Waterbox 105.4 SPS shallow lagoon

[reef’r]

my 38g cube is roughly around 1.5 years old and is doing well other than my recent aptasia struggles. Corals are are doing well all though growth is slow, Coralline is coming in nice and a recent change to my T5 bulbs has everything looking happy, so time for a change lol my cube was my first reef and I made a lot of changes to it along the way which I think played a role in a lot of my slow growth issues but slowly as the tank went on, as a lot of tanks do, it turned more and more towards SPS. So I got the wife to sign off on a new tank so I hit the classifieds and came across I gently used WaterBox 105.4 frag from a member on here. Tank will be bare bottom and aqua scaped with 50-60lbs of gulf live rock or TBS. Both are local to me so hoping I may be able to take a short ride over to them and maybe hand pick some rock, that would be awesome. The idea of the build is going to be tailored towards a shallow, white light, SPS lagoon. I don’t want to give away too much too soon because I want to document the build along the way, but it’s looking like the brunt of the lighting work will be handled by a 36” 250w metal halide fixture with some or3 bars for the pop morning and night, everything will be simple on off. Flow will be heavy and alternating I’m going to work hard on this aspect. Rock work will be minimal and as natural looking as I can make it this will be another aspect I’m going to work hard at. So thats about all for now I’ll continue to update as much as possible

 

[JumboShrimp]

Seems like a nice powerful skimmer for that tank.

 

[reef’r]

Seems like a nice powerful skimmer for that tank.

It’s the reef octo 110sss. I think the 150 would probably be more appropriate but I bought this one like 2 years ago and it’s never been used. I know they’re awesome skimmers I’m excited to put it to use

 

[reef’r]

While waiting for my lights to arrive figured I’d post the short list of acros I’m wanting to add in addition to my current stock. As mentioned above this tank is going to be a halide system with blue supplement likely my 36” or3 blue plus as I already have them. I’m undecided if I will add both of them but more than likely will and I’d like to start with the fixture somewhere around 12-14” above water line. I’m hoping to have ~250 par on the bottom, may be achievable may not. If I need to lower the fixture some to achieve it I will however keeping as much access into the tank as possible will be important. I also have a piece of starboard cut to size for the tank but I’ve heard getting it to stick is a real pain. Originally I had decided to just move on without it, I’m not worried about rock falling my scale will be low and I’ve never had a rock tumble before, but now I’m thinking different because I know the rough surface does promote fast coralline growth. Anyway here the short list followed by a couple pics of my current stuff

 

[daanvb]

Following along! Got a WB infinia frag almost similar tank. Love the color in those acro’s

 

[reef’r]

So I’ve been wondering about maintaining alk/cal, thinking maybe a calcium reactor. Not sure why exactly lol kalk is good just have to have somewhere to keep a 5 gallon bucket of it in order to not be mixing it all the time like I currently have too. Two part is good, and can get away with smaller dosing containers for it. Can anyone list some pros and cons to a calcium reactor? I guess the main issue with that would be concealing the cO2 tank and all that jazz

 

[p1u5h13r4m24]

Awesome I can’t wait to see how it turns out. Good luck!

 

[reef’r]

Also, here comes the sun! Lol

probably going to pickup some 14ks to try as well. Is there a 250w 6500k? Might just have to go straight @Battlecorals style on this one lol

 

[reef’r]

Got the fixture up. Picture is with 20k aquabrites and no filter, in person it’s a very nice look however I do think I’m going to pickup some 14k. For some reason I feel like the fixture should be a tad more forward on the tank. Center of tank measure 12.5” from wall and fixture measures roughly 12.375” so I don’t know why my eye thinks it’s practically hanging over the overflow box lol I may try and bump it forward a tad but not sure how I could so I’ll probably just live with it. Should be ready to go here soon I’m contemplating even running a heater on the tank. I probably will just because why not but think I can get away without one for the time being.

 

[Gumbies R Us]

Got the fixture up. Picture is with 20k aquabrites and no filter, in person it’s a very nice look however I do think I’m going to pickup some 14k. For some reason I feel like the fixture should be a tad more forward on the tank. Center of tank measure 12.5” from wall and fixture measures roughly 12.375” so I don’t know why my eye thinks it’s practically hanging over the overflow box lol I may try and bump it forward a tad but not sure how I could so I’ll probably just live with it. Should be ready to go here soon I’m contemplating even running a heater on the tank. I probably will just because why not but think I can get away without one for the time being.

Those lights look awesome! You mention not using a heater? How much heat are those lights producing, haha

 

[reef’r]

Those lights look awesome! You mention not using a heater? How much heat are those lights producing, haha

lol quite a bit and I’ve only run them for about 45 minutes to an hour. But I also live in Florida

 

[reef’r]

Just to bump this thread I’ve been moving slow with a lot of house projects going on at the same time. I took some pics with the halides fired up and a 20k lense on my phone for a much more accurate look. It’s 20k bulbs, I really want to go whiter but I’m going to hold off for now and see how fish/corals look with these 20k. I’ve also been talking back and forth with Luca about some helix bars. I have two 36” orpheks they’re blue plus I’d like to run them and save the money but don’t think they’re going to provide much punch for when the halides are off

I started filling this weekend, probably have another day or two to go because I’m only going to be filling in the afternoons once I’m home from work. Dosing and cable management have also been on my mind I need to buckle down and get some things checked off the list I also have a lead on some really nice Pukani rock I’m hoping that deal comes through I’ll be ready for it soon

 

[reef’r]

Skimmer choices. Have a RO 110sss which may be a little under gunned and then a Red Sea RSK 600 that’s a beast. My plan is to run this tank kind of old school/berlin style just maybe a little lighter on the live rock so I’m thinking the Red Sea because I do want to have an active tank with lots of smaller fish swimming around the rocks and then some works like tangs, but only two.

 

[reef’r]

The build is going slow at the moment I’ve got a lot of other project going on. I did get one of the shelves built that will be next to the tank. One will go on the other side also once my 40 cube is gone. Also think I’m going to start with the Red Sea skimmer. It’s way oversized, but I’m going bare bottom, with lots of flow, lots of fish, and lots of food so I think I’ll be able to make it work.

 

[Gumbies R Us]

The build is going slow at the moment I’ve got a lot of other project going on. I did get one of the shelves built that will be next to the tank. One will go on the other side also once my 40 cube is gone. Also think I’m going to start with the Red Sea skimmer. It’s way oversized, but I’m going bare bottom, with lots of flow, lots of fish, and lots of food so I think I’ll be able to make it work.

Shelf looks good!

 

[reef’r]

Couple small updates nothing major going on right now. I ordered some 14k bulbs I’m going to try those out against the 20k and see how I like it I’m definitely going for a whiter look at least during peak period. A very generous @SpSDrew sent me some reefbrite XHO brackets for my fixture and I think I can incorporate my Orphek bars with those brackets. I was going to go Reefbrite XHO but I already have the OR3 so why spend an additional $650-700? I’m not really leaning on the LED for par/punch anyway just to have the best of both worlds white and blue. Also as a ramp up and down to not just blast the tank with 500 watts of halide first thing in the morning lol I had a bunch of store credit at an LFS and they actually have some pretty nice live rock so I was able to grab about 30lbs for a total of $50 can’t beat that with a stick. I also ordered 10lbs of Australian branch rock from unique corals that should be here Thursday I’m going to make some sort of scape and then I’ll update with some pics. I have a big chunk of orange Monti cap that’s just been growing on a frag rack in my 40 so as soon as I get the lights more squared away and on a timer I’m going to stick that in as a tester and I’ll probably give the rock a week or so and then add a couple fish. Coming along slowly I guess, don’t want to rush anything I’m not a patient person at all but I want to turn over a new leaf with this build and try and really understand the system and what’s going on, I want to grow acropora into colonies

Live rock tank at one of my LFS that I took the rock from

 

[reef’r]

Aussie live rock came in from unique corals. Was given a delivery window from UPS of 1:30-3:30pm, rock showed up around 8. It was warm to the touch, so we’ll see how it goes but I think it’s okay. I’m wishing I would have just went all branch rock, but with the price of the live rock I couldn’t pass up the store credit deal from my LFS. I also added my OR3 bars to my ReefBrite halide fixture. I just used the brackets that would hold the XHOs, drilled out the holes and batta bing.

 

[reef’r]

14k aquabrite bulbs, no filter

 

[reef’r]

I need some help with aquascape lol I tried getting into it a bit Sunday, my idea was two islands with a mix of Haitian and branch rock I just couldn’t really make it look how I wanted. I’m wishing I would have went all branch rock now, but it is what it is and I’m going to use what I have. I was worried about just making a “pile” of rock because I want to have places for fish to swim around and through and was worried about detritus traps but it’s looking like I may have plenty of flow with the BB to avoid that issue so far. I’m trying to not to focus too much on the scape because as we all know ideally corals are going to cover it anyway, but idk still want something that looks cool and functional in the mean time. Any help would be greatly appreciated! Here’s a couple pics

this was when I just threw the live rock in, it’s a little different now since I moved it around but still just a pile of rocks which I don’t really want. Hard to get the branch rock to play nice with the large flat Haitian rock

 

[reef’r]

Houston we have blast off! Got a little wild last night and threw in a few tester frags if you want to call them that. They’re actually pieces I really like and have done well for me so I hope they succeed everything looks great so far. I also scooped my two chromis from my 40 and added three more for a total of five and added 13 snails. I have my Orphek bars running for 10 hours but my halides only running for 2, I’m not quite sure how to break in the tank to them. Maybe @X-37B or @SpSDrew can help me out a bit? Or any of the other halide guys that might see my thread