Sean's Waterbox 130.4 Mixed Reef Build

[BiGGiePauls33]

Super clean, thanks for sharing the build pics with us.

 

[Cheddah93]

Been following this from the beginning, can’t wait to see it get wet and through the cycle. With the attention to detail I’m gonna be interested to see this thing fill in. Looks amazing thus far.

 

[hurdbird]

Thanks a lot guys! Appreciate all the help and for following along. Really excited to get it filled at this point and start the long cycle process. Stock piling RODI as we speak for the initial fill up haha.

 

[Andy V]

Everything is looking great!

Where can you get those key slot metal brackets that you are using for shelves? I can find the posts but not the spans. I want to make custom sizes so I don't want a kit.

 

[jah-hoeva]

Home Depot sells a four or five shelf unit you can configure however you like. Holds a few thousand pounds it says as well. I think it’s like 4’ wide.

 

[hurdbird]

Home Depot sells a four or five shelf unit you can configure however you like. Holds a few thousand pounds it says as well. I think it’s like 4’ wide.

That’s where I got that one. I painted the shelves white and installing some cross bracing as well to prevent any racking. If I didn’t already have the shelves, I definitely would have went more heavy duty but there getting the job done.

 

[hurdbird]

It’s proved more difficult to move the scape from the planning table into tank and keep it the same but we’re getting there haha.

 

[jah-hoeva]

Nice looking scape.

 

[hurdbird]

Wasn’t ever happy with the right side so I completely changed it around and I think I’m done now haha. Got a lot more swimming room and room for a few island foundation rocks in front now. Time to cement a few spots and fill her up!

 

[hurdbird]

Waters going in! Hopefully have enough water made to finish filling tomorrow and start mixing in salt. Struggling a little as a first time Apex user but I’ll figure it out tomorrow hopefully and start testing all the equipment and changing some programming around.

 

[hurdbird]

Have had the tank up and running with RODI only testing everything and found out my APEX base unit had control issues with the probes so I am waiting for a replacement to come in to officially start the cycle. Neptune customer service was great to deal with!!!

 

[hurdbird]

I have to give Neptune a lot of credit for how they handled my faulty Apex base unit. Promptly responded to my emails and scheduled a call to log in to my system and check things over. It was determined that I had bad probe ports. They 2 day shipped me a replacement unit and helped me get everything set up and switched over. Salt is in, remote fuge is running and all equipment has been tested for 5 days.

Time to start the cycle and start looking for my first fish to get into quarantine! I’m thinking about going with a similar approach to the BRS/WWC method of a 3-4 month cycle. Any advice?

Probably looking at a small tang of some sort for first fish but need to find something on the less aggressive end because it will be first fish in the tank. Thoughts?

 

[aresangel]

3-4 month cycle?!? That seems insane.

I think most cycles are complete within a month or so without any additives to speed things up. Won’t the beneficial bacteria starve if the cycle is that long?

 

[Chris A.]

3-4 month cycle?!? That seems insane.

I think most cycles are complete within a month or so without any additives to speed things up. Won’t the beneficial bacteria starve if the cycle is that long?

As long as you keep feeding the bacteria it’ll keep growing

 

[aresangel]

I forget to feed my fish sometimes and I see them looking all hungry at me! Bacteria?! I would kill it off and start the cycle over again and again lol.

 

[hurdbird]

Seems like my salinity and ORP probes are off potentially. I know the salinity is pegged at 35 PPT / 1.026 so I would imagine my probe has bubbles in it or is being affected by voltage from other power cords. The ORP seems awfully low but what do you think? Seems like it should be 200 on the low end for a brand new tank.

 

[hurdbird]

Cycles been going for a week and a half at this point... the waiting game. Added Dr Tim’s and a shrimp to kick things off. Some sort of little brownish algae showing up in the sump it looks like.

 

[hurdbird]

Big thanks to OSA for the beautiful fish... reserved a whitetail bristletooth tang and a yellow tang. OSA has some awesome fish / coral! They will be going into QT next weekend when I get the QT setup completed this week. Super happy with these fish. Going to start with a few blue green chromis for now too. Would like to add a wrasse and some lyretail anthias eventually too. What do you guys think about fish list?

 

[hurdbird]

Almost done with QT tank / aquarium supplies storage area. Just have to put the power heads, heaters and PVC in. Planning to turn the 20 long into a frag tank down the road.

 

[hurdbird]

After doing my first water change on the display, I knew I wasn’t interested in doing water changes by buckets / barrels anymore so working on finalizing a DOS for auto water changes haha. Pumped to get this up and running. Going to try and put a bunch of safeties in place with level sensors, etc.