Waterbox Cube 20 Build Thread

arkodios

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Hello all,
I have finally started my reef tank after a lot of research, decision-making, and bank-breaking. Today, I DIY'd my stand (still a work-in-progress, I want to add walls and a door but the wood I got cut at Home depot is slightly too large), set up my RO/DI filter, and filled my tank up. I just added Dr. Tim's ammonium chloride (2-3 ppm) and a mix of both BIO-Spira and Nite-Out II. My current plan is to:
1. Get the tank cycled
2. Add clean-up crew (still not fully determined, probably some blue-leg hermit crabs and some snails)
3. Beat the ugly phase + Grow coralline algae
4. Add corals (I am in love with euphyllia, especially torches, so they get priority)
5. Add a bubble-tip anemone
6. Maybe add more corals
7. Finally add a pair of Ocellaris Clownfish. I know I can get them before adding anemone and they don't even need it (hell I can even do it when I'm done cycling), but I want the tank to be very stable and a small, yet welcoming, paradise for them

I know this process is going to take a while. I am still in the process of setting up my ATO system, I think I will DIY it as well because it just seems really expensive to me for such a simple function. I also need to get a lid-- I think lids are also much more expensive than they should be so I might DIY it even though it won't look nearly as pretty as a Kraken lid. I am using Red Sea tests and will be constantly checking my nitrates and phosphates for the next few weeks and once I'm ready to grow coralline (getting ready for corals) I will try to test my magnesium and calcium as well. I also need to look into some fail-safes for when my heaters eventually fail (I'm currently using 1 titanium heater by AquaTop, they have worked in my freshwater tanks really well), so feel free to recommend some. My light is an AI Prime 16HD, but it is currently not up because I don't feel safe using the ceiling hangers so I want the more rigid tank mount.

Here is my tank now, though you cannot make anything out because it is cloudy from the sand and salt (I did not pre-mix it although I probably should have-- I only have 1 bucket right now so I thought this would be fine). You can also see my stand so far, I glued and nailed an 18x18 inch yoga mat under it to help with the inherent slight stabilization issues (it's my first time working with wood and my floor is slanted), and it seems to be helping though it looks kind of weird.

1643006237751.png
 

tinyfellows

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Sounds like we have very similar goals and I have a Waterbox 20 as well I look forward to seeing how your tank goes and comparing
 
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arkodios

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Sounds like we have very similar goals and I have a Waterbox 20 as well I look forward to seeing how your tank goes and comparing
For sure, I’ll be updating this post somewhat frequently (though I probably wont get many replies or views lol), especially when any major events occur (such as first algae growth). If you have any questions about what I do/products I use feel free to ask. This is my first own saltwater tank but I work at an LFS and am currently handling our prized frag tank, so I do know a thing or two about reef tanks
 

tinyfellows

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For sure, I’ll be updating this post somewhat frequently (though I probably wont get many replies or views lol), especially when any major events occur (such as first algae growth). If you have any questions about what I do/products I use feel free to ask. This is my first own saltwater tank but I work at an LFS and am currently handling our prized frag tank, so I do know a thing or two about reef tanks
Right on that’s how I feel my build thread is going to go I’m just acquiring all the gear as well it’s my first salt water tank. Should be a fun one to follow along with and maybe bounce some ideas off of
 
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arkodios

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Right on that’s how I feel my build thread is going to go I’m just acquiring all the gear as well it’s my first salt water tank. Should be a fun one to follow along with and maybe bounce some ideas off of
What’s all the equipment you’re planning on?
 

tinyfellows

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What’s all the equipment you’re planning on?
I’ve got a Red Sea reef 50, mighty jet desktop dc pump for return, duetto ato, going to get a Nero 3, eshopps nano protein skimmer, an inkbird temperature controller and probably a neotherm heater.
 

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Honestly, you could live off of not having an ATO if you top up the tank daily, I would get the ATO before you put corals in cause although its solving a simple function, its something that could potentially screw up your tank something fierce. Its not as important when you're starting out, (fish, CUC).

I used these ATOs for my freshwaters cause well, its cheap. But i've got a smart ATO on my waterbox 20 and an avast marine ATO on my multitank setup.


If your goal is to get torches in there, you would need gentle random flow. A variable powerhead is preferred but a random flow generator on the return nozzle would also solve that problem. Probably upgrade the return pump for more flow into the tank if you opt out of the powerhead.

Before you put your first torch in there, wait for your coralline to start growing or get some more hardy softies a few months in that can act as canaries as your tank develops its bacterial colony.

I didn't see any lights in your build, you can try some of the cheaper chinese black box lights but i dont know how well they perform compared to say an AI prime 16 or a radion 15. YMMV.

You dont need lights until you start putting corals into it. It'll just fuel unwanted growth.
 
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arkodios

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Honestly, you could live off of not having an ATO if you top up the tank daily, I would get the ATO before you put corals in cause although its solving a simple function, its something that could potentially screw up your tank something fierce. Its not as important when you're starting out, (fish, CUC).

I used these ATOs for my freshwaters cause well, its cheap. But i've got a smart ATO on my waterbox 20 and an avast marine ATO on my multitank setup.


If your goal is to get torches in there, you would need gentle random flow. A variable powerhead is preferred but a random flow generator on the return nozzle would also solve that problem. Probably upgrade the return pump for more flow into the tank if you opt out of the powerhead.

Before you put your first torch in there, wait for your coralline to start growing or get some more hardy softies a few months in that can act as canaries as your tank develops its bacterial colony.

I didn't see any lights in your build, you can try some of the cheaper chinese black box lights but i dont know how well they perform compared to say an AI prime 16 or a radion 15. YMMV.

You dont need lights until you start putting corals into it. It'll just fuel unwanted growth.

I will check out the ATO you linked, for now a cheap one is perfect because tbh its just a tedious pain to be topping tanks off all the time, I already do it at my job and it’s annoying.

As for the light, I have an AI Prime 16HD literally just sitting in its box. I’m waiting for the tank mount to arrive (est. Wednesday). I’m keeping the light off until I seed the tank with coralline and a cleanup crew.

I don’t know too much about random flow generators or variable powerheads, do you mind walking me through it? Suggesting some options even?

For top offs, I was honestly just planning on getting a container with RO/DI water and a pump connected to a smart switch. Like that I can just click “on” from my phone and let it do its thing. I have a smart switch laying around so I just need a pump, but that shouldn’t be too hard or expensive to get.
 
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arkodios

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I’ve got a Red Sea reef 50, mighty jet desktop dc pump for return, duetto ato, going to get a Nero 3, eshopps nano protein skimmer, an inkbird temperature controller and probably a neotherm heater.
dang that all sounds really nice. I’m looking into nano skimmers but it’s hard with the very limited space in the back filter. Let me know how your Nero 3 works, I need a powerhead in my tank and I really love the design in the Nero series
 

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I will check out the ATO you linked, for now a cheap one is perfect because tbh its just a tedious pain to be topping tanks off all the time, I already do it at my job and it’s annoying.

As for the light, I have an AI Prime 16HD literally just sitting in its box. I’m waiting for the tank mount to arrive (est. Wednesday). I’m keeping the light off until I seed the tank with coralline and a cleanup crew.

I don’t know too much about random flow generators or variable powerheads, do you mind walking me through it? Suggesting some options even?

For top offs, I was honestly just planning on getting a container with RO/DI water and a pump connected to a smart switch. Like that I can just click “on” from my phone and let it do its thing. I have a smart switch laying around so I just need a pump, but that shouldn’t be too hard or expensive to get.
I feel you, i've noticed with the cheap ATOs, the thickness of the bottle is important or some sort of structural support so it doesn't crumple from the suction of the water.

Good ideas on the light, you can get it programmed up and then disconnect it from the pwoer so you know how it'll look in your tank. There should be a bunch of light profiles you can take from either here or their website. When I ran an AI prime, I used zaxby's. It was an old british dude's light profile.

This would be the rfg you'd use, keep in mind that the connectors to make it work are 3d printed so you can't be too rough with them. There are some other ebay entities that make the nozzle itself but you'd have to get the 16.5mm to 1/2 or 1/4 loc line adapters from vivid creative.


Sounds good! Just remember to put a siphon break in your line if you plan to submerge it.
 
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arkodios

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Update: I finally got my AI Prime installed‼️ Hopefully I can get some progress going in algae growth, once that’s started I’ll add in a clean up crew. Sad update: I had a yellow watchman goby after the tank cycled. 3 days after I got him I found him on the floor :( not going to get any more fish until i get a good lid

Expecting an algae bloom tomorrow. I’m going to try to take a step ahead and introduce coralline algae this early on so it has a leg up competing over territory. Excited to see how my progress goes.

Here’s the normal grow light setting: image.jpg

For showing people I light a more neutral lighting. It doesn’t look bright because I didn’t want it to look so saturated so I lowered the exposure on my camera: 36693AE8-8275-4F18-AD57-2BCFA7D1C480.jpeg
 
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arkodios

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Update: Added 3 Trochus snails and 5 Blue-Leg Hermit crabs. No algae growth yet, but the Trochus snails have some red fuzz growing on their back which I hope introduced some biodiversity to the tank. Got a small piece of coralline-covered rock and Purple-Up to begin coralline growth in the tank. Planning on introducing the first coral soon (by Feb. 19th) which will likely be a Green Star Polyp frag. Still looking for the right lid for the tank. It looks like I will either DIY it or get it 3D printed, but chances are the DIY is going to happen.
 

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arkodios

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beautiful rock scape
Thanks lol, it took me a total of 3 minutes. The tank was cloudy and I couldn't see anything so I just put stuff wherever it felt right and lucky enough I actually liked the result once the tank cleared up
 

Someshmuk

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Update: Added 3 Trochus snails and 5 Blue-Leg Hermit crabs. No algae growth yet, but the Trochus snails have some red fuzz growing on their back which I hope introduced some biodiversity to the tank. Got a small piece of coralline-covered rock and Purple-Up to begin coralline growth in the tank. Planning on introducing the first coral soon (by Feb. 19th) which will likely be a Green Star Polyp frag. Still looking for the right lid for the tank. It looks like I will either DIY it or get it 3D printed, but chances are the DIY is going to happen.
I worry about coralline algae, purple up is just powdered calcium carbonate in solution so it looks like its dowing something but doesn't actually help. Time, water stability, and proper water parameters is all you need.

The red fuzz is probably cyano from the lack of bacterial biofilm which allows the cyano to colonize on lit structures.

Overall you're doing great though. keep it up!
 
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arkodios

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Update: I added my first corals‼️ I got a Kenya Tree and a Clove Polyp. I added the Kenya Tree a few days ago and the Clove Polyp yesterday. The Kenya Tree is opened up, the Clove Polyp is not. I’m not too sure on how to acclimate corals to new light but I should learn before I add more. Going to add some GSP soon and if I can keep all my corals alive for 3-4 weeks, I’ll add my first Euphyllia, which looks like it will be a Hammer coral. I stopped dosing Purple Up because I want stable calcium levels. I got Reef-Roids and I will be feeding 3x a week.

Still no fish, as I am figuring out a lid situation. I am thinking on a Royal Gramma and Yellow Watchman Goby/Pistol Shrimp. No algae growth yet and the red fuzz that was on the snails’ backs mostly disappeared. I think my small ball of Chaeto is doing a lot of nutrient competition.

I figured out that putting a red lens over the camera makes picture-taking easier with the blue light. Here are both the corals, though the clove polyp is closed so it looks like nothing:
 

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arkodios

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Update: Added more corals and fish.
I added a Blastomussa and my coworker gave me a plate of branching GSP that was doing bad in his tank. I got another yellow watchman goby but it decided it likes the filter more than the display tank and it jumps over the filter wall to switch between the display and filter. Strange guy, Garrett.

The tank went through its first algae and copepod (?) bloom, I believe it happened after a hermit crab died and began to decompose— I didn’t see it until I moved a rock. The water got cloudy and the walls were covered in small white critters. It cleared up after 2 days. One thing that did not go away is these little white star things with something hair-like sticking out of them. I have a ball of chaeto in the filter and I don’t know if its like, colonizing the glass? I was able to get a picture of my watchman goby but you can barely see it because of those star things

image.jpg image.jpg 479C160A-87B5-47A1-BAEC-0752A34D3F85.jpeg
 
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arkodios

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And yet another update: My tank is doing excellent. I added 2 animals who I have yet to actually see: a pistol shrimp and a clown goby. I added them a few days ago and wanted to see them color up and liven up. They have spent the whole time in hiding. I don’t even know if they’re still alive but my nutrient levels are normal so I’m guessing not. I have 10 ppm nitrates, 0-0.1 ppm phosphates (Red Sea test kit doesn’t seem super precise), and my pH is 8.0 (working on getting it higher). Working on getting the money for a protein skimmer, an ATO, and a lid. A coworker gave me a Chaetomax light so I have chaeto in my ‘sump’ growing. Hopefully it works like intended. Same coworker may give me a leather coral in a few weeks, so I might add clownfish earlier than planned. My tank so far (front and side view):

D2649C76-42EB-4E3D-9841-816F2E63CEA5.jpeg 37F85090-597E-47D1-85C9-61DEA29005F7.jpeg

The clove polyps are splitting and the Kenya tree keeps on growing. The GSP looks pretty healthy. The blastomussa looks fine but don’t know if it’s doing well or not because it doesn’t look any different
 
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arkodios

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Update: Not sure what is going on. I haven’t seen any of my fish in a few days. I moved the rocks around, checked the filter, and even threw in some mysis shrimp. No one showed up besides the pistol shrimp. I’m guessing they all died and my trochus snails ate them. Very discouraging
 

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