Fluval Flex 32.5 Floating Reef Build.

[KozyTRMNDS]

So I had a Fluval Flex sitting around that i had two options with.

One break down. Or two set up a 4th tank…..

Guess which one I went with?

I had this Flex running an about 2 months ago. I shut it down because I didn’t prepare enough for the summer heat wave and it killed a frag tank I set up in my garage.


Well I took it down. And one reason I couldn’t sell is previous owner actually let heater melt a hold between one of the filter chambers and the pump chamber and the display. Making flow for filtration in the flex worse than it already can be.



So I got the idea to make a floating reef out of it since I’ve see some really nice 15g and below versions done. And using the acrylic to cover the hole to the display. And epoxy on the back chamber.
I also have a really nice Sunrise dottyback that I removed from my 75g because it was slowly picking off my fish.

But i don’t want to get rid of it. So i said let’s do it.

I plan to prepare for the heat this time by trying first some fans over the tank, and if not I’ll be adding a chiller before the summer.

So I started with a Caribsea frag box.
Two Acrylic bookshelves, and silicone.

I placed on bookshelf opposite of the other to help support the rocks weight and slightly overlapped them about 1/2” of each other. I then drilled 4 holes to help with flow into the rock structure. And began gluing the bookshelves over the hole. Followed by gluing the first rocks that hold the larger pieces I had curing.





I prepared 2 20lb bags of live sand fiji pink and oolite mix. The plan is to have a deep sand bed near the back for some anaerobic bacteria to help with ammonium.
I also placed as much cured live rubble that i could in the middle “T” chamber of the flex tucked to the side. For more surface area for pods and bacteria also.

Once I placed sand in the tank, I prepared my salt water and filled the tank enough for me to place my live rock on it.

I had a lot of empty space to side of the Tank so I created an Isalnd that will hopefully be home to an anemone that will host my clowns. Here is final results.

I plan to lay some reactor coral media over my sand bed to help with the amount that gets blown away by my wave maker.

I have 3 fans running over the tank rn and have helped keep the tank under 80 degrees so far this hot week. Might still get the chiller better safe than sorry.

More detailed pictures and updates soon! Let me know what you guys think and any questions about my equipment.

 

[ZzyzxRiver]

This is going to be super interesting to watch grow! Good luck!

 

[KozyTRMNDS]

Update 09/29/2024


I couldn’t stand the amount of duvets being created by my gyre in the sand.

So my solution to the problem was add crushed coral reactor media on top of my sand bed.
This will solve 3 solutions for me.

1) It prevents my sand from being blown around
2) It will allow me to place mushrooms directly on top of the media to collect babies easily.
3) It will give more surface area for my leopard wrasse to be able to hunt pods around in.

Mention surface area I also decided to add a second mini island on the left side of the tank for my other fish to have a place to hide. My sunrise dottybsck tends to be a jerk from time to time so it’s better I provided a few other options for fish to sleep in.

Here is an updated photo of the tank.
I still want to make it as minimal as possible

Current stock list

2x Clarki clowns
1x Royal Gramma
1x Flame Angel
1x Blue Star leopard wrasse
1x sunrise dottyback
1x fighting sand conch

I’ve also glued some extra frags I had on my island.