# The New Fluval Edge



## snoz0r (Jun 6, 2008)

Thought some of you might like this, if you haven't seen it, check it out.

http://www.hagen.com/uk/aquatic/addinfo/fluval_edge.cfm


----------



## kenko (Mar 12, 2009)

Yeah, saw them before and they look nice - but not the easiest to work on with plants, especially with the "full water" effect. You get the little opening at the top-back, and they make special curved tools to work those awkward angles. I can't imagine the maintenance involved, especially in the front corners. :confused1:

ken


----------



## volatile (Feb 13, 2007)

I think it actually looks pretty cool! You wouldn't have to worry about jumpers, or any equipment sticking out. And it looks better than the Biorb/Biube and Biorb Life.

But I don't know how well it would do as a planted tank, with the halogen bulbs, and if you could inject CO2. Plus it seems they only offer it in 1 size.


----------



## Centromochlus (May 19, 2008)

Very cool looking aquariums. Love the modern design.

But as stated before, not sure how suitable they would be for a planted tank. I'd love to see someone give it a try though.


----------



## volatile (Feb 13, 2007)

This would make a nice nano tank if the 2 halogen 10 watt bulbs could grow plants well. What do you guys think? 20 watts of halogen light over 6 gallons? For $150, it's kind of pricey...


----------



## Hoppy (Dec 24, 2005)

I think the tank is unsuited for a planted tank, but the concept is very good. I can see this as a very interesting DIY project for someone (else).


----------



## mott (Nov 23, 2006)

These tanks are tiny, I saw a vid of some limey setting one up.they are pretty tho.


----------



## talontsiawd (Oct 19, 2008)

Is it me or is that an aquaclear filter?

I think you can easily get most of this with an open top tank that isn't against a wall. I don't see it being suited for plants due to the fact that the lights are in the middle. Unless this was supplemented by other lights, which would be much like a light off the top of the tank, it just doesn't seem practical for what most of us do. Maybe a very low light tank where you can take advantage of room lighting.


For a regular, non planted tank, I think it is very cool in design. I am a fan of Fluval tanks. I see a large one (I'm guessing around 75 gallons) at my LFS and it looks much better than most any other tank of that size. They have small ones that don't look as nice though. A big version of this would be very cool for a ciclid tank.


----------



## Hoppy (Dec 24, 2005)

The concept is a pedestal that is smaller than the footprint of the tank, all of the equipment in a "tower" connecting the pedestal to a boxed in light fixture on top. Will any tank work sitting on a small pedestal like that? Intuitively I don't think so, but I don't know. The "tower" could contain a canister filter, or the filter/CO2 could go in the pedestal, taller than the Fluval version, of course. And, the box could hold a MH light. Instant DIY project for someone! If this were done with an acrylic tank, it would be relatively easy to enclose the top as Fluval did, but that gets you back to the access problem. Change the proportions a bit, to make the access opening bigger and it should work.


----------



## monkeyruler90 (Apr 13, 2008)

wow, yeah if someone mods this it would make an awesome iwagumi tank!


----------



## Dr_GreenThumb (Jul 9, 2008)

For what it's worth, I just bought this aquarium (in black) from Petsmart for 99$. Saw the posted price online and couldn't pass up the cheaper price locally w/o shipping costs.

Plan is for a small school of tetras and *maybe* some cherry shrimp. There are some pretty nice pictures of implementations out on google if you image search it.


----------



## nvision (Feb 6, 2009)

i don't see why so many ppl are complaining about gas exchange in this tank. it uses a filter which is a custom-fitted hob hidden inside and behind the top frame, with plenty of air exposure during filtration. i actually appreciate the design, and admire Fluval for pushing innovation. but ya, that trapped bubble issue with a full tank should be resolved, maybe with just an ultra slight angle tapering to the top so the bubbles could easily slide up.


----------



## Centromochlus (May 19, 2008)

You were able to buy one of these at PETSMART?! I hear all these cool things people find in their local petsmarts, but they never seem to make it to mine in Phoenix.. GAHH. >_<


----------



## macclellan (Dec 22, 2006)

Dr_GreenThumb said:


> For what it's worth, I just bought this aquarium (in black) from Petsmart for 99$. Saw the posted price online and couldn't pass up the cheaper price locally w/o shipping costs.


Post pics!


----------



## Justintoxicated (Oct 18, 2006)

I have one, it's my yellow shrimp tank. I just finished setting it up. I am growing plants in there, mosses java fern etc. I may eventually mod it with a small florescent bulb, but for now I see some progress. to solve the bubble problem I just got a magnafloat, simply push the bubbles into the center. 

I like being able to look at my shrimp from above.

Great design other than the lights, I'm sure someone will come out with a retrofit. I'm actually thinking to use LED bulbs.

I'm not yet sure what type of bulbs is has. Are they 6 volt or 12 volt?
they look something like this. http://www.bulbs.com/eSpec.aspx?ID=10543&Ref=Category&RefId=13. You could easily retrofit some nice LED's (more spread more light) if thats what they are.

I wonder if something like these would plug in
http://dingxingdianzi.en.busytrade.com/selling_leads/info/1063497/Sell_Dx_mr16_30smd.html


----------



## Jdub777 (Jan 31, 2009)

I just bought one, and am scratching my head as to what to do with it. I'm thinking a shrimp/cpd(or smaller fish) tank, but plants will be an issue, unless it's Iwagumi style with moss or something. I saw a dude had mounted an led strip on his tank, but he set it up as a saltwater tank. Anyone have info on LEDs WPG? I used to mod puter cases, so I have a ton of LEDs lying around.


----------



## rweakley (Aug 31, 2009)

Justintoxicated said:


> I have one, it's my yellow shrimp tank. I just finished setting it up. I am growing plants in there, mosses java fern etc. I may eventually mod it with a small florescent bulb, but for now I see some progress. to solve the bubble problem I just got a magnafloat, simply push the bubbles into the center.
> 
> I like being able to look at my shrimp from above.
> 
> ...



I recently got this tank also, and have had my share of troubles already, none of them have been directly related to the tank though. Just to give you guys some more info on the bulbs; they are 10 watt halogens and if you are going to look for an upgrade bulb, you need to be looking for ones that will fit into an MR11 socket(the pins are 4 mm apart). I recently ordered some Cree MR11 2 Watt LEDs off ebay. They still have pretty much the same spotlight effect as the halogens did, but the color temp and brightness is better IMO. The ones I ordered have a 60 degree beam srpead, and the corners of the tank are still pretty much dark. I'm not sure how much of this has to do with the beam spread, and how much it has to do with the big acryllic part on top absorbing a lot of the light thats heading towards the edges. 

The trouble I was mentioning actually happened this morning. I had my heater literally blow up. I was downstairs when I heard a loud bang and ran up to see smoke pouring out of the top of the tank. The Tetra heater had shattered inside the tank and there were glass shards everywhere. I managed to get my betta out of the tank and (so far) he seems to be doing fine. Glass was everywhere, so I ended up loosing several of my plants and had to scrap my substrate completely. I gave the tank a good scrubdown and ran out and got some fluorite and a new heater(hydor theo). 

I really really like the look of this tank, and so far, my only concern is trying to get the whole tank lit. If I'm not able to do that I have a few aquascaping ideas to work around and use the shadowed corners to my (hopefully) advantage. 

I'd definitely recommend the tank if you're looking for something sleek, stylish, but also are looking for a bit of a challenge :icon_wink.

Good luck to anyone who pursues it, and please let me know if you have any neat lighting mod ideas that won't jeopardize the integrity of the tank.


----------



## snoz0r (Jun 6, 2008)

It's great to hear of people making use of this tank. Everytime I'm in my local petsmart I see one and think of the this be I could do with it.


----------



## Jdub777 (Jan 31, 2009)

Ok I ordered these http://www.theledlight.com/directional-led-strips.html#SMD5mm white LED's , but i think i should have ordered the strip at the bottom of the page ,due to the power and wavelength. The cool thing about these strips are that they can be cut to length. I think i will replace the 2 halogens with led bulbs as well. I will see how much of the light strip LEDs i will need. I'll keep y'all posted.


----------



## dknydiep1 (May 21, 2006)

Any pics guys?


----------



## Cloudburst2000 (Sep 25, 2009)

Hey, I won one of these tanks in a drawing. I'm going to set it up as a saltwater nano aquarium. I had the same idea as you to use the strips of LED lights that you could wind back and forth cramming a whole bunch in there. Another person who was also setting hers up as a reef tank found a lighting fixture at a marine shop (meaning boating). Her unit illuminated the water well and there was no longer a spotlight effect, but the unit was not LED lights so it still heated the water up somewhat and she could only run it during the evening when she could keep an eye on the temperature. I personally thought the waterproof lighting was a good idea especially since the current lights are close to the water and there is nothing between them and the water...that kind of bothered me about the set-up. Waterproof lights would solve that little hang-up of mine. So I decided to see if I could mesh the two ideas...one of using LED light strips and one of using waterproof lighting. And low and behold, they DO make waterproof LED lighting strips. Some of them can get pretty bright too. The highest I found was a 6500K that was I think somewhere around 7w per foot. It didn't cost that much either. I haven't gotten them yet as I will be going out of town for several days, but I think that is the way I'm leaning right now. If I'm not mistaken, 1 watt of LED lights puts off about 3x the light that the same wattage of halogen bulbs do. So a 7w LED would be like 21w for halogen. And I think you could easily get two feet in there maybe more. So two feet would be about 14w LED = 42w halogen, three feet would be about 21w LED = 63w halogen. Not bad lighting for a cheap set-up


----------



## lauraleellbp (Feb 3, 2008)

My LSF had one set up with a single Nymphea lily and a betta, I think it looks nice that way.

The stock lighting is very dim and yellow though; you'd definitely have to upgrade to support a fully planted tank.

I think if you wanted to go with a high tech planted setup you'd be much better off with a different tank, due to issues customizing the equipment you'd need.

IMO these things are way overpriced.


----------

