[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.

 

[tricken]

very nice edge, from all i have read they are tuff tanks.

 

[DefStatic]

The brighter green plant in the middle, that is your Creeping Jenny right?

I got some stuff from a LFS and they sold it to me as a type of ludwig, but I was pretty sure it is Creeping Jenny. Didn't bother me either way because I like it. You can see it in my 30 gal in my sig. Really adds some contrast and grows great.

I also purchased some stuff from another LFS and they called it Golden Jenny. Pretty certain it is the same thing.

 

[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.

 

[DefStatic]

I knew it was some sort of Jenny, not a ludwig like the guy said LOL. We only have mostly chain LFS and they often do not know that much. Some do have fairly good fish departments, but for the most part they do not know much.

I bet it will bounce back, I have seen plants do that when coming from other users tanks. The first time I got some plants from on here, a bunch melted because I think they tanks they came from was way higher tech than mine.

 

[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!

 

[Varmint]

Wow! What's up with that?

Do you think there could be copper in your water? Copper is deadly to inverts.

 

[lauraleellbp]

Wow, that's crazy! I could understand if you were running CO2 on this tank, but... yeah, I have no clue!??

 

[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.

 

[andrewq]

Cool tank, and I have a 6 gallon fluval edge too. Havent set it up yet, and I was thinking about just doing and anubias, and moss tank. Also with a betta. What type of lighting are you using? Is it the 2 bulbs or led?

 

[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.

 

[andrewq]

I wasnt sure whether or not to upgrade the lighting. Or even go topless. Did you paint the top cover?

 

[Briz]

I wasnt sure whether or not to upgrade the lighting. Or even go topless. Did you paint the top cover?

If you only have low-light plants like anubias and moss, they should be fine with the stock light and ambient room light. However you may not like how it looks for purely viewing purposes. I didn't like the dark corners, and since I have plants that require adequate light, I opted to use additional light. The trick is not to take away from the glass-rectangle look of the Edge, which laying a light on top of the glass would do.

I have not painted anything. My Edge came in black. The only thing I've done to the hood is cut a rectangular slit in the back to take it off the tower easier, since when it was under a cabinet I could not lift it off.

Still have that problem with it being under the TV now, but the cut makes it possible.

As it sits.

Lift up back end.

Slide it forward.

Take off once free.

 

[Briz]

I was married in late May and was gone for over a week for the honeymoon. There was some cyno and brown algae when I got back, but it's gotten back under control.

I've stopped keeping track of the various plants I stick in here, but I am pleased to see one of the crypts is finally returning (again). I pulled the roots of the second crypt which never regrew, having finally given up on it.

Since I fixed my surface skimmer to work as I originally intended to improve water aeration, I can now keep things besides a betta in the tank. I have one little olive nerite and 3 otos as my cleaner crew.

Mr. B was playing nice at first, but now he tends to chase the otos around a bit. I am hoping he'll get over them eventually.

All in all, still pretty pleased with the tank, but I think it needs more variation in plant colors.

 

[talontsiawd]

I love your Edge. I like how you did the Zoo Med tubing through the back too, very slick.

 

[Briz]

General update to show plant growth. Again, really pleased with how it's filling in, especially looking back on when I first moved the tank to its current location. All of the inhabitants are still happy and vigorous.

 

[Briz]

Sad news - my sweet Mr. Bubbles has died. He got dropsy or something similar and it was too late by the time I noticed the pine-coning.

I've always liked neon tetras, so I got some to fill the empty void. Since I have the ceiling lights providing partially horizontal lighting, their colors really pop.