Ultimate Fluval Edge

[bmxrideordie]

 

I have always wanted to start a saltwater aquarium but wanted a smaller sized tank. When I saw the Fluval Edge at petland it seemed as though the heavens had made the tank just for me with a cruel twist. Out of the box the tank would need some major overhauling in order to make it into a successful reef tank. So I started where pretty much anyone would start...lighting. I threw out the stock hood and rebuilt it using stainless steel and made it just a little bigger so I could fit better lights in. The hood is now 10"x10"x1/2" taller. The bulbs That I ordered for the hood are two 18w 50/50 9" coralife compact fluorescents, and 3 MR-16 leds. I was able to squeeze a 3rd bulb between the two stock MR-11 sockets. I have attached pics of these lights. For the coralife bulbs in the pic it says 12" thats the size of the fixture. I will be gutting the fixture and mounting the bulbs in the hood I built. I ordered those bulbs about a week ago so they should arrive in a month to a month and a half. I have also glued 2 super white led strips around the lip of the Fluval Edge. One strip is on the inside one is one the outside. Both strips are water proof so no worries with electrical issues. All together this will provide me with exactly 10 watts of light per gallon. So I will be able to have pretty much anything I want in the tank.

As for filtration I think what I have done with my tank is truly unique. I simply drilled a 3/4" hole in the lip allowing the tank to act as its own overflow. This allows me to raise my total water capacity to 16 gallons most likely closer to between 14-15 after the displacement of the sand rock and what little life I have in my tank for now. In my refugium I have an oceanic protein skimmer, a fluval 5 stage filter, a fluval 20 gallon heater, and a purigen nitrate amonia filter. So as you can imagine my water quality is almost never an issue. Best of all it allows me to access the tank any time I want without having to drain it a little first. If you have a fluval edge Im sure you know that if you want to do anything with the setup you pretty much have to drain it a little first otherwise it will overflow when you put for your hand in the tank. I dont have to worry about that in the least. This comes in really handy when I want to add new things to the tank or rearrange the tank.

Now I will say there were a few problems I ran into with this setup. 1st I came home from my girlfriends house one morning only to find one of my snails blocking the drain which in turn caused the tank to actually overflow totally draining my refugium. So what I did to make sure that doesnt happen again was took a 8 small pieces of plastic and glued them together to make a little cage and glued it over the drain. This provides plenty of water flow while keeping any of my creatures from blocking the drain. The next morning sure enough the snail had found his way back to the drain only this time he was unable to block it. The next problem I ran into was what would happen if the power failed. I needed to figure out how to keep the tank from back siphoning and overflowing the refugium. After about 3 hours and lots of head scratching I found my solution and when I did I couldnt help but feel a little stupid for not figuring it out sooner. I went to home depot and picked up 2 check valves and a shut off valve. A check valve is a one way valve that only allows water to flow in one direction, so if the power did fail these valves would stop the tank from back siphoning. I added the shut off valve just in case either one of the check valves should happen to fail I will still have a method of stopping the water flow. I have posted pics of these as well.

As for what I have in the tank right now not much as you can tell Ive spent most of my limited budget just modifying the tank, but now that all my mods are done and running flawlessly I can start investing in some bad ass corals. I have also posted a pic of what I currently have in the tank. Two feather dusters one red one purple. candy cane frag, recordia mushroom, various polyps, red velvet mushroom, green stripped mushroom (not actually sure what it is), 3 blue legged hermits 3 turbo snails 2 clown fish 1 pink tip white sebae anemone and 1 kenya tree frag.

[senoufo]

Very nice craftmenship on the hood.

[reeftankguy]

Ultimate and Extreme…lol… Nice work!

[bmxrideordie]

Ty. As soon as I can Im going to post some pics of the finished product. I just have to paint it and mount the lights when they arrive.

[Kolohe_Reef]

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[bmxrideordie]

I forgot to post the pic of the MR-16 leds Ive ordered

[reeftankguy]

Those LEDs are all white... Where is your actinic spectrum coming from?

[bmxrideordie]

From the 2 18w 5050 compact fluorescents. I did think about getting two of those white leds and 1 royal blue. The manufacturer makes the same leds in warm white, white, and royal blue

[googoomas]

Best looking, thought out and pimped out edge I have seen yet. Great job with the tank and good luck!

[aaron86]

swap out the 50/50 for straight acts

[bmxrideordie]

I should have stated this to begin with but this is my very first saltwater aquarium. I know the purpose of actinic and of the 10k. That being said I know that its best to have a full spectrum of light in any aquarium not just saltwater. So why would I want to swap the 5050 for only actinic?

[dstruong]

looks like my hood version 2.0. Very nice...

[bmxrideordie]

ya it does look very similar. Dude you have to see what I did to my filter. I think you will love it. Im gonna be posting pics in the next couple of days.