Texas Waterbox 220.6 +Plus HD

jstephens24 · Apr 21, 2020

I did end up cutting that head off. About to be placing an order with TSM for some fish and CUC additions

jstephens24 · Apr 25, 2020

Here are some pics of the fish from TSM Aquatics. Super pleased once again. This morning while watching the tank I noticed for the first time ever copepods that I added from algaebarn. I was beginning to wonder
Captive yellow tangs

Blue tang and powder blue

alpburakozbay · Apr 25, 2020

What a great tank, keep up.

mattgsa · Apr 25, 2020

This looking like a great tank, keep up the excellent work. ;Woot

|Tom the Bomb| · Apr 25, 2020

NOICE NOICE i just got my waterbox.... like just now. there might be delays tho..
I got a Nyos Quantum 220 for the skimmer and a vectra (ecotech marine) L2 return pump

|Tom the Bomb| · Apr 25, 2020

jstephens24 said:
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.

You know I do WEEKLY water changes for my sw tank and my heavily stocked fw 75g cichlid tank and my other 3 tanks are lightly stocked with not big eaters and i do bi-weekly changes for those :0

jstephens24 · Apr 25, 2020

|Tom the Bomb| said:
You know I do WEEKLY water changes for my sw tank and my heavily stocked fw 75g cichlid tank and my other 3 tanks are lightly stocked with not big eaters and i do bi-weekly changes for those :0

Yea I plan on doing more water changes with this tank. That’s why I went ahead and bought the storage containers. Did a small water change yesterday and making new water today. Will have 65 gal of NSW and 65 of RODI on standby by. I am battling GHA right now but the tangs have been non stop pecking at it. It’s been fun to watch them eat/work. The blue tang has done more swimming than eating and 1 yellow tang is shy

pretty sure the GHA is b/c I had the autofeeder still on when I was down to 1 fish. It was dumping way to much

jstephens24 · Apr 27, 2020

Picked up a 24W Green Killing Machine UV sterilizer. Little small for tank but figured it would take just a little longer. Tank is a little hazy looking through the side so wanted to see if it would help.

I ordered a purple tip hammer and a zoa from dropoffccorals that should be arriving tomorrow.

Also my lid from OctoLids is finally complete and being shipped so that will be arriving Wednesday. Can’t wait.

jstephens24 · Apr 28, 2020

Coral from dropofffcorals arrived today. Did a 10 min Bayer dip on both

jstephens24 · Apr 29, 2020

Man I haven’t posted a FTS in a long time

lpsouth1978 · Apr 29, 2020

Tank is looking good. I LOVE my 230.6! Just got it set up as a reef tank last week. It was an upgrade from my 75g.

I had an Octolid on mine while the tank was freshwater, and he does nice work. I ended up changing it over to a DD Jumpguard DIY top now and actually like it better.

jstephens24 · Apr 29, 2020

lpsouth1978 said:
Tank is looking good. I LOVE my 230.6! Just got it set up as a reef tank last week. It was an upgrade from my 75g.

I had an Octolid on mine while the tank was freshwater, and he does nice work. I ended up changing it over to a DD Jumpguard DIY top now and actually like it better.

Don’t tell me that haha. Looks like my octo lid will be delivered tomorrow now

lpsouth1978 · Apr 29, 2020

jstephens24 said:
Don’t tell me that haha. Looks like my octo lid will be delivered tomorrow now

Honestly, I wouldn't have changed it except that the lighting configuration is different on the tank as a reef than it was as freshwater. I would have had a bunch of holes at the back of the lid for fish to jump through.

jstephens24 · Apr 30, 2020

Lid got here today from Octo Aquatics. Looking forward to getting some wrasses!

jstephens24 · May 3, 2020

Last couple days I have found 2 heads of Aiptasia. I used a syringe of boiling RODI on it and scrapped it off outside of tank. Found 1 on a zoa and the other on blasto. Will start keeping an eye on it.
Today I’m going to DIY alkalinity mix using baking soda doing Randy’s recipe #1. Then using BRS calculator for liquid sodium bicarbonate. Having a hard time finding the DIY stuff for magnesium and calcium so I might just by those from BRS. I use regular instant ocean salt which has lower of those 2. When I made fresh SW at 1.026 it had 10.3, 385 and 1270.

PilotOfSubmarines · May 3, 2020

Once you start noticing aiptasia it can be a downward spiral. They release spores easily and you'll start to notice them growing in the crevices. I had one I initially killed and then epoxied and another grew literally out of the bottom edge of the epoxy! I have noticed more and more growing all over different rocks in the tank now. I am going to try a Copperband to see if he'll eat them (I really like the fish anyway...just need to make sure he's eating frozen).

good luck! I hate aiptasia

lpsouth1978 · May 3, 2020

As soon as I noticed an aiptasia in my system, I went out and purchased 3 peppermint shrimp. I have been lucky so far! All Aiptasia have been eradicated and the shrimp have not taken a liking to any of my corals.

esther · May 3, 2020

lpsouth1978 said:
Tank is looking good. I LOVE my 230.6! Just got it set up as a reef tank last week. It was an upgrade from my 75g.

I had an Octolid on mine while the tank was freshwater, and he does nice work. I ended up changing it over to a DD Jumpguard DIY top now and actually like it better.

We have the DD Jumpguard! It’s amazing. So glad we got it. Unfortunately we couldn’t wait for an octolid. Too worried about our clownfish jumping.

esther · May 3, 2020

jstephens24 said:
Lid got here today from Octo Aquatics. Looking forward to getting some wrasses!

looks great!

jstephens24 · May 4, 2020

Well I followed @lpsouth1978 advice and got 2 peppermint shrimp from @TopShelfAquatics. I purchased a few zoas from them during flash sale and decided to go ahead and add some. Corals might be arriving tomorrow if they can squeeze it in. My plan to have a little zoa garden on the arch in the middle of the tank

The DIY alkalinity baking soda mix worked perfect. It is always nice when things work as they should