eleongsit Waterbox Marine X 35.1 Build

[eleongsit]

Hello!

Its been a long time since I've posted anything. I have a Fluval 13.5 Nano which very soon I will be transferring over to my new Waterbox Marine X 35.1 tank.

I just started building it today so it does not have water just yet or a door on the stand because I have been having trouble with the hinges lol.

Previous build thread: https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/fluval-evo-13-5-build-started-may-2020.789611/page-3#post-8796083

Current Equipment:

Tank: Waterbox Marine X 35.1
Lighting: Radion XR15 Pro
Skimmer: Bubble Magus Curve 5 Elite
Return Pump: Sicce Syncra Silent 2.0

My current plan is to transfer contents of the 13.5 into the new tank possibly removing one of my pieces of live rock that's basically just a boulder and adding some carbsea life rock to supplement. I'll let that cycle before adding anything further. The only fish in my 13.5 is a yellow watchman goby.

I am also going to be adding more live sand, but this is where I am a bit unsure, should I add the new sand and then the old sand on top, old sand on the bottom and new on top or mix it up? I'm not too worried about releasing trapped gasses at this point because I'm assuming that will happen in the 13.5 before I transfer it over due to all the mixing that will happen on that side.

Anyone have any suggestions for me to make the transfer easier/ more efficient?

 

[blaxsun]

Congrats on the upgrade! You should actually be able to insta-cycle your new tank by adding something like Bio-Spira, the new live sand and any existing rock with new saltwater. As soon as it clears up (the includes clarity packets in the sand work great) you can transfer the rest of your your rock, corals, fish and inverts.

Whether you keep the old sand or not is up to you, but myself I would probably thoroughly rinse/clean and let dry before adding to the new tank.

 

[eleongsit]

Well I've transferred the contents of my Fluval 13.5 into the new tank. So far its only about half filled as I decided to keep things a bit easier on my coral and fish to do a straight transfer of water and sand to the new tank. I'll slowly fill it up going forward to hopefully make it more like a gigantic slow water change...

Hopefully its less stressful for everything this way but time will tell. I also added some nitrifying bacteria.


Question I have though, with my tank being only 20 gallons display and 10 gallon sump is having a protein skimmer necessary or could the space in my sump be better used for something like a refugium? I'm looking for opinions on ether option here. I mainly plan on keeping soft corals like zoas and mushrooms, possibly rock flower anemones if I find some nice ones.

Fish wise I was thinking some Bengai cardinals to go with my yellow watchman and if I can find one a pistol shrimp.