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!