The beginnings of a new Fluval Edge II 12g Nano Reef

[chrisreef]

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.

[DKoKoMan]

Glad to see you have interest in the hobby and have made it a reality again. I also noticed your in Edmonton . What are your plans for live stock and corals? I wouldn’t sweat coralline algae as you can easily seed it from a frag with some on the plug, a piece of LR rubble etc.

I love the look of a fresh sand bed before diatoms hit

[chrisreef]

Thanks for the warm welcome!

I'm really open to suggestions for stocking the tank. My wife loves clowns, a percula clown with some kind of BTA might be nice for her. I'm a big fan of zoanthids and polyps myself, so I'd like to get a few tiny frags to get those started at some point.

Thanks for the advice re: seeding algae! I'll give that a try for sure.

Ha. I have many, many memories of my first diatom bloom and the months I spent trying to get it back under control...