Danny's WaterBox 20 Gallon Build Thread

[danielbrito0311]

Hi all, I'm creating this thread to track my tank's progress. It was set up in November 2023 and is my first saltwater tank! I will make some more posts with pictures and more details. Please feel free to reach out with any questions! By the way, videos on my posts don't show up on Safari if you use it as your browser.

Specifications (as of 2025):
Tank: Waterbox 20 Gallon Cube
Light: AI Prime 16 HD
Pump: Stock Pump
Heater: Fluval M100W
Inkbird Temperature Controller
Wave maker: AI Nero 3
ATO (Useek Auto Top Off)
Lid: Waterbox Mesh DIY Lid
BRS 1.1 ML/min Doser
Kasa Smart Outlet
RODI: Aquatic Life 75 GPD Unit
(3) Home Depot 5 Gallon Buckets

Scape:
~12 lbs of dry rock
~1 bag of CaribSea Fiji Pink Sand

Stocking (Fish):
2 Clownfish (Pair)
1 Longnose Hawkfish
1 Mandarin Dragonet (Biota)

Stocking (CUC):
~8 Astrea Snails
~2 Blue leg hermit crabs
~2 Emerald Crabs
~1 Tiger Conch

Stocking (Other):
-Rock Flower Anemone
-Bubble Tip Anemone

Coral:
-Cotton Candy Torch
-NY Knicks Torch
-Dragon Soul Torch
-Gold Hammer
-Purple Hammer
-Blue Stylophora
-Red Montipora Cap
-Green+Red Montipora Cap
-Green Milliepora
-Yellow Milliepora
-Jawbreaker Mushrooms
-Rhodactis Mushrooms
-Acans
-Duncans
-Rasta Zoanthids
-Magician Zoanthids
-Sunny D Zoanthids
-Pink Diamond Zoanthids
-Gorgonian

Additives:
All for Reef

Salt:
Instant Ocean Reef Crystals

Testing:
Salifert Test Kits (Ammonia, Nitrite, Nitrate, Alkalinity, Calcium)

Special Thanks to everyone who has helped me out along the way!

 

[danielbrito0311]

Scape:
Below are some images of the rock scape as it was being planned and glued. Took me a couple of hours since I broke big pieces of rock into small pieces and slowly pieced them together, making sure to leave space on the sides for access.

 

[danielbrito0311]

Cycling:
I then filled the tank and cycled it using Dr. Tim's for about a month and a half. I used their liquid ammonia for the ammonia source and added fish only after the tank was testing correctly. During this time, lights remained off other than when I was looking at the tank and Copepods were added once.

 

[danielbrito0311]

Maintenance:
On this system, I perform weekly 5 gallon water changes (25%). I also scrape the algae weekly and dust off rock work/top layer of sand weekly. Once a month I clean out the filtration areas during a water change. I do not run a skimmer.

Water Change:
I mix Instant Ocean Reef Crystals salt in a bucket with a pump and heater for 15 minutes before a water change. To drain the tank I use a simple piece of plastic hose and suction and fill up a bucket with tank water. I then fill the tank back up with the water I prepared 15 minutes before, ensuring that the salinity matches and temperature as well.

 

[Gumbies R Us]

Love the aquascape!

 

[danielbrito0311]

Adding First Fish:
After cycling the tank I purchased my first two fish, two small clownfish from Mosreef in Brooklyn, NY. I also purchased some snails to help with the bits of algae beginning to form. The larger of the two clowns was about an inch and a half and the smaller was about an inch.

 

[danielbrito0311]

First Coral:
After about 2 weeks with the clownfish and no issues, I picked up some corals:
(1) Magician Zoanthids
(1) Rasta Zoanthids
(1) GSP
(1) Rhodactis Mushroom

 

[danielbrito0311]

Lighting:
I am running a modified David Saxby Lighting Schedule. The main modification is that the light is on for about 2 hours less than the original schedule.

I have not measured the PAR in this tank but believe it is on the lower end.

 

[danielbrito0311]

More Coral:
All the tester corals did well so I decided to pick up some more, including, over the span of a couple of weeks:

(1) Green Sinularia
(1) Green Torch
(1) Purple Hammer

 

[danielbrito0311]

Damaged Hammer:
When trying to cut off a new hammer coral off its frag plug, I dropped it and most of the coral came off leaving just the skeleton behind with a few tentacles.

 

[Pizzafam!]

Awesome job ! Following.

 

[danielbrito0311]

Bubble Tip Anemone:
I wanted to try out an anemone but knew that they have the potential to split/walk and cause issues with coral. I decided to temporarily house one in a breeder box. It did well and grew quite a bit before splitting and I have been slowly selling them off since as they split.

 

[danielbrito0311]

Adding Rock:
I felt that there was some empty space in the front of the tank and wanted to add some depth to the scape so I added a small rock in the bottom right of the tank. This allowed for more space for corals as well as created a small cave around the back that is not visible from the front.

 

[danielbrito0311]

Patience:
After adding some coral and rock, I let the tank sit for a bit to let things grow in. I kept up with weekly water changes and other than that the only maintenance was to top of the RODI Resevoir under the tank.

In the summer this was an almost daily activity as my apartment gets very hot and water evaporated very quickly. My unit produces 75 GPD but due to decreased water pressure was not being this efficient. This resulted in a 5 gallon bucket taking almost 8 hours to fill with RODI water. I assumed that the unit was not even filtering correctly due to the low water pressure. I decided to buy a booster pump and this solved the issue.

 

[danielbrito0311]

Awesome job ! Following.

Thanks my tank is actually a year and a half old so I'm posting all the pictures I have leading up to present day, hope you can check it out when I am up to date on posts!

 

[danielbrito0311]

Reefapalooza:
In the summer of 2024 I attended Reefapalooza New York for the first time. I purchased a good amount of coral. I expected the prices to be a bit lower but it was a great event :rolling-on-the-floor-laughing:

This is what my tank looked like with everything on the sand bed acclimating.

 

[danielbrito0311]

Summer-Fall Fish Update:
After Reefapalooza I have barely added any coral and have instead added fish, a mandarin dragonet from biota and a Longnose hawkfish.

I placed the mandarin dragonet in a breeder box for the first couple of months since it arrived very very tiny. It instantly ate frozen and pellet food (TDO). After a couple of months I released it and it got picked on my clownfish for a bit but overall did well and has doubled in size.

Around this time, my clownfish began laying eggs for the first time which made them much more aggressive. Their eggs were laid on a leather coral that they have lived in since I got the coral.

 

[danielbrito0311]

Dosing:
Around Fall of 2024 I noticed my alkalinity start to drop between water changes so much that the weekly 25% was no longer enough to maintain the levels I'd like. At this point I began dosing All for Reef and that has helped my tank drastically. I dose using the simple BRS dosing pump on a timer through my Kasa smart outlet.

 

[Fishguy8]

nice

 

[danielbrito0311]

Anemone Split:
My anemone split a couple of times and this is one of the babies, it managed to escape an aclimation box with a lid somehow.