Waterbox Reef 130.4 Build

Arcu2

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Hey everyone! I sold my marine x 60.2 to a fellow reefer on here back in February and ordered a new Waterbox reef 130.4. It’s taken me 6 months to actually get going on setting everything up. I made sure to take pictures along the way for when I started a build thread.

Tank came in 2/17/2022 in beautiful condition no issues with delivery what so ever. Ignore Bluey my son thought it was a nice idea to throw him in there :rolling-on-the-floor-laughing: I got the stand built and had some help from my cousin to get it onto the stand.

481347F6-7295-4F44-B5A0-ED9D490EBDE6.jpeg



Got the cabinet lighting installed as well. I went with a company called torchstar on Amazon and they came out looking sweeeeeeet.

8BE829BF-3EC6-40D5-8A58-FC59ABBFC6F2.jpeg


EQUIPMENT LIST

RETURN PUMP: ECOTECH VECTRA S2
FLOW: ECOTECH MP40 x2
SKIMMER: BUBBLE MAGUS CURVE 5 ELITE
FILTRATION: REEF MAT 500 (ON THE WAY)
HEATING: INKBIRD WITH 2 TITANIUM BRS HEATERS.
CONTROLLER: APEX EL
ATO: TUNZE 3155
LIGHTING: RADION XR15 PRO G5 x2

Aquascape, sand and water in! I wasn’t feeling creative with the rock scape this time around and I tried so many different styles until I just gave up and hit up top shelf aquatics for some custom structures. I love how they look.

4398FBA6-CD99-4308-B08E-D384139BE9A8.jpeg



Took me a bit to figure out what I wanted to do with cable management. I had a cabinet next to my other tank and it took up too much space. On this build I wanted everything hidden in the stand. I really liked the adaptive reef cabinet and was worried it wouldn’t fit because I didn’t know if I was going to get the updated stand design for the 130.4 I waited until it actually got here to start planning. Turns out the cabinet would fit PERFECT inside the stand and it would work out exactly how I wanted it to. I got covid last week and I had nothing but time to work on it lol. This is how it came out.

ABCD2752-533F-4550-BEE0-514073D293AF.jpeg

41807C5B-E6D5-48D5-A733-99BE531B9DA3.jpeg


Still waiting on the reef mat 500 to come in so I’ll update this post once I start modifying the sump for it. Until then this is the progress so far! Excited for this build!
 

Zach B

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Awesome setup! My kids are watching Bluey now lol :) Looks great & following along!
 
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Arcu2

Arcu2

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Got a nice surprise today at work. My preordered Reefmat 500 showed up! Can’t wait to get this thing setup. Waiting on the sump modification kit to make things easier. I have regular razor blades at work but don’t know if those will do. So I’ll wait and play it safe.

image.jpg
 

C4Rez

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Great job with the controller board. Very clean. I am jealous of your Neptune/tech setup.

Enjoying Waterbox as well; great product. As for RedSea, don’t think I’ll ever stray from their roller mats ever. ReefMat is awesome so far! Definitely utilized the the mod kit when installing it on the WB sump.

Goodluck!
 

C4Rez

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Thank you @C4Rez took me awhile to figure out the wire management part of the build. Are you going through the first roll pretty quick? I ordered like 5 to keep in stock lol
Never hurts to have extra rolls on hand! (I ordered 4 total myself lol). First night it was on, it went through 3 ft clearing out the excess dust in had in the system. I disturbed the sandbed with the new aqua scape. Amazing how it cleared it up over night. I currently have no bio load (no fish yet while cycling). The app shows that in the first week I used 9ft (mostly utilized when I would work on the scape/sand). That’s pretty impressive for a 91ft roll lol. Daily use will all depend on the bioload down the road. Best of luck to ya!
 
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Arcu2

Arcu2

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Got the reef mat in! I don’t know how I would’ve gotten those baffles out without the Red Sea kit. I was barely able to fit the thin flexible blades on the bottom portion of the large side baffle. I would say 6/10 difficulty since I had to work with the sump being filled. Had to dial in the overflow again but overall pretty straight forward process.

96792A07-4A52-4277-81F4-2E22991FA0B0.jpeg


Up close shot of the plumbing

651C3FCB-B1E1-46F0-A9F7-3616A75705DD.jpeg


Some bits of silicone are still floating around the sump. I’ll get take care of it tomorrow when I have time.
 
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Arcu2

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Did you experience any bubbles/gurgle sound after installing it? I’m getting a gurgle noise after dialing in the gate valve. Kinda annoying. Like there’s air coming in.
 

C4Rez

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That video helps a lot! That reservoir is usually half way full pass that intake tube, submerging it - which would then rid of that sound. Same principle as having the emergency and main drain pipe submerged.

You can also increase the water level in the sump resulting in increasing the water level in the reservoir; however, the water level in the ReefMat will eventually raise once junk builds up.
495D7CA9-6645-462F-BED0-18984BCEACFD.jpeg
See where I marked the red line? That reservoir level hasn’t dropped down to the sump water level (blue) yet. Usually stays between blue and yellow (trigger censor) after the first 24 hrs or so.
 

C4Rez

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Glad to hear! Now we just gotta get through the cycle lol. Been reading new studies showing Nitrite as no longer a determining factor. As long as Ammonia drops to 0 from 2ppm after 24hrs, and Nitrate is present. I’m used to the original cycle which had us wait til Nitrite dropped to 0 with my previous builds. What do you think?
 
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Arcu2

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Glad to hear! Now we just gotta get through the cycle lol. Been reading new studies showing Nitrite as no longer a determining factor. As long as Ammonia drops to 0 from 2ppm after 24hrs, and Nitrate is present. I’m used to the original cycle which had us wait til Nitrite dropped to 0 with my previous builds. What do you think?
Was it the piece on reefkeeping.com by randy? If so that was an interesting read. I think I’m still going to wait it out and let the process do it’s thing. I really want to avoid an ugly stage this time around lol. My last tank was a disaster with Dino’s. Don’t want to go through that again!
 
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Arcu2

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Picked up a pair of clowns today from the LFS. I’ve been eyeing these guys for a month now during every trip there the last month lol. Here’s some pics!

BD5504E7-E7DD-45C8-B56B-C54DEA13B332.jpeg 61108E40-3171-4FF5-81EA-4834F85D595F.jpeg
 
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Arcu2

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So just wanted to give a little update on the reef mat 500. Man this thing is sweet!!! Not having to change socks out every few days or filter floss is awesome. It’s been 8 days and only used 7.97 feet so far.

A7E939CC-83A2-49F9-9D59-0BCAB261FB15.png

3EF7DA0E-C206-4F32-AB81-9C9EA3556FBB.png
 
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Arcu2

Arcu2

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Picked up a few scolys this past week. A local reefer was getting rid of this reverse bleeding apple scoly and I couldn’t resist lol The other I got from a LFS. So far just have those 2 scolys and about 5 Zoa frags.

29829420-7DE6-4610-A64D-85D8578E0E60.jpeg

F1A43EB4-1421-4261-BAF2-4CF7D10E86F0.jpeg

3A20379D-10C1-4F54-B2DB-188246269755.jpeg

824927B6-877D-49D9-84DF-B7930965BF04.png
 

mamacena

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Hey everyone! I sold my marine x 60.2 to a fellow reefer on here back in February and ordered a new Waterbox reef 130.4. It’s taken me 6 months to actually get going on setting everything up. I made sure to take pictures along the way for when I started a build thread.

Tank came in 2/17/2022 in beautiful condition no issues with delivery what so ever. Ignore Bluey my son thought it was a nice idea to throw him in there :rolling-on-the-floor-laughing: I got the stand built and had some help from my cousin to get it onto the stand.

481347F6-7295-4F44-B5A0-ED9D490EBDE6.jpeg



Got the cabinet lighting installed as well. I went with a company called torchstar on Amazon and they came out looking sweeeeeeet.

8BE829BF-3EC6-40D5-8A58-FC59ABBFC6F2.jpeg


EQUIPMENT LIST

RETURN PUMP: ECOTECH VECTRA S2
FLOW: ECOTECH MP40 x2
SKIMMER: BUBBLE MAGUS CURVE 5 ELITE
FILTRATION: REEF MAT 500 (ON THE WAY)
HEATING: INKBIRD WITH 2 TITANIUM BRS HEATERS.
CONTROLLER: APEX EL
ATO: TUNZE 3155
LIGHTING: RADION XR15 PRO G5 x2

Aquascape, sand and water in! I wasn’t feeling creative with the rock scape this time around and I tried so many different styles until I just gave up and hit up top shelf aquatics for some custom structures. I love how they look.

4398FBA6-CD99-4308-B08E-D384139BE9A8.jpeg



Took me a bit to figure out what I wanted to do with cable management. I had a cabinet next to my other tank and it took up too much space. On this build I wanted everything hidden in the stand. I really liked the adaptive reef cabinet and was worried it wouldn’t fit because I didn’t know if I was going to get the updated stand design for the 130.4 I waited until it actually got here to start planning. Turns out the cabinet would fit PERFECT inside the stand and it would work out exactly how I wanted it to. I got covid last week and I had nothing but time to work on it lol. This is how it came out.

ABCD2752-533F-4550-BEE0-514073D293AF.jpeg

41807C5B-E6D5-48D5-A733-99BE531B9DA3.jpeg


Still waiting on the reef mat 500 to come in so I’ll update this post once I start modifying the sump for it. Until then this is the progress so far! Excited for this build!
Hi just stumbled across this thread looking to see how ppl have added in a reef mat in their 130.4. I noticed you didnt have the dry side divider in your sump installed....that piece isn't structural yeah? hows the tank holding up? wouldnt mind removing mine as it would open the whole sump up and give me heaps more room to move
 
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Arcu2

Arcu2

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Hi just stumbled across this thread looking to see how ppl have added in a reef mat in their 130.4. I noticed you didnt have the dry side divider in your sump installed....that piece isn't structural yeah? hows the tank holding up? wouldnt mind removing mine as it would open the whole sump up and give me heaps more room to move
So the new Waterbox 130.4 cabinets don’t have the divider. They redesigned it so it’s open space. On yours I wouldn’t remove it because it’s structural.
 

mamacena

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So the new Waterbox 130.4 cabinets don’t have the divider. They redesigned it so it’s open space. On yours I wouldn’t remove it because it’s structural.
Ahh k ....thx for the reply....looks like im gonna need a new tank now hahaha
 
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