The ubiquitous first timer Waterbox 20 Build. lots of pics!

[Steve089]

waterbox 20 with clowns!!? how original

Box arrives today. gonna run an AI Prime 16HD, kraken lid, octo cup holder with floss instead of a sock (replaced 2x a week), and various media (carbon to start out) in the intank chamber 2 insert. for skimmer I have a reef glass nano on standby as I wanted to try a simple approach for skimming after a few months has gone by.

stocking ideas include clowns, shrimp, CUC.

worked on the scape yesterday and got the BRS 4 stage RODI rollin’

plan is to set everything up today for a fish-less cycle with microbacter 7/amonia

 

[Everything Aquatics]

waterbox 20 with clowns!!? how original

Box arrives today. gonna run an AI Prime 16HD, kraken lid, octo cup holder with floss instead of a sock (replaced 2x a week), and various media (carbon to start out) in the intank chamber 2 insert. for skimmer I have a reef glass nano on standby as I wanted to try a simple approach for skimming after a few months has gone by.

stocking ideas include clowns, shrimp, CUC.

worked on the scape yesterday and got the BRS 4 stage RODI rollin’

plan is to set everything up today for a fish-less cycle with microbacter 7/amonia

I have the same tank the filter floss is a lot easier than a filter sock

 

[Steve089]

I have the same tank the filter floss is a lot easier than a filter sock

yea, I wasn’t down to buy the proprietary socks. hope it works out!

 

[revhtree]

Liking the aquascape idea so far.

Also nothing says saltwater aquarium like a pair of clowns! Nice choice to start!

 

[Steve089]

Thoughts about tank placement on this gray table? I get some sunlight from the front window coming in the morning for about 1-2 hrs directly at the table, but just ambient sun after about 11.

searching the forums consensus seems to be it’ll be OK to place here and that while sun helps algea growth, it’s not the sole cause of growth but rather poor water/excess nutrients. I plan on cycling the tank with no LED and having a light cycle of 7-8 hrs per day to start once it’s time for lights on

just to be safe I think I’m going to build a little roll up curtain for the left side of the tank or put up a sun shade that rises above the height of the tank to block sun (like a piece of gray foam poster board)

 

[Steve089]

Liking the aquascape idea so far.

Also nothing says saltwater aquarium like a pair of clowns! Nice choice to start!

thank you! goal with aquascape was to make it visually appealing while being fairly easy to maintain/gravel vacc around.

took a tip from BRS and laid out the painters tape to build in and made sure to keep edges away from glass. also included islands bc i want to put zoas on them.

rock is carib sea south sea rock, currently rinising it in RODI water to remove dust/particles on it before it goes into the tank

 

[Steve089]

unboxed!! glad it arrived undamaged...decided to put near the back door where it’ll get less direct sunlight in the AM...sadly sand didn’t come yet, but hopefully once it arrives we can start the build!

cabinet (cat included for scale) will house 7gal. RODI reservoir for the tunze nano ATO and the surge protector/outlets

final pics of scape. still gotta glue sand onto the visible epoxy parts to give it a more polished look

 

[Steve089]

rock in tank! laid it so I can get my hands all the way around the scape for maintenance

 

[KyleJ42]

Looking good! It looks like we might have a similar surge protector for the same tank! Aquascape is nice and minimalist. Once corals grow out on that, its going to look beautiful with plenty of room for the fish to swim. Watching!

 

[Steve089]

annnd we’re off! decided to go bare bottom, I hope this makes maintainability easier.

 

[Steve089]

update: had to tear down the tank yesterday and get a new stand since the gray cabinet I put it on was bowing in the middle. If I would’ve been lazy and tried a quick fix, could’ve had disastrous results...no one wants a broken tank. Went to petsmart and got a stand rated for a 65gallons (and tank too haha, time to upgrade the 40g breeder planted tank). Stand has room to store my ATO reservoir. can’t imagine doing this without a cabinet with all the wiring, especially bc I have cats..

Still went bare bottom w/ dry rock, started cycle today by adding Microbacter XLM (i have 7 also, but bc no live sand or dry live rock, went with XLM). added amonia accordingly, will test lvls tonight and monitor daily

thinking about setting up my 20 gal QT tank next. I have some sponge/bio media in the waterbox that I can transfer to the QT that’s going to be running an AC 50/sponge filter/heater.

Thinking about getting 2 clowns at one and QT them at the same time, introducing 2-4 weeks apart as to not overload natural filtration in display.

first coral im planning on getting is most likely gonna be GSP

 

[Everything Aquatics]

update: had to tear down the tank yesterday and get a new stand since the gray cabinet I put it on was bowing in the middle. If I would’ve been lazy and tried a quick fix, could’ve had disastrous results...no one wants a broken tank. Went to petsmart and got a stand rated for a 65gallons (and tank too haha, time to upgrade the 40g breeder planted tank). Stand has room to store my ATO reservoir. can’t imagine doing this without a cabinet with all the wiring, especially bc I have cats..

Still went bare bottom w/ dry rock, started cycle today by adding Microbacter XLM (i have 7 also, but bc no live sand or dry live rock, went with XLM). added amonia accordingly, will test lvls tonight and monitor daily

thinking about setting up my 20 gal QT tank next. I have some sponge/bio media in the waterbox that I can transfer to the QT that’s going to be running an AC 50/sponge filter/heater.

Thinking about getting 2 clowns at one and QT them at the same time, introducing 2-4 weeks apart as to not overload natural filtration in display.

first coral im planning on getting is most likely gonna be GSP

Looking good

 

[Steve089]

things are going good! getting the QT tank setup today: 20gal long, AC 50 w/ intank media insert, heater, sponge filters that will have active media in them eventually. just need some PVC caves. would like to get a pair of clowns and QT at the same time. planning on running seachem copper/prazipro, hanna copper tester inbound to measure therapeutic lvls of copper on the day to day.

also, reef glass skimmer plus kraken reef lid came in. very pleased with the lid, fits perfectly, looks sharp, glad i ordered the feeding cutout!

 

[Steve089]

just a small update:

went ahead and replaced stock pump for waterbox 20, which was pretty noisy, with the mightyjet desktop. what an awesome piece of equipment. I like that I can now dial down flow on the pump for feeding in addition to feed mode for the power head.

microbacter XLM is doing its thing. hopefully will cycle within a few weeks. after it cycles, will dose some ammonia and wait for it to drop to zero within 24 hrs to confirm cycle.

hanna copper checker coming from BRS which is nice.

random newbie thoughts:

-im new to the hobby, new to QT saltwater fish, should I just get 2 normal clowns from my local petco (after observance, watching them eat) ??....that way I only spend about $35 instead of buying a pair of fancier clowns and losing out on ~$200 if they don’t make it through QT or die once in the display....local petco’s SW section is pretty well kept from what I’ve seen thus far

do I really want GSP? thinking about mounting a few frags on the side or back glass if I do...easier to scrape off that way if theres over growth.

I really like the idea of the lower islands being zoas colonies. like yellow, orange, red (yes i like fall colors)

am really pumped to be able to add a torch of some sort later on, probably in like 6+ months.

already having thoughts of “dang, only a 18x18x16 box...limited room for corals...I need upgrade space!” i look at my FW 40g breeder and dream about it being filled with corals haha

need to tidy up the cabinet!!


thats all for now. thanks for stoppin by

 

[adobo]

What kind of power strip are you using?

 

[smacbride]

My latest pair of clowns both came from petco. I spend $$$ at a nice local reef shop and those didn't make it. One of the "petco" clowns is a few years old at this point. One of them is a "black photon" and my newest is a "snowflake". Both were in the $35 range.

 

[Steve089]

My latest pair of clowns both came from petco. I spend $$$ at a nice local reef shop and those didn't make it. One of the "petco" clowns is a few years old at this point. One of them is a "black photon" and my newest is a "snowflake". Both were in the $35 range.

that’s awesome! very encouraging to hear!

 

[smacbride]

As for the cats, I used to have a cat that would jump on top of my tank all the time, so watch out for that. When I had fresh water with Oscars, my cat actually sat on top with his paw in the feeding slot and caught one that thought he was going to get feed. Needless to say it didn't end well for the oscar.

 

[Steve089]

What kind of power strip are you using?

this one from amazon

labeled the switches so I know what’s what. considering plugging in my return pump directly into the wall after doing some reading on a thread this AM (in case strip fails, pump will run...but dont have access to seperate circuit for pump unfortunately)

 

[Steve089]

As for the cats, I used to have a cat that would jump on top of my tank all the time, so watch out for that. When I had fresh water with Oscars, my cat actually sat on top with his paw in the feeding slot and caught one that thought he was going to get feed. Needless to say it didn't end well for the oscar.

oh geez! i would be mortified if that happened. cats arent keen on jumping onto stand yet, have had to place stuff on either side of the tank so cats dont rest beside it...if they jumped onto the top i got, it would def. rip