Sean's Waterbox Platinum 130.4 Build

[Hurdbird88]

Just found the build and read through and caught up. Already looking good and I'm glad I got on board before there was water. I think the remote bigger fuge was a good idea and the little eshopps overflows are good. Plus with it being behind the tank in another room you wont have to worry about the annoying red light when your enjoying the tank.

No issues on carpet other than the spills. I have a 180 freshwater on carpet and it's fine. I also have a 50 gallon frag tank on carpet and just the other day it dumped about 10 gallons of water and the whole house smells bad right now. I just about have it dried out and will be shampooing around the tank best I can to help get the smell out. Just be careful of spills on the carpet.

I can't comment on the calcium reactor, I plan on adding one when I do my garage take over but haven't used one to this point.

Welcome aboard Mch! That was my big reason to separate into a remote fuge. I wanted a 10g min, was originally thinking 20g but I had a spare 10g already. I wanted to be able to not worry about my fuge light causing nuisance algae and / or lighting my cabinet and general space below cabinet. Having the remote fuge, I can now build a stand with the calcium reactor right next to it to drop the effluent into the fuge as well. It's starting to get exciting but there's a lot of projects still remaining. I'm trying to take this build very slow and think about things 4-5 times before I do it to make sure it make senses for the long haul.

 

[mch1984]

Welcome aboard Mch! That was my big reason to separate into a remote fuge. I wanted a 10g min, was originally thinking 20g but I had a spare 10g already. I wanted to be able to not worry about my fuge light causing nuisance algae and / or lighting my cabinet and general space below cabinet. Having the remote fuge, I can now build a stand with the calcium reactor right next to it to drop the effluent into the fuge as well. It's starting to get exciting but there's a lot of projects still remaining. I'm trying to take this build very slow and think about things 4-5 times before I do it to make sure it make senses for the long haul.

Taking your time is always a good idea, plus for me anyways the build is half the fun. My 90 is my bedroom and the stand is completely enclosed so you don't even see the light. My frag tank is open and you can that light as soon as you walk in the door if you come in late. I have nosy neighbors and keep waiting on somebody to ask what I'm growing.

 

[Hurdbird88]

I agree. I’ve really enjoyed the design and build process too. Definitely excited to get things salty now though!

 

[The Last Strider]

Really enjoying your build. It’s giving me some great ideas!

 

[The Last Strider]

Welcome aboard Mch! That was my big reason to separate into a remote fuge. I wanted a 10g min, was originally thinking 20g but I had a spare 10g already. I wanted to be able to not worry about my fuge light causing nuisance algae and / or lighting my cabinet and general space below cabinet. Having the remote fuge, I can now build a stand with the calcium reactor right next to it to drop the effluent into the fuge as well. It's starting to get exciting but there's a lot of projects still remaining. I'm trying to take this build very slow and think about things 4-5 times before I do it to make sure it make senses for the long haul.

If you don’t mind, walk me through how will you plumb the fuge. I was thinking of a separate as well.

 

[Hurdbird88]

Really enjoying your build. It’s giving me some great ideas!

Thanks! Appreciate it!

 

[Hurdbird88]

Got the final metric conversion fittings in! It’s finally go time on plumbing this tank and getting salty. Bought (1) 25mm and (2) 32mm slip by slip unions and used only the bottom half of the unions to adapt to Waterbox plumbing. Then used BRS conversion fittings between 25mm and 3/4” return and 32mm to 1” for drains.

 

[Hurdbird88]

If you don’t mind, walk me through how will you plumb the fuge. I was thinking of a separate as well.

I’m going to build a stand and put bottom of the fuge above the tallest height of sump walls to allow for gravity drainage from overflow into sump and limit amount of head pressure needed from return pump. Still trying to figure out how to put a flow nozzle on the return line. Anyone have any knowledge of this?

 

[Hurdbird88]

Big thanks to Brad508 for coming over and helping me get the tank on the stand so I could get going on plumbing!

Final layout / planning done and started assembling return lines first (second picture). Stand / sump in the Waterbxes is tight with the (2) Aquamax reactors but I’ll make it work somehow.

I was able to get 4” straight piece into flow meter and that is absolutely maxed so hopefully that’s enough.

Trying to figure out how to hang the piping properly but the thick 1” union flanges make it more of a pain. Bit the bullet and bought the expensive pvc pipe clip hangers from BRS. Hopefully this does the trick.

 

[Hurdbird88]

Electrical tank upgrade done. Added a dedicated 20 amp, 2 gang circuit behind the tank and added some an additional outlet in the mech room for the remote fuge / calcium reactor. Went with GFCI’s on both even though they are well away from water splash areas. Hopefully finishing up the plumbing over the next few days and setting the rock into the tank and starting final equipment set up / Apex programming.

 

[Hurdbird88]

Returns up and hung. Finishing the drains tomorrow and hopefully remote fuge / loading rock in this weekend. The BRS pipe clips are expensive but they are definitely awesome once you have them laid out. Had to use different size clips so I had to buy some spacers to put behind the smaller piping clips to level things out.

 

[Hurdbird88]

Had a good weekend. Almost there! Water testing coming soon. The three pipes going through the back wall go to the remote fuge in the mech room. Calcium reactor and potentially future frag tank will be in mech room as well.

Also, went over to my friend Paul’s for a visit / reef talk and to check out his 420 gallon masterpiece. Absolutely love this tank and appreciate all the advice Paul!

 

[Hurdbird88]

Finished the remote fuge stand build over the past few days.. slowly but surely getting there! Stand could probably support a 200 gallon tank but I wanted to learn the ins and outs of framing a stand correctly and I’m not much of a carpenter haha.

 

[Hurdbird88]

Got a lot done this weekend! Finalized plumbing to main display / remote fuge minus the final locline fittings in fuge (waiting for them to arrive) and water tested sump / overflow box bulkheads.

Finished roughing CAT6 cable over for Apex. Labeled all wiring and roughed all wires to final locations and did a lot of cable management. Hung another board in the mechanical room behind the tank to mount the power blocks and hopefully keep all the heat out from under the display stand.

Getting salty next weekend!! Finally!

 

[Hurdbird88]

Changed the scape around a bit on the right side that I wasn’t happy with and cemented today. Waters going in! Hopefully have enough water made to finish filling tomorrow and start mixing in salt. Struggling a little as a first time Apex user but I’ll figure it out tomorrow hopefully and start testing all the equipment and changing some programming around.

 

[Hurdbird88]

Been a while since I posted. Baby, life and paintball practice got in the way. First off, I have to give Neptune a lot of credit for how they handled my faulty Apex base unit. Promptly responded to my emails and scheduled a call to log in to my system and check things over. It was determined that I had bad probe ports. They 2 day shipped me a replacement unit and helped me get everything set up and switched over. Salt is in, remote fuge is running and all equipment has been tested for 5 days.

Time to start the cycle and start looking for my first fish to get into quarantine! I’m thinking about going with a similar approach to the BRS/WWC method of a 3-4 month cycle. Any advice?

Probably looking at a small tang of some sort for first fish but need to find something on the less aggressive end because it will be first fish in the tank. Thoughts?

 

[Hurdbird88]

Seems like my salinity and ORP probes are off potentially. I know the salinity is pegged at 35 PPT / 1.026 so I would imagine my probe has bubbles in it or is being affected by voltage from other power cords. The ORP seems awfully low but what do you think? Seems like it should be 200 on the low end for a brand new tank.

 

[bcarl77]

Great build! About to do the same thing to my waterbox over the next few months!

 

[Hurdbird88]

Great build! About to do the same thing to my waterbox over the next few months!

Thank you and good luck! Two weeks into the cycle now. Working on finalizing my quarantine station now. Pics to follow when I finish.

 

[Hurdbird88]

It’s been a while since I posted so have a few updates... displays over a month into the cycle. Added some clean up crew and started ghost feeding while I quarantine my first fish, a whitetail bristletooth tang. Lost a yellow tang in QT with him which really sucks because they were best buddies. Built a new quarantine station and am working on setting up a DOS for auto water changes.