G&B Tank II: Waterbox Custom

[G&B Reefing]

My second tank!! I have trialed this hobby for the last threeish years with a red sea nano peninsula. The intent of this new tank is to be an sps dominate tank.

Specs:
Waterbox custom - 40L x 22W x 17H

Wanted something that was in between 3 and 4 ft with more width than the red sea but less than the waterbox frag tanks with a depth that still allows me to reach the bottom without getting my armpits wet.

Equipment: red sea heavy to try and keep most of the maintenance stuff under one app! Also, seen decent number of good reviews on the skimmer and reefmat roller.
Red sea 25 gyros (2x)
Red sea ato
Red sea dc skimmer
Ink bird thermometer and brs heaters 200w total
Nyos torq for carbon
Red sea 4000 g2 return pump
Red sea roller mat 250

Lighting:
Kessil a360xe (2x)
Will get an ai blade for addition fill down the road.

Put all controllers and power strips and power supplies in a side cabinet to keep the rats neat to a minimum!

Livestock:
White tail bristle tooth tang
Flame angle
Starcks damsel
Eight line flasher wrasse pair
Bartlett anthias (2-3)
Purple fire fish or a royal gramma

 

[G&B Reefing]

Worked with Jess at waterbox on this tank. The whole process takes as long as they say! Jess was great to work with and was very accommodating on a surprise address change that occurred after I ordered. Tanks came well packed! Sturdy boxes and pallet, packaging weighed more than the tank which is the way it should be!

 

[G&B Reefing]

Tank is full. Got the return pump, gyros, skimmer, roller mat, and lights all working.

Fiddling with the ball valve trying to figure that out.

 

[G&B Reefing]

Really liking the red sea reefbeat app! Currently have reef waves, skimmer, return pump, and the roller mat on it. App is well laid out and intuitive.

 

[G&B Reefing]

Aquascape

 

[Gumbies R Us]

Aquascape

Love the aquascape! Can't wait to see what it looks like once you get livestock in there

 

[G&B Reefing]

 

[G&B Reefing]

All hardware is functional and working well with the respective apps.

Kessil wifi app was pretty straight forward, lights are functioning as intended.

Red sea app is working very well. I was worried reading other posts that I would have difficulty with at least one piece of hardware but currently everything is working as intended. The red sea ato and reef mat are pretty slick pieces of hardware!

Cycle plan. I did my last tank with dry rock and the red sea reef mature kit. The plan is to do the same with this one. The inly difference is that I do plan on moving a rock or two from my current tank into this one to help kick start it! Will get started this weekend with the cycle!

 

[G&B Reefing]

Added a nyos torq g2 with carbon to the sump. Of all the equipment for this tank it is the most disappointing. I got it modified so hopefully I dont get a carbon volcano.

On a positive note! I started the tank cycling today!! Using the red sea reef mature kit similar to how I did the first tank.

 

[G&B Reefing]

Order in with Dr Reef. Keeping the family engaged in this is a priority for me so I let everyone pick a fish for this first round!

Royal gramma
Dracula goby
Midas blenny
Dusty margin wrasse
5x tubo snails
10x astrea snails
10x blue/red leg hermits
Red banded pistol shrimp

 

[Euphyllia098]

Ordered a custom Waterbox myself. I agree that the communication has been great even with some last minute design changes.

Following along with your build.

 

[G&B Reefing]

Lid order placed with Kraken Reef. They did one for my first tank which was nice. 3-4 weeks for delivery.

 

[G&B Reefing]

First issue. Looks like I had a heater failure. Wife called while I was at work and said the inkbird was alarming and showing an e5 code. I checked the red sea ato temp log and saw a steady temp decline. The e5 alarm is a ran to long alert.

Looking at the overall trend, looks like I have a heater that isnt functioning well (slope of the line changes in recent days)

Any feedback is welcome. Fyi, my setup is two 100w ti brs heaters controlled through an ink bird.


I had the wife turn the system off and i interrogated after work. Convenient timing as nothing live is in it yet!

 

[G&B Reefing]

Ok… so i bought two new 100w heaters from brs. Plugged them in to the inkbird and no change! So it must be the inkbird I thought! Nope, I bypassed the inkbird and directly plugged the heaters into the power strip…. No change.

I have concluded that the heaters work and so does the inkbird. So what gives? It has to be the weather! We just had a dip in temps last week. My guess is the temps in the house are down and the 200w combined cant keep up. Temps flatline at about 77 degrees. Will tinker with it some more but i will likely get a 200w unit to get a combined 300w on the inkbird.

 

[G&B Reefing]

Was at the LFS and saw one that I couldn’t resist, been on my list for a while. Hybrid powder blue tang. Watched it for a long time. Was in a tank with other fish, no aggression at all. Well fed and eating. Also, looked super clean, they run copper.

Decided to pull the trigger. Not taking any chances. Doing a two week copper qt and one week prazipro to make sure it is “clean”. Trying to time this with my dr reef order and my kraken lid order!

 

[G&B Reefing]

Picture for today.

Cyano appears to be on the sand. Starting to get some growth in the rocks.

Buying a third kessil a360xe, on sale this week! Also a 200w heater is on the way, this should be a permanent fix to my heating issue.

Excited to hear from dr reef and kraken reef on the fish and lid!! Cant wait!!!

 

[G&B Reefing]

Latest update.

Dr Reef order showing up tomorrow!

Also, got a third kessil a360xe and a 200wt heater. The temp is no longer going out of limits.

I run the kessils with the 55 degree reflectors. Mainly to to keep it out of my eyes when i am in the room. Third was needed to get better light overlap. Down the road I plan on getting a led bar across the front of the tank for additional fill light if needed.

 

[G&B Reefing]

 

[G&B Reefing]

My fish, shrimp, and snails were delivered! No deaths!! Dr Reef did a great job packing them. There were a few extras in the box. Specifically two pistol shrimp and two dusky margin wrasses.

In the excitement and hurry to get everyone out of the bag (after temp acclimating) I did not think about how two dusky wrasses would do in this tank… both were added and both vanished into the sand…

I would add some pictures but the only fish visible is the midas blenny. Everyone else is well hidden. Pictures to come after everyone comes out from hiding!!

 

[G&B Reefing]

Kraken reef lid delivered!! Fits well!