Waterbox 6026 Peninsula

[hobbyreefer]

I finally pulled the trigger on my first large-ish reef tank. I currently have a 3 foot IM 30 gallon long and I've been planning to dive into a larger tank for the last year. I was considering several different pre-manufactured options and I had a really hard time deciding what I wanted (common issue for me). I knew the equipment was going to cost >$5k and I wanted to make sure I had as few regrets as possible. I was very interested in the IM 150 primarily because of the 36 inch width. I also was looking at a 5' Planet Aquarium Crystaline, Red Sea 625, 650 Peninsula and 750 XXL and the larger Waterbox aquariums. I've read countless posts on the pros and cons of each brand and really felt like I would probably be happy with any of them. At the end of the day, I was not interested in doing my own plumbing on the IM 150 and I also thought there would be some challenges lighting an aquarium that wide so the IM 150 was out.

Waterbox currently has a significant discount on their 5' Peninsula tank and I decided now was the time. I like the idea of having the overflow on the side and I would love to set this up as true Peninsula if I can find a way to make it fit in my home office.

On Nov 12, I placed an order for the Waterbox 6026. The tank is 60 inches long, 26 inches wide and 24 inches high. This is much larger than anything I have ever had before. When I placed the order, Waterbox's website estimated the tank would ship in 7-10 days. I received the tank on 11/25 (13 days). The plan is to keep my existing 30 gallon tank running, so I will be purchasing all new equipment for this build.

Here's what I picked up over the last couple of weeks (thank you black Friday)

Waterbox 6026 Peninsula tank and black stand.
Vectra M2 Return Pump
2 Vortech MP40WQD - will probably add 2 more at some point
Tunze Osmolator ATO
Nyos Quantum 160 skimmer
Nyos TORQ - 2.0
Nyos TORQ Dock
3 Kessil 360x LED
48" Aquatic life T5 Hybrid DX modal
200 gallon per day 4 Stage BRS RO/DI
Tropic Marine Pro Salt
~100 pounds of Real Reef live rock - I've had this baking in a 40 Gallon brute can for many months

I work from home and I plan to put the tank in my home office located on the main floor of our home (slab). This room currently was carpeted, so I just ripped out the flooring and I'm replacing with waterproof LVP this weekend. The room has a decent size walk in closet that I plan on using as a mini fish room (6'x6').

I plan on this being a SPS dominant tank heavy on the sticks.

I have several questions:

This is my first time with T5 lighting. What bulbs should I go with to combine with the Kessil's? 4 ATI Blue Plus?

I plan on waiting until I have decent coralline algae before adding any SPS. Should I just leave the T5 fixture turned off until this time or run the Kessil and T5's from day 1?

I purchased the Nyos 160 skimmer and Torq media reactor as an impulse buy. These are still new in box. Are these decent choices or should I consider something else (mainly asking about the skimmer)? I plan on stocking fairly heavy.

I'm starting to put together a stocking list. The plan is to have several tangs, but everything else is up in the air. Here are some of the fish I'm considering. Just to be clear, I'm not saying all of these are going in the tank. Just my starting list to consider.

Memic Tang- (~4 inches) transferring from my current tank.
Hippo Tang (~3 inches)- transferring from my current tank.
Yellow Tang
Powder Blue Tang
Purple Tang
Powder Brown Tang
Convict Tang
Gem Tang
5 Lyretail Anthias Females (or similar)
Some sort of Fairy Wrasse (or similar)
Copperband
Clown pair
Foxface rabbitfish
Blue Throat Trigger
My 7 year old keeps begging for an eel of some sort. Would a smaller moray be a terrible idea?

I still need to buy a heater, but I think I have everything else needed to get water in the tank. Hopefully that will happen in the next week or so. I do plan on buying an Apex and Dos a bit down the road. I need to recover a bit from some of the upfront cost. This hobby is beyond crazy!

Picture time!

Waterbox delivery. Felt like Christmas. I plan on moving the tank inside this weekend. Totally freaking out about the weight.

Excuse the mess. Partial office view with the carpet ripped out. Got the stand built. Much easier than anticipated.

Here's an idea of what the new floor will look like. I will install properly on Saturday. Again, excuse the huge mess.

A couple of pictures of my current 30 gallon long. I had a major tank redesign back in Aug. Tank is now way less cluttered, but I really miss the old version. Got to learn to keep my hands out of the tank!

More pictures and updates to come as soon as I get the tank moved. Hopefully this will be a big weekend.

 

[italquam]

Looking forward to the build. How sturdy is the stand , I am curious

 

[Charles Washington]

That is a nice Tank.

 

[hobbyreefer]

The stand was more solid than I was expecting. Heavy and feels like high quality. I've read post where people spent hours putting it together, but I did it by myself in a reasonable amount of time.

 

[hobbyreefer]

more toys.

 

[jstephens24]

hows the build coming along?

 

[hobbyreefer]

Sorry for the long delay. This has been a lot more work than anticipated.

Getting the tank moved from the pallet in the garage and placed on the stand was a real chore. My local LFS let me borrow their glass suction cups and this was a huge help. We used a makeshift furniture dolly to wheel the tank across the front yard and into the house and then we placed a few thick blankets on our hardwood floors and literally dragged the aquarium into place. My father, brother in law and sister helped lift the aquarium. Very heavy but manageable with 4 people. I can't imagine doing it with just two.

Once the aquarium was in place I finished installing the waterproof LVP flooring. Waterproof flooring was 100% the way to go as I've already had a major disaster (rookie mistake).

I've never owned a tank with a sump so this was my first time plumbing. I've been 100% happy with the quality of the Waterbox, stand, sump, plumbing and tank, but I have felt that the instructions manuals were nearly non-existent. YouTube and R2R are the best resources, but I've found very little on this exact tank. The sump came with a soft 3/4" braided silicone tube for the return pump. The vectra M2 pump I purchased was designed for a hard PVC pipe but I didn't realize this and I just stuck the soft silicone tube directly into the coupling and then tightened the union collar. I didn't glue anything or use the clamps to secure the tubing to the pump! Fast forward about 5 days and I came home to the sound of my ATO alarm going off. I rushed into my office and discovered water shooting out of my sump and onto the floor! I ended up getting really lucky and only lost <2 gallons of water. This could have been a huge mess. I did some additional research on my mistake and fixed the problem by using a small piece of PVC pipe cemented to the coupling with ABS cement, then I used a barbed fitting and the original clamp to hold the soft tubing securely in place. I "think" this is correct now. I never realized how much stress having nearly 200 gallons of water in the house could cause...

That was really my only major hiccup so far. I'm sure more to come.

I filled the tank up with RODI water using my new BRS 200 gallon stage 4 unit (0 TDS). Mixed Tropic Marine Pro salt to 35 ppm and took a stab at aquascaping. I read about 2000 aquacaping post and decided I wanted to recreate the two Island (1 large, 1 small) aquascape. The plan is to fill both Island's with nearly 100% acropora.

I strongly debated bare bottom vs. sand and ended up going with the carib sea special reef sand. I'm already regretting this and I'm thinking about removing it and going back to bare bottom (sand still blows with 2 MP40s). Just like everyone, I prefer the look of sand, but I love how I can easily remove detritus from my bare bottom 30 gallon tank. Not sure where this one will end up. Once corals go in, I'm not changing anything.

I've had my rock soaking in a 50 gallon brute trash can for months, so the tank cycled instantly. The rocks have been in a brute with a heater, 35 ppm salt water, pump and a few chromis for over 6 months. I still poured a bottle of bio-spira in the new tank (not sure if this was wise or not). The tank has been at 0 ammonia, 0 nitrite, and near 0 nitrate on every test for the last few weeks.

I installed the 48" Aquatic life DX dimmable hybrid and 3 Kessil 360x. I was really worried about how the would look aesthetically, but it turned out better than I imagined. It's relatively low profile and I absolutely love the Kessil's. My current tank has AI primes, but I believe the color of the Kessil's are significantly better (again aesthetically). I also have 3 blue plus and 1 actinic t5 bulb. The t5's are mostly off right now. I plan on renting a par meter and dialing everything in soon. Once the par meter comes in I'll decide if I need more LEDs.

I installed the Nyos skimmer but I'm having a hard time dialing it in. I'm assuming this is just normal break-in so I'm not too worried yet.

I plan to purchase or build a false wall for the birds nest of electronics. At this point I'll probably just buy the one off of marine depot. Seems a bit expensive but it's plug and play...

I have added a few fish to help with Algae control. I have a yellow tang, fox face, Naso tang and Juvenile unicorn tang in addition to 4 chromis. I fully realize the unicorn will be way too big and need to be re-homed. I think that is about it for now.

The plan is to add a refugium next. I'm thinking a Kessil 380, marine pure blocks and macro algae from Algae Barn. I've never had a Fuge before so someone please speak up if I'm making a mistake.

I also have the torq media reactor just sitting in a box. I'll probably install it soon, just to get it in the tank.

After the Fuge, I'll probably add an Apex. The water spill really freaked me out and I want some more visibility and control.

I'm sure I'll add a "handful" of more fish in the next couple months but I'm trying to hold off on any coral for a while. My initial plan is to place an order on Battlecorals in March/April depending on how things go. I've never ordered anything from Battlecorals, but they seem to have near perfect feedback here on R2R. Sorry for the long delay and rambling on here. Please let me know what you guys think so far. I'm sure I'm making tons of mistakes!


Lines still in the yard from dragging the tank....

Unboxing... 3/4" glass is huge!

Dragging the tank through the house. Actually worked really well...

FTS- Is there anyone to keep the sand from blowing away and exposing the glass?

view from my desk. I'm happy so far

birds nest of wires!

 

[jstephens24]

Thanks for the update. Just purchased a waterbox 220.6 and this will be my first tank with a sump too. I will be following along

 

[PSU4ME]

Any update? I’d love to know the dimensions on the overflow as well as how you plan to tackle the wires. I have the same tank coming in so I’ll be in the same boat!

 

[rahger]

seeing this thread makes me wish I committed to the waterbox peninsula... maybe one day.

 

[hobbyreefer]

Things are going pretty well. I'm stocking the tank faster than I originally planned, but I guess that is to be expected. I ended up tearing down my 30L and I moved all of my fish and Carpet Anemone into the Waterbox.

Current Stock List:
Mimic Tang (old tank)
Blue Tang (old tank)
Black/White Clown (old tank)
Golden Nugget Pair (old tank)
Cardinal (old tank)
3 Chromis
Yellow Tang
Powder Brown Tang
Kole Tang
Unicorn Tang (juvenile)
Foxface
Blue Jaw Trigger
Blood Shrimp
Coral banded shrimp
2 Tiger Conch
Black Widow Anenome

So far, everyone is getting along...

I had a convict tang that disappeared. I'm pretty sure he fell victim to the Carpet Anemone. I regretted moving the Carpet Anemone into the new tank, but I've had it for a few years and became attached. Unfortunately I was never able to get a clownfish to go anywhere near it and I've lost a few fish along the way.

I went out of town last week and my Carpet anemone decided to leave the sand bed and I found it stuck inside one of my MP40s

I came home to a pretty nasty smell, but none of the fish were affected. Ammonia stayed at 0, but I went ahead and threw some carbon in and did a large water change. Everything appears fine. Guards have been placed back on the MP40s....

I started a mini Fuge in one of the sump compartments. I'm using marine pure and Algae Barn Cheato. I repurposed one my AI Primes from my 30L. I'm still trying to decide if I need a "real" Fuge light like the H380.

I'm feeding ALL the time and my nitrates and phosphates are near zero. I'm seeing a small amount of algae on the sand and glass, so I'm assuming this is test kit error or maybe everything is being consumed prior to testing.

I made my first coral purchase on Monday and a new Battlebox arrived today. I let Adam know I have a new tank and I wanted some hardier pieces to start out. This is a bit earlier than I planned (wanted to wait 3 months), but my parameters appear stable. I may end up regretting going so quickly.

I also picked up a Black Widow anenome for the Golden Nuggets. They found it instantly.

So far, so good. I do feel like my skimmer smells TERRIBLE. I empty the cup every other day and it seems to help a bit, but I'm worried something else might be going on. Is it normal for the skimmer to smell so bad? Is there anything I can do? I'm already running a bit of carbon?

 

[hobbyreefer]

I experienced a bacteria bloom over the last 10 days. Tank got so cloudy that I could barely see the rock work. I ordered a cheap UV sterilizer off Amazon based on positive reviews and put it in the tank yesterday afternoon. 15 hours later and the tank is almost 100% clear. The UV was a 24Watt AA Aquarium Green Killing Machine. It was only $73 and rated for a smaller tank size, so I was skeptical. I can't believe how fast it worked. It's too early to tell if this was a good idea, but the tank is so much clearer today.

I also picked up a bottle of Microbacter7. I was going to let the UV run for a few days and then take it offline and dose a bottle of Microbacter7. Is this a good idea?

 

[hobbyreefer]

Before/After with he UV sterilizer. The before picture was taken several days ago. The tank was much cloudier yesterday before turning on the UV light.

 

[hobbyreefer]

Want to guess which room the aquarium is in? Can't imagine what the neighbors think is going on.

 

[PSU4ME]

Have you addressed the wire birds nest yet? I’m trying to find inspiration!

 

[hobbyreefer]

No! I'm totally intimidated by this project. I did see that Marine Depot has their controller board on sale this weekend. I'm thinking about pulling the trigger. I'm also looking into having an electrician install a dedicated circuit and GFCI outlets for the tank. Hopefully all of this will happen in the next 30 days. Let me know if you buy one of the controller boards.

 

[hobbyreefer]

Updated FTS. Nothing too exciting. Rented a par meter from BRS and found my par is a bit lower than I had hoped. I plan on buying another LED for the hybrid fixture. I also lowered the fixture down about 3 inches so it's now 5.5 - 6 inches off the water.

I'm currently getting Par around 250-325 at the top of the rocks when everything is cranked up. I'm thinking I want it a bit higher.

I also ordered an ICP test. I plan on sending it off on Monday. I really had no reason for doing this except to get a good starting point for where everything is at. I will probably test every month or so until the tank is established.

Picked up a Regal Angel from my LFS for $75. It's about 5.5 inches and beautiful. Really hoping it works out. Currently it will only eat live clams in the half shell, but it goes crazy for those.

 

[hobbyreefer]

I had my first major setback. Marine Velvet! I have always been in the non-QT camp but I will never do that again...Over the last few days I have lost about half of my fish. Very sad. I setup a 40 gallon breeder hospital tank and I have removed all fish from the DT and I'm treating the fish with copper. I will get to enjoy an empty tank for the next two months!

I had to remove all of the rock in order to catch the fish. My aquascape is now completely different. I would love to hear feedback or suggestions.

I also rented a par meter from BRS and I decided to purchase an additional Kessil 360x. I now have 4 360s and 4 T5 bulbs. I think 5 Kessil 360s (1 every 12 inches) is going to be the magic number.

I'm getting 350-400 par on most of my rock work when everything is cranked to 100%. The far right side of the tank is only getting 170-230 par. This might actually be ok if I want somewhere to place something besides sticks.

There probably won't be much activity over the next 2 months. I'm going to wait for my "starter" sticks to start encrusting and coloring up before placing my next Battlebox order. I don't have high expectations from the remaining fish in QT. Most of them are covered in velvet. I'm hoping for the best but I'm not confident. I plan on stocking the tank WAY lighter next time around.

I also picked up a prime Fuge light and I'm trying to grow Cheato in the sump. I'll update in a couple of weeks with how that is going...

 

[jstephens24]

do you know which fish brought it in? a LFS addition or online?

 

[hobbyreefer]

All fish came from LFS. I'm not sure which fish was sick. I was stupid. I bought ~10 new fish over a 6 week period and didn't QT anything. I thought my LFS used copper in all of their tanks...