Waterbox Cube 20

[BoralBandit]

Hello fellow reefers!,

I've been in the fish keeping hobby on and off for almost 15 years(fresh water only)... never thought i'd own a salt water tank because it just seemed too daunting.

Fast forward to the beginning of Covid and I found myself bored and looking for something new to build, a friend showed my fiancée his salt water tank and she was absolutely in love, they both convinced me to give salt water a shot , now I'm in the process of dismantling some of my fresh water tanks to make space for salt water

Also this forum is the greatest thing since sliced bread, I cannot tell you how many articles i've read getting ready to get started, and to solve weird issues with equipment/livestock

Livestock:
-Mocha storm clown
-Wyoming white clown
-Candy Hog(growing him out in this one first then moving him over)
-Cant remember the name of the starfish for the life of me, I was really skeptical at first about it destroying my corals but so far so good and it's been there since the beginning, I just have to hand feed it.
-As far as corals go I don't really have a preference I just buy things I like and can keep.

Equipment:
-Waterbox cube 20
-Ai Prime 16 HD
-Nero 3
-Aquatop titanium heater 100W( a bit more pricey than a regular submergible heater but I like the LED displays and I've been using them for almost 6 years now)
-My biceps to top off this tank every other day... I really need an auto top off.

 

[Peace River]

#WelcometoR2R!!! It looks like you are off to a really good start!

...and we agree with you about sliced bread!

 

[ChaosAquaculture]

Welcome to the hobby! Your set up looks great and that euphyllia is looking

 

[BoralBandit]

#WelcometoR2R!!! It looks like you are off to a really good start!

...and we agree with you about sliced bread!

hah! thanks! its definitely had its up and downs but now I honestly don't see myself setting up any more fresh water tanks, unless it's for a very specific fish.

 

[BoralBandit]

Welcome to the hobby! Your set up looks great and that euphyllia is looking

thank you! since taking the picture it has actually finished spitting and both heads are looking awesome!

 

[dvgyfresh]

Nice tank!! And welcome , many experts here so if you need any answers feel free to ask! I’m not an expert but have some experience in learning the hard way lol

 

[BoralBandit]

Nice tank!! And welcome , many experts here so if you need any answers feel free to ask! I’m not an expert but have some experience in learning the hard way lol

lol thanks for the warm welcome! Definitely will ask this forum is a wealth of information

 

[mrbenesse]

Awesome Tank man !!!! Just wodering what ATO do you recommend or use for a cube20? I was hoping to put a drum in the cupboard. and wondering if the ATO has enough power to push the water to the tank from cupboard?

 

[BoralBandit]

Hello fellow reefers!

Long overdue build thread update. Will also update The Other WaterBox Build TLDR at the bottom

Its been a while since my last update to the build thread but we're still here! since the last update we've battled an insane outbreak of hair algae, green bubble algae, and red slime algae at the same dang time!

Due to purchasing our first home and having to do some repairs the tanks were neglected, we were never home. I was still keeping up with water changes...barely. Going to the LFS to get water was proving harder than I thought due to not having time, also moving both tanks proved to be a bit more challenging than expected because we moved in the middle of January and it was freezing , luckily there were no fatalities.

Since the last update both of our starfish sadly passed still not sure what happened, My anemone disappeared for about 2 months this was shortly before the algae and the tank going to crap(LFS that supplied my water had a major crash around the same time not saying it was related but a funny coincidence). Once the tank was in the crap state it was so hard to bounce back, I honestly wanted to sell the remaining livestock/equipment and give up on the hobby. My fiancee would try to get me to get back into it but I was just too buy/stressed with the house that I just did the bare minimum, until one day she gave me an ultimatum either we start working on these tanks again or we get rid of them and thats when I snapped out of it.


The three major changes to the Tank are
#1 re did the entire aquascape and made sure to glue things down overnight this time
#2 upgraded from the Prime 16 to an XR15(honestly the XR 15 is worth every single penny)
#3 the biggest one for me... started mixing my own salt water, got tired of going to the LFS for water and spending $120 a month on just water, bit the bullet and dove right in... the first batch was super scary but with a bunch of youtube and reef2reef research my corals are actually doing better now than when I was using LFS water
#4 focusing on more rare and challenging corals



Also started another project! a fiji cube 81g ext! that one is very early on so i'll create another build thread for it in a few weeks.

TLDR
-bought a home, got stressed, had no time and tanks went to crap, almost left the hobby, now everything is back and better than ever!