Jesse's WB Infinia 150.4 Build

[JHSteepat]

I have a Waterbox Infinia 150.4 on order through LFS including delivery and dry setup (I don't trust myself and friends and family picking up a 300 lb tank). First reef aquarium in 15 years.

This will be a mixed reef (no softies except maybe some zoas on a separate rock (having suffered from GSP + Xenia overgrowth) with Marco aquascape. I built the aquascape using E-Marco 400 cement (worked well, see video below). I wasn't going for NSA, but wanted a stable structure with lots of places for corals, swimming paths, and hiding places (see video). I may skip the tall pillar structure, though it may be interesting in the back.

I'm impatient (but I am using this time to force myself to be patient), so I am cycling in borrowed 75g tank with powerhead and heater only - Microbacter7 and some Fritz ammonium chloride in Instant Ocean, to be supplemented as needed once larger tank is set up. I have other bottle bacteria/algae to be delivered including PNS Substrate Sauce and ARC coralline in a bottle (we'll see on both accounts, and I need to do SOMETHING to keep this moving forward). Keeping tank in bright room with no external light for now. Will add special grade aragonite soon (wrasse in future, and wife and I prefer the sand bed over bare), and I will dose some Copes and phyto, and may also add in next week or two an Indo-Pacific Sea Farms package and/or some TBS rubble for biodiversity. The idea is to create biome before lights and fish. I plan to have a refugium once I have a sump, with likely an AI Blade refugium light, but that will have to wait until I have the tank. Will drip some kalk as needed for now to maintain pH and increase kH a little (How do you turn of autocorrect?? I had to type "kalk" three times before it stopped typing "kale").

Equipment list:

• Waterbox Infinia 150.4 (delivery TBD. Supposed to have been delivered already, but "another 6 weeks" per LFS at end of May)
• Orphek Atlantik Icon (should be enough for LPS on bottom and some SPS on top, but might supplement with 1 or 2 light bars (quanta or OR3), if needed later on, as I like stony corals and had fun with SPS in my last tank.
• SICCE SDC 9.0 return
• BRS GFO/carbon "reactor" with carbon and since pump
• SICCE Stream SDC (awesome pump with easy app, so far. Love the temperature sensor), plan to get another once I am sure it'll hold well with 12mm glass
• IM Helio 500W (working great), will do redundant once tank is established.
• RO regal 150INT
• eventual A3 Apex Pro system (TBD) possibly with Triton, but that (expense) can wait a few months.
• need to figure out power outage equipment failure strategy/equipment, as pump failure killed foxface and yellow tang in former aquarium

 

[JHSteepat]

And, as a Noob, I need to figure out how to upload videos.

 

[JHSteepat]

 

[JHSteepat]

Piece on left is on its side.

 

[Gumbies R Us]

Nice looking aquascape!

 

[JHSteepat]

Thanks. Felt like a fun art project.

 

[JHSteepat]

Thanks. Felt like a fn art project.

 

[JHSteepat]

Thought on fish (input welcome). Fish are important to me but I’m not looking for fancy, just useful, pretty, fairly hardy, and/or personable. Likely Dr. Reef QT.

2x Ocellarus-type clowns. Prefer juveniles or pair. Must have for wife.
Royal Gramma.
Yellow coris wrasse, or melanurus
Foxface (probably one spot for size)
Midas Blenny (starry?)
Tomini Tang
Maybe once tank is matured a little, and I get an autofeeder, a few lyretail (MFF) anthias.

Any other reef safe, enough, suggestions?

 

[Thehogfather]

Nice work so far! I’ve got the same tank on order but you’re ahead of me in the queue and the build process, so I’m excited to follow along.

 

[JHSteepat]

Nice work so far! I’ve got the same tank on order but you’re ahead of me in the queue and the build process, so I’m excited to follow along.

Not sure how much ahead of you, ETA end of July, early August. Look forward to seeing what you do with it!

Just ordered some pods, so at least I’ll be growing some bugs….

 

[FifteenYearsBand]

You are going to love the 150.4. Great tank and good call on the dry set up - it's not hard to lift onto the stand, but leveling was a pain in the bum.

 

[JHSteepat]

You are going to love the 150.4. Great tank and good call on the dry set up - it's not hard to lift onto the stand, but leveling was a pain in the bum.

Thanks for the encouragement. I’ve got a sketchy back, so I’ll let the pros handle it.

 

[JHSteepat]

Still in temporary 75g tank. Introduced pods (Jay’s), and feeding/dosing some of his “sauce” daily. Saw my first live one in the tank today, so that’s a win.

Hung light from ceiling, Orphek Atlantik Icon. Beautiful piece of equipment, running at 6% now for 5-6 hours, and will increase to 30% or so over a month or so. The “sauce” is phyto and some other organic materials, so should be helpful in getting the rock/bacteria to process things. Will need to start WC, now that I’m adding organics.

Alk (hannah) is low (6.6), and calcium (Salifert) is low (390), so I’m dosing a little kalk to bring things up, and have some CaCl2, baking soda, and epsom salts on order. I doubt there will be any Ca and Alk demand right now, but I want to get it in range and keep it steady, and hopefully coralline will catch hold.

I’m still looking to adding some TB saltwater sand as soon as I get the water parameters a little more dialed in.

 

[JHSteepat]

Still in 75g temporary tank, brought Alk, Ca, and Mg to ~450, 10, and 1390. Phos was undetectable or very low per Nyos test I just got. A few days later Alk was around 8.6 and pH was 8.0, so very slowly dripping Kalk. Not quite sure where Alk went over the last week unless I am getting some coralline growth, or the ionic balance just settled since dosing, if that's a thing. Monitoring every other day. Dosing ~ a cap of Microbacter7 and Jay's sauce (phyto, for the pods) each day.

Light is peaking at ~35% (all channels on Orphek Atlantik Icon, see bottom image) for ~8 hours. Went to LFS to look at fish and bough two cheap candy cane frags because parameters seemed good enough and pods were surviving, and the light seemed bright enough. CoralRx then 3% peroxide base dips (peroxide only on the calcified material, for a minute or two up to the bottom of the green), washed in tank water, removed, and put into tank. Was suggested to dip in "Bayer," but it was rebranded as "BioAdvanced", so I am researching the proper product at Lowes, but plan to use it in future followed by two tank water rinses. Aside from a little slime from my mishandling, the polyps were fully expanded at 24 hours, and showed tentacles at night. Great feeding response the next day. Look happy overall (below).

Starting to see a little algal (or something) growth, TBD. But just started to feed frozen foods to the corals, and I have no nutrient export without the sump other than WC (not done yet, but in the works - still setting up mix station) and carbon for a couple hours a day.

 

[JHSteepat]

Light grew diatoms and what looks like some early cyano and hair algae. Candy canes are doing great. Went to LFS and picked up a dozen Cerith snails. They are doing an admirable job at cleaning up. While at LFS, found this Favia-looking frag.

Wondering if anyone can positively ID. I had to turn off blues/actinics to get a decent picture, so burgundy and greens are a little subdued.

 

[JHSteepat]

Also, I am using plain Instant Ocean at 1.025. I am having to add a bit of Alk, and seemingly a lot of Ca and Mg to get to 9/450/1350, respectively (tested before and after, with adjustments based on J Dieck calculator).

Any recommendations for a salt that I won’t have to supplement at day 1. I am concerned I am driving up salt and sulfates by supplementing from day 1, when I might not need to do so.

 

[JHSteepat]

Added a Raja Rampage chalice frag found at a LFS, that, the favia, and the candy canes are holding steady. Also added a half dozen Astreas. Alk is decreasing daily a little, so using kalk to supplement with some additional two part on weekend, with water change.

Went right through diatoms and a little cyano in 2-3 days and saw a copepod explosion. Have a couple of spots with a tiny bit of hair algae, but not much. Rocks, especially under the light are now turning bright green, which I hope is a precursor to coralline growth. I started seeing some pink spots a few days ago and see more pink spots every day, which is encouraging.

Hopefully getting Waterbox in a couple weeks, as I have no good nutrient export on the temporary tank.

 

[JHSteepat]

Picked up a favites frag, nice and healthy dark red-purple with orange mouths (just fed in pic below). Think I’ll hold off on livestock now until I receive the Waterbox, due in 2-3 weeks…….

Got some polyplab reef roids and polyp booster, add 10 drops or so of booster and then turn off powerhead. Mixed a quarter tsp of roids in 5 ml, fed corals with a syringe. All corals ate like pigs. The raja chalice was really cool capturing the food in mucus and then ingesting (below). Fed 4 days later, a little less. All corals looking good. Two candycane polyps now have two mouths so look like they are dividing.

Other candycane was growing something odd from the base so being paranoid of bryopsis I treated with 1:4 3% peroxide for 5’. I thought I killed the coral but it is rebounding….

Rocks are growing algae a bit. Have a little green hair and some browner algae. I also have brown spots all over the rocks, and the rocks overall are getting a green tinge, which I am hoping is a precursor to coralline growth. The spots do not blow off, so appear to be some sort of encrusting algae or just some uglies.

In terms of chemistry, I seem to be using ~.5 dKh per day, so something is going on. Have Jebao doser which I will use for Ca, Alk, Mg, and TM part c, once I get a better handle on uptake rates. Changed to RS coral pro salt so I don’t have to supplement the IO salt after WC.

 

[Gumbies R Us]

Picked up a favites frag, nice and healthy dark red-purple with orange mouths (just fed in pic below). Think I’ll hold off on livestock now until I receive the Waterbox, due in 2-3 weeks…….

Got some polyplab reef roids and polyp booster, add 10 drops or so of booster and then turn off powerhead. Mixed a quarter tsp of roids in 5 ml, fed corals with a syringe. All corals ate like pigs. The raja chalice was really cool capturing the food in mucus and then ingesting (below). Fed 4 days later, a little less. All corals looking good. Two candycane polyps now have two mouths so look like they are dividing.

Other candycane was growing something odd from the base so being paranoid of bryopsis I treated with 1:4 3% peroxide for 5’. I thought I killed the coral but it is rebounding….

Rocks are growing algae a bit. Have a little green hair and some browner algae. I also have brown spots all over the rocks, and the rocks overall are getting a green tinge, which I am hoping is a precursor to coralline growth. The spots do not blow off, so appear to be some sort of encrusting algae or just some uglies.

In terms of chemistry, I seem to be using ~.5 dKh per day, so something is going on. Have Jebao doser which I will use for Ca, Alk, Mg, and TM part c, once I get a better handle on uptake rates. Changed to RS coral pro salt so I don’t have to supplement the IO salt after WC.

Nice looking frags!

 

[JHSteepat]

Nice looking frags!

Thanks. I posted the “favites” in the lps forum for an ID because I am thinking it might actually be lepastrea. Here it is without the feeding response I showed above.