[Briz]

Picked up a Fluval Edge 6 gallon with LEDs from Petsmart on clearance for ~$75 (and also three Aqueon Evolve 4's at $30, but that will be another story.)

Already dirty from trying different hardscape ideas.

Equipment
Tank: Fluval Edge 6 Gallon
Lighting: Stock LED Lights (plan on modding more)
Substrate: Azoo Plant Grower
Filtration: ZooMed 501 Canister Filter
Heater: Hydor Theo 50w
Fertilizers: Osmocote+ root tablets / Excel / Seachem Flourish

Plants
Crypt Spiralis
Vesuvius
Undulata
Lutea
Ludwigia Arcuata
Ludwigia Repens
Water Sprite
Dwarf Sag
Antler Fern

Inhabitants
x1 Betta
x1 Nerite snail
x3 Otos

Here are my plants on snail watch while I wait for the root tabs to get in. I manually inspected and removed many snail egg clusters from the plants, but there's bound to be a few I missed. I would like to keep the number down as low as possible starting out.

I have some Ludwigia is in its own tank for some BBA control. I am going to dose Excel or spot treat w/ peroxide and perhaps get a temporary black molly to try to knock this stuff out. Don't want that in my new tank!

I'm not sure how I want the hardscape to be. I've got both a large centerpiece driftwood or slender driftwood/rocks prepping while I gather opinions.

Boiling the driftwood

Soaking the sticks

 

[Briz]

Added the Azoo substrate. Found out that my large driftwood piece would not fit without all the height clearance of the tank to work with, but I'm sort of relieved. I liked the driftwood, but it was just a little too big for what I wanted, and it would have taken a lot of water volume from the fish (and floor space for plants!)

Trying some rocks and substrate slope. Also trying my hand at taking terrible pictures. I think I'm doing it right.

No Briz you're doing it wrong


I've come up with a hardscape that I'm really pleased with.

Briz stahp

Next step is putting in the root tabs and planting, but I want to wait for the filter to get in the mail so that I can see how I want to do the outflow. Either tomorrow or Monday according to Amazon.

 

[Briz]

So now that it is dark outside...

 

[Briz]

Planted and flooded the tank last night. I had my fiancée help me with some mods to get the canister filter to sit behind the base tower and have a skimmer connect as the inlet.

Holes cut in the back casing of the base tower so the tubes can sneak through. Dremel, coping saw, and sandpaper used.

Tom Aquatics skimmer and outlet

Planted my plants:
Creeping Jenny
Crypt Spiralis
Vesuvius
Undulata
Anubias Nana
Anubias Nana Narrow Leaf
Lutea

Tank flooded, water cloudy

The creeping jenny was tricky to keep down. The substrate has a lot of air in it, so bubbles keep pushing the plants and getting trapped under the tank glass.

Next morning

The corners are dark as expected, so I tested coverage with a beamworks

I need to trim the taller Creeping Jenny, and I want to move the Lutea from behind the driftwood in the corner. I also need to smooth down the substrate, poke more air up, and a few other tweaks.

 

[Briz]

I changed the scape up a bit. I've still got Ludwigia getting treated for black fuzz algae and some more plants on the way in the mail, but so far it's looking pretty good. I also had that handy fiancée suspended the Beamworks above the back part of the tank.

 

[Briz]

The water was crystal clear today when I got home. Unfortunately I had some new plants arrive in the mail, so I had to muck up the water a bit when adding them.

There is some brown/black dust on the leaves of the current plants, which I presume is either the substrate silt that settled on them, or some new tank algae. It wipes off easily.

Added plants:
Ludwigia Arcuata
Ludwigia Sp. Red
Staurogyne Repens

So far I've only dosed Excel with the initial water fill. I think I'm supposed to wait until the plants get established before adding ferts, or else I'm just helping the algae. Hopefully the root tabs are sufficient for now.

 

[Briz]

So I still have some Ludwigia getting treated for BBA. I tossed a black molly in there after reading that they *may* eat it. Some people said yes, some said no... well, I caught a video of some BBA being eaten.

 

[Briz]

Yes, rescaping is a PITA. I don't know how men with larger arms/hands manage it. I have a hard time with my baby hands!

I was seriously considering using a paintball CO2 for the tank, but I thought of a few problems... the CO2 bubbles would probably somehow get under the glass top, there's already enough concern for O2 in the water, and I'd need to go med/high light. Plant growth might be better, but it would be a lot of work for something that is already a lot of work. I think (hope) my current plants will be fine with daily Excel and the low/med light.

I tried adding a betta to the tank yesterday... it did not go well. It was sort of a quick experiment, so I didn't do it right. I just plopped him in and he panicked. Today I am going to cover the glass top so he can only see light from the opening and watch him closely. He should be able to learn where the opening is there is patience and conditioning.

 

[Briz]

Did a 50% water change in preparation for adding the first inhabitant of the tank - Mr. Bubbles! I thought Mr. B's long red fins would look good with all the greenery, although I had thought he was white-scaled rather than blue-scaled when I saw him at a LFS.

Chilling in his temp tank.

Inspecting me

He's a bit of a spaz, so I made him wait in the net in the water after moving him from the temp tank until he calmed down. I also covered the top glass with black objects to make it a little easier for him to tell where the opening was. Once he was clam(er), I slowly moved the net out from around him until he was floating by himself at the tank's opening.

For the next 30 minutes I sat in front of the tank to make sure he could figure out the top situation. He's not exactly the smartest betta I've ever had, but he was much more calm this time and it helped a ton. He wanted to explore the tank almost immediately, so I'll give him props for curiosity. An hour later he's almost always beelining for the opening when he wants air. Night will prove another test, but I'll be keeping a close eye on him.

Peeking out

Exploring every corner

Water's still a bit cloudy. Perhaps mild bacteria bloom? Or I need to rinse my filter out after the initial dust cloud of starting the tank.

Sitting in front of a tank makes you notice a thin white line wiggling around in the water. Since the system hasn't had any fish food added to it yet, it must have hitched a ride on the plants. Shouldn't become a problem. I will feed Mr. B New Life Spectrum one pellet at a time, and any uneaten will be turkey basted out.

 

[Briz]

Nothing much to report so far. Just posting this so I can remember how it looked with that "new tank melt".

The crypts were hit pretty hard, but they have good roots. Hopeful for their recovery.

In case anyone was worried, Mr. Bubbles did fine his first night and has been enjoying his tank ever since.

Living up to his namesake. This guy really loves making bubble nests.

 

[Briz]

Varmint: I certainly wouldn't recommend anyone new to aquariums or fish in general to try a betta in these tanks. I had to be very careful with introducing him to the environment and make sure he could figure it out. Putting yours in a spec is definitely the easiest and probably best option. Besides, you had an excuse to get more tanks!
I use long steel tweezers and curved scissors to doctor in the tank when it's full. I have been doing water changes daily up until last weekend, so it was easy to mess around while the water was low. When it's full, the tools help keep the water in the tank.

----

Lost a lot of plants to melting, including the anubias. Filled in gaps with water sprite and water wisteria. I didn't want any crazy fast-growing plants like these in this tank since less-maintenance is more, but I need to explore viable plant options. I also took out the wood in the back-right corner since it was falling over and blocking light. I trimmed down the Ludwigia that was being treated for BBA to portions with roots and very little BBA and added them to the tank.

Mr. Bubbles is very happy in his home and gets twice-daily feeding. I have not seen any pest snails whatsoever yet, which is quite pleasing.

I added three nerite snails, but they all stop moving after a couple of days. I have moved them out of the tank before and they became active again, so it must be something about this tank they don't like. Time to stop babying them and see if they pull through.

My LFS got in some olive nerites at my request, but they all had terrible pocketing in the shells. I've got a little cuttlebone in the tank for them, but they haven't found it since they've stopped moving. The tiger nerite was from Petco.

 

[Briz]

Yup, nerites were dead. My zebra one fell out of its shell when I picked it up, eww! The others smelled bad. I should rename this tank to "The Place Where Snails Go to Die"... I wonder if this is why I haven't seen any hitchhiker pest snails (I thought I had simply done a good job picking off egg sacks!). Something about this tank is not right with snails. I tried putting 4 pretty gold/spotted ramshorns in, but lo and behold only one was still moving by the next day, and a smaller one died almost instantly. I moved the possible three survivors to my new snail breeding tank. The betta is doing just fine. I'm keeping snails and shrimp just fine in other tanks, so shouldn't be the water. I'll hold off on snails for a while and see if time can cure this. I'd love to have some nerites.

I'm going to move the wisteria out of the tank once I get some new replacement plants from a user here. Possibly some of the water sprite as well.

Mr. Bubbles doing just fine with his fantastic red fins, and showing off some of the new Creeping Jenny growth in the background. I haven't seem him flare before. I tried to trick him with my phone but he would have none of it.

Wait, do I have two bettas?

You can see the new leaves emerging from the crypts.

 

[Briz]

DefStatic: I would never recommend anyone not experienced with bettas to put one in these tanks. With the removal of the HOB filter, the water isn't being moved very violently at the opening, so he can breath and hang out there with ease. He sleeps between the wall and the surface skimmer.

Varmint: I never saw him give any indication that he acknowledged the snails' existence. Quite possible however.

 

[Briz]

Finally decided to get some seiryu stones. My anubias had all melted to mushy rhizomes, so I took the chance to rescape.

Better pictures to come at nightfall.

I added a mystery plant, looks like some sort of crypt, from Petco to the previous anubias area. My one surviving red ludwigia stem has new growth, although very green. I also added a bronze crypt near the other two. Diatoms are hitting hard on the silicone and in particular the leaves of the Creeping Jenny.

The tank will be moving to a new location since we have a ton of kitchen appliances now (wedding shower) and my fiancee wants its counter space. We think we will put it in the bedroom once our new furniture is in place, since the tank is virtually silent.

 

[Briz]

Yes, that is correct. I think you are right that it may be Golden Jenny, someone else thought so as well. My LFS called it Creeping Jenny so I just went with that. It had really bad melt but I'm seeing some strong new growth, so I'm excited. Eventually I will be able to clean up the plant organization a lot, since right now it's a little all over the place. I wanted stuff to get used to the water before doing anything.

 

[Briz]

Just a general update with better pictures

Some of the worst diatoms. Otos are scarce right now, and not sure how Mr. Bubbles would welcome them. He photo bombed my picture too.

 

[Briz]

Poor Mr. Bubbles is doomed to never have invertebrate friends it seems. I found some amano shrimp at Petco and wanted to see if they could be the algae crew for the Edge.

Well, whatever plagues the snails seems to do it for shrimp as well (no surprise).

Floated their bag for 30 minutes, slowly added water from tank to theirs, after an hour set them free. They all zoomed around before finding the highest spot in the tank to climb as far out of the water as possible.

Mr. B being polite. Shrimp hanging on the heater cord.

One got pushed out of the prime real estate and was in the water the longest. As I watched, he went rigid/stiff and just sank to the bottom. A few legs were still moving.

I quickly rushed him to a different tank, and he immediately perked up and started picking at the driftwood! I swear he did that just to get out of the Edge.
Same shrimp as previous picture

I decided to go ahead and move the remaining 2 amanos as well. Oh well, it was hopeful wishing!

 

[Briz]

Not copper in the water, because I use the same water for all my other tanks and I've kept/bred cherry shrimps no problem, plus my massive snail populations in my breeders. I thought maybe it was something with the substrate (Azoo), but I use it in the Evolves and they seem to be fine after I moved them there. My next step is to see how other fish react.

 

[Briz]

We moved the Edge to a place of pride in the house - in the living room under the TV.

Not only does my fiancée get his kitchen counter space back, but he's also said that he has been watching the tank during down time and enjoys it!

It's also been much easier for me to get to the tank opening and filter.

Filter still hidden behind

However, the problem from moving from under the cabinets was that I couldn't suspend my Beamworks over the tank, at least not without it being an eyesore or blocking the TV. The solution was to replace the current LED bulbs in the living room with appropriate Kelvin rated ones. We had 2.3K ones before... eek!

The 6K bulbs are semi-spotlight from China centered on the tank, and the 5K provide more "over-all" lighting.

The tank was suffering from a bacteria bloom, and the culprit was largely the lack of oxygenation. An airstone would really create a mess in this tank, so I finally decided to fiddle with the skimmer again. And I got it to work as I originally envisioned! The bacteria bloom has cleared up overnight.

The water comes in through the slits, yet does not suck air as it fills up in the tube before it gets to the filter. Before I could not get it to float without either taking in air or just becoming flooded with water (thus no increased surface area/agitation).

I also rescaped some! The stick was bugging me, so I moved it. I transferred a few plants over to a planted vase. I moved the little stone over so it wasn't overlapping the big one. I moved the ?micro-swords? left a little so they didn't block the stone as much and filled in that corner.

The plants are a little sparse at the moment. I have a few coming in, and I still hope that the crypts come back eventually.

 

[Briz]

What type of lighting are you using? Is it the 2 bulbs or led?

Thanks!
It's the LED one. The light is still really concentrated in the center-back.