Fluval Edge after 1 Year
 

Hey Everyone,

So like alot of people last year I saw a shiny new fluval edge tank at the pet store and thought it looked awesome. I was never a big fan of freshwater fish though and figured why not make a saltwater tank instead. At that time I knew absolutely nothing about saltwater reefing at all. with the help of nano-reef.com and canreef though knowing nothing wasn't a problem as anything I wanted to know about reefing and small tanks in general was available at those sites.

Here is the first FTS with just stock lighting and live rock in it.

http://i1206.photobucket.com/albums/...y/IMG_5608.jpg

Now that I had the tank cycling I had all kinds of time to read up on keeping fish and coral in a small tank. One of the biggest downfalls to the edge(among many) is the stock lighting. Enter the world of LEDs. LEDs are really the only way to light this tank effectively to keep whatever you want in the tank. LEDs are awesome in that you have full control over the light spectrum if you use dimmable drivers, they are compact, and don't direct much heat into the tank.

Here is a shot of my fixture with 10 3watt cree's 5 Royal blue and 5 Cool white and a 92mm low RPM fan for cooling. This all fits perfectly under the stock hood.

http://i1206.photobucket.com/albums/...y/IMG_5657.jpg

http://i1206.photobucket.com/albums/...y/IMG_5668.jpg

Here is a shot of the tank with the LEDs running. I can't remember if this was blue both blues and whites on or just the blues, but I tend to keep my tank more toward the blue range.

http://i1206.photobucket.com/albums/...y/IMG_5672.jpg

Being a complete noob I started with easy to keep coral. My first frag was a fuzzy brown mushroom, followed by a patch of GSP, then a few zoas.

http://i1206.photobucket.com/albums/...y/IMG_5714.jpg


Fast forward about 9 months.

http://i1206.photobucket.com/albums/...y/IMG_7568.jpg

http://i1206.photobucket.com/albums/...y/IMG_7567.jpg

I do have SPS in the tank, but I find them the most challenging to deal with in the Edge because they need to be directly under the LEDs to get enough light, but that is also the only way to get into the tank. I find that I'm always knocking them, breaking bits off, or having to move them out of the way to get my hand into the tank. My plan is to not really add much more SPS than what I have now.

http://i1206.photobucket.com/albums/...IMG_7578-1.jpg

http://i1206.photobucket.com/albums/...y/IMG_7580.jpg

http://i1206.photobucket.com/albums/...y/IMG_7581.jpg

And finally here is a full tank shot taken today.

http://i1206.photobucket.com/albums/...y/IMG_7576.jpg

Very nice nano build. I was planning on building a LED light for my fluval edge as well. Keep up the good work!