The official EDGE thread

[BrokeCurmudgeon]

I have been disappointed with one aspect of my Edge. Not enough surface area to allow for a good oxygen transfer to the water. I had replace the Edge filter with a Ehiem Ecco 2232 canister filter. I had noticed that the fish seemed to lack oxygen, mostly at night, because they were always at the surface. To solve this I place an airstone to agitate the surface. All went well until yesterday. I didn't like the moisture on the led lights because of the bubbles so, not thinking, I turned off the air pump. This morning I find two of my prided corydoras habrosus dead with two of my nicest male guppies dead. The water parameters were all good. I did a fifty percent water change and turned on the bubble machine and now the remaining fish seem OK. Thoughts?

Also, the blue led's on the Fluval light fixture stopped working after four months. All I can say is that Hagen (Fluval) is super easy to work with! They replaced my lights without any problem. Great customer service!

[NickS]

Apologies if this is the wrong place for this question but I'm looking at getting the Edge 12 Gallon and I want to see if you guys think this table would support the weight:

http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/80176279/

It's made of pine. I have the TV unit of the same style and it's pretty sturdy. I thought if the table seemed a little weak for the 12 Gallon (~125lbs), I could put a backer of thin plywood to add support.

Thoughts?

[ryguy76]

We a 12G Tank with 12G of actual water in it will weigh 100lbs in water alone. the tank itself and accessories, you'll be looking at another 40lbs. You'll substitute some of the 12G with subtrate, which will weigh about 20lbs for that size edge, mind you that displaces some water. I would expect that whatever decorations you place in the tank would offset the water weight similarly on average, unless you go ALL rock. So I think 160lbs is a good potential prediction of total weight.

The Ikea shelf says 33lbs/shelf on their site. If we use the middle 2 sections, which yields 4 compartments and the top shelf, I would assume that you could do 4x33lbs=132lbs, plus the top shelf which should do twice the weight of 33lbs in that section (66+132=198lbs).

I would say based on that info that you "should" be safe. I would minimize load on other areas of the unit and avoid using the middle compartments for anything other than light supplies like fish food, ferts etc.

Hope this helps.

Ryan

[ryguy76]

Hi,

I thought I'd share my new Edge that is currently cycling with some plants. I was completely underwhelmed with the stock LED lighting, so I read every page of this thread and decided to build a DIY lightbar with "superbrighleds" using an idea that another member had for the fixture. I went to home depot and bought an aluminum L channel.


Then mitre cut the aluminum with a dremel and a cutoff disc. (I remembered reading that the hood was actually not square and wider at one end. I accounted for this and made the narrower end the front, so the mitre cuts ended up being slightly wider than 90 degrees from each other. Then I used JB weld to join the 3 parts.


I bought 3/4" aluminum square bar too and cut that into three to make a lighting support/heatsink for the LED's, and JB welded those 3 pieces together and affixed the LED's with their adhesive backing. I drilled a hole to feed the LED leads into the square bar.



Then I sanded, spray painted it black and clear-coated the outer L shaped fixture.


Then, it was just a matter of welding the lightbar into the L channel fixture.


I had planned on having the Light strip hug all sides of the stock hood, but I found the light coverage is much better at the front by pulling it out a bit, and I don't hate the look, so it's staying as is now. Here's my freshly planted tank with the added DIY lightbar.

[Matt1977]

Originally Posted by BrokeCurmudgeon

I have been disappointed with one aspect of my Edge. Not enough surface area to allow for a good oxygen transfer to the water. I had replace the Edge filter with a Ehiem Ecco 2232 canister filter. I had noticed that the fish seemed to lack oxygen, mostly at night, because they were always at the surface. To solve this I place an airstone to agitate the surface. All went well until yesterday. I didn't like the moisture on the led lights because of the bubbles so, not thinking, I turned off the air pump. This morning I find two of my prided corydoras habrosus dead with two of my nicest male guppies dead. The water parameters were all good. I did a fifty percent water change and turned on the bubble machine and now the remaining fish seem OK. Thoughts?

Also, the blue led's on the Fluval light fixture stopped working after four months. All I can say is that Hagen (Fluval) is super easy to work with! They replaced my lights without any problem. Great customer service!

HI Mate,

Check out my Journal on my Edge build. I changed the filter into a canister filter and was concerned about O2 levels in the water as well. So I used the HOB as a water cascading unit : http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/sh...d.php?t=195794

[Matt1977]

Hi All,

This is my 6 month old edge... I just did a major clean (excluding the glass intake) and re-scape. Still all low tech.

[shift]

its looking good!

[plantedfluvaledge]

Just stocked my (cycled) 6g Fluval edge with 5 Celestial Pearl Danios, and 5 Sundadanio Axelrodi 'blue's as well as 3 Red Cherry Shrimp and a random snail that appeared while I was cycling.

So far so good with water parameters, but it's early days. Has anyone had any experience stocking the Fluval Edge with tiny fish like these? I would like to wait and see how the tank settles, then add a few more Sundadanios to bring it up to 7 or 8 (they seem a little skitty with only 5) but I'm worried it might be a bit too much for the biological filter. Also - are Hikari micropellets fine for these fish, or should I be looking at something more involved like baby brine shrimp or frozen things?

Any advice is much appreciated! Pic attached.

[shift]

I feed my cpd's crushed up flakes and frozen food, microworms or bbs to mix it up once in a while

[carpenoctem]

Here's a tank I just recently set up for my sister.



It was cycling with nothing in it for a week or so before I added some plants. Hopefully the diatoms start to clear up soon. I'm planning to change up the plants and scape and eventually get it low maintenance/low light. Progress on it is hampered by having to bring out the bucket and siphon whenever I want to stick my hands in to change something, so most of the time I put it off.

[BrokeCurmudgeon]

Question: I have several of the LED's that came with my 46l Edge that have gone bad. Does anyone know what type of LED they are? I want to replace them. Thanks!

[postskunk]

Does anyone have suggestions for where to get the socket/fixture thats compatible with the "Fluvial Edge 10,000K LEDs" So I can Make a DIY rig for my 12gal Edge?

It's probably been discussed somewhere in the thread and I apologize if it's already been answered and I missed it.

I have the built in LED bar model, and I bought them the other day not realizing they were only compatible with the halogen model? and now that I have them, I thought I would cut back the arms on the LED bar that came with it and make space for the 2 bulbs for extra lighting.... if I can find and rig, the fixture for them?

thanks for the help
-Matt

[Mxx]

Originally Posted by Matt1977

HI Mate,

Check out my Journal on my Edge build. I changed the filter into a canister filter and was concerned about O2 levels in the water as well. So I used the HOB as a water cascading unit : http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/sh...d.php?t=195794

I mounted canister filter hose intakes and returns to the bottom of the hang-on-back, effectively piggybacking onto it. However, I have quite a large canister filter, (Fluval 305), and I'm concerned that the low oxygen levels have been detrimental to my system. I've had unexplained losses which may be as a result of pathogens benefitting from low O2. I believe it has increased my water temperature as well, (unless that is due instead to my light mods), and it's usually around 80-85 degrees which doesn't help O2 levels either. I upgraded to a 500 series larger impeller for the hang-on-back filter, which seems a little noiser but doesn't seem to have made a huge difference in the current, (too many plants in the way perhaps).

[Mxx]

Originally Posted by ryguy76

Hi,

I thought I'd share my new Edge that is currently cycling with some plants. I was completely underwhelmed with the stock LED lighting, so I read every page of this thread and decided to build a DIY lightbar with "superbrighleds" using an idea that another member had for the fixture. I went to home depot and bought an aluminum L channel.

Great light mod. I've been working on doing a similar thing. Does the JB weld sufficiently hold the mitered aluminum angles together though?

I'm also curious, why did you use both the angle and square sections? Could you not have mounted the LED's directly onto the angles? Or used C channels even? That's what I'm using and I've painted them already but haven't mounted the chips and wires.

[ryguy76]

Originally Posted by Mxx

Great light mod. I've been working on doing a similar thing. Does the JB weld sufficiently hold the mitered aluminum angles together though?

I'm also curious, why did you use both the angle and square sections? Could you not have mounted the LED's directly onto the angles? Or used C channels even? That's what I'm using and I've painted them already but haven't mounted the chips and wires.

Thanks! So far, the JB has held up well, but I am careful when handling it, so I can't testify to how much strength it actually has. It seems very sturdy though.

I had planned on just using the L channel alone, but then I didn't like that the light strip was going to be so recessed from the glass, and the forward projection of the light was going to be limited by the front face of the L channel.

The square channel was just the right size to bring the light strip almost perfectly flush with the bottom edge of the L channel, which would allow for the best light spread. Plus, the square channel also acts as a heatsink, which I thought would minimize the any chance of heat related paint bubbling, etc.

I don't have a way to measure the difference of light output over the stock lighting, but it's HUGE. I would safely say at LEAST 4-5x brighter with better coverage.

The only thing I would do differently, is to build a wider U, as I like the coverage much better with it pulled out 1.5". If I built it 1.5" out from the sides too, that would have been best.