Waterbox 220.6 Dream Build

JodiI

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A new house comes with a new tank, right? Isn't that a builder option?

So here's my Waterbox 220.6. 6 feet long, display is 160ish, sump is 40ish.

My husband's only specifications for the new tank was that it had to be starfire glass - he's loved Mural's tank in the library at school since he first saw it. After going back and forth between Waterbox and RedSea, I landed on waterbox for a variety of boring reasons. Originally, we were looking at a peninsula tank, but we had an engineer assess the floors in our new construction home since the peninsula would be sitting parallel on the joists. While a peninsula could've worked, it would've involved reinforcing joists (and ripping up the ceiling in a finished basement). We weren't really excited about that, so back to a traditional tank.

This is meant to be a very long term tank - it won't ever move/be replaced unless we sell the house. So I'm hoping to make it an SPS dominant tank, with some of the lovely LPS colonies that my husband enjoys. Most everything from my current 75 will be moved over once the tank is cycled. Stocking list is still being put together while we wait. The current fish who will move over after cycling are:

Yellow Tang
Powder Blue Tang
Melanarus Wrasse
Christmas Wrasse
6-line Wrasse
Yellow Watchman Goby
2 black clowns and their 10? rainbow BTA's

Equipment as of now is:
all the stock stuff from Waterbox - (and I'm very very pleased with the quality)
Sicce return pump - (wasn't the original return pump choice, but a failed return on the 75 forced my hand into what was available locally)
4 AI Hydra 32HD's
2 MP40's - possibly 2 more 40's or 60's in the future

Next up to do:
- choose a skimmer
- rinse and add sand
- choose a fuge light
- bring over apex from the 75 (I'll probably do this the same time I set up the lights ~ 4 month mark)

Now pictures:

On arrival, which was insanely nerwracking:
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Delivery was delayed a day because the tank destroyed its pallet. Thankfully, nothing inside was damaged.
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Stand was easy enough to build. It was flatpacked, and waterbox uses the exact same labeling system as IKEA - even down to the format on the label. Curious if they're made in the same factory.

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We used a shoulder dolly to get it in the house, but needed a couple neighbors to come help it lift it on the stand. Sorry for sideways images.
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JodiI

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#2

MuralReef

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#4
Looks good! Always happy to corrupt...I mean I sprite others!


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JodiI

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Looking great! I can't believe the pallet disintegrated like that, glad it arrived safe and sound.
It was a very poorly constructed pallet. And, to be fair, the whole thing weighed 1300 pounds according to the shipping papers.
 

JodiI

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Didn’t take long to make the first mistake. Hooked up the return to start filling the tank and realized I’d never tightened the return plumbing. Whoops! Easy fix, and started working on making enough water to fill it.



Have a mixing station setup in the garage. 300 gpd (supposedly). Top brute is 30ish gallons of rodi, bottom is 40ish gallons of salt. Plan in the future is to have them plumbed into the system of ATO and auto water changes. It’s a mess currently, but I’ll clean it up once all the plumbing is done.




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Dr.DiSilicate

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#9
Off to a good start! I love that you are waiting a full 4 months. What else are you doing to encourage the cycle???


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JodiI

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Off to a good start! I love that you are waiting a full 4 months. What else are you doing to encourage the cycle???


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I’ve got the brightwell bacterial started on hand, but I’ll wait till the sand is in. Sand should be here in the next couple days. Once it’s rinsed and in the tank, I’ll start dosing the bacteria.


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SynDen

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#11
Woot! That is a sexy tank.
 

JodiI

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#12
Whelp.

When we were choosing finishes for the house during the building process, I googled “best floor for under a reef tank”. That paid dividends today.

It’s luxury vinyl tile, by the way. Which feels and looks like hardwoods, but waterproof like laminate.

I finished filling the tank yesterday. Turned on the return, silenced the overflow, and installed led lights in the stand.





When I was installing the return, I couldn’t get the flexible tubing going back to the tank all the way on to the barb fitting on the pump. It was on enough to run, but I made a mental note to have my husband put some muscle on it later.

Guess who forgot to do that.

Overnight, my fancy return pump sent this message to my phone shortly before it shut off:




When I saw it in the morning, I thought “huh - that’s a cool feature. Didn’t know pumps could do that”. Followed immediately by “oh s$%]*”.

The flexible tubing had come off the return, so it just spewed about 30 gallons of saltwater all over the floor until the sump level dropped enough for it to run dry. Even though the alert came through at 12:30, when I found the mess at 7, the flooring had done its job. The water simply sat pooled up on the floor, not damaging anything until I could get to it.

The tank is in our home office, and luckily the water didn’t reach our computers or the power strips that are (stupidly) sitting on the floor. That will be fixed today.

Less than 24 hours from being filled and I’ve already flooded the house. But hey! If I’m going to learn this lesson, better to do it before there’s any livestock in the tank.


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MuralReef

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Luckily your ATO wasn’t set up yet!


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JodiI

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Lots of progress. Sand in, heaters on, mp40’s installed on the back wall, bacteria added, and lights installed (though they’re only on when I want to admire my handy work).

Now to drink and watch the water clear.



Need some advice about flow though. Don’t think the 2 mp40’s are enough. What would you add? I’m very drawn to the mp40’s or 60’s - love not having cords in the tank.


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Colored Sticks

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I do not think your tank needs MP 60's. Honestly I think you could get away with 2 MP 40s on the sides of the tank and then even two MP 10s on the back walls. I would assume you only have 2ft from to back.
 

scchase

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MP60s would be overkill, MP 40s will cut it and if you need more can always add another.
 

JodiI

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#18
Hmmm. The reason I was mentioning the 60’s is that when I was in peninsula mode, there were several people who put two 60’s on the overflow side of a 6 foot peninsula tank, and it created enough flow for the whole thing.

But watching the back 40’s moving water around tonight, I still don’t think they’ll be enough on their own. The tank is 2 feet front to back, and 6 feet long. I’d be open to two more 40’s (one on each side). Or maybe something like a gyre on one side to give a different kind of flow. It’s just so dang nice not having any cords in the tank.

Tank is cycled, and some chromis are enjoying it. They’re lemon chromis, but look pretty standard right now.






Skimmer was purchased and installed. I had some severe analysis paralysis about which one to get. Mural helped me narrow it down to two, and Cris at aquatic art talked me through the options as far as what fit in my sump. Ended up purchasing the Red Sea 900 skimmer. Had to take out the dividing wall in the sump (between fuge and skimmer section), but that was on the long term plan anyway.

Built an egg crate box to contain the macro algae, got the fuge light on a timer, and now we wait! Probably add the next batch of fish in about two weeks.






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Colored Sticks

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#19
I think if you move those mp40s to the sides and add two mp 10s to the back walls you would be happy with the results including no cords in the tank.

If that is ulva as your marco algae. Just be prepared for a few things:
1) It goes extremely fast, so be ready to harvest weekly or biweekly
2) It will make it into your display, even a screen mesh won't stop it. I would recommend getting a tang, foxface, rabbitfish, or urchin for your display. In regards to the fish. I would figure out a way to ensure it eats ulva before adding it to the display. QT tank is an option. You will not regret this I promise you.
3) This macro will out compete all other marco algae besides cheato ( which will grow significantly slower than Ulva)
 

JodiI

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I think if you move those mp40s to the sides and add two mp 10s to the back walls you would be happy with the results including no cords in the tank.

If that is ulva as your marco algae. Just be prepared for a few things:
1) It goes extremely fast, so be ready to harvest weekly or biweekly
2) It will make it into your display, even a screen mesh won't stop it. I would recommend getting a tang, foxface, rabbitfish, or urchin for your display. In regards to the fish. I would figure out a way to ensure it eats ulva before adding it to the display. QT tank is an option. You will not regret this I promise you.
3) This macro will out compete all other marco algae besides cheato ( which will grow significantly slower than Ulva)
I'll look into the 10's then.

I've got ulva and some red "pom pom" (gracilaria hayi I think) algae in there. I actually decided to go with these instead of chaeto because I wanted to be able to feed them to my tangs. I've got a yellow already (in another tank, waiting to come over), and he gobbled this stuff up. He's not in this tank yet because I'm waiting to introduce him at the same time as some other new tangs. Thanks for the warning about how quickly it grows - I don't have any real experience with anything beyond chaeto. I'll be sure to pull it more often.
 
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