Caravan's Waterbox 135.4 in Austin

Caravanshaka

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I recently moved to Austin from Dallas, and was only able to bring a Nuvo 10g tank with me after downsizing from a 180 gallon tank and a Nuvo SR-80. Fortunately, I was prepared, and the week after we moved in my new Waterbox 135.4 arrived. I originally looked at the Red Sea tanks, and came across Waterbox on Premium Aquatics site. I talked to Jason there, and he had Brandon check them out at Macna. On their recommendation, I decided to go for it.

I am now about 2.5 months into the Waterbox being up and running, and wanted to start a build thread to document it. As much as I would like a stable system, I am terrible about changing things up on tanks, and sometimes a build thread is the best way to document changes and how your system reacts. Even in the 2.5 months it has been running, I have made a couple major changes, and I suspect more will come in the future.

Here are the specs:

Tank
Waterbox 135.4 with included sump and top off system
Lighting
3x Radion XR15 G4 pro's mounted on a custom 80/20 extruded aluminum rack
Aquaticlife 4x39w hybrid with 2x Radion XR15 G4 pro's mounted on a custom 80/20 extruded aluminum rack
Flow
Vectra M1 return
Vortech MP40wqd
Filtration
filter socks
Simplicity DC240 skimmer
refugium utilizing a zetlight fuge light in the built in ATO section of the sump
Bashsea Media reactor utilizing BRS Rox carbon
Marinepure bio block and balls in sump
Controller
Apex Classic
2x pH probes, temp probe
Leak Detection
Other Equipment
Bashsea 10g ATO Container
Neptune DOS doser for Ca and Alk
Vertex RX-C 6D calcium reactor fed off return manifold
10lb cO2 tank with Reef-Fanatic Regulator
Octo Aquatics lid​

Livestock
55 lbs Premium Aquatics Pukani rock with some leftover Walt Smith rock that traveled in my nuvo from Dallas
Tropic Eden sand​

Fish
2 clowns
yellow Tang
Regal Tang
Orange-Back Fairy Wrasse
Blue Spot Goby
2 Blue Chromis (started with 5 and they picked themselves down to 2)​
SPS
Jason Fox Unknown
Tyree Pink Lemonade
WWC Hailstorm
WWC Yellow Tip
WWC Mad Man Austera
WWC Mirage Milli
WWC Watermelon Milli
WWC Green Austera
Cornbred Pink Tip
WWC Cookie Monster
WWC Hyper Pink
WWC Shaggy Dog Tenuis
WWC Wildfire
WWC Limelight
ORA Valida Tri-Color
ORA Laura's Purple Polyp
Live Aquaria CCG Strawberry Shortcake
Cultivated Reef Commoner's Envy
Cultivated Reef Electric Green
Live Aquaria CCG Neon Polyp True Undata
LPS
Green Purple Frogspawn
Green Octospawn
Green & Purple Splatter Hammer
Teel Hammer
Light Green Hammer
Neon Hammer
Pink tip Torch
Bubble Gum Monster Chalice
Pink ******* Chalice
Zoa
Sunny D
Kedd Red
Rasta
Fruit Loop
King Midas
Eye of Rah
Scrambled Eggs
Devils Armour
WWC AOI
Paly Grandis
Utter Chaos
Vivid Rainbows
Coral is a mixed reef, and has some not listed here but wanted a place to keep track of the bigger/higher end stuff I have.

First pic is the 10g nuvo that I brought from Dallas:


Next is a pic of my water station setup. Running 7 stages of filtration after my water softener:


Pictures of the tank prior to lighting change:
38915020051_7ff2882fea_c.jpg


38879662862_8feef86ca6_c.jpg


38028947165_e716992fa2_c.jpg


And more since the lighting change:
38915019681_153b8c9239_c.jpg


25043748598_21e4fa6053_c.jpg
 
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Broadfield

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Can't wait to see pics! Give Flickr a go for your photos. It does not degrade the quality of the photo like most other hosts.
 

Broadfield

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Thanks for the suggestion. Got Flickr up and running today and added some shots to the OP

Looks awesome! How are you liking it with the addition of the T5s?
 
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Caravanshaka

Caravanshaka

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Looks awesome! How are you liking it with the addition of the T5s?

I am a big fan of hybrid setups, and in the past have always DIY'd LED's into ATI fixtures to achieve this. For this build I decided to keep it simpler and not do a DIY setup, which is why I started with Radions. When the Aquatic Life fixtures came out I got one right away, as I know the t5 spectrum will make a big difference in corals, especially SPS. Now I am also considering changing the Radions to a DIY setup anyway as I think my DIY stuff has better coloration than I have been able to achieve with the Radions.
 

Jimbo662

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Great looking tank. I'm doing a very similar set up with a Planet Aquarium 130, Aquatic Life fixture w/ Radions and the Artfully Acrylic lid. Are you on the Austin Reef Club site?
 
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Caravanshaka

Caravanshaka

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Great looking tank. I'm doing a very similar set up with a Planet Aquarium 130, Aquatic Life fixture w/ Radions and the Artfully Acrylic lid. Are you on the Austin Reef Club site?

I have checked it out, but didn't see much activity so haven't posted anything. Usually the marketplace sections of the forum show how much activity a site will get, and it is only getting a few posts a day max.
 

Jimbo662

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I have checked it out, but didn't see much activity so haven't posted anything. Usually the marketplace sections of the forum show how much activity a site will get, and it is only getting a few posts a day max.
Yeah, it kinds comes and goes.
 
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Caravanshaka

Caravanshaka

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Great looking tank. I'm doing a very similar set up with a Planet Aquarium 130, Aquatic Life fixture w/ Radions and the Artfully Acrylic lid. Are you on the Austin Reef Club site?
went through your build thread to look for the 130 and didn't see it. Is it a new build? Need Radions? I have a few ;)
 

Scubafrog

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Great looking aquarium. Love the scape. Thanks for doing a WB build thread.
 
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Caravanshaka

Caravanshaka

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Well I just placed a livestock order for some Acros...my wallet hurts but I am excited:

Walt Disney
Pearlberry
Pikachu
Polar Ice
Red Bull
 
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Caravanshaka

Caravanshaka

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Ordered parts to go back to DIY on the LED's. Will be running 6x nanobox arrays be driven by BlueAcro drivers and controlled by the Apex VDM. Will only have a power wire and the VDM signal cable going up to the light...the drivers will all be mounted on the heatsink. Excited to get rid of the cool whites, reds, and greens on the Radions and use proper Neutral and Warm whites to hit the right spectrums.
 
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Caravanshaka

Caravanshaka

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Ordered parts to go back to DIY on the LED's. Will be running 6x nanobox arrays be driven by BlueAcro drivers and controlled by the Apex VDM. Will only have a power wire and the VDM signal cable going up to the light...the drivers will all be mounted on the heatsink. Excited to get rid of the cool whites, reds, and greens on the Radions and use proper Neutral and Warm whites to hit the right spectrums.

Well, blueacro never replied, so I cancelled my order with them...the nanobox arrays were backordered and I ended up cancelling them as well. Going a totally different route now, and ordered 2x 250w radiums and will be building 2 actinic strips using luxeon C and semileds LED's. I also decided to upgrade to the 2016 Apex in preparation for the Trident when it comes out! Going to be a fun christmas break if everything comes in!
 
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Caravanshaka

Caravanshaka

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Just won an eBay auction for a Masterflex peristaltic pump for the calcium reactor effluent....managed a brushless with a usable SS roller head for $225 shipped! Calcium reactor has been stable so far, but I know it's a matter of time before the needle valve clogs and this will make adjustments a breeze!

Apex and Lumen Brite pendants due in today. M80 ballasts due in tomorrow. a few more 80/20 pieces to update the light stand coming soon as well.
 

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Looks great! Do you have a pic of the back of the stand with the Apex stuff? Wondering where you mounted your EB8s. Looking at getting a Waterbox tomorrow from my LFS to replace my leaking 120., but wondering how to mount all my apex stuff cleanly...
 

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