Back At It Finally - Waterbox 170

[SPSReeferMI]

Scott I think you might get more responses if you start a new thread: question on tuning my refugium. Might be worth a try.

I think you might be right! That's ok though, I'll testing a shorter lighting period now. Thanks for the suggestion.

 

[MW319]

I’ve been testing waterbox’s LPS lighting schedule for almost 2 weeks now and I think I’m starting to like it but waiting to see how my zoa’s and Euphyllia react to it. I finally broke down and bought my 2nd mp40. Wow what a difference it made.

 

[MW319]

Almost forgot, one of my hydra 26 went down Tuesday. I emailed customer support at echo tech and filed a short report and sent copy of my receipt. Got an email Wednesday morning asking me to give them a call. When I called they said my claim had already been reviewed and they would ship me the replacement within 24 to 48 hours. I asked if I could pay for next day shipping and of course they said yes and I got the replacement Thursday at 1:10pm. Replacement works great and now I just need to return the bad one with the prepaid return label they provided. They really have great customer support.

 

[SPSReeferMI]

Almost forgot, one of my hydra 26 went down Tuesday. I emailed customer support at echo tech and filed a short report and sent copy of my receipt. Got an email Wednesday morning asking me to give them a call. When I called they said my claim had already been reviewed and they would ship me the replacement within 24 to 48 hours. I asked if I could pay for next day shipping and of course they said yes and I got the replacement Thursday at 1:10pm. Replacement works great and now I just need to return the bad one with the prepaid return label they provided. They really have great customer support.

Glad to hear about your replacement experience. Where did you get the LPS lighting schedule from?

 

[MW319]

https://www.waterboxaquariums.com/blueprints/reef-pro-170-45-blueprints. Scroll down and they have various schedules based on your needs. Fish only, softies & lps, lps & sps, etc

 

[KingReef]

Hey Scott, Can you take a picture of where your middle light mounts? I am getting this same system and I am looking into lighting options and am wondering how that mount fits into the overflow area.
Thanks,
Mike

 

[MW319]

Following and saw your question. l don’t mean to but in but since I was at home I took a picture of mine for you. My LFS cut the glass lid on the overflow box so I could install my hydra 26 lights. It took them like 2 minutes to do it.

 

[KingReef]

no worries, that is great. Thanks! I don't have a LFS that can do that, but I bet I can find someone around to do it. Did it make any difference in the noise level?

 

[MW319]

no worries, that is great. Thanks! I don't have a LFS that can do that, but I bet I can find someone around to do it. Did it make any difference in the noise level?

Very little to none. Not saying that it won’t take you some additional adjustments though. When my mp40’s are in reef crest mode I might here a little water going down the overflow valve due to the waves they are making occasionally.

 

[SPSReeferMI]

Following and saw your question. l don’t mean to but in but since I was at home I took a picture of mine for you. My LFS cut the glass lid on the overflow box so I could install my hydra 26 lights. It took them like 2 minutes to do it.

Agreed that is a problem with my setup as well. Clever idea there cutting the glass. I just angled my overflow cap a bit and it was a so so solution.

 

[SPSReeferMI]

Based on Kingreef’s question, I thought I would update everyone on my lighting choices. I’ve upgrade my lighting from 3 hydra 26’s to a hybrid LED solution from Aquatic Life (the new version with the better profile and dimming capability).

To begin with, I wasn’t overly pleased with the appearance of Hydras compared with Kessil lit tanks or Ecotech Radion tanks. However, I decided to take the advice of BRSTV that I would eventually want the hybrid for a more even blanket of light. That is very much the case that the LEDs just brighten everything up. Also, BRS said don’t worry about switching out which LEDs you have (example, don’t go buy Kessil over AI) because you can blend the spectrums with your LEDs.

For bulb choice, I have 2 Blue+ and 2 Coral+. I think I may switch to all Blue+ at a later point. The pics below show a lot more white than what I run the tank at. But I wanted to get a good pic, so I added some spectrum.

P.S. I think I spaced mine roughly 17” apart measured at the middle. They are a bit wider now on the hybrid light.

Hydras by themselves:

New Hybrid Light Pics:

 

[MW319]

Ok I’m jealous. The new lights look great. Did you order them from BRS?

 

[SPSReeferMI]

Ok I’m jealous. The new lights look great. Did you order them from BRS?

Thanks, glad you think they look good. I was planning to buy them a bit later once they were more needed with a bit more coral density than I presently have. But BRS ran a 20% off sale so I pulled the trigger.

 

[SPSReeferMI]

Picture of my new lid from ClearView Lids.

I lost my hawk fish this past week. That was a tough loss. I placed an order for the clear view lid that very day. Thanks for the suggestion. I went with the Pisces EXO and since I updated my lights to the hanging system, I only needed a feeding opening.

 

[MW319]

I lost my hawk fish this past week. That was a tough loss. I placed an order for the clear view lid that very day. Thanks for the suggestion. I went with the Pisces EXO and since I updated my lights to the hanging system, I only needed a feeding opening.

Oh man, Sorry for your loss. My hawk fish is my favorite and he eats out of my hand. I couldn’t be happier with my lid so I’m sure your going to like yours.

 

[Michelle G]

That's an awesome tank!

 

[KRAKENREEFAQUATICS]

What lights setting did u ultimately decide on using

 

[SPSReeferMI]

What lights setting did u ultimately decide on using

I decided to order the Kessil A360x’s. On Black Friday, I scored $50 off each light and placed the order for 3 of them along with the WiFi dongle. These lights would go right into my Aquatic Life hybrid fixture to replace my Hydra 26 HDs. I also opted to go with the Aquatic Life mounts for a clean and secure way to mount the Kessils into my AL fixture.

After:

Before:

Other shots:

Overall here are my impressions:
1.) I really like Kessil logic - the blue coloring is perfect and I found that I was never quite happy with where I could get my Hyrdras to look. Simply put, I feel like the Kessil look is more of a deep, blue ocean.
2.) The shimmer was intense at first and I was a little nervous. As others have noted, you don’t notice it after about 2 weeks. The tank does look more natural with it now.
3.) The Kessil WiFi dongle was not really worth the wait. For starters, there is no cloud connectivity (like with the AI Hydra). So you can only control it while on your home network. It does have a much stronger WiFi signal than AI, but I’m having difficulty connecting my phone to it consistently (I’m presently working with support on this issue).
4.) With only 3 Kessil lights over my Waterbox 170 that is 55”L x 26”D I feel I may need 1 more light. Presently I get about 400 par at the top of my rocks and that drops to about 250 midway where I’ve got several SPS.
5.) Unrelated, I mounted my Neptune Auto Feeder (AFS) onto the light fixture and it works great. I did this because my new lid can now fit perfectly onto my tank without extra cut outs (this was recommended by the manufacturer as well). Also, the food drops from deeper into the water column rather than floating!
6.) I really like the flush look of the mounts. If you go with Kessil, keep in mind that you can daisy chain the lights using standard USBC to USBC cords. Be sure to get ones that have a 90 degree at the tips. I ordered these ones and they did the job well: USBC on Amazon

 

[SPSReeferMI]

Auto Water Change - I did it!

This one was on my list from the first month of my tank. After reviewing everyone else’s work on this (in particular, @SuncrestReef), I struggled through water changes knowing that this could be easier. Here is my quick list of why I needed this:

1.) Stability - changing out a 1-3 gallons per day slowly is great to keep my hands out of the tank and impact the corals less.
2.) Automation - Not being home often means that I want things to be easy so that I can set and forget. With ~65 gallons, I can go about 4-6 weeks without having to worry about mixing salt.
3.) Having plenty of RO and freshly mixed saltwater is heavenly for maintenance tasks.

I was disappointed by how much a water change station and an Apex Dos with all of the necessary plumbing would cost. By my estimate, this was going to cost $1300-$1500. Here are a few tips that saved me some dough. I hope they can help others:

1.) You can order PVC that is clean and in custom colors from Home Depot. This way, if you order too much, it’s easy to return . This also helped me because I can use Amex points to buy Home Depot gift cards. Ordering the PVC and 6 gate valves from there saved me about $150 (when you consider all of the misc parts I needed to add to complete this station.
2.) I bought my 65G holding tanks from Blain’s. While the store closest to me did not have them in stock, I could use their online system to see that one across the state did. So I had them transfer it. Before they even called me I could see that they arrived using their website inventory - very cool. These were roughly $115 each and no freight fees.
3.) I build the stand out of wood. Finding a metal stand that could support this weight was difficult for under $200. So I used my HD gift cards to purchase ~$40 in wood. Literally took me 2 hours excluding painting it. It’s not pretty, but it does the job nicely.

Pics of the final result (please ignore the cords!):

 

[MW319]

Scott, everything looks sweet. I’m really loving your lights and I’m really hoping I can fight the urge to upgrade mine.