Home Office Centerpiece - Waterbox Marine X 60.2 Build

[FrontRangeReefer]

In other updates with my equipment, I picked up an Inkbird WiFi temperature controller for the heaters I will be using (JBJ TruTemp and Eheim Jager). Also, my lid and feed cup/lid arrived from Josh Lyons over at Kraken Reef. To put it simply, build quality on his products is incredibly good. I would recommend Kraken Reef products to anyone needing a quality jump lid for their tank.

As one would expect, I have spent far too much time trying to manipulate my aquascape to perfection over the past few weeks. The previous iterations did not offer enough in the way of horizontal surface area to mount corals. I also wanted more arches and burrowing areas, so I restructured and ultimately ended up with this:

 

[biocube40]

In other updates with my equipment, I picked up an Inkbird WiFi temperature controller for the heaters I will be using (JBJ TruTemp and Eheim Jager). Also, my lid and feed cup/lid arrived from Josh Lyons over at Kraken Reef. To put it simply, build quality on his products is incredibly good. I would recommend Kraken Reef products to anyone needing a quality jump lid for their tank.

As one would expect, I have spent far too much time trying to manipulate my aquascape to perfection over the past few weeks. The previous iterations did not offer enough in the way of horizontal surface area to mount corals. I also wanted more arches and burrowing areas, so I restructured and ultimately ended up with this:

That reefscape looks good! Actually quite similar to what I was thinking, except the island piece I was going to have on the front-right side and rockscape just to the left of it (so basically swapping the positions on the island and right "arm" of the scape. Looks great.

My challenge is going to be juggling aquascaping and troubleshooting everything with "live" rock... which is the route I was thinking of going. Trying to minimize the amount of time the rock will be out of the water.

 

[FrontRangeReefer]

I haven’t been this happy to receive an email in a very long time! Now, if the weather can cooperate here in the US so FedEx can deliver, I’ll be a happy camper.

 

[B2B]

Looks really good so far! Also waiting on my 60.2 and just finished my scape as well. I’ll be following along on your build.

 

[FrontRangeReefer]

Looks really good so far! Also waiting on my 60.2 and just finished my scape as well. I’ll be following along on your build.

Thank you! Do you plan on doing a build thread? Would enjoy following your upcoming build, as well.

 

[B2B]

Thank you! Do you plan on doing a build thread? Would enjoy following your upcoming build, as well.

I did add one, not sure how to copy the link though lol.

 

[FrontRangeReefer]

Mega update below!

14 weeks later and my tank was finally delivered safe and sound this afternoon. Patience is a virtue and I will definitely be applying that throughout my build. Waterbox really does a great job with packing these tanks for shipping, excess padding and styrofoam everywhere, and the sump neatly packed in the tank to save space.

I immediately got the white cabinet unpacked and assembled. It definitely feels to be of good quality, is very stable, and looks great. Other reefers have complained about the stability of the WB cabinets (i.e. wobbling on a Frag 55.2), but I did not face any of those issues. The instructions definitely left me wanting more as they were like IKEA pictorial instructions with very little detail. That being said, if you have assembled any IKEA cabinets before and have basic hardware knowledge you should not have too much difficulty with this task.

Without wasting any time, I got the sump and tank in place along with the plumbing. Again, the minimal instructions left me wanting more, but I was able to figure it out by watching WB’s YouTube channel. Everything appears to be of good quality. No concerns up to this point.

After that, I spent the rest of the afternoon and evening installing all my equipment. As you can tell from the pictures, I am going to be running a lot of equipment. Let it be known that the Marine X 60.2 sump is a tight fit with return pump, skimmer, two heaters, UV sterilizer plumbed on it’s own pump, ATO and all the controllers. I did manage to get it all to fit and organized the wiring to keep it relatively clean. The only things left to install are the dosing pump and supplement reservoirs. It’s definitely going to take some manipulating, but I think I can mount both somewhere on the right side of the sump cabinet.

Tomorrow, I plan on getting substrate in the tank along with my aquascape. If all goes well with that, it should be wet and cycling by tomorrow night. Stay tuned!

 

[AJJ0501]

Looks beautiful! Based on your sump, you seem to be quite the handyman right?

 

[FrontRangeReefer]

Looks beautiful! Based on your sump, you seem to be quite the handyman right?

Thank you! I like to consider myself a seasoned handyman, but also a techie.

 

[FrontRangeReefer]

Woke up early this morning and got my aquascape assembled and substrate placed. Filling with fresh saltwater as we speak. It’s all starting to come together!

 

[biocube40]

Man, it’s looking killer! Mine comes Monday... I have a lot of equipment as well; hoping to run most of it out the back to an adjacent closet. We’ll see once I see it all.

 

[biocube40]

Mega update below!

14 weeks later and my tank was finally delivered safe and sound this afternoon. Patience is a virtue and I will definitely be applying that throughout my build. Waterbox really does a great job with packing these tanks for shipping, excess padding and styrofoam everywhere, and the sump neatly packed in the tank to save space.

I immediately got the white cabinet unpacked and assembled. It definitely feels to be of good quality, is very stable, and looks great. Other reefers have complained about the stability of the WB cabinets (i.e. wobbling on a Frag 55.2), but I did not face any of those issues. The instructions definitely left me wanting more as they were like IKEA pictorial instructions with very little detail. That being said, if you have assembled any IKEA cabinets before and have basic hardware knowledge you should not have too much difficulty with this task.

Without wasting any time, I got the sump and tank in place along with the plumbing. Again, the minimal instructions left me wanting more, but I was able to figure it out by watching WB’s YouTube channel. Everything appears to be of good quality. No concerns up to this point.

After that, I spent the rest of the afternoon and evening installing all my equipment. As you can tell from the pictures, I am going to be running a lot of equipment. Let it be known that the Marine X 60.2 sump is a tight fit with return pump, skimmer, two heaters, UV sterilizer plumbed on it’s own pump, ATO and all the controllers. I did manage to get it all to fit and organized the wiring to keep it relatively clean. The only things left to install are the dosing pump and supplement reservoirs. It’s definitely going to take some manipulating, but I think I can mount both somewhere on the right side of the sump cabinet.

Tomorrow, I plan on getting substrate in the tank along with my aquascape. If all goes well with that, it should be wet and cycling by tomorrow night. Stay tuned!

Question-how strict are the freight people with drop off? Will they just push it up the driveway into the garage? I have a furniture dolley, so would they even help me just get in on the dolley?

 

[FrontRangeReefer]

Question-how strict are the freight people with drop off? Will they just push it up the driveway into the garage? I have a furniture dolley, so would they even help me just get in on the dolley?

The FedEx Freight delivery guy was friendly and helpful. He asked where I wanted it and pushed it up the driveway all the way into the garage next to the door to get into the house. I gave him a couple Red Bulls for his help.

 

[FrontRangeReefer]

What a fun weekend! As of yesterday morning, the tank is officially wet and fully operational. Being that I am completely new to saltwater, I find myself staring at this and can’t believe that I successfully built this tank. All equipment was tested and functioning as it should. While I felt like I was committing a sin, I quickly tested the lights for a few minutes and was mesmerized how good this looks, even without my livestock. For now, they are being unplugged so I’m not tempted!

As far as sump setup goes, I’m happy with how everything is working so far, but will likely make a few adjustments. I still need to decide how I’m going to mount the dosing pump in the sump and I may end up plumbing the UV sterilizer to/from the return chamber. Another item to address is the connection between the Nyos Viper 3.0 return pump barb and the stock Waterbox hose...the hose is slightly larger than the barb, but several tight zip ties fixed that. I’ll also want to experiment with my wave pump so that it isn’t blowing my substrate all around. one of these are urgent items by any means, so no real rush.

Once I confirmed there were no major issues/leaks and got plumbing and flow dialed in, I turned off the skimmer, UV sterilizer/dedicated pump and removed the filter socks. Then, I measured out and dosed the recommended amount of Brightwell’s MicroBacter QuikCycl and MicroBacter Start XLM. The Caribsea Life Rock and Caribsea Arag-Alive sand should supplement bacterial growth, but we’ll see. I’ll let it run for a while and will start testing either tonight or tomorrow to see where levels are at.

 

[biocube40]

What a fun weekend! As of yesterday morning, the tank is officially wet and fully operational. Being that I am completely new to saltwater, I find myself staring at this and can’t believe that I successfully built this tank. All equipment was tested and functioning as it should. While I felt like I was committing a sin, I quickly tested the lights for a few minutes and was mesmerized how good this looks, even without my livestock. For now, they are being unplugged so I’m not tempted!

As far as sump setup goes, I’m happy with how everything is working so far, but will likely make a few adjustments. I still need to decide how I’m going to mount the dosing pump in the sump and I may end up plumbing the UV sterilizer to/from the return chamber. Another item to address is the connection between the Nyos Viper 3.0 return pump barb and the stock Waterbox hose...the hose is slightly larger than the barb, but several tight zip ties fixed that. I’ll also want to experiment with my wave pump so that it isn’t blowing my substrate all around. one of these are urgent items by any means, so no real rush.

Once I confirmed there were no major issues/leaks and got plumbing and flow dialed in, I turned off the skimmer, UV sterilizer/dedicated pump and removed the filter socks. Then, I measured out and dosed the recommended amount of Brightwell’s MicroBacter QuikCycl and MicroBacter Start XLM. The Caribsea Life Rock and Caribsea Arag-Alive sand should supplement bacterial growth, but we’ll see. I’ll let it run for a while and will start testing either tonight or tomorrow to see where levels are at.

Lookin’ good! The FedEx freight guy was really nice-they messed up my drop off time so he is offering to put the tank in my garage for me while I’m at work this afternoon! We’ll see how it looks when I come home tonight (fingers crossed). I guess he is going to just sign for it himself too ‍lol...

 

[Tonycass12]

Also, my lid and feed cup/lid arrived from Josh Lyons over at Kraken Reef. To put it simply, build quality on his products is incredibly good. I would recommend Kraken Reef products to anyone needing a quality jump lid for their tank.

I'm going to have to look into one of these lids. That thing looks sharp!

 

[FrontRangeReefer]

Quick update today on cycling and equipment installation. So far, everything is working great. According to my test results, the cycle appears to be progressing reasonably fast without any major issue. I’m thinking that the Caribsea Life Rock, Live Sand, and MicroBacter XLM are working well together to build those important bacterial colonies.

Sunday, 28Feb2021:
- Ammonia: 2 ppm
- Nitrite: 0.25 ppm
- Nitr: 0 ppm
- pH: 8.0-8.1
- Salinity: 1.025

Wednesday, 03Mar2021:
- Ammonia: ~1.5 ppm (hard to tell - I’ll retest tonight)
- Nitrite: 5 ppm
- Nitrate: 40 ppm
- pH: 8.0
- Salinity: 1.025

The only other item of significance to update on is the installation of the dosing pump and solution reservoir. I’m not sure if this will be a permanent location for the reservoir, but I will try it here for now. I’m learning quickly that space comes at a premium in this sump!

 

[FrontRangeReefer]

Cycling appears to be proceeding smoothly, as expected. This morning’s test indicated the following:

Ammonia: 0.25 ppm
Nitrite: 2.0 ppm
Nitrite: 80+ ppm

The tank is definitely trending in the right direction, but color is difficult to discern with these API test kits. I am a biochemist by training and even though I no longer work in a lab, I would prefer to see actual numbers. I’m considering picking up a better testing kit (e.g. Hanna or similar) this weekend.

Question: Would it be advised to do a water change in the next few days to reduce nitrates? If so, what percentage of water should be changed?

 

[FrontRangeReefer]

Happy Friday fellow reefers! More of the same boring water testing updates, albeit slightly more exciting today. Did a small 10% water change last night and tested water again this morning. Things are looking really promising with my cycling parameters:

Ammonia: 0 ppm
Nitrite: 0.25 ppm
Nitrate: 10-20 ppm
pH: 8.1
Salinity: 1.024

 

[ajnies]

Tank is looking great so far! What did you end up deciding for your ATO? I personally haven't even used the internal ATO, there's way too much evap to make it useful. I'm thinking of just removing the glass and gaining that area as sump volume.

Also, what sort of stocking list are you looking at? I'm still tossing around ideas for mine.