Fuval Edge - 6 Gallon

[stillsyncing]

I'm new to aquariums (both fresh and saltwater), and new to nano reef-ing, however I have done quite a bit of research, as I'm not going to be taking this hobby lightly. After much consideration, I went out and purchased a 6 Gallon Fluval Edge, and while I've read many opinions that this tank is not ideal for beginners, I decided to take the plunge. It's stylish, nice and small, and allows for an awesome viewing experience.

 

 

Anyway, as of right now I've got the live sand in (pure white argonite), the saltwater all mixed (don't recall the brand at the moment, but it's specifically for reefs), the pump set up (Koralia Nano 240), and pretty much everything else all purchased, just waiting on my live rock to arrive (a combination of Fiji, Branch, Marshall, and Carribean).

 

 

 

 

While I'm getting the cycling process going, I figure it's time to decide on a cleanup crew (though I know, this won't be added for a while).

 

Amidst all the research and forum browsing, I figured it would be helpful to ask outright: what would be a good setup for a small tank like this?

 

Currently I'm thinking I'll have one Emerald Crab, an Electric Blue Hermit Crab, and a Scarlet Skunk Cleaner Shrime (or Peppermint Shrimp, or Blood Red Fire Shrimp). I don't know what kind of snails to put in here, so any advice on that would be wonderful. And I've yet decided on what kind of fish to put in this thing, but I realize it will be only one small fish, or two at the absolute most. Any recommendations on this would be helpful as well. Originally I wanted a Mandarin Goby very badly, but I read that they should be avoided in nano reefs, so that one's out. I very much like the Green Banded Goby - does anyone know how this guy would do in such a small tank?

 

Anyway, I'm glad to now be a member of this forum, and I will be actively browsing/commenting and eventually starting a post to follow the progress of my first nano reef. Thank you all very much in advance, and if I've said anything horribly wrong or planned anything incorrectly, I hope you'll help me out

[fretfreak13]

Welcome to the hobby and to NR! Its expensive, but its worth it. You seem to know what you're doing already and have done your reading, good for you! Its will save you time, money, and lives in the long run.

 

Your CUC can vary depending on what you're trying to keep. Different snails do different things. Some are detritavores and will clean up extra food (good if you have fish), and others are purely veg-heads and will take out algae for you. A green banded goby would be a wonderful choice for this tank!

 

Reefcleaners.com is where most of us get our critters from for our CUCs. I'd get some nassarius snails, dwarf cerith snails, and a turbo snail or two, but thats just my opinion. Some people don't like hermit crabs because they are known to kill your snails for their shells when theirs get too small, but I love them.

[fwadiver]

Wouldnt worry about a cleanup crew until you get the tank cycled with live rock. ditto on reefcleaners when you are ready, even though i have hermits I would caution against crabs in general, they are fun to watch, but i'm finding them more of a pain in the ass than they are worth. Do you plan on keeping corals as well or just fish? i'd check out intank for a media basket for the filter. I've been considering one of these tanks for a desktop mushroom and sexy shrimp setup. A mandarin wouldn't be out of the question, but you either need to be prepared to train it to eat frozen foods, or prepared to breed live foods to restock a small tank as it will wipe out the pod population pretty quick.

[Mstefa1]

Welcome to the forum! How do you plan on lighting this tank? That will determine what corals you can keep.

[stillsyncing]

Many thanks, fretfreak13! I'll add those to my list, and I'm thrilled to hear the green banded goby would be fitting.

 

I do plan on working with live coral, but so far I have more research to do on that subject. As for the lighting, this is currently fitted with "bright white 7600K high liuminosity LED's with 3 deep blue night-time light LED's." It's the stock lighting system (though from what I've seen, older models of the Fluval Edge 6 Gallon have featured terrible lighting), so if I need to upgrade that I certainly can. If an upgrade would be beneficial or required, do you have any recommendations?

 

After posting this thread I did a bit more research on the Mandarin Goby and it seems you're right, it's doable but it requires training and whatnot. Being new to NR, I'll probably just play it safe and avoid this fish for now, at least until I'm more familiar with everything.

 

Right now I just have the stock media basket, which contains a foam filter, Biomax pack, and a carbon & clean renewal kit. Truthfully I assumed these would work just fine for the tank, but I see that some people have opted to use this: AquaClear 20 Media Basket

 

Thank you all for your responses I'm reading up on as much as I can, as to not bombard this thread with questions that have been answered elsewhere.

[Mstefa1]

Loose the foam. Think disposable floss or filter padding.

 

7.6k lighting is good for freshwater. Probably good for a planted tank too. In a marine setup you will be growing algae with that light, not coral. 14k is where you want to be. It doesn't have the correct spectrum or intensity. See how white it looks? It should look blue. Not busting your bubble... Just being serious. More research is warranted.

[stillsyncing]

Loose the foam. Think disposable floss or filter padding.

 

7.6k lighting is good for freshwater. Probably good for a planted tank too. In a marine setup you will be growing algae with that light, not coral. 14k is where you want to be. It doesn't have the correct spectrum or intensity. See how white it looks? It should look blue. Not busting your bubble... Just being serious. More research is warranted.

 

Many thanks for this - I've heard good things about the PURA Filtration Pad, so I'll probably go ahead and order a few of those.

 

As for the lighting, I very much appreciate your pointing that out. That part must have slipped by my radar, so I'll certainly have to read up and decide on an upgraded lighting system. The hood of this tank is pretty inconvenient when it comes to lighting upgrades, so I'll browse and see what other owners of this tank are using.

[dxmaster]

Welcome to the 6 Gallon Fluval club.

 

The stock LEDs are pretty much garbage. You've got time while your tank cycles to decide on what to do. There are not a lot of upgrade options for the edge if you like to keep the hood on. You can go the DIY route and make something sorta fit or do what I did and just take the hood off and toss on an AI Nano. The media basket is awesome and is so much better than the stock one that comes with the AC20. I run filter floss and chemipure elite in mine only.

 

As far as CUC goes, I've got hermits and astrea snails in mine as well as some somatella (sp?) hitchhikers that showed up one day.

 

Theres a bunch of edge's on NR that are awesome, you should look around.

[fretfreak13]

I've never seen an edge out of the box so I have no idea how these would work for you, if they would at all, but I recommend this list of lights to all newcomers with teeny tanks.

 

I run the eco sun lamp on mine. Will be upgrading to that elegant eventually.

[stillsyncing]

Yeah I have most of the other Edge threads bookmarked and have learned a great deal from them, and already I have a very good idea of what else I need to do to prepare my tank and plan for in the future. The lighting definitely seems to be the crippling flaw of this tank, and every one I've ever seen features some sort of DIY setup, so I'll have to take that route. Currently I'm in contact with a guy who sells custom lighting kits for the Edge, and while the whole thing is pretty pricey ($160), I'm leaning toward that above all else. It puts out 12,000K and has some other nice features, like separate power lines so a timer can be set up to automatically switch from day to moonlight settings.

 

My biggest concern is that I don't want to have a lot of trial-and-error with this hobby, seeing as it isn't cheap, and it would be relatively easy to kill the entire tank after months/years of work. Hopefully once I (finally) get my live rock and things really up and running, I'll be able to start up a thread about my tank and really become a part of the community on this site. Everyone has been very helpful, and I'm greatly appreciative

[Mstefa1]

You do realize that those off the shelf tanks you buy at a LFS were never intended to support a reef tank, right? That's why there are tanks like the Red Sea Max, Biocube, or in my case... The older Aquapod. And even with these tanks we always feel the need to mod them. Sometimes the tank is deficient in some area... Sometimes our instinct to mod / tinker takes over.

 

Either way, you couldn't expect a $100 tank that you can find at any LFS to support a reef tank. Heck, my light alone cost $300 when I purchased it. And the $400 chiller to go with it... I personally think your going to struggle with something so small. It will be very hard maintaining your water parms assuming you even know what your testing for. Larger water volume = more stable conditions.

[fwadiver]

My biggest concern is that I don't want to have a lot of trial-and-error with this hobby, seeing as it isn't cheap, and it would be relatively easy to kill the entire tank after months/years of work.

 

yeah... good luck with that, not to be too cynical but there is no such thing as no trial and error, look at my tank thread, I was certain i would never want a sump, went all hob.... long story short I now have a sump and just bought a second tank to drill for an overflow so i can ditch the siphon overflow. Unfortunately there is no cookie cutter model... each reef tank tends to be a little unique and as such there is always trial and error (and wasted money) involved. Everyone is going to have a different opinion on what works and what they prefer. And likely your needs will change as you learn more about the hobby and figure out what livestock you are most interested in.

 

Also be prepared to setup a second tank to quarantine livestock... wait 2 tanks, one for inverts and one for fish (inverts are intolerant of the medicines you use to treat fish). You can try and skip that, but will likely regret it later, certainly one of my biggest regrets is I thought I could get by without qt fish and had ich wipe out my whole tank, then started qt fish but not coral and got monti eating nudis which wiped out another few $100 in livestock.

 

 

As far as lighting, if it were me (and if i get one of these this is what i'll do) i would buy the led parts myself and do something similar to what is shown in this thread:

 

http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/showthread.php?t=167890

 

while that is for a planted tank and the led mix they are using isn't appropriate for a reef tank, they way in which they modded the hood is what is helpful. as far as led mix the standard is 2 royal blue to 1 neutral white, but number and mixing in some of the 'exotic' colors depends on your preferences and what you want to keep. For me I would get 1x OCW 2x 3up stars and 2x true violets and plan on dimming them way down, or possibly even running them off a 350ma driver

[Mstefa1]

haha, your already in the trial and error phase because as I mentioned before, you would have researched before you purchased the Fluval. No worries, you can make it work but it will take a lot of work. Probably why you read that it's not ideal for beginners.

 

I'd recommend someone entering the hobby to either:

 

a) research, research, & research prior to purchasing...

or if they can't resist, purchase "REEF READY" AIO (all in one) tank.

 

At least with an AIO, you could have a very stable tank & keep a wide range of corals. Personally, I think a Biocube 29 HQI is a sexy option. http://www.marinedepot.com/Oceanic_29_Gall...IAQNCTS-vi.html

Or if your made of money then a Red Sea Max is a wonderful option.

 

Let's say that you spend a lot of money on your 6 gallon and really get into it. You will outgrow it in a few months of stocking. I'd think that most people that want a reef tank that small are using it as a display tank for a very specific display. And just because it is smaller doesn't mean it is that much cheaper. Your still going to spend a lot on your lighting.