Caravan's Waterbox 135.4 in Austin

[Caravanshaka]

How are you getting these awesome photos? With your phone? I am getting ready to attempt professional looking with my DLSR, but love the color pop you are getting.

I'm using an aquariclip orange gel filter lens over an iphoneX for the pics.

 

[LadyMac]

Love the colors on all the coral! Following along on your build

 

[Elizaveta]

Help for a newbie. I just had a Waterbox Plat. 135 installed last week. I'll be moving rock etc. from a 65gl and moving over some larger corals from an overgrown nano. My question...I've never had a sump before. It's a little intimidating and VERY LOUD!! This tank is in my workspace and it's driving me bonkers. It sounds like a shower running CONSTANTLY...I'd read that they're mostly quiet so I dont' think this is going well. I'm running a Sicce Syncra 5 for return pump..can definitely hear vibration from that, but majority of the noise is the drain/overflow. Please, if anyone can tell me how to adjust this. Also, any recommendations for a top/lid would be appreciated. THANK YOU!!!

 

[Caravanshaka]

Help for a newbie. I just had a Waterbox Plat. 135 installed last week. I'll be moving rock etc. from a 65gl and moving over some larger corals from an overgrown nano. My question...I've never had a sump before. It's a little intimidating and VERY LOUD!! This tank is in my workspace and it's driving me bonkers. It sounds like a shower running CONSTANTLY...I'd read that they're mostly quiet so I dont' think this is going well. I'm running a Sicce Syncra 5 for return pump..can definitely hear vibration from that, but majority of the noise is the drain/overflow. Please, if anyone can tell me how to adjust this. Also, any recommendations for a top/lid would be appreciated. THANK YOU!!!

I’ll repeat what I posted in the waterbox thread for others that may see this and not that other thread:

To be honest, the noise at the start drove me nuts too. The issue is the water cascading into the socks. The goal is to somehow get the water to trickle down something into the socks, whether that be by slowing the flow or adding something that wicks the water down that would normally have flowed into the middle of the sock.

There are several things you can do. I will outline 2 options that I would try:

1 - Filter Floss - This is what I do. Cut some filter floss to a bit bigger than the sock opening, and shove it into the sock so that the water going into the sock hits the floss and trickles down it. Makes it MUCH quieter, but adds more maintenance as the floss gets clogged in a couple days. I tend to change my floss every 2 days and socks every 4 days.

2 - Recently I found that GEO sumps manufactures a “sock silencer” out of acrylic. This appears to channel the water into smaller drips into the socks rather than a waterfall. I don’t have experience with them yet, but they intrigued me when I saw them.
http://www.geosreef.com/product/felt-filter-sock-with-geo-silencer/

I hope that helps!

 

[Caravanshaka]

Also, on the drains...you want to close the ball valve on the main drain until it matches the flow rate of the return pump. What I usually do is slowly close it until the overflow box starts to fill up to the emergency drain, then attempt to open it back up with the tiniest movements of the valve you can manage. The goal is for the water level to stay constant near the top of the emergency drain pipe, but only trickling into it at most. The less water you get into the emergency drain the quieter will be. The perfect spot is when the water level sits 1/4” under the top of that pipe and no water goes into it.

For a Lid. I have and Octoreef acrylic/mesh lid that is custom made for my tank. I did take it off a couple months ago though, and haven’t had any fish jump, so I may sell my lid at this point since I like the open top look.

 

[Caravanshaka]

So I've been having a ton of issues with one of my Halides. Jason and Luke at Premium Aquatics have been awesome in helping troubleshoot the problem and sending out some replacement parts, but thought I would post here to see if anyone has any thoughts on it.

I have 2 of these setups:
Lumenbright Mini Pendant
Radium 250w bulb
Hamilton M80 Ballast

The left side of the tank has fired first time every time and given me zero issues since day 1. The right side, however, gave me trouble the first week. Some days it wouldn't fire, some days it had no trouble. I had to remove the socket from the pendant and adjust the bulb sometimes to get it to fire, then reattach it to the pendant for the day. I had gotten some weird colored socket brackets from Lumenbright anyway, so I got a whole new socket and bracket to see if that would fix it. I think it seemed fine for a couple days then went back to giving me trouble. In the meantime, I swapped the ballasts to see if it was a ballast issue and the problem stayed on the right side. I then got a replacement Radium Bulb sent out from Premium Aquatics. Fire first try, and has been working great for 3 weeks or so.

I was on vacation this past weekend, and looked through my logs and noticed that on Feb 11th, only one of my halides was running for the first 1.5 hours of my photo period. 330w versus the normal 660w (thanks apex!). In addition to that, today the bulb didn't fire and I had to do the same thing I did before by removing the socket from the pendant, which allowed it to fire immediately.

At this point, I have a new socket, new bulb, and have swapped ballasts to ensure there are no issues there. The ONLY remaining item from the original issues is the Pendant. Could it be a grounding issue on the pendant? I think my next step might be to remove the socket and bulb from each pendant and completely switch them. If the problem stays on the right then I think it is 100% the Pendant.

All this being said, I love the look of the Halides, but am getting pretty frustrated here. Should I go back to my old favorite of mounting some nanobox reef pucks in an ATI fixture for my LED/t6 Hybrid? It is winter and I'm getting a 2 degree jump in temps with the Halides on for 5 hrs right now, so I'm a bit concerned that it will get worse in the Texas heat.

 

[Nht]

Just found this thread. Perfect timing as I just ordered the same exact tank at a special 24 hour sale at 15% off! I’m pretty excited and wanted to get some info on the setup to get me ready.
1) can you provide the link to the parts that are needed to build the manifold? I’m definitely going to be going this route
2) where did you get the lamp tree for lights? Is it height adjustable?

 

[jfishfl]

Do you remember by chance what plumbing pieces you ordered? I'd like to do the same setup but a little unsure what piece is required in place of the barb on the return.

 

[Perry]

Outstanding build, thanks for posting

 

[Caravanshaka]

Just found this thread. Perfect timing as I just ordered the same exact tank at a special 24 hour sale at 15% off! I’m pretty excited and wanted to get some info on the setup to get me ready.
1) can you provide the link to the parts that are needed to build the manifold? I’m definitely going to be going this route
2) where did you get the lamp tree for lights? Is it height adjustable?

Completely forgot to reply here, sorry about that!

the parts required can't all be purchased at BRS sadly, but here is what I had:

25mm to 3/4" metric to standard adapter
25mm coupler
3/4" T
3/4" barb fitting
3/4" to 1/2" bushing
1/2" T
1/2" 90 degree
2x 1/2" gate valves

that will get you the manifold to the gate valve. don't forget some 3/4" and 1/2" pvc for between the connections.

The lamp tree is made out of 80/20 aluminum. it is height adjustable and uses the pre-drilled holes in the back of the stand.

 

[jfishfl]

Thank you!!!

 

[Reeferdude56]

@Caravanshaka, Hey I am considering getting an waterbox as well. I was wondering how you plumbed the ATO so that It would be connected to the rest of the system and become a refugium. Build looks great so far!

 

[pwilliaml]

How is your fuge doing, I'd love to see some more pics of it. I like how you re-purposed the ATO for a fuge. I'm considering doing the same with mine in my ICECAP sump.

 

[Caravanshaka]

turning the ATO into a fuge was actually pretty easy. I plugged the small hole that is intended for the ATO line to pass through, and then pushed water into it using one of the outlets on my manifold. I elected to run the plumbing down to the bottom of the fuge to create a gyre to tumble chaeto, but the only requirement is that you push water into that section from the return pump (or a separate pump). As long as the flow isn't too heavy, it just cascades down the sides of that section back into the skimmer and return sections without causing any bubbles.

Unfortunately my chaeto has basically halted. I have a bit of a nutrient deficiency in the tank so I've got a bit bigger than a golf ball size ball of chaeto tumbling and not doing much. Increased my feeding to see if I can get some nutrients back up.

 

[Nht]

Completely forgot to reply here, sorry about that!

the parts required can't all be purchased at BRS sadly, but here is what I had:

25mm to 3/4" metric to standard adapter
25mm coupler
3/4" T
3/4" barb fitting
3/4" to 1/2" bushing
1/2" T
1/2" 90 degree
2x 1/2" gate valves

that will get you the manifold to the gate valve. don't forget some 3/4" and 1/2" pvc for between the connections.

The lamp tree is made out of 80/20 aluminum. it is height adjustable and uses the pre-drilled holes in the back of the stand.

Thanks for the reply. Sorry for the multitude of questions but I’m an idiot when it comes to plumbing. I’m also planning to get a Vectra but not sure which one yet. Do you think the M1 would be overkill for that tank or could I getaway with the S1? Not sure how many gph is recommended for this tank. What did you use for plumbing from the Vectra to the manifold? Where did you order the parts from if not from BRS?

Also was the lamp tree DIY or did you buy from somewhere? Thanks

 

[Caravanshaka]

Thanks for the reply. Sorry for the multitude of questions but I’m an idiot when it comes to plumbing. I’m also planning to get a Vectra but not sure which one yet. Do you think the M1 would be overkill for that tank or could I getaway with the S1? Not sure how many gph is recommended for this tank. What did you use for plumbing from the Vectra to the manifold? Where did you order the parts from if not from BRS?

Also was the lamp tree DIY or did you buy from somewhere? Thanks

No problem! On the Vectra, I am running the fuge, a carbon reactor, a calcium reactor, and feeding the tank using an m1 at 30%. Is it overkill? Maybe....but it’s not having to run very hard to do it’s thing which is probably better on it in the long run. As far as plumbing it goes, I happened to have a Jebao collar with a 3/4” spigot on the end that had the same threads as the m1....so I didn’t get anything special for the return plumbing other than popping off the blue part and threading on my Jebao part. I’ve heard a lot of people have issues with the m1 plumbing though.

Lamp tree is DIY using 10 series 80/20 aluminum. It’s mounted to the stand using holes that are pre-drilled though.

 

[Nht]

Last question I promise. Lol. Where did you get the plumbing parts if not from BRS and where did you get the aluminum parts for the lamp tree?

 

[Caravanshaka]

I got everything but the 25mm coupler from BRS and Premium Aquatics. the 25mm coupler I had to order from overseas since it is very hard to find. If you come by this way soon I can give you a couple of them.

the best place I have found to get the 80/20 stuff is from www.tnutz.com

 

[Caravanshaka]

Had a little too much fun during the Fraghouse Corals live sale...added the following sticks:

FHC Master Blaster
RP Blue Tip Green Slimer
FHC Stag
FHC Purple Nurple
TCK Pikachu OG
FHC G-Spot Mille
FHC Golden Halo
FHC Purple Bonsai
RP Aussie Berry Punch
FHC Blue Grass
FHC Blue Goddess
FHC Hot Zone Mille
FHC Chitty Chitty Bang Bang
FHC Heat Sink Mille

Also visited a local a month or so ago and got a dozen frags, some named, some not:

Vivid Red Dragon
ORA Chips
GE Key Lime Breeze
Azure StTag
Red Planet
Joe the Coral
A. Sarmentosa
JG Yellow
Hawkins Echinata
a few more I can't recall

 

[Caravanshaka]

Here are a couple shots of the sticks from @FraghouseCorals :

Top: FHC Purple Nurple, FHC Purple Bonsai, FHC Blue Goddess
Row 2: RP Blue Tip Green Slimer, FHC G-Spot Mille, FHC Blue Grass, FHC Heat Sink Mille
Row 3: FHC Stag, FHC Golden Halo, FHC Hot Zone Mille
Bottom: FHC Master Blaster, TCK Pikachu OG, RP Aussie Berry Punch, FHC Chitty Chitty Bang Bang