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Hi! I'm taking a stab at my very first build thread in hopes of paying forward some of the help I've gotten from others who have shared theirs. My gratitude towards the generosity of many in this hobby can never be adequately expressed and I'd like to send a big thank you to all who share their tips and experiences with a spirit of positivity and mutual learning.
I cannot guarantee I'll be successful at updating this thread, simply because I'm a tremendous procrastinator and my work life keeps me very busy and tired. Great profile for a reef keeper, amiright? But I'll try my best.
This Water box 180.5 will be my 3rd reef tank. I started out with a 65gal Deep Blue Ocean tank with an Eshopps sump and skimmer as well as an Apex. About 2 years later, my wife surprised me with an IM 20gal dropoff tank. Both tanks are still running, with varying levels of success.
Here's a picture of the 65 at it's peak in 2019 when it was 5 years old:
Shortly after this picture was taken, the tank started to decline. I first struggled with some really nasty green palys that were very aggressive and spread all over. I tried everything to keep them at bay, starting with cutting, and then kalk paste and some other methods that were not successful. I ultimately succeeded by removing some of the rock it was on and doing a lot of hardcore scrubbing.
Then I hit the trifecta. I soon supplemented my AI Primes with the ATI T5 hybrid kit. This encouraged some mushrooms which were among the first coral I ever had to explode and spread everywhere. They had been fairly contained for 5 years as you can see, but I was quickly seeing them pop up everywhere. Each time I would cut them off the rock, 2 more would spring up. Kind of like Hydra . I didn't know mushrooms could be so aggressive. Everywhere they moved, they began killing off or depriving the existing corals of light. I was planning on doing a total swap of all my rock with my LFS when covid hit. Stuck at home and generally getting depressed watching the mushrooms take out coral after coral and with the crappy state of the world, I started to struggle with keeping my alk/calc in line and the few things not already under siege by mushrooms started to decline as well. I was dosing with BRS 2-part using the BRS pumps and I hadn't realized that I was having problems with air in the alk line. So I was going crazy trying to chase numbers and getting more and more depressed about the whole thing. Now I'm left with two humongous leathers and mushrooms literally everywhere. 2020 sucked, y'all.
I also had other challenges with this tank. I had many corals that very quickly got too darn big too quickly. There were a bunch of things that I had fragged and taken to the LFS for credit like birds nest, torches, hammers, etc. I had a fantastic bubble coral for a couple years that I also had to trade in because there was no more room on the sand. With my rock layout, I also had a lot of trouble with coral placement and early on I didn't quite grasp how much shadowing would come in to play. Not to mention the usual algae, cyano and dino outbreaks.
As far as cyano and algae, I do feel like I finally got a hold of how to keep them under control. Urchins and emerald crabs worked best for me for algae, even now. I recently had a minor algae flare up in my 20gal so I threw one of the urchins from my 65 in there and he took care of it in no time. Along with most of my coraline . In the beginning I was dead set against any sort of "chemical" solutions to cyano and bought into what I believe is the false mantra of "it's your nutrients, stupid". While I do believe that drifting nutrient levels can cause an outbreak, I was never able to fully contain it once it got a hold. I used Dr. Tim's Waste Away a few times but it seemed to eventually lose effectiveness. I eventually turned to Chemiclean and since then I do not sweat cyano. The stuff works. We're all going to get cyano from time to time. I should also mention that this tank started with a deep sand bed (yup). This worked fantastically for controlling nitrates, but I believe it eventually became a cyano factory. The DSB was replaced after about 3 years.
Which leads to the impetus for getting the Waterbox. Throughout my time in the hobby, my wife has been incredibly supportive and excited about the tanks. Pretty quickly after setting up the 65 and stocking it with corals, she was telling me we should get a bigger tank. I resisted on mostly financial grounds (this is a dang expensive hobby, in case you hadn't realized), as well as not being keen on stepping up to larger water changes. I had been relying on a 20gal brute for my salt water reservoir and using buckets to do my changes. Filling the reservoir involved filling up 5gal buckets with RODI in my laundry room and carrying them downstairs to where the tank and reservoir are. My house has a septic system and I always thought that I shouldn't be dumping salt water down the drain, for whatever reason. So when I had to empty buckets, I carried them out to the far end of my yard where I have a drainage pit. Real fun in the winter. It took way too many years, but back in Feb I was doing some searches and found that many reefers have septic systems and have been emptying their salt water in the drain with no issues. Someone also pointed out that the effluent from my water softener was many more times salty than reef water.
This revelation had me re-examining my methodology and set my mind looking into larger tanks. I also saw people's water mixing stations and all the reports of people using the Neptune DOS for auto water changes. I soon ran a RODI line from the RODI unit in my laundry room into the boiler room in my basement. And stated thinking about how I could make water changes easier. I wanted to re-ignite my involvement in the hobby and part of that would involve either getting a larger tank or completely replacing all the rock in my existing one.
Thank you for reading this so far. I hadn't intended to start off writing a novel, but I figured some background info would be helpful. In all likelihood there are others who are struggling with a lot of the same issues. Once I accepted that I could in fact up my water change game, I started to think about what kind of tank I would want. I always knew something in the 120-150 gal range would probably be my sweet spot for cost and footprint. I also knew that I probably would not have the patience or confidence to make it a largely DIY effort and just didn't want to have to stress over things like plumbing and sump layout. I also knew that if I was going to do this, I wanted step up my automation and the overall appearance of the tank. Hence how I settled on the Waterbox Reef 180.5. It seemed they had done a lot of the thinking for me and I knew they were quality tanks and stands. And as we all know, there are no shortage of projects with this hobby, no matter what your setup. My next post will detail my new setup and where I am so far. Thanks for making it this far!
I cannot guarantee I'll be successful at updating this thread, simply because I'm a tremendous procrastinator and my work life keeps me very busy and tired. Great profile for a reef keeper, amiright? But I'll try my best.
This Water box 180.5 will be my 3rd reef tank. I started out with a 65gal Deep Blue Ocean tank with an Eshopps sump and skimmer as well as an Apex. About 2 years later, my wife surprised me with an IM 20gal dropoff tank. Both tanks are still running, with varying levels of success.
Here's a picture of the 65 at it's peak in 2019 when it was 5 years old:
Shortly after this picture was taken, the tank started to decline. I first struggled with some really nasty green palys that were very aggressive and spread all over. I tried everything to keep them at bay, starting with cutting, and then kalk paste and some other methods that were not successful. I ultimately succeeded by removing some of the rock it was on and doing a lot of hardcore scrubbing.
Then I hit the trifecta. I soon supplemented my AI Primes with the ATI T5 hybrid kit. This encouraged some mushrooms which were among the first coral I ever had to explode and spread everywhere. They had been fairly contained for 5 years as you can see, but I was quickly seeing them pop up everywhere. Each time I would cut them off the rock, 2 more would spring up. Kind of like Hydra . I didn't know mushrooms could be so aggressive. Everywhere they moved, they began killing off or depriving the existing corals of light. I was planning on doing a total swap of all my rock with my LFS when covid hit. Stuck at home and generally getting depressed watching the mushrooms take out coral after coral and with the crappy state of the world, I started to struggle with keeping my alk/calc in line and the few things not already under siege by mushrooms started to decline as well. I was dosing with BRS 2-part using the BRS pumps and I hadn't realized that I was having problems with air in the alk line. So I was going crazy trying to chase numbers and getting more and more depressed about the whole thing. Now I'm left with two humongous leathers and mushrooms literally everywhere. 2020 sucked, y'all.
I also had other challenges with this tank. I had many corals that very quickly got too darn big too quickly. There were a bunch of things that I had fragged and taken to the LFS for credit like birds nest, torches, hammers, etc. I had a fantastic bubble coral for a couple years that I also had to trade in because there was no more room on the sand. With my rock layout, I also had a lot of trouble with coral placement and early on I didn't quite grasp how much shadowing would come in to play. Not to mention the usual algae, cyano and dino outbreaks.
As far as cyano and algae, I do feel like I finally got a hold of how to keep them under control. Urchins and emerald crabs worked best for me for algae, even now. I recently had a minor algae flare up in my 20gal so I threw one of the urchins from my 65 in there and he took care of it in no time. Along with most of my coraline . In the beginning I was dead set against any sort of "chemical" solutions to cyano and bought into what I believe is the false mantra of "it's your nutrients, stupid". While I do believe that drifting nutrient levels can cause an outbreak, I was never able to fully contain it once it got a hold. I used Dr. Tim's Waste Away a few times but it seemed to eventually lose effectiveness. I eventually turned to Chemiclean and since then I do not sweat cyano. The stuff works. We're all going to get cyano from time to time. I should also mention that this tank started with a deep sand bed (yup). This worked fantastically for controlling nitrates, but I believe it eventually became a cyano factory. The DSB was replaced after about 3 years.
Which leads to the impetus for getting the Waterbox. Throughout my time in the hobby, my wife has been incredibly supportive and excited about the tanks. Pretty quickly after setting up the 65 and stocking it with corals, she was telling me we should get a bigger tank. I resisted on mostly financial grounds (this is a dang expensive hobby, in case you hadn't realized), as well as not being keen on stepping up to larger water changes. I had been relying on a 20gal brute for my salt water reservoir and using buckets to do my changes. Filling the reservoir involved filling up 5gal buckets with RODI in my laundry room and carrying them downstairs to where the tank and reservoir are. My house has a septic system and I always thought that I shouldn't be dumping salt water down the drain, for whatever reason. So when I had to empty buckets, I carried them out to the far end of my yard where I have a drainage pit. Real fun in the winter. It took way too many years, but back in Feb I was doing some searches and found that many reefers have septic systems and have been emptying their salt water in the drain with no issues. Someone also pointed out that the effluent from my water softener was many more times salty than reef water.
This revelation had me re-examining my methodology and set my mind looking into larger tanks. I also saw people's water mixing stations and all the reports of people using the Neptune DOS for auto water changes. I soon ran a RODI line from the RODI unit in my laundry room into the boiler room in my basement. And stated thinking about how I could make water changes easier. I wanted to re-ignite my involvement in the hobby and part of that would involve either getting a larger tank or completely replacing all the rock in my existing one.
Thank you for reading this so far. I hadn't intended to start off writing a novel, but I figured some background info would be helpful. In all likelihood there are others who are struggling with a lot of the same issues. Once I accepted that I could in fact up my water change game, I started to think about what kind of tank I would want. I always knew something in the 120-150 gal range would probably be my sweet spot for cost and footprint. I also knew that I probably would not have the patience or confidence to make it a largely DIY effort and just didn't want to have to stress over things like plumbing and sump layout. I also knew that if I was going to do this, I wanted step up my automation and the overall appearance of the tank. Hence how I settled on the Waterbox Reef 180.5. It seemed they had done a lot of the thinking for me and I knew they were quality tanks and stands. And as we all know, there are no shortage of projects with this hobby, no matter what your setup. My next post will detail my new setup and where I am so far. Thanks for making it this far!
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