First reef tank .. Waterbox 65.4 AIO

[newfly]

Just pulled the trigger and ordered the waterbox 65.4 AIO tank. Now is the hurry up and wait phase. 4-8 weeks shipping time.

Going to order some marco rock to start cycling in a tub. I have the following equipment in mind. Could use any feedback/suggestions.

Skimmer : Tunze 9012 DC
Return Pump : Red Dragon 5 ECO - 780gph at 0 head loss ; I assume in AIO setup, i won't have any head loss. Is this correct assumption? I am checking with Waterbox if this AIO can handle 800gph flow and not overwhelm the filter socks ( it have 4x 2.75in socks)
Heater : not sure yet.
Light: 2X AI 16HD
aquascape : 60lb of marcorock + 0.5-1" of sandbed.

This will be my first attempt at reef tank. Have FOWRL for a long time. Current setup is 15G with 2 green chromis and 1 neon dotty back.

The plan is to start slowly with easy coral, like zoa, mushroom and duncan.

I may need some advise on the order of fish to add

The tank is 48x15 with 4.7inch for the back 'sump'

here is my socking wish list:

Purple or Yellow Tang
5-7 green chromis - i know i take the risk of them killing each other . I have 2 now that kinda work out.
1 neon dd ( existing)
1 flame angle
2 Heniochus Black & White Butterfly ( may not be reef safe, but this is the fish that i really wanted to get for a very long time)


the dottyback is not very aggressive with the chromis in the current setup. The chromis is picking to each other occasionally but not drawing blood yet. I read that dd can be a pain especially if he already establish his territory.

Questions:

1. with 48" length, i think this maybe OK for a small tang like yellow or purple. I can skip the tang if majority opinion is the tank is too small
2. Is this high bioload for this setup?
3. help me with which fish to introduce first. I plan to use the current 15G as QT, but this means, i have to move the 2 chromis and dd to the main display. Worry about dd territorial issue.

exited about this build. Feel like a kid again!

 

[newfly]

Update:

Skimmer: After a lot of research, the tunze 9012 is just not going to fit without modification. Instead i picked up a used 9004 DC. A little small for the tank , but lets see how it works. I'm not going to sweat it now.

Flow - Pick up a couple sicce nano 2000 on sale ( $40 for 2). Since i'm planning on bare bottom, these small nano pump can help clear the bottom. Will get a couple of dc flow pump like Nero when i get my corals 6-12months down the road.

Rock- leaning towards macro shelf rock. a little pricey but what is not in reefing. I can't find any local store that carry them. Will have to online and hope i get decent variety of sizes

Controller- Spend a lot of time researching the Hydros controller. I might just get one to control the sicce nano, heater (backup for the build in thermometer) and ato . Will add a float valve as fail safe. Hydros2 will likely do the job. Will need 2 Wifi power strip ( 2 heaters, 2 return pumps, 2 powerheads, 2 dc flow pump for the future). with AIO i cannot add more equipment, which is a good thing.

 

[Matthew Halford]

Following along. I too have the same tank and just got water in it.
I do have a concern about the bowing in the front panel now that it’s full.

 

[Matthew Halford]

Forgot to add, I’m going skimerless. I had zero luck in my 20 gallon with the Nano skimmers

 

[newfly]

Following along. I too have the same tank and just got water in it.
I do have a concern about the bowing in the front panel now that it’s full.

Bowing? Arg .. are you just worried it will happen or it’s already showing sign ? I would contact waterbox . This is definitely concerning.

the tank is only 65g total volume . Is it not structurally sound? It does have a slightly thinner glass at 10mm, but hard to image it will not hold since the tank is not very tall.

Keep me posted

 

[newfly]

Pickup a bunch of stuff today, taking advantage of the Black Friday sale

Varios 2
MarcoShelf Rock 20lb - initial order. I will order more if i like the rock
Various plumbing / Valves
DI add-on canister
Tropic Marine Hydrometer

Future upgrade will be mode flow/wavemaker when i get corals. I currently have 4 sicce nano (500+gph each) . If i use all 4, I have ~2500gph including the return, which is about 50X flow rate. More than enough for FOWLR I supposed.

Now i Just need the tank

 

[Simon Reefing]

I'm selling a 9004 dc if you haven't bought one yet. Awesome tank!

 

[newfly]

I'm selling a 9004 dc if you haven't bought one yet. Awesome tank!

Thanks. I already bought one off the forum. Its on the way.

 

[newfly]

Spend more money. The learning here is whatever you think your budget is, be prepared to double or triple it. I think i'm at $3500 now. Hopefully this is it before fish and corals


2x Reefi Uno + mount
2x Nero 3
Hydros Control 2 + water level sensor + additional wifi strips
Tunze ATO
20lb of Marcorock foundation rock

Still no news on the tank ETA

 

[Kerrihar]

That's the way all projects go - develop your best estimate for $ and time, and then double them!

Hope you get news on the tank soon, watching with interest (love build threads!).

 

[newfly]

No news yet on the tank. Well, this give me time to plan and get the rest of the setup.

Dec 13th - Started dry rock cycle in a 20G tub. Dose ammonia to 2ppm, maybe a tad more. Dose 5ml of MIcrobacter 7 every other day. Also add some matrix from my mature tank to seed.
Dec 20th - Ammonia now at abt 1.2-2.0. Hard to tell from Seachem test kit. Nitrate start showing, slightly >0 , maybe 0.05?

Looks like the cycle have started. I'm not in a hurry since the tank is not even here. Will test weekly.

Got a QT setup. Ended up with Fluval 13.5. Upgraded the return pump to sicce 0.5, add a 100W heater & a sicce nano powerhead and i should be all set. Plan to use matrix from existing tank to instant cycle this QT setup.

As for fish, local LFS currently don't have flame angel. I'm hoping to start QT while waiting for my tank.

My plan Final stocking list

2 6 green chromis
Flame Angel
2 clowns
5 2 azure damsel
neon dottyback
Kole Tang

I have seen LFS carry flame angel. Hopefully i can get one soon. Otherwise, i think it should be OK to swap the order of the Damsel and Angel. I'll wait a week or two to see if i can get a Flame Angel locally. I rather not buy online. No need to additional stress with shipping in the wintertime.

I know I'm taking the risk with Flame Angel with corals, and also with the Damsel (aggression). I figure since i already have a dottyback, its almost impossible to get a smaller docile fish now. Might us well get a semi-aggressive tank. From what i read Azure is the least aggressive among the damsel. We will see.

 

[maxpare79]

I want to buy the same tank but worried a out the skimmer situation, those that fit barely seem to be rated for such a volume

Could you explain why the 9012 doesn't fit?

The skimmer champe is 6.3x 4.7 x 17 and the
9012 should be 5.5 x 4.3 x 16.3 in

I am new to all of this so eli5 if you can lol

 

[newfly]

I want to buy the same tank but worried a out the skimmer situation, those that fit barely seem to be rated for such a volume

Could you explain why the 9012 doesn't fit?

The skimmer champe is 6.3x 4.7 x 17 and the
9012 should be 5.5 x 4.3 x 16.3 in

I am new to all of this so eli5 if you can lol

Looking at the skimmer dimension again, the water intake is at the other direction and we have about 0.8 inch clearance. I would think this is good.

This is the only orientation the skimmer will fit. To mount the skimmer this way, the external magnet mount will be on the baffle wall , which means it will be underwater. Will this be a problem in the long run? Rust?

the problem is the direction of the water intake. Yes it will fit but you have to modify the magnet mount . I decided not to modify a brand new expensive skimmer.

 

[BlueReefer73]

Update:

Skimmer: After a lot of research, the tunze 9012 is just not going to fit without modification. Instead i picked up a used 9004 DC. A little small for the tank , but lets see how it works. I'm not going to sweat it now.

Flow - Pick up a couple sicce nano 2000 on sale ( $40 for 2). Since i'm planning on bare bottom, these small nano pump can help clear the bottom. Will get a couple of dc flow pump like Nero when i get my corals 6-12months down the road.

Rock- leaning towards macro shelf rock. a little pricey but what is not in reefing. I can't find any local store that carry them. Will have to online and hope i get decent variety of sizes

Controller- Spend a lot of time researching the Hydros controller. I might just get one to control the sicce nano, heater (backup for the build in thermometer) and ato . Will add a float valve as fail safe. Hydros2 will likely do the job. Will need 2 Wifi power strip ( 2 heaters, 2 return pumps, 2 powerheads, 2 dc flow pump for the future). with AIO i cannot add more equipment, which is a good thing.

What modification would be necessary? I have a 9012 on the way and was also looking at the Aquamaxx HOB 1.5 skimmer.

 

[BlueReefer73]

Following along. I too have the same tank and just got water in it.
I do have a concern about the bowing in the front panel now that it’s full.

Bowing? Is the tank level?

 

[newfly]

What modification would be necessary? I have a 9012 on the way and was also looking at the Aquamaxx HOB 1.5 skimmer.

mount the magnet on the other side of the skimmer. if you look at the picture i posted above, the current magnet mount is indicated by "purple" box. You need to move it to the back wall. You can super glue it, but then you'll lose the rubber dampers build in to the magnets. Not sure how noisy the skimmer will be without the dampers.

 

[newfly]

Tank ETA is now towards end of Jan. Its the hurry up and wait stage.

50lb Rock cycle completed
QT just finished cycle.

Thinking of converting my current 15tg tank as a second QT. Basically remove Live rock and invert, and start CP+Metro. Hope this is not a bad idea. This setup will be taken down once i have the new tank.

Latest stocking list plan:

Kole Tang
1 flame angle
5-7 green chromis - i know i take the risk of them killing each other . I have 2 now that kinda work out.
1 neon dd ( existing)

The hard part is sourcing these locally. Saw a couple Kole tang in LFS, but they don't look too good. Might just buy from Dr Reef.

 

[Matthew Halford]

Bowing? Is the tank level?

Hey there, so to follow up the tank really isn’t bowing more than expected or to cause any concern.

I know it probably sounds stupid, but I have a Red Sea screen top that bows slightly and it really created an illusion of it bowing.

 

[newfly]

DT tank ETA now Jan 15th! Yay! Received the fedex tracking number.

Got 5 chromis in the QT. They are on the smaller side ~1inch. The 13.5G EVO looks huge for 5 tiny fishes.
Have not started medication yet. Want to let them settle down a day or two. The fish have been at LFS for ard 1 month. No visibly sign of any pathogen. Wish me luck! They ate some live baby brine. Took interest in pallets but split out the Nyos Algae. They did eat some Hikari S. I'll stick with Hikari. Will also feed freeze dry mysis with selcon.

Plan to start copper power + Metro in a few days.

For the new build, i bought the Tropic Marine hydrometer. Its HUGE and klutz like me, i broke it on the first use. $40 down the drain just like that Luckily i have a (also new) refractometer. I was hoping to calibrate the refractometer with the giant hydrometer, but oh well i will have to buy the calibration liquid once a while. For QT, since the current need is to match the water in the bag, i think I'm good for now. I calibrated the refractometer to 0 (RODI water) and the water in the fish bag comes out at 1.025 so i match that in the Qt. If 1.025 is truly accurate, who knows but as long as the Qt matches, I'm good for now.

 

[newfly]

Added 2x 1" captive breed ocellaris clownfish to the Qt. This will be the first batch of first going to the main DT. 5 chromis + 2 clowns, all about 1". I think this should be OK for a 10G QT tank. Fish eating , so far so good.

QT CP dosing: Plan to add 2 more dose to bring to 2.5ppm, then i'll add metro. This is the first time using copper and QT. Hopefully the fish will survive. Purposely start with 2 hardy species, to improve my odds.

	CP ml	Hanna
9-Jan​	6​	0.92​
10-Jan​	4​	1.47​