Sean's Waterbox Platinum 130.4 Build

Hurdbird88

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Hi everyone! My name is Sean and I am new to the forums. I have had a serious itch to get another reef tank going. I had a 90g/ 125g mixed reef tank (my first reef tanks) about 6-7 years ago at this point. Within that time away from the hobby, I bought my first house and completely renovated every square inch and I am very happy to say that I am finally completed and ready to restart the tank journey in the near future. I have been doing some research and have the following equipment list below in mind but I am completely open to any / all suggestions. I will be going for another mixed reef but definitely want to have some SPS in there. I do like fish as well mainly clowns, tangs and I will definitely want a blue-jaw trigger if possible (favorite fish).

Tank / Stand / Sump-Waterbox Platinum Reef 130.4g (96.3 display, 30.6 sump, 5.5 ATO)
Lighting - (2) Ecotech Radion XR30w Pro or (2) AI Hydra Fiftytwo
Main Return Pump - Ecotech S1 (1400 GPH). Open to suggestions. WB recommends min 1200 GPH. Thoughts?
Protein Skimmer - NYOS Quantum 160 - I've read about of a lot of people having problems with these skimmers when it comes to shutting down for feeding and restarting. Thoughts?
Powerheads - (2) Ecotech MP40QD Wireless
Heaters - Not sure yet. Open to suggestions.
Cheato / Algae Reactor - Aquamaxx XL Algae Reactor Package. Thinking about trying to modify the 5.5g ATO section into a refugium but if not was debating an Algae reactor like this. Thoughts?
Calcium Reactor or other reactors - Needed? Open to suggestions.
Controller / Accessories - Neptune Apex WIFI, Ecotech Wireless Module, Leak Detection Module
and ATO Kit

Questions / Concerns:
1. Equipment questions / concerns above.

2. First issue is picking a location. I have (2) main possible locations. Yellow room below is in the sunroom I am putting the finishing touches on now. I would place the tank between the two bookshelves and this would be the ideal location for viewing purposes but I have concerns about direct sunlight and this being an overhanging addition with outside below so there is no opportunity for a fish room for water change equipment below it or anywhere really close. Water changes, etc would be more cumbersome. The second option is in my man cave / media room in the basement. The tank would be placed on this wall which shares a wall with my mechanical room which has a water / drain source so it would be a great spot for a water change mixing set up and potentially a quarantine tank, etc.
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3. I don't like the idea of not having a refugium and I've been reading about a few people converting their ATO section of the WB sump (5.5 gallons) to a refugium but I wasn't sure if this was large enough or I could be successful with a large algae reactor type application. Thoughts?

4. I had decent success without running a lot of reactors previously but I know I should have had them but didn't know enough at the time (still don't but I'm trying to learn haha...). What reactors and / or brand should I plan on running and account for in the design process?


Thank you in advance for your support! I greatly appreciate all input and will definitely take tons of photos and update progress as I start getting through the planning stage and move into the building stages.







 

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Hi and welcome to R2R!

Congrats on the house and most importantly; the renovations! Having just completed my kitchen I kind of know the feeling, but doing every square inch of a house is mind boggling :eek:. Sounds like a good build, and the basement looks like a great spot for the tank. Nice shepard too, I grew up with German Shepards and have a Aussi now.

You shouldn't have to shut the skimmer down for feeding. I'm not a reactor guy myself yet, but running carbon in one sounds good to me. I've heard of people having success with HOB fuges if you decide not to mod the ato reserve. I don't think I would mod the reserve, it's something you will need anyway. Again, I'm not a reactor guy either so I can't recommend anything. But I do know you wont need any right off the bat, and you could just build a manifold into your plumbing to add reactors at a later date. Especially if you choose the basement location and have the extra room to work with.

Good luck with purchasing everything, enjoy the process and try to take your time with it. When you buy the pipes for plumbing take a look into colored PVC. I just finished painting the pipes I'm using for a remote fuge and I wish I just bought colored pipe instead.
 

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Great write up and pictures so far Sean and thanks for sharing them with us

And welcome to R2R as well!

PS. Cute dog! Lol. Looks like you need to throw the ball!
 
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Hurdbird88

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Hi and welcome to R2R!

Congrats on the house and most importantly; the renovations! Having just completed my kitchen I kind of know the feeling, but doing every square inch of a house is mind boggling :eek:. Sounds like a good build, and the basement looks like a great spot for the tank. Nice shepard too, I grew up with German Shepards and have a Aussi now.

You shouldn't have to shut the skimmer down for feeding. I'm not a reactor guy myself yet, but running carbon in one sounds good to me. I've heard of people having success with HOB fuges if you decide not to mod the ato reserve. I don't think I would mod the reserve, it's something you will need anyway. Again, I'm not a reactor guy either so I can't recommend anything. But I do know you wont need any right off the bat, and you could just build a manifold into your plumbing to add reactors at a later date. Especially if you choose the basement location and have the extra room to work with.

Good luck with purchasing everything, enjoy the process and try to take your time with it. When you buy the pipes for plumbing take a look into colored PVC. I just finished painting the pipes I'm using for a remote fuge and I wish I just bought colored pipe instead.

Thanks Eagle! It was a long journey with the house renovations to say the least lol. I do HVAC for a living but that's the one thing I didn't need to change out. Can't beat the GSD's. That guy is trained in personal protection and is Schutzhund IPO3 but he also likes lounging around being my best buddy. Appreciate the advice. I think the basement location will win out because of serviceability. I'll definitely take look into alternate fuge options but it seems easier to add a separate ATO tank than adding a hang on fuge. The WB comes with a compete plumbing kit but I believe it is metric so I have been debating converting it and would definitely go with some nice looking colored plumbing if I was going to.
 
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Hurdbird88

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Great write up and pictures so far Sean and thanks for sharing them with us

And welcome to R2R as well!

PS. Cute dog! Lol. Looks like you need to throw the ball!

Thanks Shaun! Trust me, he plays plenty of ball lol.
 
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Hurdbird88

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Happy New Year everyone! I used some of my free time away from work to do a little more thinking and design work on the set-up to come, mainly a new mixing station. I will be going with either (2) 25 or (2) 40 gallon storage tanks based upon the top picture below and the basic design sketch I put together below.

25 Gallon Options - ($140 Tanks, $170 Shipping to MA = $310 Total)
https://www.ntotank.com/25gallon-acerotomold-white-heavyduty-vertical-storage-tank-x4357273
https://www.ntotank.com/25gallon-norwesco-white-vertical-storage-tank-x2197105

40 Gallon Options ($160 Tanks, $200 Shipping to MA = $360 Total)
https://www.ntotank.com/40gallon-acerotomold-white-heavyduty-vertical-storage-tank-x4078619
https://www.ntotank.com/40gallon-norwesco-white-vertical-storage-tank-x8633541

1. Anyone know of any local MA dealers or places that will offer similar tanks with free shipping or cheaper shipping as of late? Hard to get over paying more for shipping than the tanks themselves and I'd really like to not use Brute barrels.

2. The other pictures show a location in my storage closet within 5 feet of my proposed tank location. I bought pretty heavy duty shelves that are rated for 800 lbs per shelf maximum when I organized the closet last year so I'm thinking about putting the two storage tanks right on these shelves. If I went with the (2) 40 gallons, I wouldn't fill them all the way to be safe but I think I should be good with this. Anyone have experience with doing something like this with these shelves?

3. Does everyone keep the pipe size and valves at full 3/4" or reduce down to say 1/2"? Most tanks come with a 3/4" bulkhead in these sizes and figure the pumps would want at least 3/4" for good water flow. Any experience on good double union ball valves? I'm a mechanical project manager by trade so I may reach out to my plumbing distributors and see what they can do for pricing for me.

4. External pump recommendations for a set up like this? I've been looking around and wanted to get you guys advice before making a move.

Thank you in advance!!!


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Hurdbird88

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Figured you guys would appreciate this with the reefing RODI requirements. I am a Project Executive at a mechanical construction company in Boston and one of my projects last year had the installation of a new 1,200 gallon ultra pure RODI system with full N+1 redundancy and an 800 gallon RODI reject water system that was used to flush the toilets in the building. It was installed into a research lab building and included all new zero dead leg piping. See pictures below.

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Hurdbird88

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So the build process isn't going to be a super speedy one and has been slightly delayed because my first daughter was born on January 4th! It has been an awesome experience! I also broke down and sold my (3) tent indoor grow set up, the awesome green type, which gave me use of some extra funds and equipment that was being used for that. The (2) fish tanks were used for water / nutrient mixing and the CO2 tank is being saved for a calcium reactor down the road if I go that route. It was sad to see my DIY true 600 watt, 16 COB LED light go with it! See pictures below of the light I built. Surprised COB LED's haven't made it into the aquarium world in a big way quite yet. Awesome technology but not sure the spectrums are right for coral.

With that said, I ordered all the pipe, fittings, valves and storage tanks to create my mixing station (2 - 25g vertical tanks) which will be the first project I complete in preparation for the new build. You can see in the pictures below the layout of my future WB 130.4 against the storage closet I will be housing my mixing station, quarantine tanks and other misc equipment storage in. It will be 5 ft from the tank which I am really happy about. Through the door in the pictures is my combination furnace, water heater and laundry room for a water source and drain. I am thinking the RODI system will be mounted in there as well.

Two main concerns:

1. Need help determining a mixing / water change pump for the mixing station. Only need about 5' of head. Any ideas on a solid external pump? Flow needs for this type of set up? I'd like this pump to serve as a back-up return pump for emergencies as well but would like to go a little cheaper.

2. I will only have 21" above the tank (58" AFF) until the drop ceiling. The soffit in this area is low because the main ductwork trunks run above this ceiling. Seems like the Radions will probably sit about 8" above the tank with the single support arms extending about 11" up so I'd have 10" free area above the supports to the ceiling. Thoughts?

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View attachment Mixing Station Design Final.jpg.pdf
 
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Hurdbird88

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And I’m done with the first of many projects! Not much of a plumber but no leaks and flow is good through the S1! Found out my water box won’t be shipping until early March so I’ll probably just start getting all the equipment in and work on rock aquascape and electrical prep work while I wait for the tank / stand. I believe I’m going to go with the Marco shelfscape rock package and modify from there.
 
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Hurdbird88

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Thoughts / ideas on my first pass at the aquascape? Went with Marco shelf, foundation and reef saver rock. Used an old desk / work bench to mark out tank dimensions first.

This build is about to get a whole lot more exciting over the coming weeks! Tank arriving hopefully next week so I can start working on control panel build out, remote fuge / equipment stand and other misc projects.

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Hurdbird88

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OSA Corals hooked me up with a new WB 130.4 this weekend! Excited to get things moving! Bunch of project updates coming.
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Impressed with the packaging top to bottom from Waterbox.
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And we have a tank and stand!
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Photo shows the mixing station next to the tank location. Through the door is my mechanical room which will house some additional equipment and my new RODI is installed in.
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Loving the new Spectrapure maxcap as well. Float valve installed in my mixing tank and tested.
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Starting the new control board for the smaller side of the WB cabinet using a nice piece of maple.
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Hurdbird88

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It was like Christmas morning when I got home from work!

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Custom cut piece of King Starboard arrived. Already cut out for overflow. The CNC cuts from BoatOutfitters.com shows no cut lines and they were great to work with.
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Super impressed with the Nyos skimmer quality. They’ve come a long way since I last had a tank. Can’t wait to test this thing out! Great option for anyone with a tighter sump as well.
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Control board is all cut and ready for paint. Used standard 2” or so desk grommets for wiring pull through and a 6”x3” desk grommet box at the bottom to enable the Vortech drivers to be pulled through and out for maintenance without any dissassembly (MP40 drivers are hard wired to motor assembly). Bottom will house the 3 drivers side by side. The control panel is fully removable by using cabinet door magnets hidden behind panel.
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Hurdbird88

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I’m doing the same tank build right now...following along to shamelessy steal some of your ideas...

Using a lot of the same equipment too! Great plans can’t wait to see it come along!

Haha love it. Hope I can be of some help. Definitely taking my time with this one. It’s been a struggle to find the necessary fittings to convert the WB plumbing but hopefully there on the way. Do you have a build thread going?
 
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Hurdbird88

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Control panel is complete! Just waiting for a few Ecotech driver mounts to arrive. Can’t believe the pumps come with driver mounts but the powerheads don’t... Onto the next project!

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Hurdbird88

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King Starboard got siliconed in today. I’ve read all over that it doesn’t silicone well but sanded down with 120 grit sandpaper and cleaned both surfaces with alcohol so we’ll see what happens. Want to stop detritus build up below more than anything. Rock structure will hold down everything for the most part anyway. Debating putting a thick strip of silicone in areas where starboard isn’t perfectly tight to glass (1/8” to 1/4” gap probably max) or just vacuum around the gap sections during water changes? Thoughts?

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Hurdbird88

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Let the starboard silicone set for 24 hrs with the weight on it and it seems to have set really well. No loose sections. Very happy with it. Pictures make it look grey but it has a nice black color in person.
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Drilled out my 10g tank with the ESHOPPS eclipse overflow for the remote refugium. Happy with the kit and super simple install.
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Set the finish control board in the cabinet as well. Tough to get good pictures with the cabinet lights on but worked out well. Still have room in front for storage / other equipment and power block mounting behind. Thinking about adding an exhaust fan to pull air out around the power blocks as well.
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Waiting for a few final fittings to come in to plumb the return lines up and then we’re getting salty!!!
 
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