out... I hope you update this thread..


I just got one of these tanks today strictly as a SW seahorse tank, and I was googling lighting upgrades and stumbled upon this thread.. Good info in here.. I think the stock lights are too weak and too hot as well. The direct replacement LED upgrade is a really good suggestion, I will pick some up tomorrow. I don't intend on growing corals in this tank, as i already have another SW tank...

Here's mine, just setup today..

[thomshap]

I have a 3w Arcadia LED spot in a 30l tank with some xenia that I didn't want to spread arounf my main tank, its very happy and growing well.

[arkaeus]

I just purchased one of these tanks also. How does this guys setup look?
YouTube - Fluval Edge Saltwater Lighting