Waterbox marine X 90.3

[cooksterni]

So the story goes, about 15 years ago I bought a 4ft aio from a family friend and that got me into reefing. I was never really happy with the setup with all the filtration at the back making it super awkward to do anything in there. Always had my heart set on a tank with a sump. Finally this year I have decided to bite the bullet and make the jump.

I am downsizing from 120g to 90g but I think it's a good move not only because it's a new tank but also I now have a sump to play with lol

I am currently still waiting on my aquarium being delivered, UK recently left the EU and subsequently getting anything delivered to Northern Ireland is an absolute pain. However in the mean time I have been seriously looking after my current aquarium with the view to use some/most of the live rock and media from it to prevent a big cycle. I have also purchased ATM colony to boost things and hopefully it goes smoothly.

Equipment is:
Waterbox marine X 90.3
Sicce SDC 6.0
Red sea reef wave 45
Tunze 9012 (temporary until I get funds for another skimmer, suggestions below )
Carribsea life rock (in display)
Previous live rock (in sump until all is seeded in main display)
Red sea pink reef base
Eheim 300w heater

I think this is everything so far.

I welcome any suggestions on anything i may have missed or any help. This is the first time I have switched aquarium so trusting what I have read and also a lot of instinct

 

[WIReefer]

I have heard great things about waterbox excited to see this come together. Congrats on the new tank!

 

[bubba92]

Good stuff! Look forward to seeing your updates as I'm considering getting this tank also

 

[cooksterni]

any stocking ideas? Fish or corals?

I'm thinking:
A couple wrasse,
Coral beauty/flame angel,
Shrimp & goby pair,
flame or long nose hawk.

My current 4ft I have 2 x clowns and a sailfin tang. They have been in there for around 13 years. I know the sailfin will need all the space so I will not be rushing into getting any fish.

Also this is the first real time I will be venturing into LPS. Previously only really done soft coral. So been testing water religiously to get me into the swing of things to keep it all stable.

 

[cooksterni]

Bit of an update.

Aquarium has arrived safe and sound after a 2 week wait on customs clearing it...

 

[cooksterni]

There was slight build quality issue with one of the screws not being drilled but it was ok and I got it sorted..

 

[cooksterni]

I then filled everything up and got the system wet. Leak testing as I went, checking all the bulk heads etc.. when water got near that level. All was good...

I also moved Fiji live rock from my established aquarium into this one, filled up the rest of the system. Added return pump and dialed in the gate valve. All seems good.

I added ATM colony and my 2 clowns and tang. Along with some coral.

 

[codee]

Looks great! Any pics of the sump?

 

[cooksterni]

Looks great! Any pics of the sump?

Will get a few snaps. I have socks, heater and live rock in it at the minute. Also sharing space in the cabinet is a huge bunch of cables lol need to rearrange and do some cable management

 

[codee]

Will get a few snaps. I have socks, heater and live rock in it at the minute. Also sharing space in the cabinet is a huge bunch of cables lol need to rearrange and do some cable management

The pics are motivation to clean it up!

 

[shandoee]

Any updates and a fts? I’ll be following along. Cheers!

 

[cooksterni]

 

[cooksterni]

 

[cooksterni]

 

[cooksterni]

 

[cooksterni]

 

[cooksterni]

 

[cooksterni]

 

[cooksterni]

some photos of the crew. I will get a FTS later or tomorrow.

 

[cooksterni]

I am currently using Tropic Marin bacto balance along Tropic Marin Bacto pellets. Not conventional but the pellets are in a phosban reactor I had that I wanted to reuse, I did remove the sponge and also added some NPX screens to allow me to use the phosban reactor. The Bacto pellets are meant to be used in a fluidised bed reactor but so far so good. Pellets are tumbling nicely.

I feed the corals mostly Red Sea energ ab+ and occasionally some reef roids.

Fish get either a small cube of frozen marine mix or vitalis platinum marine pellet (XS) and New life spectrum Thera+A Medium fish pellet.

Everyone seems happy and healthy