My 235 Custom Waterbox Reef

[spartanman22]

Just out of curiosity is there a reason you didn’t do a peninsula style with the overflow on the short wall vs the back wall?

 

[jhadaway]

The back wall will eventually get blacked out. The peninsula was more expensive to build for whatever reason and I didn't want to deal with the flow issues. By going with an external overflow flow shouldn't be so bad. I can deliver flow from the front with seaswirls and some big tunzes from the back corners. I've planned a lot to try and minimize dead zones. If it was open on three sides, peninsula all the way.

 

[jhadaway]

Roughing in the plumbing. Nothing worked like i planned but almost done the cuts. Then glue time.

 

[jhadaway]

I wound up mounting the seaswirls to the eurobrace and through the holes i had drilled. I used some thick heavy duty velcro to secure it. I’m hoping these sicce adv 9’s can push the water. There are more elbows than i planned. I ordered some check valves for the seaswirls also since they go down and outside the sump. Leak testing should be interesting.

 

[jhadaway]

Planning, interesting concept. Everything was though out to the hilt. Mostly everything isn't the way i expected. Also, plumbing is a painful thing. I could have built 10 tanks by now. She’s coming along now. I raised and plumbed the external refugium yesterday and put the ocean direct sand in. Tbs sand comes in wednesday. Gotta get the ghl stuff online. The pc doesnt see it yet. Gotbsome troubleshooting to do. I’ll get some refugium shots up once the cloudiness settles.

 

[Gumbies R Us]

Planning, interesting concept. Everything was though out to the hilt. Mostly everything isn't the way i expected. Also, plumbing is a painful thing. I could have built 10 tanks by now. She’s coming along now. I raised and plumbed the external refugium yesterday and put the ocean direct sand in. Tbs sand comes in wednesday. Gotta get the ghl stuff online. The pc doesnt see it yet. Gotbsome troubleshooting to do. I’ll get some refugium shots up once the cloudiness settles.

Coming along nicely!

 

[jhadaway]

Cleared up great, but after 2 days running one of the refugium bulkheads started slow dripping. I drained it for now. Here’s a shot without the tbs sand.

 

[jhadaway]

One of the seaswirls is up and running but the Sicce ADV9 is so loud and a little overpowered for a single sea swirl. I built 3 screen tops with window kits from Home Depot and saved lots of money. The tank is cycling 2oz of ammonia now in 24 hours. Lights are up to about half power and no uglies at all so far. I gave the tank an extra 3 weeks of cycling in the dark with the TBS and Ocean Direct sand.

So I bit the bullet and made my first fish purchases. I'm ordering as much captive bred as I can, but I really wanted a foxface too. Everything is coming from Dr Reef.
Various QT'd snails
Yellow Tang (Captive Bred)
Hippo Tang (Captive Bred)
Court Jester Goby (Captive Bred)
Foxface

Moving in from the old tank after the little tangs grow up a bit.
Tomini Tang
Convict Tang
Orchid Dottyback
Pajama Cardinal
Benggai Cardinal
Mandarin Dragonette
Blue Chromi
Oscellarus Clown
Lots of cleanup crew

I still cannot get any of the probes or sensors to work on my GHL Profilux so I'll be blowing the software up tis weekend to see if a full reset will fix the issue. My WB 100.3 has gotten to the point of being impossible to stabilize. It's 4 years old and overgrown. I'll be taking some risks moving the coral over in a few weeks.

None of my WIFI equipment will join my network but I firmly believe it's the Xfinity router. It's hot garbage.

Mixing station top tank holds 50 gallons of water. I'll be testing the bottom one this weekend too. Frag tank has yet to be set up. Still lots to do.

 

[jhadaway]

Lots of progress with the woodwork. I may finish this year…

 

[JumboShrimp]

Just fantastic all around. In-wall tanks with front and sided views are also so classy looking!

 

[jhadaway]

Thanks! Its finally starting to look like it belongs. Fish arriving friday!

 

[jhadaway]

The hippo and court jester wont come out for a photo. The tiny little hippo found a cave and only darts out for food. Looks like its going to be a quirky fish. Shout out to Dr Reefs again. Fantastic healthy fish. And the yellow tang was bigger than expected. Maybe another week and the exterior will be done. Drylok’d the backside of everything and bought some exterior paint to finish. I wont do the marine paint again inside the house.

 

[backbayreef]

Following along for a ride. That’s quite a journey - love your aquascape and custom-built handyman work!

 

[jhadaway]

Got her!

 

[Jimbo327]

I love that your in wall tank has 2 sides showing. That really gives it the side view....which is sometimes better than the front view because of the depth.

 

[jhadaway]

Thanks. I tried to rockscape the side that way too. We’ll see how it works out.

 

[jhadaway]

Cabinet doors come in on tuesday. Exterior is finally done minus a few touch ups. Getting some film on the glass but otherwise zero uglies so far. I used the serious reefs 90/10 method extended a little with ammonia to build up the bio ans it seems have done the job. Fish are doing well. Some updated shots.

 

[jhadaway]

Only the side door left!