Planted pico to salty pico

My Fluval edge in black Started out as a planted pico set up



Equipment /mods
Hagen Fluval Edge MR11 GU4 shielded aquarium halogen bulbs, look OK but I found a few draw backs
1, they really heat up the water surface and cause faster evaporation
2, they don’t offer good lighting for various plants
3, the direction of the lighting is static so not a lot of the light reaches the corners of the tank.

After a lot of searching around on various forums I was given a link to Ultraleds.co.uk
10 Led MR11 125 Lumen Cool White AC/DC MR11 (35mm Wide Face)
11-15v AC/DC
Same Size as a standard MR11 bulb
Cool White 6500k
Power Consumption 200ma (2.4 Watts)
Light Output 125 Lumen (20 watts)

These bulbs reduce the heat build up and offer a much better light for a variety of plants, and the tank looked a lot crisper.
Fluval Edge 25watt heater It is preset to 26 degrees Celsius as we all know and yes it was for a short time.
With the coldest winter in the UK for 10 years (December – January 2009- 2010)
this heater just didn’t keep water temperatures stable. Problem was sorted after two weeks of very low water temperatures of 22c, the problem was the heater had failed and the tank was basically been heated via the room temperature. I was given a replacement heater and I also purchased another heater. The Hydor Mini heater for small aquariums and fish bowls up to 20l. (5 gal) Extra small: easy to hide in mini-tanks and bowls. Extra safe even under gravel, completely submersible, Ideal for use in both glass and acrylic tanks. No damage if left running dry.
Helps increase by a few degrees Celsius/ Fahrenheit the water temperature of mini aquariums compared to the ambient/room temperature where it is positioned.
This heater is very slim and small and is able to fit into the back of the filter media house. Currently it is stable at 24c-26c.

I decided to go for a black set up as I felt the green neon’s I wanted would really stand out against the black. Also I wanted to set up as an Amazonia Biotope so a darker substrate was needed. I decided to go for the finer crushed gravel quarts wasn’t too sure how the cory cats would be but they did real well and are in my larger tank still.
Bogwood is still like jewellery to me, you have lots of it, but you just can’t decide on what you are going to use. I found some small bits with good shape but it was real hard not wanting to change it every month.

Live stock advice results
PFK & Aq-Advisor.com
Recommend keeping up to 5"/13cm of small to medium-sized fish in your system. However, this requires care and thought for the type of fish being stocked.
System type
Tropical freshwater aquarium
Dimensions
43 x 26 x 22cm/17" x 10" x 9
Surface area
0.11 sqm/1.18 sq ft/ inches sq in
Volume
25 l./6 gal. (6.6 US gal.)
Probable volume
23 l./5 gal. (6 US gal.)
Stocking density
5"/13cm (built up gradually)

Over stocked? By some site conversion tools yes, did I personally have any problems? No. I did very good tank maintenance on the little set up and still do
So does that make me a bad fish keeper? In some eyes yes, in others no.

Plants
This is a list of the plants I had in there, some transferred to my larger set up and all did and still are growing well.
Dwarf Hairgrass
Java Moss
Dwarf Chain Sword
Pygmy Chain Sword
Hairgrass
Amazon Sword
Green Myriophyllum

One part you just can’t do with out in this tank is the pre filter sponge especially if you are keeping very small fish / shrimp. Four of my green neon’s went missing and I found them in the filter box (all alive and happy I think)

So you may ask yourself what happened next well… … …
Plants moved to my Vicenza and fish re-homed.
EMPTY Fluval Edge "LET THERE BE LIFE"

So now I had an empty fluval edge what do I do with it now? After looking for ideas I have decided to take a deep breath and go salty with it so here we go.

Equipment was the same as planted set up
Went to my local fish store and left with some nice live rock, 2 tubs of sea water to kick start things off and a little something for the filter. I wasn’t quite laughed out of the shop but not far off, not that I was surprised either as they have always given very good advice and everyone says marine in an edge is a no, no so their response was expected, they wished me luck though.
Keeping a smaller marine set up is more challenging and time consuming so if I can manage this I will be looking to upgrade soon. I did this with my original planted set up and I am determined to do the same salty, plus I got one eye on a fluval osaka for the future.

I striped down the tank and washed, washed, and washed it again, along with all the filter parts. Fine coral sand rinsed for an hour and left to dry out a little. Filter put back together along with some small filter media and some filter floss (this was replaced a week later with some live rock rubble) filter floss still used along with some rowaphos. Live rock was then added along with and hydor korallia and some led strip lights for moon light.

Here is how it looks now


1 Orange firefish
1 Trimma gobie
1 Peppermint shrimp
2 Sexy shrimp
1 Pom pom crab
1 randals pistol shrimp
Varoius zoa frags
1 mushrooms.

2 litter water changes twice a week with RO water mixed with tropic marine pro reef salt and evep water toped up with RO when needed (about every other day)

I will add some more pic when I can

Im no expert on anything and I'm not promoting this tank to be used as a salt set up but it can be done if you are willing to put in the extra work, does that make it right simply if it can be done? who knows lots of people will have their own views and I will respect those of others and I just hope they will in return, my fish are happy and doing very well (feeding like pigs) If they were not I would not be keeping them. If I can help anyone out in any way I will try. The edge is a stunning tank and even after upgrading so soon after I just couldn't part with it. It has it's problems but you can work around them.

Hope this info is of help to others.
Thanks for reading