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Matt's Waterbox 230.6 Reef Build


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I wanted to do this thread because over the years so much of what I have learned is from seeing other people's setups and why they did things the way they have. Hopefully this can be of benefit to someone else. 

 

April/May 2019 Tank Planning/Background

I have kept smaller salwater reefs for while now after keeping freshwater before. I didn't want to have to move a big tank ever so just kept nanos. Now with a house I pulled the trigger and worked with Epleeds to get a great deal on a Waterbox 230.6 pro edition(comes with 4 hydra 26s). Its a 72x26x24 display with a 40 some odd gallon sump. Waterbox was supposed to ship the tank on May 24th a Friday and have it arrive by freight on Tuesday the 28th after Memorial day. Well they had some issues and Erik did a great job of getting them to right the ship and I received it I believe May 31st.

 

Delivery/Moving

     The crate looked like the forklift broke through. It broke the crate all the way to the glass from the outside. I thought for sure I was doomed. Somehow not a scratch or anything on the tank just the styrofoam and shrink wrap. It was well packed as seen below with the sump inside. I had reached out to Origami about renting the suction cups others have used to move large tanks. I was planning on bribing a few friends with beer and getting it down to the basement. Well the tank being delayed caused me to have to replan so I hired movers. Thats a post of comedy in and of itself watching two guys try to lift it off the pallet by themselves after refusing the suction cups lol. (Tank weighs like 450 lbs). Without the suction cups there is no way we would have gotten it down a staircase with a landing and turn. Took 4 people and an appliance dolly about 20 minutes. 

 

Stand Building. 

 

The stand directions were slightly off but nothing my lady and I couldn't figure out. Probably took us about 2 hours to put it together minus the doors. Placed the sump and the ato container in the cabinet and it was time to check the level of the stand with the tank on it. This is where the next post will pick up. 

 

 

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Nice looking tank! The cups are a lifesaver! 

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June 2019 Tank Leveling Fail/leak test

After checking the tank with a 6 ft level all was good but I knew it would smush the carpet/padding down to the concrete when full. This is where I probably shouldve listened to my gut and done it differently. I had a few 44g brute trash cans with saltwater ready to go already and figured well lets just leak test/check the level with that. So I started filling it. Let it sit for a few hours with about 6 inches of water and still level. So got out a nice tube for a gravel vac and put in the sand. Placed a dinner plate on the sand and continued filling. Well once it got to the top I let it settle overnight. The next morning after looking at the tank for about 2 seconds I realized it wasn't level from front right to left corner or anywhere close from back panel to front panel. 

 

June 3rd Leveling 

I am relatively handy so I knew I had to drain it and shim the tank stand. But didn't want to miss anything. Surprisingly there isn't much on the internet about this topic compared to others. I suppose the combination of smushed carpet/full tank caused the whole setup to sink a little more than I thought. Maybe I was dumb and the stand being slightly off (1/16) empty was drastically amplified when full. Either way it wasnt level. Was about a quarter inch off from back to front and an 1/8 off from side to side. The 1/8 didnt really sketch me out but the quarter inch did. So I posted on here for any last minute fragos and went to Home Depot. Bought a bunch of composite shims and a pry bar. Drained the tank to about 6 inchs of water plus sand and tried my luck. I was by some miracle able to stack the shims 3 high and while lifting the stand slightly hammer them in. I ended up doing it in 8+ locations of 3 high and a few locations on the side of 1 or 2 to balance a little more evenly. In the end I got it completely level from front to back and probably about 1/16 inch from side to side. No longer uneven to the naked eye. 

 

June 4th Plumbing etc

The Waterbox comes with a plumbing kit so its reef ready. Took about 10 minutes for 2 people to connect them from the sump to the overflow. Upon filling the tank up a teensy bit more I got the Niagara Falls of leaks raining down into the sump. Turns out its a bit important to put the gaskets where they belong lol as seen below. After doing that no issues at all. I have a Simplicity 1600 gph return pump. I had to go through some trial and error with the barbed fittings and hose clamps but it all works. The overflow is fairly quiet I would say. Comparable to almost every other large tank not really better or worse. 

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June 5th Rock Scape 

I had about 50 pounds or so of LR in my 45 some of it Id had for years. However, I wanted more and went around to some Wamas members and got a nice variety of about 100 pounds more. I am not artistic at all so other peoples tanks were my inspirations. I knew I wanted slightly less rock and more open swimming room. And because I love mushroom corals and need to cover a portion of the the bottom with them lol. I went with LR from other Reefers because I like the biodiversity it can add. I never had brittle stars until now for instance and now have some feather dusters as well. Below is what I went with at the beginning I have better pics on the way. I need to finish cleaning the glass still it is gross but its the gist of it. I will raise the left side up a little so its slightly more even but I wanted to have 3 or so archs and about 2 separate formations.

 

Ignore the heaters I was experimenting with if 1 could heat the whole tank from different areas or not. (Sump, overflow or display).

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June 6th Breakdown/Livestock move of 45 gallon

I had a 45 gallon setup with 6 fish and a good bit of corals from Wamas members along with some inverts. I deliberately didn't stuff that tank because I knew I would have to move it with a year. Straight forward stuff there really sort of. I took out some water and filled some buckets/tupperware containers. Then took out the corals. Then the rocks without corals. Then the rocks with corals. Well when there was nothing left but a few frags of the victims of my stupidity, the sand and my fish/inverts that didn't already end up in a bucket I realized something was wrong. I only saw 4 fish... There were the clownfish. Being clownfish. The hawkfish was chilling probably mad he couldn't try to carpet surf with water that low and the sapphire damsel. No sign of the Mystery Wrasse or Starry Blenny. I snatched up the other 4 quickly and put them in their own buckets and began running my hands through the sand. Found nothing. So I left some water in there and a heater and powerhead and figured if they weren't in the rock Id go back. 

 

Was only about a half hour move for me. Much of the livestock I have moved to many times before. I made sure my salinity matched before I even picked up anything so acclimation would be super fast. Well I just dumped some red solo cup amounts of water in for 10 minutes or so to all the vessels and began plop and drop of the rocks first. Sure enough first rock as soon as its over the tank I here a ploop ploop. Theres the Mystery Wrasse and Starry Blenny. Put everything else in there turned the lights way down. The Flame Hawkfish was rough. No idea why. Was on his side rapid breathing for a while when everything else seemed alright. I knew it wasn't ammonia or anything I had checked way to many times ready to battle with Prime. Had to just be the stress/oxygen level maybe. So I took one of the battery bubbler pumps and placed it near him so hopefully it would help. After about an hour he was upright and chilling. And after a few he had moved around in a small area so I removed the pump. Next day totally fine. I haven't had a lot of fish die in my care but thats the first time one looked like that and didn't die. 

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June 7th. 

I turned the AI Hydras down a good bit. I was following the BRS AB+ settings and didnt want to fry anything. These lights are crazy how high powered they can be. All the fish are exploring and fine. My clownfish no longer host the large utter chaos colony(praise the sun) and the Hawkfish has resumed the ways of the Hawkfish. All of the corals surprisingly adjusted quite quickly. The LPS all poofed up and were happy at first light. The Leather and Kenya tree went through the usual shed/sulk BS for a while but have since opened up. Mushrooms and Zoas all seem happy and Xenia, well I can't kill that if I tried. 

 

So the Full equipment setup as of now is 

Waterbox 230.6 with sump/plumbing/18g Ato

Simplicity 1600 dc return pump. 

2 mp 40s on opposite sides running maybe 30% now. 

4 Ai Hydra 26s on the AB+

2 eheim 200w Heaters

I have some pond matrix I have had for years in my previous tanks in the sump for extra bacteria. 

Tunze ATO 

 

Still to do 

Setup refugium chamber/buy light for Chaeto

Acquire skimmer

 

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June 10th Livestock/Tank Update

I knew from numerous moves even if you use all established LR from other setups you might not get the full Nitrogen cycle but you can still get the "uglies" phase of diatoms, GHA etc. I have some diatoms on the sand and have rechecked for ammonia its still none which is good. Nitrates are 2. Entirely possible the diatoms just munching on some silicates or something. My bioload is like nothing compared to the water volume/rock but still. I am planning on slowly adding some fish/hardier established coral colonies over the following weeks. That way I can start to tell better the needs of the tank. 

 

For the tank itself I had posted a stock list a while back but that will change as far as fish go so I won't even bother. As for corals I like softies/zoas/mushrooms and some LPS. I will eventually have some SPS in a few months but it will only be the hardier easy stuff like I have some of. 

This week I am adding an elegance colony and this weekend will probably be the first round of fish. I plan on doing the fish in groups of 3-5 depending on the size over a couple month span. Trying to average a group every 2-3 weeks minimum to not shock the system. I have a like 3-4 inch hippo on hold, a smaller like 2 inch Powder Blue and  a Royal Gramma on hold with Reefescape. The PBT was getting chased by an Anthias and a Potters Angel so I am hopeful its not an a** but went with one smaller than the hippo to be safer. I don't really want alot of tangs. I only really like Hippos and the lady likes the Powder Blue alot. I know theres a chance that needs some extra effort on my part but I think it should be fine. In a few weeks if that all goes well I intend to do some lyretail anthias and a couple coris wrasse.

 

Still experimenting with 1 heater and haven't cleaned the glass fully lol. 

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June 13th

Picked up a few hardy ish colonies and first batch of new fish and intend to give the system a few weeks to see how it starts to stabilize before adding anything else. Added a Kelly Psammacora colony, an elegance coral, some trumpets and a duncan colony. Then added a small hippo tang about 3-4 inches a powder blue closer to 3 inches and a royal gramma. The hippo and powder blue have only tried to "show up" their reflections on the glass but swim together throughout the tank. 

 

Then I did the single most stupid thing I have ever done in this hobby. I will make this a general post as well because it shows how bad it can be. The fish I had were from Reefescape, I love that they QT for a few weeks and try to get fish from safer collection method using sources. Well I got the notification that my fish cleared QT and off I went on my lunch break. Well dumb me totally zoning out checks salinity and temp they were super close so I just dump the royal gramma in bag water and all. Immediately upon doing so I remembered the fish was still being held in the tanks that ran copper in it (Facepalm). So I immediately call them to find out what they are using because even though I was running GAC I wanted to know what I was dealing with. Turns out they run about 2.5 ppm of chelated copper. So I stupidly added however much was in a bag with a royal gramma to my system. Now I was thinking logically and realized okay. I added maybe a gallon or so or however much is in a bag? To a system empty that is 240 with my rock and 1 inch sandbed maybe like 175 or so. So basically any way I logically did the math it came out to about .02 mg/l or less. Now its been about 20 hours and if anything was supposed to have adverse effects it sure isn't showing it. I have cuprisorb and polyfilter on the way and planned to do a water change anyways. So yes always, always, always, avoid using anyone elses water but yours. I am lucky for now I have such a large system volume.  

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June 20th update (Week 3-4)

 

Long story short ReefEscape didnt run copper in the past few rounds of fish they got and they had changed probably all the water in the system at least once. So the copper scare in my tank was avoided. Numerous tests came out to 0 with some super low range checkers. 

 

I was babysitting my parameters all week. Mostly just salinity and alk at the same time to make sure I was topping off right. My alk suprisingly hasnt reallt changed. Its went from 9 - 8.4 dkh in a 3 week span. I know to check at the same time every day as well. I also have hardly any hard corals. All the other levels look normal and have stayed quite stable which is good. My nitrates and phosphates spiked a little which I expected while the bacteria and everything catches up. I added a refugium light and some chaeto to the sump to start growing and cleaned the filter socks which I have realized I have to do more often and eventually will just keep 1 probably. 

 

New fish additions all good so far. My pbt decided after 8 days of peace he was going to live up to the reputation of pbts and started chasing my hippo. No tail slapping or nipping just chasing. I let it happen for a few hours then taped a mirror to the side of the tank. Within minutes the pbt had a new arch nemesis. I let him fight the new invincible foe for 2 days and removed it. Knock on wood its been 24 hours with no issues between them. Added a nice orange setosa colony (adventurous I know but everything has been stable so curious to see how it goes) and some green slimer. If I can keep those and my existing corals happy for a few weeks Ill start to fill in the tank some more. Still need to move the heater to the sump lol. 

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(edited)

Current Equipment/ Params that Ive actually tested

Waterbox 230.6 platinum pro 

168g display 

40 some gallon sump

4 ai hydras working towards the BRS AB+ probably like 75% towards that

2 mp 40s running like 35% now on reef crest 

Simplicity 1600 return pump 

2 eheim 200w heaters 

100w cobalt heater (community heater water changes, qt etc. just leave it in there because why not)

Chaetomax refugium light 

Filter socks one of the mesh ones and ome of the felt ones dont know micron sizes off hand

Tunze ato

*searching for a skimmer 

 

Params 

Salinity 1.025 

Ca 420 

Mg 1300 

Alk 8.4 

Temp 78 

Nitrates were 10ppm going to try to keep it around 5 

Phosphates got pretty high pre chaeto/diatom bloom they were at .10ppm 

Checked couple days later after cleaning it up and adding chaeto was around .04 which I am fine with 

All the bad stuff params were 0 

 

 

 

 

Edited by smokythemattman@gmail.com
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June 23rd. 

The day I learned literally anything wet will sit in a QT for like 2 months before going in my display. Woke up today and noticed my hippo tang had white spots on its body. Sure enough 6 hours later white spots on my powder blues fins. That would make it 11 days in my tank before it showed up. And 25 days of total observation between QT and my display. I added some sea urchins starfish and snails yesterday from LA. I have no clue if it snuck past ReefEscapes QT or if the ich was in the free swimming stage or attached to one of the CuC. Either way it sucks and Im super mad. Also as an added double whammy. There was a miscommunication at ReefEscape and I was under the impression the water I added didnt have copper. And a test there said 0. Well I went back today and they were super helpful and tested my water with a lower range checker and sure enough it was .03ppm cu.... So I put some polyfilter and cuprisorb in the sump and started doing a water change. Interesting enough alot of studies have a super high mortality rate at about .033 ppm cu and none of my inverts seem to be doing bad at all. Maybe Hannah checker error? Who knows but June 23 was by far the worse day of the years of keeping tanks. 

 

So I fortunately picked up a 40b to use for this purpose. (I know I literally had a QT and didn't use it.. facepalm). I have it filled with SW not from the display and have Cupramine and a Seachem test kit on the way tomorrow. So now begins the adventure of catching the fish and keeping the tank fallow for a long while. 

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June 30th 

Well I realized truly how impossible it can be to catch fish in a stocked reef tank. Which only confirmed if its wet I am QTing it. I am not totally drinking the QT Kool aid for everything not just fish. I ended up draining my tank except for a few inches and taking all the rocks and corals out and putting in Brute bins/cans. Surprisingly only took me maybe 20 minutes to break it totally down. Catching fish is super easy when there is no water lol. My mystery wrasse lodged itself into a rock and was definitely stuck. It was beating itself up bad trying to get out. I left the rock in QT for a few days before breaking it open. He decided after being free and doing good for a few days surfing the cement was a more adventurous life and somehow made it out past the lid. Shame it died that way but lasted a few years as an adult for me at least. I was dosing about .1-.15 mg/l of cupramine to get to the .5 recommended mark. I have fed once daily and smaller amount so as to not have to much ammonia. I have an ammonia alert badge as the test kits will not work with copper. It doesnt show anything so I guess the filter sponge and a couple Pond Matrix rocks are doing the job. Either way Ill try to do a water change every 3-5 days. Now I am stocking my display with corals and inverts because it doesnt really matter if they bring ich into my display for a week or so. 

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Also as an added interesting point. I didnt do a water change after draining the tank. I have now checked the copper in my display with 3 different test kits and it is indeed around .03ppm. This is still fascinating to me because I have found a few studies where death in certain inverts was quite high at that concentration. Maybe I have super hardy individuals or maybe chelated copper really isnt that bad at that dose. It doesn't really mean much since .03 isn't a dosage for any medication but its quite interesting that I am having no adverse effects after weeks now. Randy Holmes Farley has measured cu in his tank and its runs at around .018 and he has no adverse effects. I intend to keep an eye on it while I am fallow and see what happens. 

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Added a bunch of corals over the weekend. Have the tank in a good place. Have maybe one or two frags of sensitive ish SPS. But the rest are all easy softies or LPS. Hadn't really had anything swinging to much before so am curious to see how I hold up this week. Since I have a zillion softies in there now and no fish I am probably going to run the fuge lights every other night or so. Having a nice variety of some of the same softies should help me dial in my lights a little better. All the fish in the QT tank seem fine. They were a little lethargic this morning but am hoping that was from the light coming on and they will eat later if not Ill try dropping the cu a little bit. Intend to upload a ton of pictures later. 

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Had to finish moving stuff around and getting the tank actually set up. Leaving the rocks as is probably for a while. Had to change like 25% of the water in the hospital tank to keep ammonia down. But everything progressing well. I subbed out one of the eheim heaters for a Finnex with the temperature control. Next up is still to find a skimmer and build my controller. Going to wait a while for corals. Got alot of great pieces to fill the tank in so now I can start to really figure out the chemistry. Only other corals to add will be zoas and mushrooms to take over the rocks and a little bit of sps ideally(i like alot of the encrusting montis) and an easy colony like a birdsnest to get some more height.

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Totally moved the rocks again lol. The sea fan is giant so I put it somewhere where it has a ton of room to itself and probably a little more flow and light. I have been slowly upping ny mp40s. I had them at like half power for a while because I mostly had lps and easy softies. They are probably both 80% and the few easier sps in there seem happy. I haven't really begun to take to many close ups yet but I will shortly. The inmates in the hospital tank are doing quite well. I had the cupramine at around .3ppm they claim .2- .35 works but I began to up it again to .4 ppm. Will probably maintain it around there for 30 days. Then Ill put some cuprasorb and carbon in there and observe them for another 2-3 weeks. So will be about 9 weeks fallow. Once I am done I may try to find a small frag tank to qt inverts and corals. Plus I already have most of the corals growing. Will probably keep the 40b as a backup hospital tank/qt. But I want to buy a large like 150g rubbermade and keep it in a back room. Just in case anything ever goes wrong with my tank I have somewhere than can hold a large volume. 

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I didn't want to stock corals this fast but since I am fallow now seems logical to skip QT and add some corals straight to the DT after a dip. Will pick up the last of the large corals for the tank at fragfest. I really wanted two more easy sps colonies to put in the top middle on the left and right sides. Zoas are growing like weeds now and the SPS still seems happy with white tips. My next objective is cord management. It is uh not pretty back there but should be safe and everything is plugged into a surge protector. 

 

As the first side note I intend to build my own controller after I am not fallow anymore and get my cords straightened out. I have what is called a "DJ powerstrip" and I intend to modify it a little and connect it up to a raspberry pi or something else. Will make the app/software myself and see how far I can take it as a Diy project. 

 

Second note I have redone my stock list way to much but this is what itll be now. 

 

Existing

Ocellaris Pair

Flame hawk

Starry blenny

Pbt

Hippo tang

Royal gramma

Sapphire damsel 

Pair of bangaii cards

 

To add

Quoyi parrotfish

2 yellow coris wrasse

Trio of leopard wrasse (will get all small females and hope one turns)

Pair of coral grouchers (will post some questions in general)

Either a male lyretail or male squareback anthia

1 more uncommon wrasse 

Pair of longnose hawkfish

 

 

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(edited)

very interested to hear your thoughts about waterbox.  How do you like the tank itself?  Was there a reason you decided on the waterbox?  I'm looking at both the waterbox and the red sea reefer for a future build.  I can't get a general consensus on which seems to be best.

 

Yours looks great, btw

Edited by miggs76
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Thanks. To be honest I had seen nothing but RSRs and the occasional IM or JBJ but hadn't seen a Waterbox. Epleeds reached out to me and we got to talking. I think they are both very comparable. But imo the fact that the Waterbox comes with Hydras instead of Red seas Leds was a plus. Not because the Red Seas are bad just because they aren't as common. Hydras are everywhere with proven results in a mixed reef. The RSRs and WBs seem extremely similar in quality. The only thing that would differ is maybe slight style preferences. The tank is fantastic. The seams are beautiful, the starfire glass on everything even the ato is a huge plus. Even the overflow is starfire glass which I dont think RSR is but thats not really a big deal. I really cant offer any complaints on the tank. The stand is well put together as well water spilled on it doesnt absorb it just sits until you wipe it off the stand doesn't seem as "heavy" as the RSR stands but I think they are MDF whereas WB is plywood coated in some magic substance. The sump space has alot of room to work in. I am a decent size guy and have no issues. One plus over RSR in the sump is WB not using proprietary filter sock. One negative is if your socks clog the chambers overflow weirdly. Hard to explain in person. But I am about to stop using the socks. I had like 2 nitrates and wana see what effect not having the socks in has. WB customer support is fantastic. I can say so far I am happy with it. If you would like to see it in person that totally works to I think thats easiest as the WB vs RSR debate just comes down to a few things preference wise! I have had a few folks come by already and a few more wanting to see it! 

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Great reply, thank you.  I may take you up on checking it out down the road.  I have actually heard really good things about the red sea led lights.  I saw them in person at House of Tropics.  I like how the waterbox is US units so you don't have to have special plumbing and socks (i actually don't use socks on my cube).  

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Yeah the socks have been ditched as of today. Tho I may put them back in in hopes they turn into a nitrate factory. I measured 1ppm nitrate and .01ppm phosphate lol so I need it to get a little dirtier. But yeah any time just let me know I am super flexible with work and not to far from most folks. 

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I personally dislike filter socks as I think the maintenance outweighs the benefit. There is, however, the nylon filter socks which I think are superior in every way, more porous, easier to clean, and overall a better solution. There's also the filter media cup on BRS that is a nice solution as well. 

 

Your tank is coming along nicely! 

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