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AstroMelly
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Love your nick! We have only just discovered Zoas and they are firmly on our list for first corals!A big peninsula dividing a space like that is a dream for me. Following along to live vicariously
My Waterbox Peninsula Journey.
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I use a Neptune COR20 operating at 55%. This is about 5x turnover for total system volume per hour. That doesn't include any of the display tank powerhead water movement. WAVs themselves operate at about 20% combined or about 800 GPH.
Right now, my tank is LPS with a single exception. I myself may need to tune/change things up when I introduce SPS into the mix.
Incidentally, I have been facing down cyano in two specific areas of my tank, so I expect to increase flow using spare Neros (and/or increasing flow of far-end WAV) as another troubleshooting step.
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AstroMelly
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Nice! Good level of detail and exceptional timing. I just got an email from WaterBox. They told me their systems are designed for 5x turnover - which all makes perfect sense now! For my L2 pump that equates to 30% power (3,450 litres per hour) which is kind of the system’s happy place when it comes to noise levels etc.. I removed the baffle in the sump, although at 30% that should no longer be a problem as the flow there is pretty calm. I don’t see any point in chasing 10x turnover if the system was not designed for it.
My skimmer is coming tomorrow so the extra space in the sump will help with the install and I can always replace it if I want to run a refugium orthe increased aeration.
I’m interested in how people measure/observe the flow in their tanks. I thought of tying a ribbon to a stick and placing it at several points to try and gauge it! I suppose it’s more obvious when you start dropping food etc. into the tank! I’m tired of staring at the beautiful rock work. I want fish and corals!!!
I like the labels for your levels - I’ll be doing that when I find my label printer!
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AstroMelly
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AstroMelly
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Well it's been a few weeks so here's an update for those following. We cycled the tank with the Reef Mature Kit from Red Sea. I am not sure what to think about this since this is our first reef tank - and it's a big one! I wanted a simple product/cycle system and I suppose I got it. I bought 3 packs which was enough for the amount of water we have - 1 pack is good for 250 litres - I reckon we have about 700 with change. It's straightforward and I followed (most) of the instructions, however we did not have live rock which it stipulates as a prerequisite and we were also not skimming most of the time, however towards the end of the 21 days the skimmer was producing some pretty funky skimmate!
We did not add CUC at day 10, I figure this would have been too early so we just held out until Saturday just gone which would have been day 30 or so. I figure if you wait that long, have a source of bacteria to seed, some biological filter media and a good turnover of water (and a source of ammonia) then your tank should cycle. We had 4 big bags of live sand, and I have a large brick of ceramic filter media (and a smaller brick) in the sump. We were testing for Ammonia, Nitrate and Nitrite throughout, and I know enough to look for the drop in the Nitrite spike as an indicator - we got a 'LO' reading on our digital nitrite kit on Friday - it had been dropping for a week before that. Ammonia always tested off the low end of the scale - which I am putting down to the live sand. We are using this digital testing tool - eXact iDip 570 Photometer Marine (quoted for the forum search engine) which is excellent so far. My only gripe with the Reef Mature Kit is that it is not very clear on what you are actually adding...
So on Saturday we added:
6 x Cerith snails
6 x Nassarias snails
6 x Trochus snails
1 x Sand sifting conch
6 x Red legged hermit crabs
3 x Fire shrimp
2 x Clownfish
All were drip acclimated over a period of about 90 minutes. We drip acclimated all the inverts together as I only have 2 drip kits. We lost 3 hermit crabs and a fire shrimp within 24 hours. I have no idea why/how this happened - I guess something they didn't like about the tank. The fish have been active and appear to be exhibiting natural behaviour but then they are supposed to be a hardy breed, I suppose the inverts are just a bit more sensitive to changes. All the snails are having a whale of a time and the nassarius really enjoyed their crab supper! I removed the expired shrimp.
Both the remaining fire shrimp have now moulted their shells. I know this is generally a good sign of being settled and growing but I also read that it can be brought on by stress so I have my fingers crossed for them. They have been hiding since going in. I'm leaving the shells in there having read around.
On the whole I was hoping for an easier ride but no-one ever said fish keeping was easy right?
We did not add CUC at day 10, I figure this would have been too early so we just held out until Saturday just gone which would have been day 30 or so. I figure if you wait that long, have a source of bacteria to seed, some biological filter media and a good turnover of water (and a source of ammonia) then your tank should cycle. We had 4 big bags of live sand, and I have a large brick of ceramic filter media (and a smaller brick) in the sump. We were testing for Ammonia, Nitrate and Nitrite throughout, and I know enough to look for the drop in the Nitrite spike as an indicator - we got a 'LO' reading on our digital nitrite kit on Friday - it had been dropping for a week before that. Ammonia always tested off the low end of the scale - which I am putting down to the live sand. We are using this digital testing tool - eXact iDip 570 Photometer Marine (quoted for the forum search engine) which is excellent so far. My only gripe with the Reef Mature Kit is that it is not very clear on what you are actually adding...
So on Saturday we added:
6 x Cerith snails
6 x Nassarias snails
6 x Trochus snails
1 x Sand sifting conch
6 x Red legged hermit crabs
3 x Fire shrimp
2 x Clownfish
All were drip acclimated over a period of about 90 minutes. We drip acclimated all the inverts together as I only have 2 drip kits. We lost 3 hermit crabs and a fire shrimp within 24 hours. I have no idea why/how this happened - I guess something they didn't like about the tank. The fish have been active and appear to be exhibiting natural behaviour but then they are supposed to be a hardy breed, I suppose the inverts are just a bit more sensitive to changes. All the snails are having a whale of a time and the nassarius really enjoyed their crab supper! I removed the expired shrimp.
Both the remaining fire shrimp have now moulted their shells. I know this is generally a good sign of being settled and growing but I also read that it can be brought on by stress so I have my fingers crossed for them. They have been hiding since going in. I'm leaving the shells in there having read around.
On the whole I was hoping for an easier ride but no-one ever said fish keeping was easy right?
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AstroMelly
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Here goes - a post of shame!
I looked back at my build thread last night and I am ashamed...
I have not updated the thread since first fish were added - which is now 18 months ago. I aim to remedy this but such a lot has happened I really don't know where to start.
First and foremost, the tank is doing great! We went through the inevitable coral loss - fish-wise we only lost fish when trying to quarantine - go figure. A couple have died in the display soon after adding (a yellow goby and a mandarin) but fingers crossed we are doing well on the fish front now. Tank is fully stocked so we are not looking to add more fish just now.
Probably a good start for the first update post in 18 months would be to drop this link which details the fish stocking and parameters for the last year of the tank. At the moment we are battling high nitrates - I have just started vodka dosing a week ago and slowly ramping up the dose - currently 1.9ml of 40% (80 proof) per day each day this week. I'm noticing some small white bits of flocculent material blowing around the display several times a day and I reckon this is the vodka at work.
I plan to post some historic updates - detailing episodes from what I can remember!!! And potentially try and keep posting titbits of info until the thread is up to date. Will check back in soon (promise)!
I looked back at my build thread last night and I am ashamed...
I have not updated the thread since first fish were added - which is now 18 months ago. I aim to remedy this but such a lot has happened I really don't know where to start.
First and foremost, the tank is doing great! We went through the inevitable coral loss - fish-wise we only lost fish when trying to quarantine - go figure. A couple have died in the display soon after adding (a yellow goby and a mandarin) but fingers crossed we are doing well on the fish front now. Tank is fully stocked so we are not looking to add more fish just now.
Probably a good start for the first update post in 18 months would be to drop this link which details the fish stocking and parameters for the last year of the tank. At the moment we are battling high nitrates - I have just started vodka dosing a week ago and slowly ramping up the dose - currently 1.9ml of 40% (80 proof) per day each day this week. I'm noticing some small white bits of flocculent material blowing around the display several times a day and I reckon this is the vodka at work.
I plan to post some historic updates - detailing episodes from what I can remember!!! And potentially try and keep posting titbits of info until the thread is up to date. Will check back in soon (promise)!
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AstroMelly
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By the way - first historic update - on the clowns and the other critters we added at the same time.
Stella and Miguel are both doing really well. They settled quickly and continue to be a happy couple. They live in and around a cave at the quiet end of the peninsula (away from the flow heads) in peace and happiness. They have been spawning for the last 2-3 months, laying eggs in their corner of the tank. A few months ago we added a Regal Blue tang who shared the cave with them for a few weeks before they decided they would rather sleep outside! Miguel is a doting father and Stella is constantly checking his work. She is somewhat of an enigma and is totally the boss of the tank. Even our biggest fish - our (I believe male) Naso tang (Edna - and I will do an update post on him as well) acknowledges her status and he is probably 6+ inches now.
They (Miguel does all the work) keep the sand away from their corner of the tank and they both clean the area completely after the brood has hatched. We plan to try and bring some of these clown eggs on in the future - first we have to try and get them to lay on something that can be removed. I tried 3D printing an insert which could sit in the corner of the tank they have chosen but need to redesign it to stop it from falling/being pushed over. Maybe a ceramic tile would be easier? I will try and get an updated video of the clowns as it would be nice to see the comparison between then and now.
We still have 1 of the fire shrimp - Pinky. The other one sadly passed soon after the first. He has become much more active of late, but he was a hider for many many months. He is out and about most nights and is an active cleaner, with some of the fish preferring his services to our skunk cleaner, Sweeney (tends to be a bit more thorough and I think rougher!). Loads of Trochus now as they are breeding in the sump. Some of the original gang of hermits remain - I think Edmund is still around (he was always at the highest point in the tank hence named after Sir Edmund Hillary). Also I believe almost all, if not all of the Cerith snails are still present. All of our first batch of Nassarius died off eventually after a few months but we have since replaced them with another batch who are doing well. Not sure how they perished when other snails seem to have persisted and even done well.
We now have 3 (I think they are strawberry) conches since we enjoyed watching our first so much and they are very active cleaners of the sand bed. They are affectionately named numbers 1, 2 and 3 indicating the order we added them and I can still recognise them easily. Actually we also added 2 smaller slightly different conches so in total we have 5. Number 3 is definitely a female and sometimes the 3 strawberry conches have what we would term 'adult' parties. We occasionally find clutches of eggs in the sand-bed if we are vacuuming the substrate. We also have a baby conch which roams the glass at night and we think maybe he was born in the tank but can't be sure he did not hitch-hike in on something (we do dip our new corals quite thoroughly so I do not think this is the case but you never know).
That's it for now I will post again and also add some photos.
Stella and Miguel are both doing really well. They settled quickly and continue to be a happy couple. They live in and around a cave at the quiet end of the peninsula (away from the flow heads) in peace and happiness. They have been spawning for the last 2-3 months, laying eggs in their corner of the tank. A few months ago we added a Regal Blue tang who shared the cave with them for a few weeks before they decided they would rather sleep outside! Miguel is a doting father and Stella is constantly checking his work. She is somewhat of an enigma and is totally the boss of the tank. Even our biggest fish - our (I believe male) Naso tang (Edna - and I will do an update post on him as well) acknowledges her status and he is probably 6+ inches now.
They (Miguel does all the work) keep the sand away from their corner of the tank and they both clean the area completely after the brood has hatched. We plan to try and bring some of these clown eggs on in the future - first we have to try and get them to lay on something that can be removed. I tried 3D printing an insert which could sit in the corner of the tank they have chosen but need to redesign it to stop it from falling/being pushed over. Maybe a ceramic tile would be easier? I will try and get an updated video of the clowns as it would be nice to see the comparison between then and now.
We still have 1 of the fire shrimp - Pinky. The other one sadly passed soon after the first. He has become much more active of late, but he was a hider for many many months. He is out and about most nights and is an active cleaner, with some of the fish preferring his services to our skunk cleaner, Sweeney (tends to be a bit more thorough and I think rougher!). Loads of Trochus now as they are breeding in the sump. Some of the original gang of hermits remain - I think Edmund is still around (he was always at the highest point in the tank hence named after Sir Edmund Hillary). Also I believe almost all, if not all of the Cerith snails are still present. All of our first batch of Nassarius died off eventually after a few months but we have since replaced them with another batch who are doing well. Not sure how they perished when other snails seem to have persisted and even done well.
We now have 3 (I think they are strawberry) conches since we enjoyed watching our first so much and they are very active cleaners of the sand bed. They are affectionately named numbers 1, 2 and 3 indicating the order we added them and I can still recognise them easily. Actually we also added 2 smaller slightly different conches so in total we have 5. Number 3 is definitely a female and sometimes the 3 strawberry conches have what we would term 'adult' parties. We occasionally find clutches of eggs in the sand-bed if we are vacuuming the substrate. We also have a baby conch which roams the glass at night and we think maybe he was born in the tank but can't be sure he did not hitch-hike in on something (we do dip our new corals quite thoroughly so I do not think this is the case but you never know).
That's it for now I will post again and also add some photos.
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AstroMelly
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Another long overdue update - not sure if anyone is reading these but I will try and drop some more posts anyway. I feel I owe the community something!
So after adding the clowns and some inverts, the next additions were our Biker gang of Banggai Cardinals. We added 6 all at once - no idea at the time of males/females but they are all still with us today - nearly 2 years later.
They are great fish - really funny the way they just hover and stare at stuff - especially anything new or unusual to them. In the evenings they race around chasing each other, grunting as they go. I understand some people lose these fish due to exhaustive chasing and I can see how this may come about. We are grateful they are all still with us. There is at least one male, possibly two. I have tried to sex them by viewing their undersides and sometimes I can actually see quite clearly the one or two appendages which differentiate the male from the female. We have had at least two spawnings and on the last occasion, 1 baby fish was brought on my the male and released into the display at a size of about 8mm fin to fin which I thought was amazing. We managed to save him from the filter roller the next morning and tried to rear him in a separate tank with TDO 'B' pellets but sadly we lost him after 3 weeks. I think he stopped eating or we were not providing the food he required. It was very sad as we had become attached to little Rodney.
More updates to follow - I promise - we are right now trying to collect clown fish fry. The last hatching was Tuesday last week - we only managed to collect 1 fry but little Artois is still going strong in our 22 litre grow out tank. Feeding live rotifers twice daily.
So after adding the clowns and some inverts, the next additions were our Biker gang of Banggai Cardinals. We added 6 all at once - no idea at the time of males/females but they are all still with us today - nearly 2 years later.
They are great fish - really funny the way they just hover and stare at stuff - especially anything new or unusual to them. In the evenings they race around chasing each other, grunting as they go. I understand some people lose these fish due to exhaustive chasing and I can see how this may come about. We are grateful they are all still with us. There is at least one male, possibly two. I have tried to sex them by viewing their undersides and sometimes I can actually see quite clearly the one or two appendages which differentiate the male from the female. We have had at least two spawnings and on the last occasion, 1 baby fish was brought on my the male and released into the display at a size of about 8mm fin to fin which I thought was amazing. We managed to save him from the filter roller the next morning and tried to rear him in a separate tank with TDO 'B' pellets but sadly we lost him after 3 weeks. I think he stopped eating or we were not providing the food he required. It was very sad as we had become attached to little Rodney.
More updates to follow - I promise - we are right now trying to collect clown fish fry. The last hatching was Tuesday last week - we only managed to collect 1 fry but little Artois is still going strong in our 22 litre grow out tank. Feeding live rotifers twice daily.
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aquatic26
Community Member
This is so cool! Do all male/female clown fish pairs eventually breed? Would love to see some photos of the tank in its current state! Do you have a hawk fish? I think that may be next for me. I also need to get my candy cane pistol shrimp a new goby, after his perished within a week
Can we get a full tank shot to see how everything has come together?! Maybe a shot of your sump also!
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AstroMelly
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Hey there!This is so cool! Do all male/female clown fish pairs eventually breed? Would love to see some photos of the tank in its current state! Do you have a hawk fish? I think that may be next for me. I also need to get my candy cane pistol shrimp a new goby, after his perished within a week
As far as I have heard and from my limited experience with our own clownfish all clownfish pairs do not breed. Even though they may be 'paired' it does not mean that they will go on to breed - they may just tolerate each other and may even fall out over time. In our case, they always seemed happy together but Stella only started laying eggs around May this year - so that is about 18 months after they went into the tank together - they were bought as a pair in December 2021. No idea how old they were at that point but I would think at a guess they were less than 3-4 months as they have grown since.
We do not have a hawk fish although we have always wanted a scarlet hawk. However if you read enough posts on here you will find people who have gone for it and had success but also those who have made the same gamble and lost their cleaner shrimp etc. - sometimes multiple. We are quite attached to Sweeney our resident cleaner, Pinky the fire shrimp, not to mention Rocky the coral banded shrimp and of course Bob the tiger pistol shrimp who lives with Archie the pink spotted goby.
I could not forgive myself for sacrificing any of those so it's still a no to a hawk for now.
We tried a yellow watchman goby (Clyde) with a tiger pistol (Clint) as a first pairing and sadly that did not work out for us either. The goby was constantly getting harassed - he would swim up near the clowns - and never settled. The shrimp hung on for a few weeks more and we think he eventually died while moulting. Our existing pairing of Archie and Bob (the builder) was a lucky one. We picked up Archie on a whim while visiting a fish shop out of town and added Bob the shrimp some weeks later after I had found he may be a suitable watchman goby. The next day they were living together and they seem to be a really happy couple.
If you like your tiger shrimp I would pass on the hawk fish but really it is up to you to decide what to do.
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AstroMelly
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I will post some recent photos soon! A lot has happened but I will post updates as and when from now on.
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Yep - that's the one. Check the start of the build thread for some setup shots. Its about 750 litres of water in the display/sump.
Kasrift
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There don’t seem to be a ton of people with this tank. Any thoughts on what you might do or look for differently? Looks like a nice tank to me. Trying to figure out the best peninsula tank in that size range.
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AstroMelly
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As far as the tank goes it is beautiful and has lasted well so far. I would also say build quality is excellent but then as an owner and having committed to this tank I am probably biased. We have no regrets on tank choice but the range of of the shelf peninsula tanks of this size is extremely limited. We looked at the RedSea 650 but in the end we went for the larger volume of the Waterbox. Also if you check the thread we had several issues with the initial delivery which Waterbox sorted quickly and with no quibbles (sump and pipework was originally missing, warped door x 2).
Ok my gripes - the hinges rust - some are worse than others but at least half a dozen need replacing already. They come generously smeared in vaseline which I stupidly wiped off - not completely but I should have realised it was there for a reason. Also one of the door stops that pushes the door open when you push it has lost it's chrome coating on the post where it hits the door and is also rusting badly (and staining the door). I have heard the same for RedSea hinges so I guess this is a common problem with aquarium cabinet hinges. It seems the hinge body is fairly resistant but the tiny hinge pins seems to corrode first and this spreads outwards to the rest of the hinge body. I will try and approach Waterbox for replacements for these parts and be more careful if/when I get them.
The sump sock holders are now redundant since we installed a ReefMat 1200 (which is amazing btw). I have plans to remove the sock holders which are solidly mastic'd in (could have been drop on/lift off design imo) and open up that area of the sump but the way the glass dividers in this section are designed mean that I have limited options there and the glass looks like it may be hard to remove. It would have been nice to have that section easier to customise but that's just the way it was designed - if you like cleaning your filter socks every couple of days then Waterbox have got it right but I think most people are going down the filter roller route these days. Last one - the ATO chamber sits in a separate section of the cabinet at one end. This is fine but that section gets a lot of condensation from the sump. It's not from the ATO (which comes without a lid) - I thought this may have been the case but I bought a custom made perspex lid for the ATO to stop dust and other cruft from making it's way into the RO water - this did not stop the condensation. This sits on the inside of the cabinet and encourages black mould to grow. There is a hole between the sump and the ATO section and I have seen other people try and block that up with foam for example, but I have not got round to it yet. Pretty sure that would help. Just means I have to wipe that section down occasionally but because the ATO tank is in there it means I cannot get to all the areas unless the tank is empty and I can remove it.
In all I would say the above is acceptable as nothing will ever be perfect - I would like to replace the hinges and the push open plunger - the other gripes are not so bad.
One thing I have heard is that this tank is being discontinued so if you are after a new one I would try and go for it asap.
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AstroMelly
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Ok so I promised some photos - I grabbed this lot just now. Sorry if too many but I was just snapping away. Some with filter and some w/o.
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AstroMelly
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AstroMelly
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Ok time for a brief update. As I mentioned above we have been trying over the last month or 2 to separate our clownfish eggs from the display in order to hatch them in a separate tank. Usually when the eggs hatch (which always happens at night), the fry are always gone from the display in the morning. We believe this is down to our 6 banggai cardinalfish who are not only active hunters but also mostly nocturnal. Last cycle we rescued one fry - 'Artois'.
For the last batch we managed to get the clowns to lay on a 'laying cone' - the first batch of eggs Stella (the female) ignored the cone and laid on the glass in the corner as usual. Then we placed a piece of clear perspex in the corner against the glass in case she laid on that - we could remove it - and she really did not like this and chose the cone instead!
Last night (day 9 of the usually 10 day hatch cycle) we moved the cone to the 22 litre - Artois is still in there - 15 days old now - and set up an air stone to gently move the eggs as best we could. I was not expecting to come downstairs this morning to this!
For the last batch we managed to get the clowns to lay on a 'laying cone' - the first batch of eggs Stella (the female) ignored the cone and laid on the glass in the corner as usual. Then we placed a piece of clear perspex in the corner against the glass in case she laid on that - we could remove it - and she really did not like this and chose the cone instead!
Last night (day 9 of the usually 10 day hatch cycle) we moved the cone to the 22 litre - Artois is still in there - 15 days old now - and set up an air stone to gently move the eggs as best we could. I was not expecting to come downstairs this morning to this!
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AstroMelly
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Quick update on the clown fry - sadly we lost them all at about day 8 I think it was. Numbers were good until about day 4-5 and then we had huge loss. I think we were down to single digits by that point and then we had just 2 by day 7.
I know what happened though - my rotifer culture crashed just a few days in and hence we could not supply the initial food source. It's sad but there is a silver lining. Artois the singlet that we rescued from the previous batch is still doing really well. He is 5 weeks old today and is only being fed prepared foods - flake crumbs and TDO chromaboost B1 pellets mainly. We throw some live pods in sometimes which he enjoys.
Here he is a few days ago.
I know what happened though - my rotifer culture crashed just a few days in and hence we could not supply the initial food source. It's sad but there is a silver lining. Artois the singlet that we rescued from the previous batch is still doing really well. He is 5 weeks old today and is only being fed prepared foods - flake crumbs and TDO chromaboost B1 pellets mainly. We throw some live pods in sometimes which he enjoys.
Here he is a few days ago.
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