Waterbox 20 Cube - First Reef Tank

[Wilson1985]

Hey guys,

So I started building my first reef tank in the summer of 2019 and figured I should make a post for the build. Tank was started early June and consists of the following:

Tank Specs

Display: Waterbox Cube 20 17.7'' x 17.7'' x 15.8''
Rock: Macro Dry Rock
Sand: Caribsea Fiji Pink Live Sand
Salt: Red Sea Coral Pro Salt
Lighting: AI Prime HD
Heater: Eheim Jager 100W
Wavemaker: Jebao OW-10
Return Pump: Sicce Syncra Silent 0.5 (185 gph)
Skimmer: None
Filtration: In-Tank Media Basket in Chamber 1
Top - In-Tank Filter Floss
Middle - Marine Pure 1.5" Spheres
Bottom - Red Sea Reef Spec Carbon
Chamber #2 - Marine Pure 1.5" Spheres
Top Off - Auto Aqua Smart ATO micro

Fish

1 x Mocha Clown
1 x DaVinchi Clown
1x Lemon Damsel

Inverts

Scarlet Hermits
Dwarf Hermits
Astrea Snails
Margarita Snails
Trochus Snail
Peppermint Shrimp


I'll Post Pictures of the Progress made thus far below.

Cheers,

Sean

 

[RichtheReefer21]

Welcome to r2r!

Water box makes a great system! Several friends I know have them, and love t'em!

I've got a davinci clown female. Love her.

Looking forward to the pics and setup! Question, are there any plans of a skimmer in the future?

 

[Wilson1985]

Thanks for the welcome! At this point I have no plans on adding a skimmer. I currently have a in-tank surface skimmer attached to my overflow to break the surface tension and remove the surface "gunk". When I decide to upgrade to a bigger tank one day I will install a skimmer, but dealing with nutrients via waterchanges at the moment.

 

[Mhart032]

The tunze 9001 fits perfect in the center chamber after you remove the top layer of the sponge, just an fyi.

 

[Wilson1985]

So here is how the journey started. I live in Canada and trying to get a waterbox tank was not the easiest.

Also please forgive the quality of some photos, simply using an iPhone without a filter until I purchase one.

 

[Wilson1985]

The tunze 9001 fits perfect in the center chamber after you remove the top layer of the sponge, just an fyi.

i have my middle chamber full of marine pure spheres. I figured extra surface area for bacteria was a decent trade off for no skimmer.

 

[RichtheReefer21]

So here is how the journey started. I live in Canada and trying to get a waterbox tank was not the easiest.

Also please forgive the quality of some photos, simply using an iPhone without a filter until I purchase one.

Yikes... so many horror stories from poor shipping and packing failures.

 

[Wilson1985]

So after re-ordering the tank:

 

[Wilson1985]

And the Aquascape:

 

[RichtheReefer21]

Great update. Love the "cove" scape. I did a similar concept on 1 side of mine. Gives a lot of depth.

 

[Tuffyyyyy]

Looks excellent, sorry about your first shipment.

 

[Rossko]

looking good!! i just got my waterbox cube 20 also.its been up and running for just over a month now. such a cool little tank i love them

 

[Wilson1985]

First Corals and Fish:

 

[Wilson1985]

After these first couple of corals survived I decided order some more. Made the rookie mistake of putting sps into a brand new tank, monitpora survived, but the others did not once my alk started swinging. Live and learn:

 

[Wilson1985]

 

[RichtheReefer21]

After my first sps wash out. I waited a year to try again. LoL

 

[Wilson1985]

Yea rookie mistake really but hey that's one way of learning. Sps are growing now.

 

[RichtheReefer21]

Yea rookie mistake really but hey that's one way of learning. Sps are growing now.

We are all rookies

 

[nex64]

You plan on getting a doser or manually dosing as demands rise as your SPS grow?

Nice build btw.

 

[Wilson1985]

You plan on getting a doser or manually dosing as demands rise as your SPS grow?

Nice build btw.

Thanks! I started manually dosing Red Sea's Alk + Ca but then realized that I could never leave the house for more than a couple days so I upgraded to 2 Kamoer X1's. Only downside to these is that they are basically useless after a power outage as you need to reset them via the bluetooth app. I think they are coming out with new ones with a backup battery so that this is fixed but other wise they are a great option for the price, at least for what I need them for.

Kamoer X1 Review: A Nearly Flawless Programmable Dosing Pump | Reef Builders | The Reef and Saltwater Aquarium Blog

The Kamoer X1 is a wirelessly controlled single channel dosing pump and the natural evolution of what these standalone dosers should be. With nary a button, screen or any kind of physical way to…

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