Lucidblue's Waterbox Frag 85.3 Mixed Reef - 1st Tank

[lucidblue]

I'm doing this build thread a bit in reverse, I started the setup on 7/23, but needed to focus since this is my first time with saltwater. I've always wanted a saltwater aquarium, but didn't feel settled in one place long enough to make it worth the effort. Then I started scuba diving and decided I'd rather spend my money swimming on the reef. Diving hasn't been an option lately for various reasons, so I decided it's reef tank time. I started researching a month or so ago and am so thankful for the BRS 5 Minute and Ultimate Beginner Guides and all their other content, I don't know where I would be without all their information so readily available.

I'm going to keep this first post a list of equipment and plans that can be updated over time and do separate step by step progress posts.

Equipment to Start

• Tank: Waterbox Frag 85.3 - 54g DT / 30g sump (includes 4.5g ATO reservoir) / DT Dimensions 35.4" L × 23.6" D × 16.1" H
• Return Pump: Sicce Syncra SDC 6.0
• Heaters: (2) BRS 100W Titanium Heaters w/ Helio Universal Aquarium Heater Controllers
• Lights: (2) AI Prime 16HD LEDs w/ 12" Flex Arms
• Powerheads: (2) ReefBreeders Reef Power RP-M V2 -- this is a temporary solution until the AI Nero 3 is back in stock somewhere. NOTE: I can only run one of these RP-M's at a time at the lowest setting 30% because they seem to be way too powerful for my tank.
• RO/DI System: BRS 4 Stage Plus 75GPD - only making RODI water for the short term and buying saltwater from LFS
• Red Sea DIY Mesh Lid
• Test Kit: Red Sea Marine Care

Equipment Still Needed - Short Term

• ATO: deciding between Tunze Osmolater 3155 and Avast Marine ATO
• Auto Feeder for vacation
• Testing: various Hanna checkers
• Powerheads: as mentioned above waiting on AI Nero 3 to be available again
• Protein Skimmer: need to start this research
• Lid: leaning toward Clearview Lid with inserts to help with evaporation

Equipment Still Needed - Long Term Goals

• Apex
• Rollermat (I think)

Rock & Substrate:

• Live Sand: 40lbs Special Grade Arag-Alive = 1" of sand
• Rock: 27 lbs wet Real Reef Rock, 3 lbs live wet Jakarta rock, 4 lbs white wet live rock1 (not sure what kind), 1 lb dry branch rock, 3 lbs CaribSea dry LifeRock

Cycle Plan:

• Fritz TurboStart 900
• 2 clownfish
• Lights off

Goals:

• Variety of fish still figuring out the complete list. Once the tank is more established the goal is to have a blue mandarin dragonet.
• Inverts: Clam (still deciding on type) and variety of CUC
• Soft coral and LPS at least until I get more experience. I'd like to have SPS someday.

8/9 - Current Livestock

• 2 Mocha Clownfish
• 10 small blue leg hermits
• In QT awaiting DT: Purple Firefish

 

[lucidblue]

Tuesday 7/19/22 - Tank is delivered. Can't wait to get started over the weekend!

 

[Lps_lover12]

I have the frag 105.4 and it’s an amazing tank, build quality and everything is superior. Excited to see this build come together!

 

[lucidblue]

Thursday 7/21/22 - stand built and tank being leak tested.

Saturday 7/23/22 - went to LFS to pick out rock and get water. Plan was to aquascape Saturday night and fill the Sunday morning.

Sunday 7/24/22 - Sand, rock and water, but we run into a glitch. When I leak tested the sump, I filled up the whole thing and the ATO reservoir, so I didn't see there was a leak from the return section to the ATO reservoir. I had to put everything on hold, empty the return section, dry it and my husband re-sealed the the seam that had a leak. Time to wait 48 hours for it to dry. In the meantime, got an air pump and bubble stone to keep the DT tank water circulating.

 

[lucidblue]

7/27/22 - Sump fixed. Everything running smoothly. Added Fritz TurboStart 900 and went to pickup clownfish. They are small ones, but seem to like the tank.

• Keeping lights off (hoping to prevent at least some of the ugly stage), no filter socks for now, and powerheads haven't arrived yet
• Keeping return pump flow at lowest setting (in hindsight not sure why) because fish don't seem to like a lot of flow in the tank -- they are pretty small.

7/28/22

• 3:56pm Water tests look good. Ammonia = 0 (maybe a hair over) / Nitrite = 0 / Nitrate = somwhere between 0 -2 / pH = 8 - 8.2
• 10pm pink round patch starts form next to Jakarta rock

7/29/22

• 6:10am pink spot has grown (pic below)
• 10:27pm pink covering most of sand
• Decided to increase return pump flow from to 2 lights on dial.

7/30/22

• Increased flow solved the pink growth
• Ammonia = 0 / Nitrites = 0 / Nitrates = 2

8/1/22 - Water parameters unchanged. Add filter socks and sponge. My temporary ReefBreader RP-M powerheads arrived and I got those set up. Wow, they seem way too powerful for the tank, even turned all the way down to lowest setting of 30%. The clowns are not pleased and are hiding at the back of the tank behind the overflow nozzles. Decided to just keep one turned on for now since the little clowns are really struggling.

 

[lucidblue]

I have the frag 105.4 and it’s an amazing tank, build quality and everything is superior. Excited to see this build come together!

I wish I could have gotten the 105.4, but just didn't have the space in the spot that works for the tank. How long have you had it?

 

[lucidblue]

8/5/22
Saturday plans are to do a 10% water change on the DT and finish setting up QT using the water from the DT to kick things off along with some Fritz TurboStart 900. Then headed to LFS for some blue leg hermits for CUC and and a purple firefish. Also hoping to find a royal gramma. I know I'm supposed to get the fish that serve a purpose in here early, but struggling because those seem to be in the semi-aggressive category and I also read to put the timid fish in first... The smaller clown didn't want to eat last night or this morning. Came up to the surface like he was hungry but didn't eat. The slightly bigger clown ate but not as much as normal and seemed a little pale. Check water parameters after water change and all still unchanged and good.

Get home from LFS 2 hours later and the bigger clown is dead and sucked up to back of powerhead. The smaller one is laying on the sand barely moving. Swims up for a minute and 15 min later I find him dead on a rock. I'm crushed and confused since there was no visual sign of disease and water parameters were good. I called the LFS where I got them and he said to take photos and bring them in the next day since they were about to close. I called the other LFS I go to that's further away and very helpful and he recommends I check for stray voltage in the tank and bring a water sample in the next day to make sure my test kit is working. My husband checks and finds no stray voltage, but it not only trips a breaker, but destroys it. It's now a little after 9pm and HomeDepot and Lowes don't have the type of breaker needed (there's a shortage). Long story short, emergency electrician at 11pm and $$$ later the breaker is fixed. Electrician could tell it was faulty and if this didn't blow it something else would have soon. My husband is still less than thrilled about the tank at this point, since he's spent a lot more time helping than planned -- stand assembly, carrying water, wire mgmt (which he is obsessed with), also some help aquascaping. Nothing to do until the next day when I can go to LFS and have them test water and look at photos of the fish.

Here's the purple firefish in the QT

 

[lucidblue]

8/6/22
LFS checks my water and it's good. I show him pics of the fish and he doesn't see disease either. I ask about oxygen since I found a few threads here about oxygen issues and after I explained how low I had the return pump set, he think that's the issue. I have the Sicce Syncra SDC 6.0 which is 530-1450 GPH, which is more than I probably need, so I had it set to 2 lights on the dial (not using w/ app yet). LFS recommended I turn it up to at least 5 lights, which is a little less than 50% and point return nozzles at surface. Even though I'm feeling really horrible about my mistake killing 2 fish, the LFS encourages me to keep going. I get 2 mocha clowns that are bigger than the prior clowns from the other LFS. Also added 10 small blue leg hermit crabs. These clowns are so playful and goofy, I love them. Also, never thought the hermits would be so interesting to watch, but they are all over the place and in the rocks.

 

[lucidblue]

Now that I'm all caught up to the present, I'd like to get some advice about flow. I had things dialed in pretty good so that I barely had any noise with the original pump flow rate. Now that I've increased my flow I've got a lot more noise and I actually have some bubbles on the surface of the DT. I want to try turning it down from 5 lights to 4 lights, but I'm scared to decrease flow after depriving my original clowns of oxygen... How do I know what is enough? Here's videos of current flow in DT and sump.

 

[Rhino]

How do you like the Helio Univseral controller so far? I am looking at the same for my BRS heaters.

 

[lucidblue]

How do you like the Helio Univseral controller so far? I am looking at the same for my BRS heaters.

So far so good! Really easy to set up. I had to calibrate slightly, but that was easy too.

 

[NotReefsafe]

how is the tank going?

 

[radfly]

Update?