Background: Growing up I always wanted a saltwater tank. Seeing all the cool colors of fish and coral was awesome to me. Parents said doing a saltwater tank is too difficult so we just had some cichlids when I was younger. Fast forward to being married and have a little extra money I decided to jump in and try to do this saltwater thing. I didn't do much research before buying a tank so I just went to a local fish store and bought what they had. It was a 75 gal tank witIh stand, not drilled. They sold me a canister filter and some small pebbles for sand. I will give them credit and they didn't try to sell me any fish right away. Unfortunately after I bought all this I then decided to do some research on what to get. All the fish I really wanted needed a bigger tank but already dropped all this money on a 75 gal so I stuck with it.
So fast forward and I've had the 75 gal as a FOWLR going for the last 4 years. I like most people did water changes every couple weeks but eventually slacked off. I did have a reef octopus HOB skimmer that I use and a nice Tunze ATO. I stopped using RODI water and just used tap water and slacked off on testing. I used dry pukani for rock and after a year bought some sand so I could get some wrasses. I was lucky that I have never had an algae problems before. I have had ich problems and that wasn't fun. Current live stock include 2 osc. clowns, purple dottyback, yellow wrasse, sailfan fairy wrasse, yellow tang, bangaii cardinal and 2 cleaner shrimp. Within the last month or 2 I got the itch again to go bigger on a tank. I have always read build threads of larger tanks and was jealous that I didn't go bigger from the start. So that brings us to this past weekend...
I got the green light from the wife to pull the trigger on my dream tank: Waterbox 220.6 +plus HD. I thought about Redsea 750xxl but the all the bad news recently I decided to stay away from them. I liked that going with Waterbox that it included pretty much everything. I have never had a sump before so I was nervous to try my hand at plumbing. I decided to go ahead and get the Plus version because I needed to get new lights and it is a little discount if you buy from them. I did finance with the 0% interest for a year so that made it easier to pull the trigger since the only thing that I can reuse on my existing tank is my Tunze ATO.
For equipment for new tank I am leaning:
(4) AI Hydra 32 HD
COR 20 for return pump
(2)MP40WQD
I am thinking I will eventually get an Apex so I would like the equipment to be compatible with that system. I still need to research on heaters and protein skimmer. Waterbox recommends a NYOS Quantum 160 but I liked my Reef Octopus so might go with one of theirs. My goals for corals are soft and LPS but that would probably be a year I am guessing. Eventually I guess I will need a dosing system for them.
I love reading detailed and pic heavy build threads so I will try to make this one. 6-8 week wait for tank delivery so got some time to think and plan. The Waterbox will go where my current tank sits so I will need to move that first.
For corals the only must is a torch. I like to see movements in the tank so I will try to get more of that type. Still need to do a ton of research on corals
For fish the musts are a Powder blue tang and blue tang. I really like Copperband butterflys but heard they are tough eaters and might pick at corals. I would like to get more wrasses so it might be a wrasse heavy tank besides the 3 tangs.
So fast forward and I've had the 75 gal as a FOWLR going for the last 4 years. I like most people did water changes every couple weeks but eventually slacked off. I did have a reef octopus HOB skimmer that I use and a nice Tunze ATO. I stopped using RODI water and just used tap water and slacked off on testing. I used dry pukani for rock and after a year bought some sand so I could get some wrasses. I was lucky that I have never had an algae problems before. I have had ich problems and that wasn't fun. Current live stock include 2 osc. clowns, purple dottyback, yellow wrasse, sailfan fairy wrasse, yellow tang, bangaii cardinal and 2 cleaner shrimp. Within the last month or 2 I got the itch again to go bigger on a tank. I have always read build threads of larger tanks and was jealous that I didn't go bigger from the start. So that brings us to this past weekend...
I got the green light from the wife to pull the trigger on my dream tank: Waterbox 220.6 +plus HD. I thought about Redsea 750xxl but the all the bad news recently I decided to stay away from them. I liked that going with Waterbox that it included pretty much everything. I have never had a sump before so I was nervous to try my hand at plumbing. I decided to go ahead and get the Plus version because I needed to get new lights and it is a little discount if you buy from them. I did finance with the 0% interest for a year so that made it easier to pull the trigger since the only thing that I can reuse on my existing tank is my Tunze ATO.
For equipment for new tank I am leaning:
(4) AI Hydra 32 HD
COR 20 for return pump
(2)MP40WQD
I am thinking I will eventually get an Apex so I would like the equipment to be compatible with that system. I still need to research on heaters and protein skimmer. Waterbox recommends a NYOS Quantum 160 but I liked my Reef Octopus so might go with one of theirs. My goals for corals are soft and LPS but that would probably be a year I am guessing. Eventually I guess I will need a dosing system for them.
I love reading detailed and pic heavy build threads so I will try to make this one. 6-8 week wait for tank delivery so got some time to think and plan. The Waterbox will go where my current tank sits so I will need to move that first.
For corals the only must is a torch. I like to see movements in the tank so I will try to get more of that type. Still need to do a ton of research on corals
For fish the musts are a Powder blue tang and blue tang. I really like Copperband butterflys but heard they are tough eaters and might pick at corals. I would like to get more wrasses so it might be a wrasse heavy tank besides the 3 tangs.
