dmasterx1x Posted April 12, 2013 Share Posted April 12, 2013 I got this tank in December 2012 as my first saltwater tank and meant to leave the setup as stock, but for various reasons (voluntary and not) i have modded a few things here and there. It's been an interesting journey thus far and i'm glad i got into marine tanks after all.Here is a rundown of what's happened thus far:-1/15/2013 *somebody* cracked the top glass of the Edge, so i decided to replace is with plexiglass... which backfired. Ripped the top off altogether now and left it open. *Update.. made a plexiglass cover with hinge to prevent future suicides. The plexiglass warped so i'll be looking for an alternative.- 2/15/2013 finished diy Cree led light array and mount. *update* just ordered some different leds and drivers to - 2/5/2103 Built a stand to house equipment/sump/fuge.- 2/20/2013 made glass refugium with acrylic baffles, hard plumbed return.- 10/16/2013 replaced replaced AquaticLife Mini skimmer with Hydor nano skimmer. Great improvement/-12/27/2013 Cerith snail crawled into return pump intake and destroyed impeller. Replaced on 1/6/2014- 1/8/2014 ordered new leds and drivers for both sump and display. current whites are too bright so i'm downgrading and also adding violets.-3/19/2014 another respace. removed most z&p's. looking to add another fish? -3/18/2015 (almost a year since last update??) Tank is in a new home, drilled and still kicking ass!Latest FTS: 3/18/2015 Equipment: Fluval edge 12 gallon aquarium roughly 7 gallon home made sump/refugium Mag 5 utility return pump replaced with a more quiet eheim pump Hydor nano protein skimmer replaced with a CADlights PLS-50 nano skimmer home made led array, 2 channels with dimmers. 12 Cree royal blues and about 6 Cree XM-L cool whites. *This is still too white for me and too bright all together, so i am in the process of ordering different lights and drivers to retrofit. -1/12/2014 adding some lime and other type of blue leds soon -3/18-2015 Eshopps nano overflow to get water into sump Livestock:-Fish Blue/green chromis - oldest fish in the tank Firefish goby jumped small red & white goby green clown goby oc clown 1st one jumped, next two mysteriously vanished. i blame the mini maxi another oc clown -Corals euphyllia purple Torch euphyllia green Frogspawn euphyllia golden Hammer died after tank crash euphyllia golden Aussie torch duncan coral various Acanthastrea - only one remains various zoanthids a few palythoas Jawbreaker mushroom baby died after moving to new house blue, green, and red mushrooms most died after moving to new house green favia died after moving to new house blue with green mouth ricordea yuma died after moving to new house -Other critters two scarlet reef crabs many dwarf cerith snails 2 Nassarius snails 2 nerite snails tubro snail dead i think sand sifting starfish dead Mini Maxi ultra anemone Sexy shrimp cleaner shrimp Blue tuxedo urchin dead 4/29/2014 1/12/20141/3/2014October 18, 2013 and here are some pictures of the build:The light fixture is suspended from aluminum channels that are attached to the back of the overflow/plumping/wiring column.a top down look into the sump. The return pump is a Mag 5 utliity pump. The return flow is dialed down to about 30% with a valve further up. No idea of what the flow rate is but it works for me.Inside that black box is some of the plumping and wiring, as well as the back end of the Eshopps overflow box. I aslo attached my Hydor wavemaker. The metal brackets on the side are the main support columns for the light fixture.The light with the canopy off. i kept the original canopy and cut out some holes to make things fit. That fan and heatsink keep things pretty darn cool, even with 22 3w Cree leds in such a small space.What the sump looked like when initially setup. have since changed lights and the skimmer.to be continued... Link to comment
dmasterx1x Posted October 21, 2013 Author Share Posted October 21, 2013 Okey smokey. Been a while. Here's some updated pics with some changes as well. I did switch to a Hydor nano skimmer, as my previous one was shooting salt spray all over my sump area, causing damage to the cabinet its housed in. cleaner shrimp being weird, he loves to hang upside down. i should call him batman got this duncan in the summer, went from 1 head to 7 slower growing than the duncan, but looking nice when fully expanded. Link to comment
dmasterx1x Posted January 12, 2014 Author Share Posted January 12, 2014 Some pictures i took today He smells food Crabby Euphyllia Mini maxi. He decided to move to the back of the tank. just picked these guys up. fruitloops, and some other zoas and palys. Jawbreaker mushroom in background. Don't remember the name of these (zoas) Anybody know what that blue clove like thing is called? Link to comment
dmasterx1x Posted January 16, 2014 Author Share Posted January 16, 2014 A few more pics. I'm scanning my local craigslist for a cheap/entry level dslr camera so i can actually post some respectable pictures. the elusive green goby this ricordia has really grown in a year la lakers acclimating now.. as you can see, i'm trying to get rid of some of these 3w cree whites. Right now about half of them are either taped off or markered out to dim them because even with the dimmer at 1%, the whites are too bright. Hopefully by this weekend my new leds and drivers will be in and i can switch things around. Link to comment
Alex B Posted January 17, 2014 Share Posted January 17, 2014 Pretty awesome that you ripped the top off. I also have a sumped 12 gallon edge. While I love the sleek look with the top I am starting to hate the tank because of how hard maintanence is. How long have u had the top off? Any ill affects or worries? I'm seriously considering this. Link to comment
Dramad1 Posted January 17, 2014 Share Posted January 17, 2014 What kind of sand is that, its all sparkly in your pics. Nice looking tank by the way. Link to comment
dmasterx1x Posted January 17, 2014 Author Share Posted January 17, 2014 What kind of sand is that, its all sparkly in your pics. Nice looking tank by the way. The sand is a mix of about 90% fine soft sand from my lfs and 10% leftover bigger grained sand/substrate i had used for accenting in a freshwater tank. I initially regretted adding the latter but i've taken a liking to it by now. My phone camera may also be contributing to the sparkliness. Link to comment
dmasterx1x Posted January 21, 2014 Author Share Posted January 21, 2014 Pretty awesome that you ripped the top off. I also have a sumped 12 gallon edge. While I love the sleek look with the top I am starting to hate the tank because of how hard maintanence is. How long have u had the top off? Any ill affects or worries? I'm seriously considering this. The top was off for about 4 months. I've had it that way until my clown jumped out. Right now i have an acrylic top with a hinge on it to prevent further accidents. While i miss the uniqueness of the tank with the original glass top on, the convenience of being able to reach in with no problem is worth it. For instance, I have liverock in there that i wouldn't have been able to fit previously (through cover opening). Link to comment
Arce Posted January 21, 2014 Share Posted January 21, 2014 Love that torch and frogspawn. Great tank! Link to comment
dmasterx1x Posted January 26, 2014 Author Share Posted January 26, 2014 A short clip of what the tank looked like about a week ago. Have since re-scaped to separate the euphellias from the rest. Link to comment
dmasterx1x Posted January 26, 2014 Author Share Posted January 26, 2014 This is going to be the upgraded light for the refugium. 2 royal blues and 6 deep reds from ledgroupbuy. The driver is a constant current 700ma "budget" driver from stevesleds, but i'm actually going to swap it for a meanwell ldd 500ma that will be controlled with the rest of my new lights by the Storm controller (http://coralux.net/?wpsc-product=storm-led-controller-2). Link to comment
dmasterx1x Posted February 7, 2014 Author Share Posted February 7, 2014 The clown goby has recently taken a liking to this hammer. THe bright coral really brings out the colors of this little fish. Link to comment
dmasterx1x Posted February 7, 2014 Author Share Posted February 7, 2014 Also, the light upgrade was a success. Lessening the amount of light, adding violet, and switching from CW to NW has really improved the overall color of the tank. The storm controller is also great. Right now I'm running 4 MW LDD drivers (1 blue channel, 1 neutral white, 1 violet, and one for the fuge mix of blue and deep reds) on it. Super easy to setup and adjust to your liking. The storm and cloud effects are pretty sweet too. I freaked out the first few times the 'lightning' went off, not knowing what it was and assuming i wired something wrong Link to comment
dmasterx1x Posted February 12, 2014 Author Share Posted February 12, 2014 top down look at the frogspawn Link to comment
Lalani Posted February 12, 2014 Share Posted February 12, 2014 Beautiful, the tank as well Link to comment
Curry02 Posted February 12, 2014 Share Posted February 12, 2014 That is some awesome lighting! Very nice. Link to comment
dmasterx1x Posted February 12, 2014 Author Share Posted February 12, 2014 Beautiful, the tank as well That is some awesome lighting! Very nice. Thanks I feel like this is all finally starting to come together. I hope i can stay motivated to upkeep and improve this tank over the next year as well. Link to comment
hyewiz Posted February 26, 2014 Share Posted February 26, 2014 Nice tank great job what is the sump dimensions I like the way you done it. Link to comment
dmasterx1x Posted March 20, 2014 Author Share Posted March 20, 2014 Nice tank great job what is the sump dimensions I like the way you done it. The outside dimensions are 16"w x10"l x 11"h. The refugium is 7" wide New golden torch. I've been waiting forever to get one of these. Still small but its opening up more and more everyday. New video. The tank will look a bit differently soon. I'm going to be building a 4gallon pico for all the zoas and palys in this one. Seems like the euphyllias are going to cover up everything soon. link to new build: http://www.nano-reef.com/topic/343352-daves-4ish-gallon-diy-pico/ Link to comment
dmasterx1x Posted March 25, 2014 Author Share Posted March 25, 2014 got a cheap macro lens from Ebay for my HTC One. Here's some experiments with it. The biggest bummer is that it only focuses on objects that are about 1.5" from the lens, so i can't get anything from the middle of the tank. Link to comment
Reefkid88 Posted March 27, 2014 Share Posted March 27, 2014 Dude,your fluval is sick !!! I've never been a fan of these tanks,but this one is gorgeous !!! Keep up the work :thumbsup: !! Link to comment
Cameron6796 Posted March 28, 2014 Share Posted March 28, 2014 Lol love euphylia!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Do that tree idea from that other thread Link to comment
dmasterx1x Posted March 28, 2014 Author Share Posted March 28, 2014 Lol love euphylia!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Do that tree idea from that other thread Just trying to wrap my head around how i would go about making a tree structure. Not too many cylindrical or branch like rocks out there, at least at a good price. Link to comment
xiaoxiy Posted March 28, 2014 Share Posted March 28, 2014 Just trying to wrap my head around how i would go about making a tree structure. Not too many cylindrical or branch like rocks out there, at least at a good price. I plan on breaking my LR into rubble and using epoxy+superglue to form my bonsai tree. Furthermore, my rock's form is going to be based off of a bonsai tree I like. Link to comment
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