New 150 Waterbox Build

[kfries]

After several years of small tanks my wife and I have finally agreed on a large tank for our home. We ordered a Waterbox 150.4. We are very excited to get this set up and transfer things over from our Nuvo 20. The tank should arrive in a couple of weeks from our LFS. Shoutout to Dominick at Tidewalker Aquarium in Stow Ohio for getting us hooked up on the aquarium.
I am still sorting out what equipment we want to run in this. I travel during the week often so I need to keep the maintenance as easy as possible for my wife when I am gone.
With this being a big step up in size, how are most people with larger tanks managing water changes? For the 20G I can use a couple of small buckets. I have an unfinished basement and I was considering running a drain line in behind the wall. I have my water station in the basement and I could possibly run a line from my mixing station to my tank. Any thoughts or ideas would be greatly appreciated. I would like to set up something before I have the tank in place.

 

[kfries]

For equipment here's what I am planning to use:
Lights: 2x Hydra 32s (I already have one)
Pump: Ventral S2
Power Heads: 2x Nero 3 (I already own these)
Orbit 4
Simmer: RS Reefer DC 300
Heater: Looking for recommendations. I have an ink bird controller
ATO: Reef Breeders. I have one that's been running well and a spare one as well.
Controller: Mostly using Mobius for feed mode. Kasa to set timers and turns things on/off for maintenance. Apex Jr. For pH, temp, level and leak detection.
That's it for now. Trying to go super simple. May add some doing equipment later on. I am working on my stocking list. I have a well stocked 20 that needs to be moved into tjis once it is cycled. Open to Heater, pump and skimmer recommendations. Ilikw the mobius controls and the Kasa wifi outlets have been working g well for me.

 

[mch1984]

Have you looked into using Apex DOS for automatic water changes? With the basement and a water station you have a place to store premixed salt water which would make it pretty easy. I'm no where close to my RODI and don't have the room for a mixing station. So my automatic water change will be via two hidden 5 gallon buckets. I'm not an expert on it, I'm still putting mine together and have never ran auto water change on previous tanks. But I'm going to set it up on this one.

 

[jimfish98]

I have the 130.4 and for water changes I have a 20g brute that I just fill via 5g buckets. I drain the water out the window near the tank and refill via the brute. In this case I am not going into a measured container to see how much I am removing, so if you go that route, mark the tank. When I got my 40g brute to hold RODI, I took a metered garden hose and filled it up marking every 5g with a sharpie. After setting up my hard scape and filling the display the first time, I put a strip of blue painters tape along the back corner and drained out water. When the brute filled to the 5g line, I marked the tape, continuing until I hit the 40g mark. I just pumped all that salt water back in and had a guide on the side of the tank for all water changes. It's a little off with inhabitants and coral, but I would rather have a little more salt water mixed than run short.

If you want to be hands off, get a roller mat in there.

 

[Gumbies R Us]

Following along! Can’t wait to see pictures of it once it’s up!

 

[kfries]

I got it in the house and on the stand. The syction cup handle things are awesome for moving something this heavy. Friendly neighbors are also great.

 

[Gumbies R Us]

I got it in the house and on the stand. The syction cup handle things are awesome for moving something this heavy. Friendly neighbors are also great.

Love the stand!

 

[kfries]

Have you looked into using Apex DOS for automatic water changes? With the basement and a water station you have a place to store premixed salt water which would make it pretty easy. I'm no where close to my RODI and don't have the room for a mixing station. So my automatic water change will be via two hidden 5 gallon buckets. I'm not an expert on it, I'm still putting mine together and have never ran auto water change on previous tanks. But I'm going to set it up on this one.

I have thought about that. Especially with the DOS on sale right now. My only hesitation is that my wife is not crazy about me drilling holes in the floor. My water station is about 25 feet to other side of the basement. I will need to think about the auto changes more. It does sound very convenient and would work well when traveling.

 

[mrhammy]

My 150 was delivered yesterday! I am not on the stand yet but I will be leveling and placing this weekend

 

[pwfess]

After several years of small tanks my wife and I have finally agreed on a large tank for our home. We ordered a Waterbox 150.4. We are very excited to get this set up and transfer things over from our Nuvo 20. The tank should arrive in a couple of weeks from our LFS. Shoutout to Dominick at Tidewalker Aquarium in Stow Ohio for getting us hooked up on the aquarium.
I am still sorting out what equipment we want to run in this. I travel during the week often so I need to keep the maintenance as easy as possible for my wife when I am gone.
With this being a big step up in size, how are most people with larger tanks managing water changes? For the 20G I can use a couple of small buckets. I have an unfinished basement and I was considering running a drain line in behind the wall. I have my water station in the basement and I could possibly run a line from my mixing station to my tank. Any thoughts or ideas would be greatly appreciated. I would like to set up something before I have the tank in place.

I think you're on the right track with your water change idea.
So what I would recommend is considering neptune DOS (or any doser)...have one line in your fresh RODI water bucket, and the other line in your display or sump pulling water. You can set the schedule, such that its pulling old water and dumping new water 24/7. However, you wouldn't need a separate (old water) bucket if you run the drain line to your basement...like you said. ON TOP of this, I would run the RODI line through the wall as well and you can have fresh RO water being dumped into another bucket for your auto top off. You can use float switches for shut off and safety. You do all this and no lugging up buckets. lol

I don't do water changes, however, here is an idea of what I do for my RODI water and ATO. I ran the line through my wall from the basement, to dump RODI water into my reservoir. Then the black line you see is my line to dump RODI water into my sump after the sensor trips on my tunze osmilator. It beats lugging up water!

PS: As a side note to your question on heater recommendations. I can't recommend the helio PTC smart heater enough. Check it out. Bit pricey, but its dang near 5 star reviews all around. Ive had it a year and its been very reliable.

 

[kevgib67]

Following along, I’ve been looking at the WB 190.4. O-H!

 

[kfries]

Making good progress. It took all my little RO/DI had, but I got it filled up after 2 days. Sump is 90% sorted out. Still need a skimmer. I am running a Jebao return pump at the moment, but it will become a back up soon. I used the waterbox control box. I was able to program some nice slots on the little cnc route. The box is a little on the shallow side. I had to get a socket adapter to plug in the heater and pump. It is working out well. Just working on getting it all cycled now.
Hoping to see some nice Black Friday deals on a skimmer.

 

[Sdbuehler1]

Looking good! I was just noticing the sponge that you added between the 2nd and 3rd chamber. I literally just ordered one for my 230.6 infinia sump about an hour ago. Does that do a good job to reduce the noise from the water fall? I feel like it was a bit of a design flaw to have the divider slots as high as they are.

 

[kfries]

Looking good! I was just noticing the sponge that you added between the 2nd and 3rd chamber. I literally just ordered one for my 230.6 infinia sump about an hour ago. Does that do a good job to reduce the noise from the water fall? I feel like it was a bit of a design flaw to have the divider slots as high as they are.

The sponge makes a huge difference. It makes some noise, but not too bad. Our tank is in the living room so noise is a big concern in our house. I bought the green one from BRS. It was a very large sheet that came. It was very easy to cut with a sharp utility knife. If I did not have the sponge I would have not used the divider. I mounted it with a couple of zip ties. I left them a little loose so that it would sit flat.

 

[Sdbuehler1]

The sponge makes a huge difference. It makes some noise, but not too bad. Our tank is in the living room so noise is a big concern in our house. I bought the green one from BRS. It was a very large sheet that came. It was very easy to cut with a sharp utility knife. If I did not have the sponge I would have not used the divider. I mounted it with a couple of zip ties. I left them a little loose so that it would sit flat.

My tank is in the family room so noise is a big concern too. For now I have a piece of vinyl tubing that is slit long ways that I stuck under the divider to allow just enough water through the bottom that it only trickles out of the top of the divider. The problem with this though is that the water surface in the second chamber is a lot more stagnant and I can see particles just floating around in circles instead of moving through to the next chamber.

 

[kfries]

Things are coming together well. Moved my live stock over about a week and a half ago. I only lost one frag. Still waiting for waterbox to ship my backorder hydra light. The new rock is a little bare at the moment.

 

[Gumbies R Us]

Things are coming together well. Moved my live stock over about a week and a half ago. I only lost one frag. Still waiting for waterbox to ship my backorder hydra light. The new rock is a little bare at the moment.

Glad you were able to move the live stock over!

 

[kfries]

Quick update
Things are progressing well. Added a Tomini tang and flame angel today. Trying to combat some aggression from the clowns. I was also gifted some used Apex gear and setup an additional panel. Wish these Waterboxes had more space or shelves, but I making it work. I also switched to AFR and a brs dosing pump on a smart plug timer.

 

[kfries]

The tanks is maturing well and I am getting some good growth out of my corals.