Journey to the Edge

[Eleven11]

*EDIT - Pictures Added Below*

Hello folks. I've been away from the hobby roughly a year or so with the birth of my son but i finally found a way to convince the wife to entertain the idea of a new tank.

Enter the Fluval Edge, a nano tank with a sleek design that was the perfect size for me to setup a tank "for my son" lol. Don't get me wrong, it is for my son's viewing pleasure but I would be lying if I isn't admit I was more excited than he was haha.

First off, I'm well aware of the limitations of the tank and the likelihood that I'll be looking to upgrade asap =P. However, I figured worst case I can keep a clown in here for my son's room once I do an upgrade.

So the tank has been quietly cycling with live sand and about 10lbs of live rock from an established tank. I left the stock hob aquaclear 20 filter but I removed all the media it came with and replaced it with a polypad and some rubble instead. I used the live water to help get the cycle going quickly. I know it's not a good characteristic of a reef keeper as this thread goes on, you'll find I have little patience.

For flow I put in a koralia 1. It does an excellent job of moving the water around. I trying my best to keep the stock look but I'm concerned with the hood limiting the light to either side of the tank.

I got a ton of chaeto from Irv (ID: bubb) so I rolled a couple balls up with rubber band and placed it directly into the tank. I know they're known to take over but I'll take care of that when I get there.

Now for the lighting. As everyone already knows the stock lights are a joke. I debated for a while and considered all my options (plug and play MR11 LEDs, retofitting m16 LEDs, etc). I decided on a set of led strips from ecoxotic. They are a n?e product but supposedly they put of ~125 PAR.

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[Eleven11]

I tried to start this thread while getting dragged around Roosevelt field mall by the wife but I guess somethings are best done from home lol.

Pics will follow shortly.


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[Og Drogon]

Sounds kool................ I'm still trying to decide whether to do S.W or F.W with my wife edge..........once I'm done with the 90g I'll figure it out.

 

[Eleven11]

Ok, so there is an update for the tank. I got a cleanup crew and also 2 clowns. I know the bio load is pretty high for a 6.5 gallon tank but I think I'll be alright. I also got puragen that I will be putting in tomorrow. So far the fish seem to be enjoying themselves.

Lights will be here on Wednesday. Can't wait. I'm at work so once I get a moment, I'll update with some pictures.

 

[masterswimmer]

Welcome back.....now meet Danielle (picod) and her Fluval Edge full blown reef. A sight to behold.

Russ

 

[Eleven11]

Welcome back.....now meet Danielle (picod) and her Fluval Edge full blown reef. A sight to behold.

Russ

Russ, I came across her tank while doing my research for the tank. It's beautiful. I hope I can get mine to be a full blown reef like that!

Below are some horrible iphone pictures.

Cycling, what a bore.

My son watching the slow agonizing cycling process.

Finally the water is clearing up!

The aquascape or lack thereof needs some serious work.

I added some more lr (w/ lots of coraline algae) from an established tank and added some chaeto thanks to Irv (bubb).

Directly view of new aquascape (still wasn't pleased at this point).

Angled view but still not satisfied.

Added a pair of clowns. They didn't get along very well early on but now they're inseparable.

Here they are swimming together again. Sorry for the horrible image quality.

This is the aquascape I settled on but I'm still not happy.

The lights are coming in tomorrow! I'll take some unboxing shots and update tomorrow.

 

[jeffvmd]

Great start to your tank.
I know how agonizing the cycling process is. The added live rock helps speed it up though.
Try to keep the rockwork off the edges and low for easier maintainance.:wink1:

 

[Eleven11]

Hey Jeff. Yeah I kept it as low as possible so I can reach in. I have big hands and this little opening would be more annoying if I had to maneuver around a lot of rock. I just got my nanomag yesterday so it was nice to clean up the inside of the glass. I'm still waiting on the edge of my seat for the lights. Supposedly they came to my office but couldn't deliver it? Ridiculous. They're suppose to come back before 5 so any minute now.....

 

[Eleven11]

Also, I think the koralia 1 might be too much flow. My clowns look like their struggling to swim against the strong current. They usually hand out just below the koralia so their not swimming with/against the flow. I might have to downgrade to a nano one but I've seen tanks with mp10's and that's a hell of a lot more flow than a koralia 1 no?

 

[jeffvmd]

Keep us updated how the lights work out for you.
I just use a koralia nano 240gph on my edge and that seems to be just right for the tank together with the stock filter.
I actually have a hardly used extra koralia nano in box as I got 2 to have them placed on both sides but it seems having 2 of them is a bit too strong in the tank so I took it out.

 

[Eleven11]

Jeff, I might be interested in that one if I find the 1 to be too strong.

UPDATE

Okay, so the lights came in today. The Fedex driver didn't drop it off earlier because he didn't know the suite number to my office. Basically, after a few phone calls back and forth with customer service, we tracked down the driver 2 blocks away so I met him on the street to sign for my package. Remember I mentioned above that I have little to no patience? I couldn't wait until tomorrow to install these lights.

I could have sworn I ordered 2 white strips and 1 blue strip but when turned the strips on, 2 were white as expected but the other was a white/blue combo. The problem with the combo is that since it has 2 white leds and 1 blue, I can't use it as a moonlight. So I'll be calling ecoxotic tomorrow.

Except for the issue with the wrong led strip, the lights far exceeded my expectations. I haven't decided exactly how I want to fit them into the tank so for now they are sitting on top of the tank. I want to install them onto the stock arm but the casing is just slightly too small to fit all 3. What I'm thinking of doing is getting a strip of plexi glass that I can glue to the stock lighting arm and then I can attach these strips to the plexi glass. I took some pictures but don't have the energy to upload and resize here. At some point tomorrow, I'll upload the images so you can see.

After running down the Fedex truck I walked over to my car which was parked on 37th btwn. 8th and 9th. So yes, I couldn't resist the urge to drop by manhattan aquarium. I was with the wife and son so I decided to go pick up a couple of frags. I let the wife pick the frags because this will ultimately be her tank as I'm planning an upgrade asap lol. We picked up a frogspawn, blueberry gorgonia and an orange spider sponge. The blueberry gorgonia's polyps are opening up and it looks like it's acclimating well to the tank. The frogspawn is also started to extend it's tentacles and looks like it's home. The sponge seems to be doing okay too. I know none of these are really going to test the lights much but I plan on getting a monticap and some other sps frags to test the lights. I suppose that would be the real test of how strong these lights are.

All in all, I am very pleased with the lights. I plan on calling ecoxotic and exchanging the combo light to a blue and possibly adding another blue strip.

Pictures will be up tomorrow!

 

[jeffvmd]

I got several plexiglass pieces laying around but have used up my weldon already.
Let me know what size you need as I have alot of scraps I can give you.

 

[Eleven11]

Jeff - I'll take some measurements sometime this weekend and let you know. Thanks a lot!

As promised, below are the pictures of the tank.

 

[wschang812]

nice!

 

[bruce922]

Pretty cool setup.

 

[Eleven11]

Thanks guys. So I added 2 more frags to the tank, a Duncan and acan.

2 days ago my frogspawn just closed up and hasn't looked good since. I'm afraid it might be dying because I can see the skeleton and it's just not looking good. The acan also isn't opening up much and the goniporia polyps aren't opening either. The Duncan and sponge are fine with full polyp extensions.

I checked my water parameters...

Ph - 8.0
Ammonia - 0
Nitrate - 0
Nitrite - 0
Salinity - .028

The sanity was a bit high so I did a water change and brought it down to .025. Do you guys think that was the issue? Also I kept the tank at or close to 77 because I know with the goniporia they're more accustomed to cooler temperatures. But last night I raised it to 80 in case that was an issue.

This was all done last night and this morning, there doesn't seem to be much of an improvement. What do you guys think is going on?



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[jeffvmd]

I had the same problem with my frogspawn a couple of months ago.
Are you dosing anything in the tank? I use seachem 2 part reef fusion.
It was in the initial stages that I was experimenting on the dosing that I tried 1 week intervals beetween doses that most of the corals closed up. I then shifted to daily dosing and the corals sprung back to life after a few days. Then now I do every other day dosing which seems to be the right regimen for me.

 

[Eleven11]

I've been adding phyotofeast twice daily. Is that too much?


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[Eleven11]

I suppose I need to give my guys some calcium too. Any recommendations on a good all around supplement to dose? I have the acan, frogspawn, gorgonia, sponge and Duncan.

Also, is spot feeding a Duncan necessary? I haven't done it but they look very healthy. I'll post pictures a little later today when I get the chance.


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[jeffvmd]

What kind of salt mix are you using?
As of now I am using Instant ocean salt mix and dose reef fusion.
So far the seachem reef fusion alk and Ca does the trick for me.
I did a search before I bought it and got it cheaper than the ESV 2 part.
The 2 products seem to have some other trace minerals in them.
Danielle uses the ESV on her tank. i just opted for the seachem as it turned out cheaper than ESV.