Waterbox 270 LX upgrade

[Acropora52]

Thanks for the pics the space is my concern as well I may go custom with a built out cabinet to cover an entire wall but the r lx is so tempting bc of price and system volume will keep following to see how yours progresses and your right not many build threads or videos online yet…

No problem. Honestly, if you set up remote water, which I think you should do for any setup and are a little better at organizing, you can fit everything in the stand/equipment.

I have an automated calcium reactor, kalk reactor and the electronics for my wavebox in the cabinet, along with all test kits, 10-12 types of food, cleaning supplies, etc. However, I'm running a pretty high energy system with more flow then most people. I have a ton of SPS as well as a carpet on the sandbed and a ritteri mid column. Most mixed reefs can definitely do less flow.

I think the waterbox people just have a single return and 2 mp60s for the entire 320-7.

If I wasn't using the wavebox and had a closed top, I would probably do 4 tunze 6105s with 2 in the front corners and 2 on the ends or possibly 2 mp60 and a couple tunze. Just with the open top and the plank already sticking out, I didn't want too many cords that I had to make cutouts for.

Feel free to follow along. I think waterbox is hard to beat for a complete setup. If I was more patient and had had a little more space, I would have gone with a miracles custom 8 x3 footprint. That'll probably be the next system when my kids are older and I reappropriate the basement

 

[Maxcmo]

No problem. Honestly, if you set up remote water, which I think you should do for any setup and are a little better at organizing, you can fit everything in the stand/equipment.

I have an automated calcium reactor, kalk reactor and the electronics for my wavebox in the cabinet, along with all test kits, 10-12 types of food, cleaning supplies, etc. However, I'm running a pretty high energy system with more flow then most people. I have a ton of SPS as well as a carpet on the sandbed and a ritteri mid column. Most mixed reefs can definitely do less flow.

I think the waterbox people just have a single return and 2 mp60s for the entire 320-7.

If I wasn't using the wavebox and had a closed top, I would probably do 4 tunze 6105s with 2 in the front corners and 2 on the ends or possibly 2 mp60 and a couple tunze. Just with the open top and the plank already sticking out, I didn't want too many cords that I had to make cutouts for.

Feel free to follow along. I think waterbox is hard to beat for a complete setup. If I was more patient and had had a little more space, I would have gone with a miracles custom 8 x3 footprint. That'll probably be the next system when my kids are older and I reappropriate the basemenI

I have about 92" of wall I can use and I probably do something very nice custom with some counter top space on each side closed top with a ton of storage and a big sump with a nice frag section below but I don't think I have the patience to go thru all that when I can have a Reef LX here in 2 weeks but for now I am going to stick with my Frag 105.4 thru the holidays. Your tank looks great I will be following along for sure...

 

[Daniel@R2R]

Looking great!! Beautiful reef!!

 

[rvitko]

Great looking set up!

 

[Acropora52]

Looking great!! Beautiful reef!!

Thank you!

Great looking set up!

Thank you!

 

[Acropora52]

So something really weird. Been working a lot but when I peeked in the tank today after not looking carefully the last couple days noticed I was missing a clam. Searched everywhere but can't find it. It's a 2" maxima so should be there but as of now, it's mia, which is a bummer. Otherwise, tank is doing well. Things are growing and some of the new tank cycle is almost complete.



Took a few pics with top off.

 

[Acropora52]

Quick video update

 

[Acropora52]

A few Saturday pics

And a new bommie courtesy of @Nburg

 

[Nburg's Reef]

Weird seeing that rock in someone else’s tank, but it looks good!

 

[Acropora52]

Weird seeing that rock in someone else’s tank, but it looks good!

Yeah, I can imagine Do you feed your rics directly? I haven't historically but I haven't had the kind of growth you have so open to any suggestions.

Other updates...I swapped out my wavebox for a pair of the Tunze stream 3s. I really, really miss the water motion I had with the wavebox but with a spouse who is working from home just feet away from the tank, the decrease in noise exceeded the benefit to the tank. I will say that the Tunze stream 3s are incredible pumps and given that I have some Tunze that are 15 years old as mixing pumps for my salt water, I imagine they'll also last forever.

I saw my male mandarin for the 3rd time in a few weeks recently. I haven't seen my female for several months but then again, I didn't see either for a while so hoping that she'll pop up, fatter and healthy. However, given two large anemones in the tank, it's certainly possible she won't.

Overall, tank is doing well but there have been other hiccups. Lost a large T maxima without any apparent cause. I did have a little fluctuation in alk due to not watching as carefully and a clogged kalkwasser feed line but it's hard to attribute it to that. I've historically not had great success with T maximas and as much as it pains me, I think I'm going to take a break from trying another. I may add a blue T. squamosa or possibly a T. gigas if I can find a small one, though my last gigas outgrew a 160 in less then 2 years.

After the alk fluctuation, I decided to bite the bullet and get a trident. I don't intend to turn over dosing but being able to glance at trends during the day will hopefully be helpful.

I have noticed a small amount of clove polyps in a small area in the tank. I will likely try the angels plus deworming food, courtesy of a suggestion from this great post from @jda https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/jdas-240g-acropora-rebuild.747041/post-9838553. However, waiting until he's had a longer time to observe. For those that haven't seen it, great post in his build thread cataloging his observations. I also have had a run of aiptasia. Manual injection with a large bore (18G) needle with "chunky" kalk has only caused them to split. In addition, there are a few that are in inaccessible areas, which is how they managed to survive in the past. I have used the filefish with success in the past but afterwards, they ate all the zoas. I do have a copperband that is being qted so my hope is that will help and take care of the problem. I'm planning on having it work on my zoa tank first, with duplicates of the nicer pieces in both tanks, then transferred the zoas over to the other tank and having it work on this system. I have considered the reef delete but the initial cost is rough. The other option is berghia but their cost has gotten pretty extreme over the last couple years and if I have to pick between a biological fix, I would prefer a copperband or the filefish.

 

[Nburg's Reef]

Yeah, I can imagine Do you feed your rics directly? I haven't historically but I haven't had the kind of growth you have so open to any suggestions.

Never direct fed them. I had these somewhat under a vortech which is lower flow, but still not dead flow. I do like to give them a good amount of light (direct light, but on sandbed), well more than what most say. If they get really puffy and big, I will put them in a little more light, but really I don't seem to mess with them. Some colors split faster than others. I think the blue ones can't take as much light as the others, but should be fine where you have them. Those winter green and gold ones in front of the blues can take a lot of light if you decide to move some.

 

[Acropora52]

Never direct fed them. I had these somewhat under a vortech which is lower flow, but still not dead flow. I do like to give them a good amount of light (direct light, but on sandbed), well more than what most say. If they get really puffy and big, I will put them in a little more light, but really I don't seem to mess with them. Some colors split faster than others. I think the blue ones can't take as much light as the others, but should be fine where you have them. Those winter green and gold ones in front of the blues can take a lot of light if you decide to move some.

Thanks, I'll stick with the current plan then. How is the micromussa looking?

 

[Nburg's Reef]

The micro is doing great. I notice it likes to extend feeding tentacles when I feed LRS frozen foods.

 

[Acropora52]

New imperator, my favorite fish and have missed having one.

 

[Acropora52]

New additions courtesy of Poma labs. Hats off to Matt for his work on these guys, born on 6/15/21.

They were eating flake the same day they landed. Pretty bold on day 3, munching down on lrs, fish eggs and every type of flake I try. Will hopefully release in a few days when I get another pair of fish in.

 

[Acropora52]

Interesting couple of days. So, I went to pick up those fish, a pair of bluejaw triggers for the big tank and a blue tang for my kids.



In the process of catching the fish, time dragged on and the female couldn't be found. The person I was getting the fish from was also breaking down/moving his tank and taking rocks out to dry. Three of us went through each rock but didn't see the bluejaw female. Finally, I suggested we check the rocks that were out of water, not expecting anything. Found the female, cold and not moving, lying on the grass. Grabbed her, dropped her into water, grass and all and drove an hour plus home. When I first put her in she dropped to the bottom of the bag. No movement. When I got home, a little movement but not great. Acclimated and put her in the tank and also released the blueline angels. The powder blue immediately attacked both blue lines and was relentless. Ignored the bluejaw male. The female bluejaw sorta floated to the bottom of the tank and behind rock.



The powder blue had ignored the angels in the acclimation tank and competely ignored the juvenile imperator so I was surprised by the rancor. I turned off the light and covered the tank with blankets to diffuse aggression. Next morning, powder blue had cornered both angels and wouldn't let them eat. I went to tactic #2, seen below and attached a mirror to tank.


Powder Blue Attacks...Itself?


Meanwhile, day 2 I see the female out and swimming. Some scars on her head which may heal but otherwise good.

Meanwhile, before all these events, the carpet wandered off the rock all the way to the back left. I think it has to do with the altered water flow from the acclimation box as it happened when I added the imperator too. Will only use the box one more time so hopefully won't have to do this again. Got stung again by the carpet but getting used to that.

So after two days of attacking it's reflection, today this is how things look.

 

[Mattiejay6]

Wow! It looks really good man!!

 

[Acropora52]

Wow! It looks really good man!!

Thanks man! Greatly appreciate it.

 

[Sean Clark]

Very nice; and you accomplished a lot quite fast.

 

[Acropora52]

Very nice; and you accomplished a lot quite fast.

Thank you, that's very kind of you to say

I benefitted from moving about 1/3 of the rock from my old system as well as seeding heavily from the start with bacteria, pods, phyto and 2 different types of live sand as well as starters from a couple other mature tanks as well as essentially going fishless for the first couple months. I'm hopeful that having greater diversity early on and a stable food web will help with stability and growth. Certainly still a work in progress but I'm very happy with it this point.

I have one more large grouping of fish coming in and then I'll essentially be stocked.

And because a post is incomplete without a pic, my new green rainbow splice. We'll see if it ends up getting some red or just ends up being a green mille