7 Gallon WaterBox AIO

[Fish_N_A_Box]

So here is just another small Nano tank weighing in at just 7 gallons and roughly 12 inches square with a display area of 12 inches wide and 9.75 inches deep. By the time rock, sand equipment go in, I'll be lucky to be working with 5.5 gallons.

So here is the equipment list:

Tank: WaterBox 7g Cube
Stand: From Target -Chesterfield 1 Door Floor Cabinet Dark Espresso - Elegant Home Fashions (note this one does NOT have the drawer)
Return Pump: Cobalt MJ606 and a Spin Stream
Heater: Hydor 50w Neo
Heater Controller: Inkbird ITC-306T Heater Relay
Powerhead: KPS Wave Maker or a SW-2 Powerhead (I have both, we'll see which one is better suited)
Skimmer: None
ATO: Tunze 3152
Lighting: AI Prime HD
Magnet Cleaner: Flipper Nano
Testing Kit: Salifert Master Reef Testing Kit
Salt: Coral Pro Sea Salt
Sand: Caribsea Aragonite and Caribsea Super Naturals

For Water Changes:

7 Gallon water container for RO water
3.5 Gallon Bucket x2
Penn Plax Heater
Stock Pump out of tank will be used for the water mixing as well
4 Stage AquaFX RO/DI


Stocking plan will include:

5.5 Gallon Clean Up Crew (CUC) from Reef Cleaners
Yasha Goby
Pistol Shrimp
Couple of Sexy Shrimp
Various LPS and SPS
Probably at least one not well thought out impulse buy

Should be wet by this weekend.

Stay tuned for more post as things progress.

 

[SPR1968]

Looks very nice and keep the pictures coming!

 

[Fish_N_A_Box]

Looks very nice and keep the pictures coming!

thanks! I'll be keeping them coming as the tank progresses over the next few days.

 

[Katrina71]

What kind of stand is that? It looks great with that tank.

 

[Fish_N_A_Box]

What kind of stand is that? It looks great with that tank.

Chesterfield 1 Door Floor Cabinet Dark Espresso - Elegant Home Fashions (note this one does NOT have the drawer)

Ordered it from Target... 74.99

Think it is on Amazon as well. I just chose Target for ease of return in case it came in damaged, the measurements were off or I simply didn't like it. Worked out perfectly though and matched the other furniture in the room.

 

[Katrina71]

Chesterfield 1 Door Floor Cabinet Dark Espresso - Elegant Home Fashions (note this one does NOT have the drawer)

Ordered it from Target... 74.99

Think it is on Amazon as well. I just chose Target in case it came in damaged, the measurements were off or I simply didn't like it. Worked out perfectly though and matched the other furniture in the room.

My son is doing a 3g pico. His is almost exactly like your tank, only smaller. He was looking for a stand. Thank you!!! It actually even matches his bedroom furniture. I don't think you could built it for much less.

 

[Fish_N_A_Box]

My son is doing a 3g pico. His is almost exactly like your tank, only smaller. He was looking for a stand. Thank you!!! It actually even matches his bedroom furniture. I don't think you could built it for much less.

It took me a few days of looking about to find it. Almost went with a Ikea wall cabinet, but it is clinical white.

 

[NY_Caveman]

That stand is excellent. Love it.

 

[Fish_N_A_Box]

Well today was a eventful day. Decided to go to the LFS, which isn't exactly local being a hours drive, and look at their live rock. Their live rock was more or less marcorock and other brands of man made rock with fake coloring. When you looked at it, it appeared that it was taken out of the box and tossed in the tank and it went from dead rock to live rock the moment it hit the water. There was zip life growing upon the rock. A far cry from what I call live rock.

However I continued to dig through the vat of rock and after moving chunks of purple rock around I found a few small pieces of real rock and dead coral tops. I ended up with 12lbs of rock, with one piece being a shelf/plate piece to large for this 7 gallon, but ideal for the Nuvo 40 that I'll be working on next.

So I had them wrap it up in paper and put it into a styrofoam box. I also bought a 2 gallon jug and a 4.4 gallon jug of Nutri seawater. Now if you haven't seen this stuff it is pure seawater straight from the ocean. It along with the live rock that has already been cycled means ZERO cycling time. So I get home with the rock and water and grab the sand that I planned to use. I head outside with the sand in hand to a 5 gallon bucket. I used roughly a 70% of the aragonite and 30% of the other sugar grain sand. I washed it out till the water basically ran clear. I used at best a total of 4 pounds of the mix.

Added the sand to the tank and then got the LR out and started working with it. I ended up with a cave with a rather flat area on top and a outcrop. All ideal for coral frags. Poured in the water (just over 5 gallons) and had very little cloudiness thanks to the pre-rinse.

Now the day wasn't over. I was to go collect a Nuvo 25g Lagoon with IM skimmer and stand for $200.00. The wife wants a frog fish and this will be ideal for it. When I went to collect it, it had a bottom full of sand and roughly 10 gallons of water still in it. However it had a large chunk of LR in it covered in Green, watermelon and blue/purple mushrooms. A leather tree coral and some unknown birdsnest SPS. Oh and a snail and blue leg crab. Well this wasn't planned on however a nice surprise, but then came into play where the heck am I going to put this. I couldn't just leave it all out and let it die and to buy a rock like this locally with 20 plus heads on it would cost a easy $100.00. I had a 5 gallon bucket for the sand/water and a 5 gallon container for water. So I gathered all that I could loaded it into the car.

Well Petco still has there $1 per gallon going on so I stopped by there and picked up a 10 gallon tank. Got home, dumped everything into the tank and tossed in a heater and powerhead. Fingers crossed that it all survives. However I did add the leather and a few free floating mushrooms to the 7 gallon in a small specimen cup plastic lid and reduced flow in the tank to low. I think one blew off behind the LR, but the others are staying put for now.

So now that you've read about the days events here are some pictures of the tank prior to water going in:

 

[Fish_N_A_Box]

Well upon coming home this evening, like any new tank owner I went straight to it... check the temp, check to see the light came on, check out the inhabitants ... and on that note I found a unwanted guest... Well found two of them side by side. The dreaded Aptasia. Both on the same rock. This isn't the first time I've had to deal with the things. Normally I use Joe's Juice if I can't remove the rock, but in this case I could.



So I removed the rock, grabbed the pipette from my refractometer and turned on the hot water kettle. Boiled some water, sucked it up into the pipette and targeted the aptasia and watched them melt away. This way I didn't damage the rest of the life on the live rock. Figures the only thing with decent life on it also has the aptasia.



I placed it back in the tank, just on the sandbed for now. I'm still not overly happy with the rock layout so I'm still toying with it some before I decide to glue everything into final place. Trying to find that happy medium of places to perch the SPS and enough ground floor room for LPS.



I decided to remove the right side dead coral top from the tank and open up some sand real estate back up. It still leaves me with a decent over hang and cave though.



You'll also see my lid of mushrooms, the finger leather and SPS as well in the pictures below. Nothing mounted, just laying out.



Still on the hunt for a ATO water container that will fit into the cabinet. I have a 5 gallon water container, but the dang thing is about 1 inch to wide. So the hunt continues. I'm thinking I may be able to find a large acrylic food container of some sort that may work out.



Got the Spin Stream in today as well. Went to add it to the tank... Ummmmm nope, even with the adapters it will not work as the connectors won't match up. However I did crank up the 606 and that thing is putting out pretty good flow for such a little pump. Between it and the SW2 I can't see a reason to keep the KPS. I know the KPS gives me wireless options, but how often am I likely to mess with it once I have it dialed in to what I want.

 

[NY_Caveman]

Wow! What a great story. So wait, everything is in the 10 and the 7 is empty now? BTW, boiling water to eradicate Aiptasia is definitely the best way on a young tank.

EDIT: never mind, I get it now. New stuff in the 10 gallon.

 

[dbjonesjr]

Nice looking tank. I picked one up for myself about a month ago. The return pump is noisy and leaves plenty to desire. Do you like the MJ?

 

[Fish_N_A_Box]

Wow! What a great story. So wait, everything is in the 10 and the 7 is empty now? BTW, boiling water to eradicate Aiptasia is definitely the best way on a young tank.

EDIT: never mind, I get it now. New stuff in the 10 gallon.

Nope the 7 gallon just had a few pieces removed last night and what was removed was moved over to the 10 gallon holding tank for use in a upcoming Nuvo 40 and Nuvo 25 builds that will be happening in the weeks ahead. I'm slowly gathering parts for them right now for them.

EDIT: Oops.. missed your edit of understanding what was going on.

 

[Fish_N_A_Box]

Nice looking tank. I picked one up for myself about a month ago. The return pump is noisy and leaves plenty to desire. Do you like the MJ?

I never even took the OEM return pump out of the box. So I can't compare the OEM to the MJ. Saying that the MJ is a silent little power house in the tank. I had to turn it down this afternoon because after I made some changes to the rock last night between the SW2 and the 606 one of the corners was blown bare.

I was hoping to get away with using the Spin Stream with the 606 only and remove the SW2 from the tank, but no such joy. If the back chamber divider had been Plexi I would have simply drilled out the hole bigger. However it is smoked glass so that's a no go. I may continue to look for tubing or hard piping that will fit inside of the elbow which I can extend out into the tank and attach the Spin Stream to.

 

[Fish_N_A_Box]

Well they say 3rd times a charm right? Well I reworked the rock yet again. Like I said I wasn't 100% satisfied with it. I wanted more coral real estate on the sand bottom and still have a rather flat surface area to mount SPS up higher. I can't go to high with the rock as it will put the SPS to close to the top with no grow out room. So I completely removed all the rock from the tank and started from the sand up so to speak.

What I ended up was with a large cave area. Plenty of room on either side for growth outward and still allowing for cleaning room. All of it locks together naturally, except one small piece which is located in the front top. It is a small plate section (the one with the yellow/orange sponge in the center) that while it holds in position now, later when I add corals to it, it's going to fall without a doubt. So I'll end up glueing that into place once I pick up some super glue gel.

You'll notice that I've moved the mushrooms to the rear corner and there was a hole in the rock which the foot of the leather tree fit into perfectly. I'm undecided if I want to leave it there. It was free, one of the first corals in the tank, but it may be that one not so well thought out choice. The SPS is just left laying on top for now. I haven't a clue what it is... what I do know is that it's brown and half dead.

The small rock in the left front is ... well just there for time being. It's a bit of a coral top that broke off one of the three pieces I bought. The bozo that packed the live rock put those under the larger pieces when packing. Not the brightest bulb on the tree.

The idea behind the current scape is SPS up top and acans/zoas/mushrooms across the front and sides. Let everything fill in with time. As things grow in it should conceal the cave even more. I had originally thought about going with euphyllia coral across the bottom (I may still where the coral top is in the front corner), but given the small size of the tank, those corals could send out their feeders and easily sting the SPS above them once things grow in.

I moved the SW2 from the right to the left and that opened that side up more for SPS to grow into. It also creates a cross flow in the tank since the return from the 606 is on the right side.

I'm going to replace the Hydor heater with a Jager 50w and a backup Aqueon 50w as well. Reviews on the Hydor are hit and miss and given the size of the tank a heater failure would be a disaster. I've had that happen before in a small tank and with such little water it will cool down VERY quickly. Call it overkill .. I call it playing it safe.

I also ordered a Coralife Marine Clip On light to go on the 10 gallon. I wasn't looking for expensive for a simple holding tank. This will keep my mushrooms out of the dark and anything that I may add in the future. I've got a timer which I'll add to it to control the cycle.

Also ordered a small 6 plug surge protector outlet to go in the cabinet so I can start cleaning up the medusa hair of wires laid next to the cabinet. I wanted to find something small enough, but with enough plugs and with 6 outlets, I'll end up with one spare after all said and done. I meant to order some strong adhesive velcro strips to mount everything with, but forgot. Guess I'll be making another amazon order shortly. Thank goodness for Prime!

Still haven't located a container to go in the cabinet for the ATO. I mean I have looked at what others have been using, so that counts as putting some effort into it right? I'll probably hit the tupperware aisle at Walmart and see what turns up there. Something that holds a couple gallons will be fine for now and I may later build my own out of plexi so as to maximize the space.

Well not much else to write about tonight.

 

[Fish_N_A_Box]

So I decided to try something and that was turn off the SW2 pump and see what the corals would do. I had a feeling the waterflow was to much even at low on the SW2 in such a small tank (8 gallons, but only 5.5 gallons after displacement). The Mushrooms have started to expand now, the SPS is as well and the leather, well it can't decide just yet. Given the others are opening up though I figure it will as well. It's just sulking right now.

The 606 is rated at 159gph at max, deduct a bit for the elbow and you end up with around 27x-28x turn over rate. I've searched around for a powerhead the size of the SW2 (egg size) but with a lower flow but coming up null.

Guess I'll see how it goes over the next few days with just the return pump and if everything looks happy then the SW2 comes out. Still a shame the Spin Stream would not fit the OEM return outlet, That would have created better random flow and helped with dead spots.

 

[Fish_N_A_Box]

OCD and aquascaping... terrible combination.

Went by a semi LFS yesterday and found some small pieces of live rock that I could create a 3 tier scape.

So after using some Gorilla Glue Gel and Epoxy I created a scape that I am finally happy with.

It opened up a large amount of sand and at the same time gave me places to mount future corals.

With it opening up the sandbed it also opened up for more flow.

The SW2 is just to strong for the tank, so I've ordered a Hydor Pico Evo powerhead. I'm going to try it out and see how it works out in the tank. You can turn it wayyyyy down, so between the 606 and the Pico I can get enough cross flow in the tank. Hopefully I can use the slip stream on the Pico.

As you can see in the pics I also have a couple of new frags. The Blasto frags were free, they are on death's door and fully receded (ultra low survival chance, but free is free). Then there is a zoa frag, with multiple colors. Finally a plug of small polyp blue xenia. As you can see in the pics the freebie mushrooms that came with the purchase of the Nuvo 25 are liking the low flow and hanging out around the base of the new rock layout in several places. Also there is a small piece of pulsing xenia on one of the pieces of rock I bought. The SPS freebie isn't looking good at all and I doubt it will pull through.

I'm using a light schedule from Krish87, but I've dropped the intensity of it down by 50% while everything starts to acclimate.

Added a couple of astrea snails and couple of nassarius snails to turn the sand bed (and push over the coral frags)

I've decided to go with Chalice, acans, Lobo, Blasto, hammer and frogspawn ... other than the xenia and zoas which those will find their way into my future 40g Nuvo.

As of tonight on order from Aqua SD ebay auctions are:

Raging Hippo Chalice
Storm Rider Chalice
Dragon Stone Chalice

Ultra Aussie Lobo

Safari Rainbow Acan
Orange Bomb Acan
Zoidberg Acan
Heated Acan

Fluffy Blasto Chunk

Four hammer Frags (couple of them will make it into the 40 and 25 later on)

I'll schedule them to be delivered mid next week.

This weekend will be the first water change on the tank. Will do a 50% change.

Also cleaned up the medusa wire mess and mounted the inkbird inside the cabinet.

Finally installed a ATO reservoir, which turned out to be a 2 gallon cereal container from walmart. Fits just right with room to spare on the side.

that's pretty much all that has gone on as of late. Once the corals come in I'll get pics of them up on here.

I'll just be on the lookout for more acans and some frogspawn then.