The Project: Waterbox 60.2 Marine Plus

[S.Pepper]

Well done. If I may suggest, use the calibration solution for calibrating your refractometer not the RO/DI water. You are trying to calibrate at what it should read not zero. The difference between 0 and 35 allows for too much of a margin of error.
Also, I just read that you think that you are possibly cycled at the moment. I would be suspicious that that would be possible in two weeks. I would, If I were you, let it run another week at the very least and add a small bit of flake/pellet food. If you have been running your protein skimmer during the cycling process this would starve your bacteria colonies that you are trying to establish by stripping nutrients. To give you perspective, I let my rock cure in vats for just under 4 months. After 6 weeks I added my CUC and did a water change of 50%. Every couple of days I would add the smallest pinch of food to keep the bacteria going and every two weeks 590% water changes. I did not do the bacteria in a bottle route and I know that this is a viable option to kick-start the cycling but nothing beats taking this slow. I have not had a single issue with nuisance algae, dyno or cyano outbreaks, ever. I did have a small turf algae patch after 8 months introduced by myself accidentally but used Vibrante and that kicked it no problem. I would make sure that the skimmer is off, feed the tank for a week or two and keep the lights off and add a CUC before adding fish or corals. Test often with high-quality test kits and move forward slower than you think you need to. Love the aquascape BTW!

I'm at 7 weeks now and getting ready to add fish. I see you found my comments in the algae forum. That'll explain the rest. thx.

 

[S.Pepper]

Everything is starting to move along. Got my protein skimmer going a little over a week ago; and my Avast Marine Spyglass Media Reactor operating 4 days ago with Rox 0.8--only plan on running as needed. Also, got a frag rack from oceanboxdesigns.com Finalized my rock scape.

 

[S.Pepper]

All water parameters looking good. Picking up a pair of Bullet Hole Clowns, a.k.a., Chicago Clowns (my interpretation ) on Saturday from Pacific East Aquaculture. I'm not really into naming my fish, but it seems appropriate, in this case, to name them Bonnie & Clyde.;Smuggrin
Here's an actual video of them. Really looking cool.

 

[S.Pepper]

Picked up some LRS Reef Frenzy at my (kinda) LFS today. I also have some Seachem Garlic Guard and Selcon Vitamin Fish Food on the way. Not sure if these are necessary based on LRS' website, but i'll have them anyway.

My Red Sea 24" x 24" mesh fish top will be delivered on Friday... so i'll be bz putting it together Friday night before picking up the fish on Saturday. The plan is to get a custom top made, but if this turns out well, I may pass on spending the $200 for one. Regardless, I needed something temporary.

My custom filter cups from Octo Aquatics will be delivered on Friday. It will be nice not to have to change out and clean filter socks. I plan on using inTank's blue and white filter floss to start, and continue if I can't find something as good and cheaper. I like that it's dual density.

 

[S.Pepper]

A shot of the tank with the new AI 16HD in the moonlight setting.

 

[S.Pepper]

Contacted Avast Marine about my Spyglass Reactor. I was concerned about having the Rox 0.8 carbon tumbling in the reactor. Their reply:

"Rox 0.8 is harder than normal carbon and is safe to tumble. I recommend letting it tumble gently in the reactor, so it goes not much more than halfway up the chamber, between the white flange and the top. Once the carbon fully hydrates (usually about 24hours) it is fine to take the top screen off. Close the valve or power off the pump to let the carbon sink down into the cone first. When you restart it, all the carbon should remain in the lower portion of the chamber and be good to go for several weeks."

 

[S.Pepper]

I've been using a cheap but useful Hydor wave pump since setting up and preparing the tank for livestock. Finally installed my Reef Octopus Octo Pulse 2. Really nice. Much smaller profile and adjustable. Hopefully, this will be enough for the system, but won't know until I start adding corals.

 

[S.Pepper]

Thought I would shore-up a few pieces of my scape with some epoxy last night--the skimmer went crazy, so I turned it off for the night hoping it would settle down by this morning. Nope. So far I've drained about 2 quarts of water from it, but it is slowing down. Fortunately, I was planning on doing a water change today before adding the fish tomorrow. I'll do a salinity check and adjust salinity of water change to compensate for water lost. I think that made sense.

 

[Dr. Phil]

It looks like your build is off to a great start! I too am starting a Waterbox build with my recently acquired 70.2. I love the look of the Waterbox design and will be following your build!

 

[S.Pepper]

It looks like your build is off to a great start! I too am starting a Waterbox build with my recently acquired 70.2. I love the look of the Waterbox design and will be following your build!

Thanks!

 

[Salty Lemon]

I've been using a cheap but useful Hydor wave pump since setting up and preparing the tank for livestock. Finally installed my Reef Octopus Octo Pulse 2. Really nice. Much smaller profile and adjustable. Hopefully, this will be enough for the system, but won't know until I start adding corals.

I like Hydors and have good luck with them. Cost doesn't matter so long as it works -- and in my case, they always have. I had them on my old 60 and currently have them in my QT.

 

[S.Pepper]

Water change is done. Yay! I've gotten much better at it the more i've done it.--duh.

 

[S.Pepper]

Well, I went to get my XL Extreme Bullet Hole Clownfish today at Pacific East Aquaculture.--something I paid for in advance. Unfortunately, there was a mix up. The listing was for Extreme Bullet Hole Clownfish, but the video that accompanied the listing was for XL Bullet Hole Clownfish. I called before I bought, and Dr. Mac explained the video was representative of the fish I was buying.

The listing was for Extreme Bullet Hole Clownfish, but the video was for XL Bullet Hole Clownfish. Somehow the video got an XL listing and the listing was only for Extreme Bullet Hole Clownfish. They were little guys, when the video was for XL.

I declined to buy them and received a refund. Dr. Mac apologized, but it sucks to drive 200 miles round trip and not get anything.

I think i'm taking a week off from this hobby. I've been going at this every day since August. I just need a break to rethink everything that's going on. A little frustrating, but i'll survive and so will my box of glass full of rocks and water.

 

[CasaReefer]

Picked up some LRS Reef Frenzy at my (kinda) LFS today. I also have some Seachem Garlic Guard and Selcon Vitamin Fish Food on the way. Not sure if these are necessary based on LRS' website, but i'll have them anyway.

My Red Sea 24" x 24" mesh fish top will be delivered on Friday... so i'll be bz putting it together Friday night before picking up the fish on Saturday. The plan is to get a custom top made, but if this turns out well, I may pass on spending the $200 for one. Regardless, I needed something temporary.

My custom filter cups from Octo Aquatics will be delivered on Friday. It will be nice not to have to change out and clean filter socks. I plan on using inTank's blue and white filter floss to start, and continue if I can't find something as good and cheaper. I like that it's dual density.

Man you know X-Mas isn't for like 3 weeks... Musta Came Early over there... Whata HAUL.....

 

[S.Pepper]

A pic of the Red Sea mesh lid. Based on what I read, I thought this was going to be more difficult than it was. It came out decent and will do the job I need it to do: keep fish in da tank. I'll worry about a custom lid down the road. I have more important things to get, like corals and fish.

 

[S.Pepper]

Also, I received my custom made filter cups from octo aquatics @cromag27. The cup size on this waterbox is 2.75" and as far as I know, octo aquatics is the only company that makes this size; and if not for them, I would be stuck with socks. I'll be using inTank dual density filter media in them. Really nicely done. Thx, Octo.

 

[S.Pepper]

I had a bacterial bloom this past wknd. If you look at this picture u can see the water is a little cloudy. I was informed it should clear up in 2-3 days. It basically did, but there was still a little haze. I ordered a self contained UV sterilizer (), based on a recommendation from a member here. I placed it in the sump last night and this morning the water was crystal clear this morning. Really happy with the performance of this cheap little UV sterilizer. It will be nice to have on down the road.

 

[S.Pepper]

10% water change yesterday and water parameters checked today before first fish are delivered tomorrow with my order from @AquaLocker Have a Blue Spot Puffer and a Yellow Watchman Gobi coming with a branch Hammer coral.

Ammonia: 0
Nitrites: 0
Nitrates: 5ppm
Alk: (low) 5.9; usually around 7.1
Cal: 430
Mag: 1440
PH: 8.0

 

[S.Pepper]

The fish, coral, and hermit crabs arrived 3 hours late from UPS. They all seem to be perky, especially after a warm-up in the DT. The puffer is already staring me down. lol P.S. It's a lot darker than what the picture portrays.

 

[S.Pepper]

All livestock added to tank. Hermit crabs disappeared. Yellow watchman gobi disappeared. And the blue spot puffer is cruising the tank and looking at me. On cool fish. p.s. tough to get a good shot with only moon light on at low setting.