Low maintenance Fluval Edge 46 litre

[George Farmer]

Hi all,

I set this up for a work colleague 5 weeks ago. It's doing really well with minimal crypt melt and zero algae.

Plants are various crypts, including some immature balansae in the background. Also some narrow Microsorum attached to Tropica Aquadecor wood.

Hardscape is Unipac Sumatra Nano Wood, various pebbles and a Unipac Fiji Sand and Tropica Plant Substrate base.

Dosing is 1ml TPN+ and 1ml Easycarbo per day. 1/3 water change per week.

My friend has no previous experience of tropical fish or plants but is doing great keeping this tank in good shape so far. He spends 30 minutes on it per week. It will only require minimal pruning. Should look better in a couple of months once the crypts have matured.

I measured the LED lighting output with a PAR meter and it's very low. Less than 10 at the substrate, almost zero in the corners. Crypt parva is doing ok though.

I'd prefer to see a black filter inlet with the black model.


fluval edge tall by George Farmer, on Flickr


insitu left by George Farmer, on Flickr


insitu right by George Farmer, on Flickr

 

[Iain Sutherland]

Thats a lovely looking little tank george, is it just cardinals that get to enjoy it?
More and more im drawn to slow tech way of life.

 

[George Farmer]

Thats a lovely looking little tank george, is it just cardinals that get to enjoy it?
More and more im drawn to slow tech way of life.

Thanks.

There's 6 Cardinals, 1 baby bristlenose (I'll re-home it when it outgrows). I've recommended a shoal of Ember tetras next. Should work well.

I forgot to mention there's a heater in there too.

 

[logi-cat]

i have no experience with fluval edge's, but would it be possible to put the heater in the filter compartment?

 

[darren636]

this is very nice to look at. Pleasing. Embers would be preferable , i feel.

 

[NeilW]

Pretty impressive George. It would be great to do this kind of setup for my Dad as he's pretty hopeless with maintenance and low tech would definitely be a good option. I like the idea of no evaporation on the Fluval Edge tanks. Do you think it would be possible to create a similar setup but without the EasyCarbo and TPN?

 

[BigTom]

Do you think it would be possible to create a similar setup but without the EasyCarbo and TPN?

Yeah, easily. As long as you've got some sort of nutrient capacity in the substrate to kick things off it should be fine. Growth will be slow enough that you shouldn't encounter any serious deficiencies for a long time. I've got several low tech nanos running without ferts (except for whats in the ADA Aquasoil), and they're growing all kinds of things happily.

PS, lovely looking tank George. I ripped out about half the plant mass from my completely overgrown P@H cube last night and it looks remarkably similar to what you've down here, except with HG and Lileaopsis instead of crypts.

 

[Seagull]

Looks great - don't think I've seen an edge scaped so well before

 

[dw1305]

Hi all,
I've never really thought much of these, but this one looks really good. I now have a vision of one of these half filled with water, with a similar planting + some floaters, some emergents and a pair of Trichopsis pumila. Would the filter still work?

cheers Darrel

 

[George Farmer]

Hi all,
I've never really thought much of these, but this one looks really good. I now have a vision of one of these half filled with water, with a similar planting + some floaters, some emergents and a pair of Trichopsis pumila. Would the filter still work?

cheers Darrel

Nice idea.

Yes, the filter would work providing the inlet is submerged. It's a traditional hang-on-back filter.

 

[Sentral]

Very well scaped, especially taking into account the low lighting.

I've always liked the design of the edge but they get a lot of hate from fish keepers due to the smaller surface area; but I don't think it's an issue in a planted tank. I wasn't aware these were LED though. Probably easy enough to upgrade if one wishes.

Good work