Mik's Reef: Fluval Edge 2 w/ Marine Pac 3

[mookz83]

Hi Nano-Reef!

Long time lurker, first time poster.

This is my first ever fish tank and I thought it would be a good idea to document it and get some tips from you guys.

A little background on me. I grew up in Sydney, Australia but for the past year I have been living in Macau (China) for work as an engineer building the new mega casinos. Its been good because Macau is only 2 hours to the Philippines (where I was born).

The Philippines is my favourite place to go on vacation because of the quality of snorkelling and diving on the islands coral reefs. I guess this is reason why I've always wanted to start a reef tank, so I can have a slice of the reef in my living room.

Anyway, this project presents a number of challenges.

• I have no car in Macau - every trip to the LFS requires me to jump on a bus or get an Uber (It took me 2 trips to get salt water and RODI from the LFS carrying 2 x 20L containers)
• Speaking of LFS these were REALLY hard to find, I couldn't really google 'Aquarium Store Macau' because everything here is in Chinese. I thought I had to get everything from Hong Kong which is a 1 hour ferry ride away. I managed to find some really cool local stores by simply walking around all the streets and alleyways.
• The tank has to be relatively simple and small and all the gear has to be able to be moved easily as I know I am not going to be here permanently.

Anyways, on to the tank!

I've always loved the clean look and design of Fluval Edges, I was originally going to buy one from Amazon and get it shipped but I thought that would of been risky to get a glass tank shipped from the USA to China so I took a short ferry trip over to Hong Kong.

If you haven't been to Hong Kong, they have this district in Mong Kok called 'Gold Fish Street' and it is quite literally what it sounds like. It is about 2 blocks long and shop after shop is a fish store. It can be quite confronting if you're not used to it, they literally have hundreds (thousands?) of fish in plastic bags that line both sides of the street, hundreds of tiny turtles scrambling around in boxes and shop after shop selling all types of aquarium equipment from tiny fresh water bowls to huge 10ft salt water reef tanks.

For someone like me this place is heaven, you can literally spend a whole day just browsing the stores on this street. They also have some of the best live stock stores I have seen where all they sell is just coral and fish and no equipment.

 

So I managed to find one store that sold a Fluval Edge, I bought it and got the guy to wrap it up for me so I can lug it aboard the ferry back to Macau. Also picked up a Vortech MP10WES, Red Sea Coral Pro Salt and Seachem Stability. This was a mission to get all this on to a ferry on my own.

 

CURRENT TANK SPECS

Start Date: 20/03/2016
Display Tank: Fluval Edge 2 46L
Filter: stock AC20 with stock media
Lighting: stock
Heater: 50W something from China

Flow: VorTech MP10WQD

System Water: RO/DI with Red Sea Coral Pro Salt

Testing: Red Sea Marine Care

Sand: Some Chinese brand aquarium substrate

Rock: 1 custom made Fibonacci inspired Key Largo Dry rock custom made by Ultrabrite LED/Skyscapes, seeded with 2 live rocks from LFS

FUTURE UPGRADES

All In One Module: Saltwater-Conversion Marine Pac 3 (Ordered!)

Filter: Mame Protein Skimmer

Media: Seachem Purigen, Phosguard, Seagel, or MarinePure (?)

Lighting: Nanobox Array

Heater: Eheim Jager 50w

Circulation: Eheim Compact 600

Control: Bluefish

 

I can't wait for this to come!!

[evan127]

Sounds like a cool part of the world! Would love to see some pictures of the local fish stores and your set up!

[mookz83]

So, I've actually been planning this tank for a VERY long time.

 

Back home in Sydney I was always bugging my GF to get one started but she always insisted we wait until we move out to a bigger place, unfortunately she had to move back to Sydney since she couldn't find any work here so I've used this time to plan my tank.

 

INSPIRATION

 

The tank is always going to be a piece of moving art in my living room. I really want it to be artistic and based on nature and what better thing in nature than the Golden Ratio or Fibonacci sequence.

 

I plan on my tanks minimal aquascape to be based on a Fibonacci spiral/ratio.

 

I found some cool 3D models of Fibonacci spirals on the Sketchup Warehouse and thought that would make great rock work.

 

 

So I made a 3D diagram of the tank and rock aquascape and sent it the guys at Ultrabrite LED who also make custom rock work.

 

 

OTHER TANK INSPIRATIONS

 

These 2 are my favourite tanks/aquascapes of all time and will be basing my tank on these.

 

The goal is to be minimal rockwork based on a the Golden Ratio and use of negative space.

 

[mookz83]

Sounds like a cool part of the world! Would love to see some pictures of the local fish stores and your set up!

 

Here is one local store in Macau I just happened to stumble upon, it is down a super narrow alley that you can't even fit a car. If you don't know, the Macau Peninsula is the most densely populated place in the world and is full of cool secret alleyways like this.

 

 

You can just see the Clownfish sign down the alleyway and the blue lights radiating from the store. It was the blue lights that told me there was an aquarium store down there!

[evan127]

That's so cool! I'd love to visit a place like that. Those tanks you listed as your inspiration are some of my favorite aquascapes

[mookz83]

So I guess I better show some pictures of my tank!

 

The guys at Ultrabrite LED/Skyscapes did a real good job considering the odd shape of rock I requested.

I chose a high design for the rock as it suits the tall tank shape. The 2 pieces of live rock on the left were from the LFS, hopefully there is enough stuff on there to seed my dry rock, I chose a piece that had heaps of Coraline algae on it

 

RHS shot, they managed to get that cool spiral shape that starts at the back and ends in the front, should provide me with plenty of room to stack corals.

 

LHS shot, managed to build a little cave/tunnel for fish to hide.

 

 

Looking straight down through the glass, hopefully I have enough room and shelves to put some coral! I didn't really intend on having 2 separate bommies, but I think it really worked out. I've also got a cool little 'valley' for the fish to swim between

 

3/4 shot. Still managed to get the spiral and fibonacci ratio shape sort of thing going

 

 

Tank in situ in my living room. I can't wait to get the Marine Pac 3 so I can hide all the equipment. I cant stand seeing cables and equipment. That's the engineer in me.

 

So the tank is void of any life right now since I just filled it 4 days ago and put the live rock in, this is going to be a long wait since most of the rock is dry and is getting seeded from a little bit of live rock.

 

Any tips on speeding up my cycle?

[evan127]

So cool! Wow!

[mookz83]

Stocking Plans

 

FISH

 

I definitely want to get a Goby and Shrimp pair.

 

When I was snorkelling in the Philippines last year in Coron, Palawan (Voted the best island in the world!) I was swimming up to the beach to eat lunch and noticed the sand was moving and saw a Goby and Shrimp pair! I must of watched them do their thing for 30 minutes the poor shrimp was continually sifting sand out of his hole. I thought how cool it was to see some in the wild, I then looked around and noticed more sand was moving and there must of been at least a dozen Shrimp and Goby pairs in the area I was in.

 

Anyway, is this a good choice for a first time fish?

 

CORAL

 

I love movement in a tank so definitely want a bunch of LPS hammers, torches and elegance.

Although I'm going to be waiting a while for my light to be delivered so these will have to wait.

 

Can anyone tell me if I can have any low light demanding corals with just the stock Fluval Edge LED?

 

Will I be able to keep any kind of Zoa's, mushrooms or even a GSP?

[WhiteWulfe]

Wooohoooo, another Fluval Edge II going up.... They're definitely a gorgeous tank, and I very much so like where you're going with this one!

[pgrVII]

Beautiful tank and what an adventure getting it together!

[mookz83]

It has been 2 weeks since I got the tank wet and the levels seem good after a few water changes.

 

Ammonia = 0

Nitrite = 0

Nitrate = 20ppm ish

 

Went out bought some of my first stock today.

 

- Picasso Clown

- Cleaner Shrimp

- Peppermint Shrimp

 

Will post pics later

[Rob3188]

So what's the experience been like with the marine pack 3. I've been looking all ove for it, it doesn't seem to exist anymore 😞