HTown Reef - 200g Waterbox Reef LX 270.6 (SPS Dominant)

[kenbennedy]

Haha, it was FJW in Houston.

Their tanks are always in great shape when I am there, one of my favorites in the area.

 

[Ugin]

Their tanks are always in great shape when I am there, one of my favorites in the area.

Dennis is a great guy, always helpful. In the Houston area I usually hit up FJW only because of how close it is to me, but other then that I go to Ocean Life off of 610/59 or if I want to really go out I go to Infinity Fish.

What shops are your favorite?

 

[kenbennedy]

I wasn't impressed with Ocean Life last time I was there, despite having read such good things. The store and tanks were pretty dirty all around. Perhaps I should have another look since it has been a while.

Aquarium design group was very clean when I visited a few months ago, and had a good spread of small/large fish and corals.

Galactic Corals was kind of a haul, but again everything was in pretty good shape when I drove out there. Not quite as well maintained as FJW and ADG, but I would go back.

Fish Gallery had all their saltwater tanks down for some kind of refurbishment/reorganization, not sure if they are back up yet.

 

[Ugin]

I wasn't impressed with Ocean Life last time I was there, despite having read such good things. The store and tanks were pretty dirty all around. Perhaps I should have another look since it has been a while.

Aquarium design group was very clean when I visited a few months ago, and had a good spread of small/large fish and corals.

Galactic Corals was kind of a haul, but again everything was in pretty good shape when I drove out there. Not quite as well maintained as FJW and ADG, but I would go back.

Fish Gallery had all their saltwater tanks down for some kind of refurbishment/reorganization, not sure if they are back up yet.

Tbh it's been a long time since I've been to Ocean Life so I'm not sure how the store looks anymore. As for Fish Gallery I was there last weekend for my freshwater tank and yeah, their entire SW section is mostly gutted. Just a few clownfish, coral, and rock.

 

[Ugin]

Got all of my under cabinet lights installed. So much better..

 

[jay2525]

I originally had 5 Anthias on my list, but knocked it down to 3 because I wasn't sure how my bioload would evolve based on my future planned fish. I think what I may do is before I move into any aggressive fish, I'll evaluate if I want to add more and go from there.

Out of curiosity, what's your opinion on a good sized school of Anthias in this size tank?

Having had several species, if you go lyretails I would do minimum 7 in this size. Preferably 10. They will reward you in numbers without really great behaviors. Adding more later will be tougher if the dominant one goes male Before you add more. With your quarantine plan add the group early.

 

[Ugin]

Having had several species, if you go lyretails I would do minimum 7 in this size. Preferably 10. They will reward you in numbers without really great behaviors. Adding more later will be tougher if the dominant one goes male Before you add more. With your quarantine plan add the group early.

Can you go further into detail on this? Are there problems with going with only 3? What do you get out of having 7+ that you wouldn't get with fewer?

Honesty question, I'm never kept anthias.

 

[Brett Miller]

Got all of my under cabinet lights installed. So much better..

Wow. How can the same tank being built at the same time have so differences. Do you have a separation wall in the sump? I do not. This is really interesting.

 

[Ugin]

Wow. How can the same tank being built at the same time have so differences. Do you have a separation wall in the sump? I do not. This is really interesting.

Yeah I noticed that but I figured you took it out for personal customization. I have a wall that separates the sump area from the ATO. It matches what's in their official pictures.

 

[Ugin]

Cycling In Progress

I'm using Brightwell Aquatics cycling package and so far here are my params:

Day 1: Ammonia: 2ppm
Nitrite: 0ppm
pH: 8.2

Day 2: Ammonia: 2ppm
Nitrite: 0ppm
pH: 8.2

Day 3: Ammonia: 1.3ppm
Nitrite: .01-.04ppm (barely readable)
pH: 8.2

Day 4: Ammonia: 1.2ppm
Nitrite: 0.1 ppm
pH: 8.2

Day 4 has seen a noticeable rise in Nitrites and a minor decrease in Ammonia. Clearly the cycle is moving along well, however the Brightwell method suggests adding additional bacteria if Ammonia or Nitrites are above .25ppm (which they are). I've gone ahead and dosed more bacteria because why not?

 

[Ugin]

Lighting!

Lighting is the least of my priorities because I'm cycling -- no reason to have lights running. That said, I'm getting to the point where I can work on it so here's my setup:

- ATI Sunpower 61" 8x80W
- Reefbrite XHO LED's (2)

• ATI Blue Plus
• ATI Coral Plus
• ATI Purple Plus
• ATI Blue Plus
• ATI Coral Plus
• ATI Actinic
• ATI Blue Plus
• Giesemann Powerchrome Tropic

I'm a big fan of T5/LED hybrids with more of a focus on the T5's. I don't like straight blue's, so I find this is a good balance and blend of colors.





As for hanging, I already installed (2) 2x4's across my studs for added protection. I painted them white to make them blend in easier with the white ceiling.

All I have left to do is buy some wood screws, install the ReefBrites, and hang the unit.

 

[Ugin]

Cycling In Progress

I'm using Brightwell Aquatics cycling package and so far here are my params:

Day 1: Ammonia: 2ppm
Nitrite: 0ppm
pH: 8.2

Day 2: Ammonia: 2ppm
Nitrite: 0ppm
pH: 8.2

Day 3: Ammonia: 1.3ppm
Nitrite: .01-.04ppm (barely readable)
pH: 8.2

Day 4: Ammonia: 1.2ppm
Nitrite: 0.1 ppm
pH: 8.2

Day 5: Ammonia: 1ppm
Nitrite: 0.2ppm
pH: 8.2

I continued to dose additional bacteria today as my levels of Ammonia + Nitrite are still elevated. The values keep moving in the right direction for a typical cycle, so no worries here. The full Brightwell Aquatics cycle is based on 9 days to completion, so it's well on track.

I'm thinking about adding my refugium after the tank is cycled. The benefits to reducing nitrates/phosphates are obvious, but I'm more interested in a refugium (at the moment) to introduce multiple micro fauna to the tank (probably through Algae Barn). Considering my plans are to house multiple wrasses who enjoy pods, it's better to start earlier rather than later!

 

[Crabby48]

Looks great and nice fish selection. I have a few friends that did 3 or 4 lyertail anthias and all things worked out. They did one male and the rest female. I wouldn’t have a tank with out apex. Not being home and being able to monitor and be able to figure out what the problem is is priceless. Then having things like trident because of lazyness and time

 

[Ugin]

Not much to talk about at the moment as my cycle is still in progress, however I did install my ReefBrite XHO's earlier today:

This weekend I'll be hitting up the hardware store for some wood screws to mount the lighting unit on the ceiling. At that point, I can focus on setting on my Apex!

@Crabby48 I may bug you if I run into any Apex questions! I bought the base unit with the 4 probes. I also bought the Apex refugium light to give it a go. Once the tank is really going and I need to start dosing/checking alk+calc more often, I'll consider the DOS + Trident.

 

[Ugin]

Apex Confusion





I spent some time after work setting up my Apex and I've run into a few issues.

Salinity Sensor

I calibrated the sensor using the provided reference packets, but it's reading 39+. Using my hanna checker which was just calibrated, I'm reading 1.025 (35ppt), a whole 4 points off. I may try to recalibrate, but this is a significant difference.

Temp Sensor

No calibration was required in the app, so I just put it in. My tank registers as 77 using two other methods to check and 76~ on the Apex.



Refugium Light

On the bright side, the refugium light install/setup went off without a hitch.

 

[Sean Clark]

Apex Confusion





I spent some time after work setting up my Apex and I've run into a few issues.

Salinity Sensor

I calibrated the sensor using the provided reference packets, but it's reading 39+. Using my hanna checker which was just calibrated, I'm reading 1.025 (35ppt), a whole 4 points off. I may try to recalibrate, but this is a significant difference.

Temp Sensor

No calibration was required in the app, so I just put it in. My tank registers as 77 using two other methods to check and 76~ on the Apex.



Refugium Light

On the bright side, the refugium light install/setup went off without a hitch.

Looking good.

I would let the salinity probe soak for a few days and see if it comes down. They are notoriously finicky. Most people only use it to watch trends up or down and don't actually trust the number it gives you. Mine says 34.2 right now and I know it is reading low. Bubbles will throw the reading off. Some people mount them upside down so bubbles can not get trapped in the probe.

You can adjust (calibrate) the temp probe using the Apex task function.

 

[Ugin]

Looking good.

I would let the salinity probe soak for a few days and see if it comes down. They are notoriously finicky. Most people only use it to watch trends up or down and don't actually trust the number it gives you. Mine says 34.2 right now and I know it is reading low. Bubbles will throw the reading off. Some people mount them upside down so bubbles can not get trapped in the probe.

You can adjust (calibrate) the temp probe using the Apex task function.

I may try to recalibrate the Salinity probe again this afternoon. I know you can calibrate the temp probe, but the instructions said it was unnecessary. I'll try it out anyways because as it stands it's wrong.

 

[Crabby48]

Sometimes taping up on bottom of salinity prob with your finger. Sorta like you forcing water up. Air bubbles are the problem. Hard to keep air bubbles out during calibration. I use mine for trends and to figure out other problems.
Like Sump high water alarm and salinity drops it’s probably stuck on ato.

 

[Ugin]

Top Lids!

I've placed an order with TopLids for full coverage on my tank including 2 feed doors on the front and one feed door on the back for a future automatic feeder.

I've worked with Top Lids in the past and they do fantastic work. The lead time is 8.5 weeks which is nuts, but I'm fine waiting. That said, I'll 100% have some fish in the tank before then, so I'm going to plan a trip out to the hardware store to pick up some sheets of egg crate for temporary coverage.

Power Heads Setup!

I've added the 3 additional MP40's along with my existing MP40 for a total of 4. I'm currently playing around with the positioning of them all so it won't have direct flow on the sps on my aquascape.



The wiring is a WIP

As a random side note, I always forget how dang large the ATO resevoir is that comes with the Waterbox tanks. 20 gallons! I used to have a 10 gallon ATO and I thought that was big, but this is on another level. I'm obviously not complaining, especially for the size of this tank...

 

[Brett Miller]

The tank officially ran overnight for the first time with enough water to run the return pump. I'm trying to tune the noise on the overflow by getting the waterline right below the emergency drain, but man is it hard ... I'm doing minor changes and letting it sit for 10min+ to hear for changes and it's a struggle.

The Cycle
I've begun using Brightwell's cycle products (XLM/something). I dosed their ammonia first then their bottled bacteria.

Looking good so far at 2.00ppm ammonia.

The Salt

So.... I bought red sea blue bucket salt from BRS and though I bought enough salt... I did not. Using a calibrated hannah checker I'm sitting at 1.016 sg after using the entire box of salt. I'm heading to my LFS after work once I confirm they carry blue bucket.

I am now trying to silence the tank. Have you figured out the secret sauce? Do you start with the main drain fully open? Any hints would be greatly appreciated.