FishyFishy's Fluval Edge with 15 Gallon Sump

[FishyFishy!]

Current FTS 07/15/2012

 

 

FTS 05/29/2012

 

 

FTS 04/16/2012

 

 

FTS 03/29/2012

 

 

FTS start

 

 

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I recently aquired a pewter colored 7 Gallon Fluval Edge Nano from a friend (for free...yay!). I decided to go for a nano setup since my 155 build is going terribly slow. I've also decided to go with LED's for lighting, and a 15 Gallon (water volume, not dimensions) 20" X 16" X 15" sump. So that will put the total water volume at roughly 22 gallons. I think it will make for a more stable evironment for the edge.

 

I'm also toying with the idea of doing a suspended fuge above the sump that would be either drain line or pump fed. More on that one when it's all set up and I see how much room I have to play with inside the stand.

 

Here is the tank as it came to me:

 

Current equipment that I have lying around -

 

200W Fluval Tronic Heater

Tunze 9002 Protein Skimmer

20 X 16 X 15 glass sump

TLF 150 phosban reactor for Chemi-pure elite

Tunze ATO

1 Koralia Nano powerheads (upgrading to Vortec MP10 asap)

Oceanic BioCube 29 stock return pump

DIY Ikea LED's (Until CREE's arrive)

When LED's arrive it will be 6 cree royal blues and 6 cree cool white with dimmable drivers. I'm ordering from Rapid LED, so from what I heard everything should go well.

 

Stock -

Not sure! pom poms, porcelains, sexy shrimp?

shrimp/goby combo?

pair of picasso clowns?

 

Buncha florida and yuma rics, birdsnest SPS, torch and frog spawn for sure... and whatever else comes along.

 

 

Step One - making the stand the overflow box.

 

Remove the rear filter cover portion of the tanks stand and remove the backing. Cut a piece of acrylic to fit the bottom. There is a bunch of slats that sit inside the cover, I used the second from bottom to rest the acrylic on.

 

 

The small cover that sits against the glass of the aquarium is too tall for the overflow section. I trimmed it down to the edge where the plastic lip of the aquarium meets the glass.

 

Trim area

 

Cover back together

[FishyFishy!]

Step two - Cut holes for bulkheads

 

I decided to go with 1" for the drain, 3/4" for the emergency, and 1/2" for the return... why??? Because thats what I had laying around for bulkheads and plumbing! haha.

 

Here are the holes drilled in the acrylic

 

Test fit inside the overflow again -

 

Bulkheads in for test fit

[FishyFishy!]

Step 4 - Make it water tight

 

So, the next thing to do it make the rear overflow section water tight. I used some crazy acrylic glue to seal all the parts together, and after for safety I also siliconed the entire inner perimeter.

 

(warning... don't open the can and stick your nose in to see what it smells like....burnt my lungs in a bad way)

 

 

 

Acrylic weld is seen here -

 

And now all together with the silicone in place

 

And bulkheads installed

 

 

Step Five - Modify drain from tank

 

Luckily, the top edge of the tank is plastic, making it easily modifiable. Since I did not want to glue/silicone the stand/cover and the tank together to allow water to flow directly into the back chamber, I decided to go with this:

 

 

Now, water will flow over the crack between the tank and stand, without worrying about leakage. I can also direct flow to add a layer of floss to pre-filter the water going into the drain. I don't have to worry about overflowing the overflow box with the emergency drain either.

 

I have yet to decide how I want to do the tank side overflow. I'm going to either drill a bunch of holes, dremel slats (comb style) or cut it out completely and silicone some egg crate in there.

[JoelRHale]

(warning... don't open the can and stick your nose in to see what it smells like....burnt my lungs in a bad way)

I did the same thing with MEK and it was terrible.

 

Nice build so far.

[FishyFishy!]

Step 6 - Overflow plumbing

 

First, you have to cut out the bottom of the stand to allow the plumbing to go through. I kinda hacked it with a dremel, but no one will see it anyways.

 

 

Then did up the drain, emergency and return line plumbing

 

 

Also did up a little egg crate rack for some filter floss. The design of the stand on the Fluval Edge is awesome, because it already has little ledges inside the overflow section. So the egg crate just lies on top:

 

And leak test after.... NO LEAKS!!

 

 

And how we sit now... awaiting the stand to be built. Starting on that tomorrow

 

[darthvictor]

Wow, look at all that work!, Great job

[Cnebo]

Nice work!

[MFChop]

Im impressed, looks great so far....

[FishyFishy!]

So I have lots to update!

 

Stand is built, tank is all plumbed and in place, and I went and got some temporary LED's until my CREE's arrive.

 

Stand under construction:

 

Stand framing complete:

 

Then I painted the inside white and the outside black

 

Tank and sump in place

 

Door painted and put on (used velcro)

[FishyFishy!]

Overflow cut into tank. 1/2" loc line return in place

 

Plumbing from bottom

 

Water testing... Nice even flow from the overflow.

 

And how I drained the sump! lol

[FishyFishy!]

So for the lights, I went to ikea and picked up some LED lights to use until my CREE's arrive.

 

I have ordered another tank topper so that I can lengthen the top canopy. I will fuse the teo together and make a longer one. Right now, I have cut the rear off the current one, and here I will show you where the lengthened hood will stay.

 

Original Location:

 

And this is where it will sit when the two are fused together:

 

Attached the LED's to egg crate and siliconed it into the canopy:

 

Blue only Lights on:

 

50/50 white and blue:

[BlackSumbel]

Really, really, really liking the look of this one.

[Cnebo]

Awesome job.. keep it up.

[FishyFishy!]

UPDATE

 

I got everything in place and set up. Got some of the rock out of my other tank, but I have to 'downsize' a lot of the rock to be able to fit in the hole at the top. So I have some chizzling to do! But there is some rock in there, a lot of sump rock/rock rubble in there, basically filled the whole sump. Bought a little blue devil damsel who is hilarious... he loves the powerhead. Play's in it all day.

 

 

Progress Reports:

 

Found a good light color combo

Added Snails and hermits from other tank

Added Koralia Nano Powerhead

Added Fluval heater

Added Tunze Osmolator ATO

Added Blue Devil Damsel

Added floss rack and floss

 

Still to do:

 

Chizzle my nice display rock to get smaller pieces into edge (add more rock)

Add Protein skimmer

Add TLF 150 Reactor with Chemi-Pure Elite.

 

 

This is the sump about an hour in, I will get a better pic soon. There is a tonne more rock in there now, and a different heater, ato, etc etc.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Top down look

 

 

LED through top screen

 

[Jruberti]

Woah, awesome work!!

[FishyFishy!]

Sump as it sits now, ATO contoller mounted under the stand.

 

 

All the sump rock in there now.

 

 

Closeup pic of the rock I pulled from my other display. Lots of Coraline on it.

 

 

Crab hitchin' a ride on a snail

 

 

 

My biggest issue right now is sand drifts. I'm trying different angles on the powerhead and the return line. Other than that, everything is doing great!

[Ole Pukey]

Sweet build. Nice job!

[asting]

My first thought was "WHY?!" and after looking i see why. This is awesome!

My only suggestion is don't stock that too heavily. That damsel alone is pushing it, but it does look very good.

[FishyFishy!]

My first thought was "WHY?!" and after looking i see why. This is awesome!

My only suggestion is don't stock that too heavily. That damsel alone is pushing it, but it does look very good.

 

 

Yeah I think that 3 nano fish will be ok in there. I'm thinking two small clowns and a shrimp goby. I've seen lots of people with that combo in these tanks.

 

Damsel is just a temporary guest at the moment. Got him for my other tank. He's just in there to have something to look at right now lol.

 

 

On another note.... Should I paint the background? Or keep it clear? I can't tell what would look good.

[asting]

I think that's too many fish for such a small tank footprint. While the sump will help with the bioload, it doesn't alleviate the cramped living quarters. I wouldn't put that combo in anything less than a 10. You could probably pull one tiny shrimp goby (red hi fin, dracula, etc. not one of the 5" ones) and a single clown.

 

Most people paint the back, but it's to hide wires and equipment. Your stuff is already hidden. I'd say leave it, but it's really a personal choice.

[FishyFishy!]

I have a couple things to update.

 

Got sick of no CREE's and no coral, so I hung a 150W metal halide pendant over the tank. Also added another 4 peices of rock from my other tank.

 

 

I added a couple frags from my other tank:

 

Hammer Coral

Green Candy Cane

Kenya Tree

 

 

Also a couple of random corals popped out of the rock I put in - looks like a Green Paly and a blue spotted mushroom -

 

 

Damsel is happier than ever with the new rock and caves

 

 

Still having some sand storm problems... I've been re-positioning the powerhead once a week to try to stop them... no luck yet.

 

[randythefishdude]

i feel you power heads and the edge just dont work out

[jlee76]

FIrst off love the sump idea! starting on one for mine now.

Second why not just use a double outlet and not mess with a powerhead or just go balls out and throw a vortech mp10 on it lol

 

Anyway great build

[FishyFishy!]

FIrst off love the sump idea! starting on one for mine now.

Second why not just use a double outlet and not mess with a powerhead or just go balls out and throw a vortech mp10 on it lol

 

Anyway great build

 

 

Thanks!

 

My initial plans were to do an MP10, but after reading reviews, it's not worth the money in the Edge. You pretty much have to keep it on it's lowest setting without having sandstorms like crazy, and if i'm already having issues with sand blowing around, not too sure if it would be a smart investment.

 

I toiled with the idea of a second locline outlet and a slightly larger GPH return pump, but i'm not sure that would provide me with the adequate flow I need. I may just have to give that a try. I actually have a Maxi-Jet 1200 lying around I could try and all the equipment to do more locline. We'll see what happens over the weekend.

 

Dispite upgrading the pump i'm going to replace it anyways as I totally forgot the main reason that I took this noisey P.O.S pump out of my BioCube 29 to start with! It's noisey as heck and vibrates like crazy. Better off in the garbage or pushin water around in my mixing tank..

[FishyFishy!]

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Skimmer is now up and running. Went with the Tunze 9002. Love it. It's already pulling decent skimmate.

 

 

Also, my kenya tree somehow managed to drop a couple babies that landed in the sump, and with the fuge lighting for my macro, they are actually growing well lol.

 

 

And a FTS

 

 

Also have a massive white sponge growing on the underside of one of the rocks. Best pic I could get with my phone.

 

 

Also Upgraded the return pump to a MaxiJet 1200