Anthony's WB 230.6 upgrade - SPS Dominant Mixed Reef

[anthonymckay]

Setup:

• Waterbox 230.6
• Kessil A360x (5x)
• ReefBrite 60" led bars
• EcoTech Vectra L2 return pump
• Nero 7's (2x)
• Nero 5's (2x)
• Clarisea sk3000 roller filter
• RedSea RSK300 skimmer
• IceCap Kalk Reactor
• Alkatronic for alk testing
• Mastertronic for regularly testing everything else
• Hydros X3
• Hydros X4
• Hydros XP8 (2x)

3/31/23 - 5 Months Update

Welcome to my new build thread! While I had been planning to do this upgrade eventually, my Reefer 300XL forced my hand much earlier than anticipated with a seam failure (I know, you're shocked to hear that...). The seam failure was slowly progressing so I finally made the decision to pull the trigger on a new Waterbox 230.6 back in May. In the mean time I transferred my 300XL into a 100gal livestock bin before the seam completely failed to avoid dumping everything onto the floor. Amazingly everything has been humming along in there quite nicely for the last month. I expected losses, but so far I've only lost some zoas (a lot of them really didn't like the transfer) and a single warpaint scoly (unfortunately it got pushed into/ambushed by a torch in the livestock bin).



I'm pretty excited about the new 230.6 with the aluminum stand allowing for a much larger sump than the popular 220.6 it replaced. It was originally supposed to arrive mid July, but it seems they're pretty behind schedule on fulfillment. But I finally got a tracking number for it last week, and it will be delivered this Wednesday!!

He's some pics of my temporary setup between aquariums... going 5 weeks strong now!


My current hardware/ecosystem from the 300XL:

• 3 - Kessil A360X's
• 36" ReefBrite LED bars
• 2 - Nero 5 wave makers
• Hydros X3 Controller
• Hydros XP8 Energy Bar
• IceCap Kalk Reactor
• Alkatronic
• Mastertronic

For the new system, I'll continue with my previous hardware with a few additions/upgrades

• EcoTech Vectra L2 return pump
• 2 additional Kessil A360X's (for a total of 5)
• 60" ReefBrite LED bars
• 2 - Nero 7's
• Hydros X4 Controller
• Another XP8 Energy Bar

This weeks TODO list before we move the new 230.6 into it's final resting place:

• Reinforce the floors below (The 100gal livestock tub is actually sitting on top of a furniture dolly so I can move it out of the room while I do this)
• Two 20amp dedicated GFCI circuits going to the aquarium room
• Prepare additional rock work for the 230

 

[Peace River]

Congratulations on the new adventure! It looks like you are off to a great start with the Waterbox system!

 

[Gumbies R Us]

Best of luck with the tank!

 

[anthonymckay]

The 230.6 arrived this afternoon, looks like shipping wasn’t too smooth… it appears to have slid off the end of the pallet and a board under one of the footings failed. Not happy about this. I told them to write down the broken packaging on the shipping slip before I signed for it. Going to unpack and inspect this evening when I get a chance. I’m less worried about broken/cracked glass, because that’s obvious and visible. I’m more concerned with unseen seam failure from abnormal force put on them when the pallet failed in shipping.

 

[Gumbies R Us]

The 230.6 arrived this afternoon, looks like shipping wasn’t too smooth… it appears to have slid off the end of the pallet and a board under one of the footings failed. Not happy about this. I told them to write down the broken packaging on the shipping slip before I signed for it. Going to unpack and inspect this evening when I get a chance. I’m less worried about broken/cracked glass, because that’s obvious and visible. I’m more concerned with unseen seam failure from abnormal force put on them when the pallet failed in shipping.

Hopefully nothing broke!

 

[anthonymckay]

So far so good, no cracked glass that I can see yet. Gonna wait to full remove all the packaging till after I get all the floor reinforcement work done this weekend.

 

[jkcoon]

I have the exact same tank coming Monday... I ordered it last Tuesday from BRS; wasn't expecting it so fast so haven't planned much. Will be watching closely. Congrats on the new tank!

 

[anthonymckay]

Nothing can ever be easy.. haha. Was under the house this weekend doing the floor reinforcement work and discovered a spot along the foundation were water intrusion over time caused 2 of the joists and surrounding framing to rot. Bit of a setback on getting this new tank in there, as this needs to be addressed first. At least it appears to be isolated to just this 1 spot. Everything else around it was solid.

 

[Buckyboy]

Looking forward to watching this build

 

[dschuffert]

I look forward to seeing your build progress. Sorry to hear about your Reefer.

 

[Charlie the Reefer]

Following, looking forward to seeing this come together.

 

[anthonymckay]

Quick update! Last week I finished up the repair of the rotted joists/framing in the crawl space below and sistered all the joists where the aquarium is going to be sitting. Some of the framing above in the wall needs to be repaired as well due to wood rot from the water intrusion before the aquarium goes into place. The good news is I identified where the water was coming in. We are on a hillside, and I assumed the worst, that it was a broken retaining wall/foundation issue. Turns out, the metal flashing on the backside of the house rusted out allowing water through in 1 spot.

Started on the wall framing repair, should be wrapped up by this weekend. Need to still get a 6x6 on house jacks under the floor to go across the joists along where the front of the aquarium will be... just for my own peace of mind. There's actually a 6x6 girder about 5' out from the wall. So I've been debating on whether that is enough support or not now that the joists are all sistered. But why chance it.

The bad news in this update... I randomly lost both my copper band butterfly and my powder blue tang this week. This 100g temporary stock tank has been running for longer than I anticipated, and is starting to take its toll. I initially thought I'd only need to use it for 2 weeks, and currently it's been running for over two months. Without all my normal filtration and only being able to rely on water changes, overall things are just starting to look a little worse for wear. Really shooting to get everything into the new tank by next weekend.

 

[anthonymckay]

Finished the final piece of the floor reinforcement today with this 6x6. Gonna start putting the stand together tomorrow and try and get the aquarium moved in there this week!

 

[anthonymckay]

Stand assembly tonight… crazy those little aluminum beams can support a full 200g aquarium…

 

[anthonymckay]

We finally got the aquarium on the stand this morning!!

Holy moly that thing was heavy. Thankfully 4 guys from our local reefing Facebook group came through to lend a helping hand! Gonna start working on the plumbing tonight. Once that’s done, time to start getting it wet!

Edit: Doh! Two steps forward, one step back... Starting working on the plumbing tonight and realized I ordered all the wrong size metric-standard conversion fittings and wrong size PVC pipes. Just put in a new order and hopefully will have all the hardware by the end of this week.

Obligatory kids in the big tank shot

 

[anthonymckay]

Had a little free time this morning to work on the plumbing (now that I have the right size pipes/fittings). Came up with this to plumb in my roller filter. Initially I had also rerouted the emergency overflow to follow the main drain going to the roller filter and drain next to it. Then I realized I’d need to figure out a solution for hanging brackets. Realized it’d be easier to just add a couple elbow fittings and go around the main drain pipe.

Some assistance from the household plumbing expert!

 

[anthonymckay]

Plumbing done! Decided to hard plumb the return pump this time. Grabbed some more dry rock yesterday from my LFS and started working on some scape. I think we're getting close to getting this thing wet!

 

[anthonymckay]

We have a wet tank! Been a long journey to get to this point!

A couple thinks I’m unhappy with currently…

1. The waterbox overflow is LOUD. I’ve done some fine tuning to quiet it a bit, but ultimately I’m a bit unhappy with some of their design decisions. The secondary overflow is simply too low compared to the overflow box weir. This means you have a constant waterfall sound of water flowing into the overflow box when the water is just at the top of the secondary drain. This results in having to REALLY limit your return pump turnover rate to try and keep it quiet. I currently have a Ventura L2 barley running at less than 20% (‘2’ of the 12 flow strength settings).
2. The sump is also really loud. Specifically the baffle between the refugium and skimmer chambers. It’s like a Niagara Falls waterfall down there. Someone suggested slightly lifting the baffle to allow water to also flow under it. This helped immensely, but still… another odd design decision that shouldn’t require a work around like that.
3. Against my better judgement I went with a different brand of sand. Nature’s Ocean Live Sand. The grain size is too fine for my liking. I thought it’d be similar size to Caribsea Pink Fiji that I usually use. Now I’m debating if I am just gonna run with it, or if I should eat the cost and vacuum it all out and replace with Caribsea…

Possible sand replacement aside, tank is just about ready to transfer all my live rock, corals, and fish into the new tank!

 

[anthonymckay]

After a long weekend all the fish and coral have been transferred into the new tank! I woke up this morning to discover some of my SPS had rtn’d but everything else seems to be doing ok. I had ordered a controller cabinet from BRS but it arrived cracked and broken, so wire management is gonna have to wait till that gets replaced. For now I’m just keeping an eye on everything and testing daily.

 

[anthonymckay]

Been a rough few days since the transfer… most of my larger SPS colonies started to rtn…

The positive today though is a new copperband that my LFS had been holding for me. You can see here my dead Pink Floyd skeleton above it. The new few months will be focused on getting the nutrients of my tank under control and stable. They got really high over the 4 months in the 100gal tub. My phosphate for example tested beyond the range of a Hanna checker... >0.9. Yikes! Put some gfo in a reactor and have been trying to bring it down slowly over the last few days. It's down to 0.37 right now, but trying to get it back down to at most 0.1 or lower.