MARINE X 60.2 Custom Build

[hansentyspy]

Hey all!
This is my first time making a post in a forum, so please bear with me as I stumble through updating this thread. My wife and I have been wanting to upgrade from our 1-gallon PNW custom small in one for a while now as we both would love to keep some fish! We were planning on buying an IM 15 as it would be a good fit for our apartment and a nice affordable option! But.... this hobby being the gateway drug that it is, we found a tank on Facebook Marketplace that was much bigger and ultimately substantially more expensive, and we thought "This is definitely what we should do!" So, I drove an hour north to pick up a package that included:

Waterbox Marine X 60.2 aquarium (In pretty good shape minus some light scratches)
Most of the plumbing except it is missing the main drain
Factory lid for the waterbox
10-gallon rimless tank
IoaoI skimmer with an iffy pump
100 GPD RODI system
Flipper glass scrubber
Off brand glass scrubber
Coral feeding long pipette
2 Eheim 100w heaters
1 Cobalt 200w heater
Power strip and timer
BRS refractometer
Siphon
Suction cup thermometer
Auto Feeder
2 wavemakers
Probably 20lb of hollow dry rock
2 small return pumps
Some other small accessories

All for $180. I knew that this would require some serious piecing together, BUT it sounded like a really fun project and like it would be a big discount on buying a new system.

I know it's a tad embarrassing that I don't know how to do this on my own... But I don't have experience building custom stands. Luckily my boss is a skilled woodworker in his free time, and he was happy to take on the gig of building a stand for the waterbox! I gave him the tank about 2 weeks ago and should be getting it back along with its custom stand here shortly! I also don't have much experience building custom sumps either, but thankfully I am friends with Harley at PNW Custom and he was happy to help take some time to build the rimless 10 gallon into a sump for this system!! Right now, we are waiting for the stand to get finished and then I will be bringing the tank, stand, and plumbing to Harley's shop so he can finish designing the sump and we will get it put together. I really do feel so blessed to know these talented people.

Over the past 2 weeks I have been ordering equipment, cleaning the used items from that package deal, and figuring out what I need to order to complete the plumbing on this tank. If you have any questions about this build or tips, I would love to hear from you! When I get home from work today I'll get some pictures uploaded to show what we have so far! Thank you

 

[cdemoss01]

Hey all!
This is my first time making a post in a forum, so please bear with me as I stumble through updating this thread. My wife and I have been wanting to upgrade from our 1-gallon PNW custom small in one for a while now as we both would love to keep some fish! We were planning on buying an IM 15 as it would be a good fit for our apartment and a nice affordable option! But.... this hobby being the gateway drug that it is, we found a tank on Facebook Marketplace that was much bigger and ultimately substantially more expensive, and we thought "This is definitely what we should do!" So, I drove an hour north to pick up a package that included:

Waterbox Marine X 60.2 aquarium (In pretty good shape minus some light scratches)
Most of the plumbing except it is missing the main drain
Factory lid for the waterbox
10-gallon rimless tank
IoaoI skimmer with an iffy pump
100 GPD RODI system
Flipper glass scrubber
Off brand glass scrubber
Coral feeding long pipette
2 Eheim 100w heaters
1 Cobalt 200w heater
Power strip and timer
BRS refractometer
Siphon
Suction cup thermometer
Auto Feeder
2 wavemakers
Probably 20lb of hollow dry rock
2 small return pumps
Some other small accessories

All for $180. I knew that this would require some serious piecing together, BUT it sounded like a really fun project and like it would be a big discount on buying a new system.

I know it's a tad embarrassing that I don't know how to do this on my own... But I don't have experience building custom stands. Luckily my boss is a skilled woodworker in his free time, and he was happy to take on the gig of building a stand for the waterbox! I gave him the tank about 2 weeks ago and should be getting it back along with its custom stand here shortly! I also don't have much experience building custom sumps either, but thankfully I am friends with Harley at PNW Custom and he was happy to help take some time to build the rimless 10 gallon into a sump for this system!! Right now, we are waiting for the stand to get finished and then I will be bringing the tank, stand, and plumbing to Harley's shop so he can finish designing the sump and we will get it put together. I really do feel so blessed to know these talented people.

Over the past 2 weeks I have been ordering equipment, cleaning the used items from that package deal, and figuring out what I need to order to complete the plumbing on this tank. If you have any questions about this build or tips, I would love to hear from you! When I get home from work today I'll get some pictures uploaded to show what we have so far! Thank you

Sounds fun! Make sure if your building your own stand too brace properly.

 

[hansentyspy]

Here are the pictures that I have so far! Starting with the extras included in the package deal that i picked up:

Sadly I didn't get a single picture of the Waterbox, but I will update with those right when I get it back from my boss with the new stand. Here is a progress picture that he sent me before edge banding or making any cutouts!:

Finally, here is a picture of the sump all cleaned up and in the PNW Custom shop ready to get measured for baffles!

There is still so much progress to be had, but it is slowly coming together! All of the equipment has been ordered and wife and I are very excited!!

 

[hansentyspy]

Sounds fun! Make sure if your building your own stand too brace properly.

Thank you my friend!! My boss Jason has figured out how much the tank should weigh when full and he is building it to support it properly! Truthfully I have no idea what a properly braced/improperly braced stand looks like, so please let me know what you think when I get to post pictures of the completed stand!!

 

[hansentyspy]

Bossman just sent a couple update pictures of the stand. So exciting!! I asked him to make the stand as tall as a standard counter height would be. I know this is probably a bit taller than a standard Waterbox stand, BUT my wife and I are both tall individuals, I thought it would be cool to not have to bend down as far to see into the tank!

 

[hansentyspy]

Bossman finished the stand! He dropped it off at PNW Custom last night!! So exciting. You can see on the left, that unpainted box was supposed to be the start of a controller box. But Harley at PNW Custom had a better idea, so we are going to 86 that box and he will build an acrylic one specifically for my controllers a little down the line. Right now he is figuring out the best design for building the sump, and I just placed an order through waterbox for a replacement plumbing kit. I have the emergency drain and most of the return line, but they used 25mm plumbing and some weird size loc line. Piecing together the plumbing has proved to be more of a headache than I was thinking. But a complete replacement kit was $125 shipped through them! I'll update again shortly. My wife and I found somebody about 3 hours north of us that is rehoming a couple fish (2 clowns, watchman goby, pistol shrimp, and a six-line wrasse) I'll be driving up there to pick them up this Sunday and we will keep them in a temporary established 12-gallon bio cube until this waterbox is ready and cycled! I'll post pics on Sunday!!

 

[hansentyspy]

Sunday came and the trip went well!!! Spent pretty much the whole day driving to pick up these fish and acclimate them into their temporary home. The trip back went smoothly, and they all recovered from travel quickly! Their previous tank had a really high salinity of 1.031. I can't imagine they were happy with that... I drip acclimated them over an hour and a half down to 1.025. This little 12 gallon will be their home for the next 2 weeks or so until the big tank is ready. The clownfish are happy as can be, and super curious little dudes!! The pistol shrimp and Goby promptly made themselves a cave under all the rock, and the sixline wrasse is cruising all throughout the rock and occasionally swimming with the clowns! I have been reading absolute horror stories about sixline wrasses on here, which is freaking me out a bit. But I am hoping 2 weeks is a short enough time in this small tank for him that he won't get too upset at life. This 12 gallon also has an active community of bristle worms in there as well, ready for the hunting! So, I am hoping they can keep the sixline occupied and distracted for the next couple weeks!

 

[hansentyspy]

Update! The tank has been at PNW Custom for a while now and officially has a sump! Harley took the time to build out a beautiful set of baffles specifically for this setup. He started with cutting out a cardboard prototype, and then switched over to acrylic to finish the job. We will be doing a water test today (The water box has a very small chip in one of the corners, so want to be safe before moving it to the apartment). The tank will be coming home on Friday! I did have to end up ordering a replacement plumbing kit through water box. It was just easier than adapting their 25mm holes to 3/4".

 

[hansentyspy]

There has been some great progress since the last update. We brought the tank and stand home. Got the stand in place, scraped off the old leveling mat and replaced with a new yoga mat:

I then hung the AI hydra 32 from the ceiling, and spent many hours figuring out how to install everything into the stand. Here is where the tank currently sits. I still need to install the skimmer, reactor pump, and dosers. BUT for the first few weeks of the tank running, I am going to place all of the live rock from my 12 gallon into the skimmer section of the sump.

Now we will be adding the rock scape tonight. I am SO excited to see this scape in person. We have an incredibly skilled artist "Tom" that custom made a scape for this tank!! I will update pictures soon.

 

[hansentyspy]

The rock scape has been placed in the tank. Seeded with fritz 9 and a live sand bed!! Need to figure out a good place for an ATO reservoir and more outlets lol! Between the 2 dosers, reactor pump, fuge light, and ato. I will be out of plugs left on my power strip earlier than expected lol!

 

[hansentyspy]

It is such a fun feeling getting to see the plan come together!! The tank is nearing completion at this point. Our awesome friend Jenna at PNW Custom painted us a picture of our clownfish, that we now have hanging on display right above our tank!! We have also added some corals, and over the past 2 weeks I have really been focusing on dialing in my dosers. I have them in a pretty good spot at this point and now we get to sit back and watch the tank grow!

 

[Daz_1978]

What a fantastic little journey I just took through your process!!! It looks great. Three thumbs up!

I think those size tanks are absolutely amazing looking when they're all grown out with corals. They look like they're just crammed with life.

And gateway hobby... No doubt!!! The worst part is that when you get a bigger tank and move everything over... you end up setting up the smaller one again in a different room. :rolling-on-the-floor-laughing:

 

[hansentyspy]

What a fantastic little journey I just took through your process!!! It looks great. Three thumbs up!

I think those size tanks are absolutely amazing looking when they're all grown out with corals. They look like they're just crammed with life.

And gateway hobby... No doubt!!! The worst part is that when you get a bigger tank and move everything over... you end up setting up the smaller one again in a different room. :rolling-on-the-floor-laughing:

I appreciate your reply, thank you for interacting!! MAN I am so excited to get a huge setup once my wife and I get a house lol!! In the meantime, this seems like a pretty good intermediate size while we are in our apartment phase in life!!!

 

[Daz_1978]

I love that size tank. My 36 bowfront was my favorite tank. That's probably why I just set it up again as a "frag tank" (that's code language so my wife doesn't know that it's going to be an all out tank again).

 

[hansentyspy]

I wanted to chime in for another update! Over the past few weeks, I have been trying to get the dosing dialed in, We have added a few more corals, we have a juvenile tomini tang in QT that will be coming into the water box soon, and I started running the carbon reactor for an hour a night when the lights are off! It is amazing how quickly the carbon reactor removed all odor from the sump!! Here are some pictures and videos:

 

[Daz_1978]

That's looking GREAT. It'll be absolutely stunning when it's grown out and all filled in.

A Tomini Tang is my absolute favorite fish! Best color fish in the hobby to me. I love mine. Her name is Heidi... All she did was hide when we first put her in the display. When I first got mine, it looked just like yours. With age the grey gets a bit darker and the yellowish-orange gets a little more 'pop'! And who doesn't love a snow white tail??? Beautiful fish!!!

All the tang police should be over in just a minute to tell you that it will outgrow that tank, but I'm sure you already know that. You can use that as an excuse to move to a 55G minimum in a year!
So many factors play into the growth rate, that one could only guess how long you have before it requires an upgrade. I have a friend that has one in a 90G. It's been in there 6+ years and it is about 4" long nose to tail.

 

[hansentyspy]

That's looking GREAT. It'll be absolutely stunning when it's grown out and all filled in.

A Tomini Tang is my absolute favorite fish! Best color fish in the hobby to me. I love mine. Her name is Heidi... All she did was hide when we first put her in the display. When I first got mine, it looked just like yours. With age the grey gets a bit darker and the yellowish-orange gets a little more 'pop'! And who doesn't love a snow white tail??? Beautiful fish!!!

All the tang police should be over in just a minute to tell you that it will outgrow that tank, but I'm sure you already know that. You can use that as an excuse to move to a 55G minimum in a year!
So many factors play into the growth rate, that one could only guess how long you have before it requires an upgrade. I have a friend that has one in a 90G. It's been in there 6+ years and it is about 4" long nose to tail.

Oh man I am ready for the tomini tang police lol!! I used to have a tomini in a 65 gallon, and gave him to my friend with a 100 gallon. He has been growing so much over the past few years!! That friend is an experienced reefer and he convinced me that a baby Tomini would be fine in our waterbox until we upgrade to a larger system. My wife and I took that advice and really think he is right, this juvenile is 3 inches and I hope he is happy in this tank for the next year or two until we move up in size like I know we will!! Do you have any pics posted of yours?? I would love to go check it out!!

 

[hansentyspy]

Update for this week: We are mid ugly stage coming up on 2 months of running now. I have been doing manual algae scrubbing every night for the past couple of nights after the lights turn off. The one concern that this stage has brought to light, is that I have a dead spot in my flow on the far back left corner of the tank, right under the Nero 5(The video that starts as a top-down view shows this stage). I ordered a jebao slw10 to get the water moving in that corner, but funnily enough when I put this 2nd wavemaker on the backwall, it ended up disrupting the flow from the Nero and just killing most of the flow in the tank! It was super weird, the 2nd video that looks like there is no flow, is with both wavemakers running and I even bumped up the Nero by 15%. I ended up figuring a better position out where I have the Jebao on the back wall sitting above the nero pointed down. Now the tank has this incredibly cool to watch random flow!! The torch coral will elegantly move around in a 360 every now and then!! I haven't recorded a video since solving this problem, but just wanted to update on the Water box progress.

 

[hansentyspy]

I just realized I haven't updated this forum in months! The tank is doing really well. It has gone through some rough patches but I think that is just part of the hobby sadly. I have lost 6 or 7 of our corals, we have gone through a cyano outbreak from our nutrients tanking, we had a doser stick on and dose alk for 3.5 hours.. our inkbird heater controller broke, and our tomini tang died a week after he was introduced to the tank! Even with all of those unfortunate events, this tank has been such a joy for my wife and I!! We have officially reached a point in the timeline where our corals have just started to take off. I swear, you can watch their growth in real time lol! Here is a timelapse from Sunday where I changed the reactor media, did some feeding and a water change:

 

[hansentyspy]

I am going to post this PAR picture from a while back, just so I don't lose it!