Quick introduction: I got my feet wet 15 years ago with a 50 gal FOWLR tank and Bob Fenner's book on reef-keeping. I ran that tank for several years, and when I moved to a smaller apartment I moved to a 14 gallon Oceanic BioCube. The BioCube ran for five years, until I gave it to my parents. Sadly, the tank melted down last year due to a faulty heater. It's been several years since I've kept a nano tank myself.
Last week, my wife and I saw a Fluval Edge 12g at a LFS and fell in love. We've got a small place, and the footprint was just right for our living room. We initially planned to start it as a planted FW tank, and then I found all of my old reef-keeping equipment and starting a new reef tank became irresistible.
As you can see, we've got a blank slate. LR is looking pretty barren - came from a local guy shutting down his 200g reef tank, but I hope to encourage whatever coralline algae there is to grow. I forgot how dusty the aragonite could be, and failed to wash it before adding it to the tank.. and of course started a dust storm worthy of Mars. Filter floss in the HOB filter took care of that after a few hours.
I'm thinking about cutting the rim of the plastic lip to create an overflow, and construct a plexi overflow box that I can hide inside of the stock (plastic) stand.
I scavenged a 32w Rapid CREE LED upgrade kit from the old BioCube and its protein skimmer. Hopefully I can integrate those into the build over the coming weeks too. I'm in no rush, and I'm just excited to be back in the hobby after so many years.
