Waterbox 20 Cube

[rmiller7891]

01-23-2020

Starting a tank build thread. I have had reef tanks before and have managed a coral aquaculture farm(not mine) in the past. Now I have started a new adventure of going back to school to get a biological oceanography degree. I decided to setup a "simple" tank while I am in school. I setup a Waterbox 20 in March of 2019 and have had relatively good success. I have lost only a couple corals over the almost a years time, and just won a battle with dino. My equipment list follows.

Tank: Waterbox 20 Cube
Heater: Finnex 150 Titanium Heater
ATO: Hydor Smart Level Controller
Flow: Hydor Smart Wave Circulation Pump Controller- Hydor Koralia Nano 565 Circulation Pump (x2), Icecap 1K Gyre Flow Pump
Skimmer: Reef Octopus NS-80 Nano Protein Skimmer
Refugium Lighting: GreenLaren 5W LED Grow Light
Tank Lighting: Black Box Cree Saltwater LED light, Sunblaster T5 with ATI True Actinic bulb
Filtration: In order of water flow; Refugium with Chaeto, Chemi-pure blue, Skimmer, Waterbox Included Sponge "thing", Waterbox Included Biomedia Balls
Return Pump: Aquatop Maxflow 192

Lighting Upgrade coming soon (open to suggestions)
Possible media reactor addition coming

Corals:
PC Rainbow Acropora
Walt Disney Acropora
Green Slimer Acropora
Red Dragon Acropora
ASD Goosebumps Acropora
ASD Acid Fire Acropora
ASD Royal Rampage Acropora
3 Unknown Acroporas
ORA Laura's Purple Polyp Acropora
ASD Jedis Montipora
Sunset Montipora
Rainbow Montipora
Forest Fire Montipora Digitata
ASD Toxic Slime Scroll
ASD Sunsplat Leptastrea
ASD Mermaids Crystal Favia
Warcoral Favia
Acid Splattered Hammer x2
Mint Gonipora
Gold stem Cristata
ASD Hyper jublee Zoanthids
ASD Dark Destroyers Zoanthids
ASD Toxic Smerfs Zoanthids
ASD Golden Gecko Zoanthids
ASD Jungle Juice Zoanthids
ASD Toxic Death Wowsers
ASD Space Alien Astreapora
Daisy Duke Zoanthids
Unknown Purple and Green Chalice
Branching cyphastrea
Purple Birds nest

Fish:
Lawnmower Blenny
Royal Gramma
(more to come)

Cleanup crew:
Astrea snails
Blue Leg Hermits
Mexican Turbos
Cerith Snails

 

[reef lover]

Sounds good! Lets see some pics of your hard work!

 

[rmiller7891]

New lighting upgrade this week. Here is my reasoning why I picked what I picked.
AI Hydra 32HD vs. EcoTech Radion XR15w gen 4 pro
Hydra slightly higher PAR output with price point at $366
Radion slightly lower PAR output with higher price point at $420
Hydra mounting options at price point at $65 for arm or hanging kit for $35
Radion come with hanging eyelets that will conform with current cable system $0
Hydra has 2 LED light pucks
Radion has 1 LED light puck
Hydra price with hanging kit $366 + $35 = $401
Hydra price with arm mount $366 + $65 = $431
Radion price hanging with existing cables $420
Radion max price $420 + $95 = $515
Hydra is Bluetooth
Radion is WiFi with external controls

After weighing these options I went with the AI Hydra 32HD.

 

[reefiniteasy]

How’s the 32HD? Is it too much for the cube 20? I was looking at the Prime 16HD.

 

[rmiller7891]

How’s the 32HD? Is it too much for the cube 20? I was looking at the Prime 16HD.

The AI Hydra 32HD is great. Coverage seems to be good for a 20 gallon cube, I do have a good bit of sps corals and they seem happy (except for a dino outbreak that they are recovering from). It is easy to set up once you figure out the app. One complaint I have is that there is no preset or recommended configurations to choose from. You must do your research on what other people are running as far as individual color channels. Also if I had known that EcoTech was about to release the gen 5 radion I might have gone that route or tried to snag a gen 4 on sale. A Prime 16HD should be fine for some tanks but you might need more output depending on your coral selection. I am also running one ATI actinic T5, so no I don't think it is too much for the cube 20.

 

[rmiller7891]

Photo update. Tank has been running or 10 months now. It has had its up and downs, lost some corals over time but not many. Now recovering from a bad dino outbreak. Hoping my new AI Hydra 32HD will help things move along, grow and recover.

 

[RedBeardAquaticcs]

Photo update. Tank has been running or 10 months now. It has had its up and downs, lost some corals over time but not many. Now recovering from a bad dino outbreak. Hoping my new AI Hydra 32HD will help things move along, grow and recover.

How is your back chamber set up? Im trying to figure out how to get mine to skim the surface film off the top through the overflow

 

[rmiller7891]

How is your back chamber set up? Im trying to figure out how to get mine to skim the surface film off the top through the overflow

There is fine line between how high the water is in the back chamber. If you have too much then the tank will not skim well. My last chamber where the return pump is is about a inch lower than the middle. I also have a crazy amount of flow with 2 Hydor Koralia Nano 565 Circulation Pumps alternating on and off each hour, Icecap 1K Gyre Flow Pump running at 40%. You may need more surface agitation, try aiming your return pump nozzle up towards the surface a little. My back chamber starts with a refugium (currently not running a refugium due to dinoflagellate battle recovery) in chamber 1; skimmer, carbon, ATO sensor in chamber 2; bio balls and part of the back sponge that I cut to fit that came with the tank above the return pump in chamber 3 to stop micro bubbles from the skimmer. I might not go back to a refugium but rather get a inTank media basket for chamber 1. I can add a picture if you would like.

 

[RedBeardAquaticcs]

There is fine line between how high the water is in the back chamber. If you have too much then the tank will not skim well. My last chamber where the return pump is is about a inch lower than the middle. I also have a crazy amount of flow with 2 Hydor Koralia Nano 565 Circulation Pumps alternating on and off each hour, Icecap 1K Gyre Flow Pump running at 40%. You may need more surface agitation, try aiming your return pump nozzle up towards the surface a little. My back chamber starts with a refugium (currently not running a refugium due to dinoflagellate battle recovery) in chamber 1; skimmer, carbon, ATO sensor in chamber 2; bio balls and part of the back sponge that I cut to fit that came with the tank above the return pump in chamber 3 to stop micro bubbles from the skimmer. I might not go back to a refugium but rather get a inTank media basket for chamber 1. I can add a picture if you would like.

I ended up siphoning water of out the middle chamber to lower the level back there so it would actually skim. Its weird cuz when i did my weekly water change i put back in the same amount kf water that i took out but i had to siphon some water out of the back to lower the level lower than the display is

 

[RedBeardAquaticcs]

I ended up siphoning water of out the middle chamber to lower the level back there so it would actually skim. Its weird cuz when i did my weekly water change i put back in the same amount kf water that i took out but i had to siphon some water out of the back to lower the level lower than the display is

how do you control the levels in the back chamber? like how do you have one lower than the other

 

[Pilcher]

There is fine line between how high the water is in the back chamber. If you have too much then the tank will not skim well. My last chamber where the return pump is is about a inch lower than the middle. I also have a crazy amount of flow with 2 Hydor Koralia Nano 565 Circulation Pumps alternating on and off each hour, Icecap 1K Gyre Flow Pump running at 40%. You may need more surface agitation, try aiming your return pump nozzle up towards the surface a little. My back chamber starts with a refugium (currently not running a refugium due to dinoflagellate battle recovery) in chamber 1; skimmer, carbon, ATO sensor in chamber 2; bio balls and part of the back sponge that I cut to fit that came with the tank above the return pump in chamber 3 to stop micro bubbles from the skimmer. I might not go back to a refugium but rather get a inTank media basket for chamber 1. I can add a picture if you would like.

Could I please get a pick of how you're doing the refugium? I'm trying to figure out the best way to do it. Was considering doing ab algae reactor but would prefer a cheaper alternative if it's out there.

 

[SliceGolfer]

Updates?

 

[rmiller7891]

Could I please get a pick of how you're doing the refugium? I'm trying to figure out the best way to do it. Was considering doing ab algae reactor but would prefer a cheaper alternative if it's out there.

Ended up scraping the refugium. Was too much up keep and need room for more equipment and filtration.

 

[rmiller7891]

Update Feb 2021. Had to move, sold a lot of corals. was planning on getting rid of the tank and all live stock but ended up setting it back up with what I had left over. Basically re-built the tank, built a stand, built a custom light holder. Probably will hold off on getting more corals for a while, I will just let it grow out this year. I will add more picture when I have time. Thanks for everyone's interest in my build.