Fluval Flex 32.5g Reef 5 Months in

Spacemonkey · Jun 6, 2023

Hi there,

I've finally got my tank to the point where I am happy and will now just be adding the occasional coral. Its a Fluval Flex Marine 3.0 with the following:

-Extra Fluval Marine 3.0 light, both lights with suspension kit
-Fluval PS1 proteinskimmer
-In-tank Media Baskets
-Overflow attachments to force surface water into filter (Fluval design is terrible for this)
-AI Nero 3 Wavemaker
-Autotopup unit
- Roughly 20kg Live rock

Stocking (In order of addition):
-2 Black clownfish pair
-1Cleaner shrimp
-1 Fire shrimp
-1 Firefish
-CUC (3 Super Mexican turbo snail, 3 Mexican Turbo snail,3 turbo snail, 4 Bumblebee Snail, 3 red leg hermits, 3 orange leg hermits (one of which wasn't orange and is black and white spotted

)
-1 Peacock Wrasse
-1 Wreckfish
-1 White Goby
-3 Royal Damsels
-1 Scooter Blenny
-1 Feather Duster

Corals Stocking:
-Live rock came with 5 different types of Zoa/palythoas, 2 patches of sympodium... and 1sinularia dura green cabbage leather coral
I then added:
-1Pink tip Green Torch Coral
-1GSP
-2 Jasmine rock
-1Rose Bubble tip Anemone

Let me know what you think from the pics, sorry the light from the window wasn't helping and these were taken on my phone, if you need better/clearer pics let me know and I'll take some more. I know it's relatively new and some may say I've overstocked but everything has been gradual and is stable. I'm not going to add more bio load and may even sump it sometime soon (Still have a disliking to the Fluval filtration design even with the adaptions I've made).
I'm due a water change today where I'll siphon out the last bits of Cyano (The growth has taken a week to get like this) and am adding some Fluval clearmax to help bring the nitrates down slightly (currently not going over 10).

Gumbies R Us · Jun 6, 2023

Amazing looking tank!! Some good progress for 5 months!

Spacemonkey · Jun 6, 2023

Thanks! Yeah I was very lucky with my live rock, some good kickstart.

paragrouper · Jun 6, 2023

I like what you did with the top.

alice25 · Aug 17, 2023

I am setting up the same Fluval Flex 32.5 gallon with the AI nero3 powerhead. Would you mind sharing the setting you used on the nero3?

Fetto2730 · Sep 27, 2023

What kind of overflow attachments did you use? I notice i have this skim on the surface of my 32.5 even with the PS1 skimmer going. I feel as though the overflow sucks nothing in. perhaps I have to upgrade the pump as well for more suction

Spacemonkey · Sep 27, 2023

alice25 said:
I am setting up the same Fluval Flex 32.5 gallon with the AI nero3 powerhead. Would you mind sharing the setting you used on the nero3?

Hi, Sorry I just saw this, I used Random wave and had it set at 40-60%. To be honest it wasn't enough to do the whole tank. I was going to get a second one but ended up with linear flow (Red Sea ReefWave 25) which is probably too powerful.

Spacemonkey · Sep 27, 2023

Fetto2730 said:
What kind of overflow attachments did you use? I notice i have this skim on the surface of my 32.5 even with the PS1 skimmer going. I feel as though the overflow sucks nothing in. perhaps I have to upgrade the pump as well for more suction

I looked on Etsy for fish safe fluval 32.5 Overflow. I got blanking plates for the bottom too otherwise you don't get enough flow through the top. I did however on the heater side leave one horizontal slat showing so that some flow passes over the bottom of the heater. I also had to remove some of the fluval slats behind the new overflow covers to allow water to pass more easily. (you may not have to).

These are what I got, Two solid blanks and two overflow only.

Deago · Jan 2, 2024

Can you post pics. I was looking at these exact blanks. was just thinking of putting on the bottom not top

Spacemonkey said:
I looked on Etsy for fish safe fluval 32.5 Overflow. I got blanking plates for the bottom too otherwise you don't get enough flow through the top. I did however on the heater side leave one horizontal slat showing so that some flow passes over the bottom of the heater. I also had to remove some of the fluval slats behind the new overflow covers to allow water to pass more easily. (you may not have to).

These are what I got, Two solid blanks and two overflow only.

Spacemonkey · Jan 2, 2024

Deago said:
Can you post pics. I was looking at these exact blanks. was just thinking of putting on the bottom not top

Yeah of course, I did try the bottom only but it didn’t help with the surface scum which is why I got the top ones too. If you’re just looking to stop sand and critters getting in the bottom then go for it.

I can’t post a pic on my phone but here’s the link to something similar. I just looked until I found one made of the right material.