Waterbox 20 Cube Build

[jramy123]

Hi all, piecing together my 20g waterbox, here's what I have and what I ordered.

Waterbox 20g Cube
Chamber 1 filter caddy
Marinepure gems to replace bioballs
Filter floss to replace filter sock
Chemi pure blue cause I hear wonderful things.
Tunze nano ato system with 5g bucket under cabinet.
Using 1 of my 2 maxspec gyres from my last attempt at salt few years ago.
Eheim 100w heater
Fluval 3.0 nano reef light( fishies only and maybe some frogspawn and zoas)

Wanting opinions on the gyre. The biggest priciest piece so far would be new or different circulation piece so trying to use what I had before to save some of the price. I figured have it on 1 side of tank on 10 to 20% should be good with stock return ? Also wondering about upgrading the return pump to a sicce silent 1 or 1.5. If noise isn't an issue is it worth the new pump?

Any other ideas as far as cuc and fish or inverts to go with a pair of clowns would be appreciated too!

 

[cmmatxh]

upgrade the the pump, the stock one is noisy and just use the stock pump to mix your salt water

 

[jramy123]

upgrade the the pump, the stock one is noisy and just use the stock pump to mix your salt water

Ok would u recommend the sicce silent 1.0 or 1.5

 

[cmmatxh]

i use the 1.0 it fits perfectly

 

[jramy123]

Cool any other suggestions? I'm hoping to start my cycle next week once everything arrives.

 

[cmmatxh]

i would suggest to use turbo start 900 to start your cycle along with life rock and live sand from carib sea. that’s how i stared my cycle along with a pair of clown and i still don’t see any algae growth (tank’s been running since 12/20/20)

 

[a4edwin]

Nice! Post some pics up, we love pics

 

[jramy123]

Will post pics as soon as I get all the parts in!

 

[jramy123]

Few pics of what is going on right now. Again nothing to special. I am worried about the last picture. The stand i got was supposed to be 18x18 and cube is supposedly 17.?x17.? So there is tiniest bit of overhang. Is it enough to spend another few hundred on new stand?

 

[cmmatxh]

how about adding a new top to the stand if it bothers you

 

[jramy123]

I'm not handy man inclined lol. It has about 8 metal dowels and rubber recesses to tighten down into cam locks. I mean it is miniscule and only concerned if anyone thinks it could drop the bottom out.

 

[jramy123]

Got all my gear as well as and live rock. Filter caddy will have filter floss from intake, carbon media, and second filter floss piece. In second chamber it will be marinepure gems, small pieces of live rock, and chaeto after cycle. In 3rd chamber got my 150 watt heater sicce 1.0 return pump and tunze ato. Under the cabinet I will have a 5g reservoir for ato. Mixing saltwater up now and hope to get tank wet tonight or tomorrow. Question I still have is do I add chaeto before or after cycle?

 

[jramy123]

i use the 1.0 it fits perfectly

Hey CM, I got the sicce 1.0 and got thank filled and all but im havin an issue with the return chamber staying full. Did u lower ur sicce 1.0's flow? Cause it just drains the chamber and spits bubbles and almost overflows the display area. I have media tray in chamber 1, marinepure gems and macro live rocks in second if that matters. I wonder if the other chambers are not filling fast enough?

 

[jramy123]

Updated wet pic. Heater only there till I figure up return pump issue

 

[cmmatxh]

Updated wet pic. Heater only there till I figure up return pump issue

i don’t remember messing with the flow but i remember seeing it set at halfway, i’ll check tm when i get home, just add more water, mine does that when i do water changes and don’t add enough water

 

[Matt Miller]

I turned flow all the way down on my 1.5, sounds like you need more water.

 

[cmmatxh]

Updated wet pic. Heater only there till I figure up return pump issue

place the heater in the second chamber, i almost burned down mine bc mine was in the third chamber ( the last chamber is the one that goes empty first) happen when i was drip acclimating a fish and took out enough water to expose the heater at the moment my ato wasn’t plugged in yet.

 

[jramy123]

I turned flow all the way down on my 1.5, sounds like you need more water.

The problem is I was doing that lol. Then the pump still goes dry and the main tank actually gets to overflowing point.

 

[jramy123]

i don’t remember messing with the flow but i remember seeing it set at halfway, i’ll check tm when i get home, just add more water, mine does that when i do water changes and don’t add enough water

Like I mentioned to Matt the chambers aren't keeping up but main tank gets to the point of overflowing

 

[cmmatxh]

maybe since you’re running too much filtration on chamber 1 and 2 that it’s starving the last chamber. try adjusting that . i’m only using a filter cup from TheKrakenReef with floss and the bag of carbon on chamber 2