Fly's first reef tank Custom Fluval Edge 6 gal

So I bought a 6 gal fluval edge a while back and thought it would be sweet as a little nano reef. This will be my first saltwater aquarium but I have always wanted to have one. There will be lots of learning along the way. Hopefully my experience with freshwater planted tanks will help. The biggest problem with the edge is the lighting or lack there of for reefs. I decided to build a custom lid for it and retrofit it with 9 3 watt LEDS. It has 5 white and 4 blue on separate drivers so I can control them each. Here are some pictures so far. Right now its just tank and water. Have some live sand and hoping to get some live rock tomorrow or this weekend. Will update as I go. Comments, suggestions, and critiques are appreciated!

Here is what the outside of the new lid looks like. I had fluval send me an extra base and I cut out the center to fit around the original lid.



The 2 LED drivers fit perfectly in the base



Underside with the LEDs on heatsinks





Tank with water in it tonight

 

awesome little tank, was gonna use one as a nano but decided against it. they need a ton of modding as you have shown to be reef capable.

 

Very cool!!!!

What heat sinks are you using to cool each LED star?

 

Very well done mod

 

thanks for the comments so far! The heatsinks I bought on ebay are little aluminum heatsinks. They are .9"x.9"x.39 I superglued 4 of them together in a bigger square for each LED. Once I had the bigger square they fit perfectly between the original lid and the base I used. I used a caulking adhesive on the edges to hold them in place and thermal adhesive for the LEDS.

As far as stocking the tank the plans so far are to get my live rock in and wait for it to cycle then add a clean up crew. Probaby a couple shrimp, some snails, and a small crab or two. As far as fish I was thinking a clown goby and maybe a small clown or a different tiny fish. Corals I will need to do more research on but I know I like the look of zoas and frogspawn.

I think I am going to add some kind of pump for more flow. Would a koralia 240 be enough?

 

Very nice.

Welcome to 3reef.

 

So I finally was able to pick up some live rock today and get the tank done! The tank consists of about 75% live rock and 25% dry rock. I put the rock in first on the glass so it wont settle later when I get my livestock. And after the sand I have a cloudy mess! Do I leave my filter off while everything settles or go ahead and turn it on to help clean?

 

I ended up taking everything out of the filter and putting in filter floss instead. Everything looks good this morning except for the sand below the hob output. I have a nice hole there! Thinking Ill either have to put a rock there, take the sand out and replace with something heavier, or cap with something heavier

Here is a shot of it this morning

 

nice job