First marine tank - Waterbox 90.3

[jakeb]

Intro

I thought I would start my marine tank build post while I'm waiting for my tank to arrive. I'm new to marine, but have kept freshwater on and off for 20 years. I'm really happy with my current freshwater planted tank, but I won't talk about that here

Equipment (so far)

I ordered a Waterbox Marine X 90.3 from Kraken Corals at the start of February. I've been told they will have it in stock in March (hopefully closer to 1st March than 31st!). My second choice was ND Aquatics as they offer custom aquariums, but preferred the returns on the WB, and the 'cleaner' look. Also, when I realised I could customise anything, I went down far too many rabbit holes...

I've been picking up equipment for around a year, and have tried to get second hand where possible. My original plan was to get a Waterbox 60.2, so some of the equipment will need to be replaced in time (I realised if I made my desk smaller, I could get a bigger tank...).

Tank: Waterbox Marine X 90.3
Skimmer: Tunze Comline DOC 9004
Powerheads: 2 x Jebao RW-8
Return: TMC Reef pump 2000 DC
Lights: 1 x Kessil A1600WE

I still need to buy an ATO/controllers, a few bits for my QT setup and some additional lights. I was going to get another Kessil later, but after a conversation at my LFS, I've been half convinced to go for Red Sea ReefLED 50's. I may buy one ReefLED at first, and replace the Kessil later, or buy two ReefLED's at once. I don't need to decide right now, so I'll think about it.

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[jakeb]

Location

This is where the tank is going in my conservatory/office. It has an insulated roof and blinds, and I live in the UK, so heat shouldn't be an issue in the summer.

I'm hoping to have enough space by the side of the tank for RODI water, test kits, etc. but it is going to be pretty tight.

(The marks on the wall have been painted, the tape for my aquascape was stickier than I thought...)

 

[jakeb]

Aquascape

This was taken before I cemented it together. I'm happy with the result and keep telling myself I enjoyed doing it, but it took a lot longer than I expected. I used thick superglue initially and Aquaforest Stone Fix after. I don't have anything to compare it to, but I'm not that impressed with it.

The end result was slightly different to this, but it's in the blue buckets starting to cycle now.

 

[jakeb]

Tank update

After a week or two of being told Waterbox would email me to give me an update on delivery times, I tried to ring them directly and was told I shouldn't of bothered. I tried Kraken Corals again, who said they had been told by WB that it could take another 4 - 6 weeks.

I've been impressed with Kraken Corals customer support, but Waterbox have been pretty poor so far. From what I can tell, Waterbox are struggling with orders at the minute. Has anyone else found this to be the case?

I'm tempted to cancel my order for the Waterbox 90.3 and go for a Redsea Reefer 300 XL instead, but the quality of the WB seems a little higher.

 

[bluerider098]

Tank update

After a week or two of being told Waterbox would email me to give me an update on delivery times, I tried to ring them directly and was told I shouldn't of bothered. I tried Kraken Corals again, who said they had been told by WB that it could take another 4 - 6 weeks.

I've been impressed with Kraken Corals customer support, but Waterbox have been pretty poor so far. From what I can tell, Waterbox are struggling with orders at the minute. Has anyone else found this to be the case?

I'm tempted to cancel my order for the Waterbox 90.3 and go for a Redsea Reefer 300 XL instead, but the quality of the WB seems a little higher.

Yes the wait time for the Marine X series tanks is long. I think they underestimated how popular this newer line of tanks would be. I think you cannot even order most of the smaller sizes from thier website at the moment as they are likely trying to get caught up on orders.

 

[ShepherdReefer]

Hello and welcome to the channel. What a great start on the new tank.

 

[jakeb]

Aquarium controller (Robo-tank)

I'm still waiting for the tank, so I've been working on what I can. After looking in to Reef-pi, and testing it with an old Raspberry pi on my freshwater tank, I decided to buy a Robo-tank aquarium controller and two AC power bars. It understandably took a while to ship from Canada to the UK, but it was definitely worth the wait. I'm really impressed with the quality, how much you can control, and how helpful Rob is. I would recommend getting one to anyone.

I've been buying/adding one bit of equipment at a time, and now have the following:

• Two waterproof DS18B20 temperature sensors to (currently one in each bucket to control a heater each)
• pH sensor
• ATO (AutoAqua ATO DC pump and two float sensors)
• AM2320 humidity and temperature sensor (will use in sump, and will use to control computer fan if needed)
• Controlling Kessil light (after some help from people on Reef2Reef)
• Powering pumps in each bucket

Once I have the tank set up, I will add all other equipment to the AC power bars - other than this, I don't think I will add anything else for a while (although I'm tempted to try a flow meter, or integrate with Prometheus). This will be powered from one plug socket, so I'm going to use a wifi smart plug to monitor power consumption and to send me a notification when it's lost power.

I should have enough space to the left of the cabinet to keep this, hopefully with enough space for a container for ATO water as well. I have an idea how to hide it, but I'm waiting to get the tank before I decide.

 

[jakeb]

Tank arrives

3 months and 22 days after ordering, and after quite a few delayed delivery dates, my aquarium finally arrived! The delivery driver dropped the pallet off by my back gate. I unpacked the pallet and somehow managed to get the various boxes to my back door on my own.



Cabinet assembly

This is my first marine tank, but this has to be the best quality tank I have seen. Building it was straightforward - the instructions were easy to follow and all panels are labelled. It took me a few hours to build, but I did have my 3 year old "helping" me.



Something obvious I didn't do...

After failing miserably at lifting the tank on my own (it was too heavy and too awkward to lift), I had to get some help lifting it on to the cabinet. I was lucky I could get someone to come over at short notice, as I really didn't want to leave it in the garden overnight. I should have realised this and planned for someone to come over in advance.

 

[jakeb]

Filling the tank

A few days before the tank was due to be delivered, I ordered a second membrane upgrade for my RODI unit. I am very glad I did, as it has really increased the output and reduced waste water as well. I purchased the RODI unit and membrane upgrade from Finest Filters and would recommend them to anyone in the UK.

I've attached the RODI to a scrap piece of wood. Water is fed from an outside tap through the cat flap (along with the waste water). It took the evening and a few hours the following morning to fill.

 

[jakeb]

Adding the rock

Now the tank is full of salt water, I can finally get the rock out of my two blue buckets! I have hated looking at them for the past few months - they have leaked for no apparent reason, the powerheads have made them vibrate, my cat sits on them and makes the lids fall in, my daughter tries to put stuff in them, the list goes on...

Having said that, I was dreading lifting the rock in to the tank, but the cement didn't crumble and it ended up being very simple.



The structure on the right is made of two parts that support each other. It is pretty stable, but I have some D-D Aquascape Putty to fix them together. I know if you apply it in air, it will then cure underwater, but does anyone know if I can apply it underwater as well?

 

[ying yang]

Hi jakeb.hope all is well with you and family.
Looking good so far and wish you all the luck possible.
Im new to saltwater also ( 3 months) and enjoying all the different critters and only got 5 fish/ pistol shrimp and few hermits lol.
Lots helpful people on this site ive found out so far.^_^

 

[ying yang]

Where in uk you at ?
Im in liverpool but from yorkshire

 

[jakeb]

Where in uk you at ?
Im in liverpool but from yorkshire

Good to see someone else from the UK in these forums, there's not too many of us around I live in Bedfordshire.

 

[ying yang]

Ok pleased to meet you.im mark ^_^
Yeah i dont see that many on here but im sure there a few.i often press the avatar to look but doesnt say where from or says from earth lol

 

[jakeb]

I'm definetely going through the algae phases now. Had diatoms initially, but now have black/brown/red cyano, green film and green hair.

I currently have a few zoa frags, 1 hammer, 1 war coral, 1 duncan and 1 favites. I have a small aiptasia on the duncan that I can't seem to get rid of, I can remove the rock it's glued to, but it's too small to use a syringe on - very annoying.

Apart from this, I only have 3 hermits, as my ammonia is staying at around 0.2 (my LFS is testing this for me before selling me anything else).

 

[jakeb]

Tank update and coral pictures

Seem to be getting past the ugly phase now, mainly thanks to my orange spot goby and trochus snails. Corals seem pretty healthy and coraline algae is growing well too.

Parameters are all pretty stable, except phosphates, which is dropping steadily (after a blip from feeding reef roids twice in a week...)

Seem to have copepods crawling everywhere in the display tank, but very few in the sump. Since my plan is to get one or two mandarins, I need to work out how to help them breed in my sump (currently only have a skimmer and some rubble in it). There doesn't seem to be enougth space in the WB 90.3 for a refugium, so I'm not sure what I'll do yet.



Acans, zoas, war coral and lobos. The green lobo was looking pretty ropey, but is looking better after I started syringing reef roids right in its mouth.


Rasta, fake lime and utter chaos zoas. Rastas are definately my favourite, but I'm picking up a blue rhino tomorrow, which looked amazing in the shop when I saw it at Zoa Marines last week.


Montipora - Giving this a go, as my local coral shop Zoa Marines suggested it, and said I could return it if it wasn't looking healthy after a few days.

 

[Little c big D]

Looking nice, and it moved along pretty quick. Can't wait to see it age!

 

[jakeb]

Looking nice, and it moved along pretty quick. Can't wait to see it age!

Thanks. I would take some better photos if I could, but I keep delaying replacing my old phone to buy things for the tank...

 

[Little c big D]

Thanks. I would take some better photos if I could, but I keep delaying replacing my old phone to buy things for the tank...

I understand the addiction! Ask a friend to take photos haha!

 

[jakeb]

Tank update

Changes to DT equipment

After one of my Jebao powerheads kept intermittently failing (and potentially leaking voltage), I replaced them with an AI Nero 5. It is smaller, better looking, way quieter and gives out decent flow. I wish I got it earlier... The profiles on the app are pretty useful, this is what I'm using.



Changes to sump



Until now I haven't really had much in my sump, just a heater, under-powered skimmer and heater shoved in the compartment.

To make space for a second heater, I moved the primary heater to the back chamber. Then added a 150W titanium heater and D&D controller going to a separate socket (so it does not go through the Robotank/Reef-Pi). An LCD temperate display and alarm has given me some piece of mind this summer as well.

I've swapped out the filter sockets with filter cups from Kraken Corals. They're a lot quieter than socks, and a lot easier to clean. The first has some sponge and filter floss, and the second has coarser sponge. The logic is that if I ever let maintenance slip and the first one clogs up, the coarser sponges on the second should be fine.

I've also added a PIR light, routed cables better, and added some hooks for equipment, and added a fan air and temperature sensor.

Refugium experiment

As my plan is to get a mandarin, I've started a very budget refugium experiment. To make space for the "refugium", I broke up some of the rock in to rubble and put it in an egg crate box. I then cable tied two pond plant pots together (to make it taller), used an old light from an experiment growing a plant (a bonsai, not something else) and an old tiny pump for a bit of flow. I think the total cost (excluding the chaeto) was about £2, which was for the pond plant containers



The chaeto hasn't died after about a month, infact it looks like it has grown. I am taking as a massive success! I'll probably buy some copepods to seed it with next month.

I am guessing this is not going to be anywhere big enough to feed a mandarin, and I fully expect I will need to culture copepods in a separate tank/container.

Nutrients

Most are pretty stable. Nitrates stay at 2.5, pH at 8.3, and I'm dosing a little Tropic Marine All-For-Reef to raise alkalinity, calcium and magnesium (all fine, just a little lower than I want).

Phosphates are being a pain though. They keep slowly dropping to zero, even with increased feeding. I am using Reef-Roids to raise them to around 0.6, before letting them drop down to 0 in around 5 days. I now switch off the skimmer in the day as well (which is great, as it is the noisiest thing in the room).