I have not owned a Red Sea tank, but I do have a Waterbox 135.4 right now.
Initial opinions were very positive when I set it up. I got a little frustrated finding metric plumbing to add a manifold on the return line, as well as tightening the weird bulkheads they have, but other than that I really liked how everything turned out. Fast forward 7 months, and I am already building a new setup. The upgrade isn't entirely due to the Waterbox, but some issues definitely came up when considering the upgrade. Ultimately, I needed more space, just a bit more in the display, and a LOT more underneath. New setup will be a 54x30x24 with a 48x30 sump.
Waterbox Pros
- Good price for an all in one...I got mine for $1,650 shipped to my door, which is just barely more than my new tank by itself cost
- Great exterior design, cabinet looks sharp and modern, clear glass, small logos that don't detract from the tank but add a little class
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Cons
- Silicon isn't perfect....a few minor issues that I could see that may bother a perfectionist
- Small sump, poor sock design (the drain section will just get a film of junk on the top that never goes into the sock area due to the baffle between them)
- Metric plumbing...oh what a pain this is to modify...and a ball valve on the drain is so difficult to adjust
- weird acrylic overflow box that covers the top few inches...it is an interesting design, but allows the water level on a power outage to drop way too far in the tank...I let it drain completely once, and had 1/2" to spare left in the sump when it finally stopped....that's cutting it really close
- worthless ATO section....it is less than 5g for a tank with over 100g water volume....running metal halides I would run through 5g in 2-3 days. I re-purposed that into a refugium and have an external 10g ato reservoir
- The Stand design....OMG the humidity. I can't stress this enough, but this stand needs airflow. There is one small gap in the panels going to the electronics section from the sump section, so it gets HOT in there. There is an opening in the back that is mostly covered by the sump and plumbing, so there is hardly any air exchange happening there. The sump section gets so humid that I have water dripping off of every surface. Yes, that means my fuge light has condensation on it, my hinges are rusting, and my water temps just rise and rise. The only solution for me has been to add a 10" diameter fan into the sump area, and I have to leave the doors open for it to properly ventilate. With the doors closed, my tank temps will rise from 77 to 81 during the day with halides....with them open, it goes from 77 to 78.5.
Some of these issues have been addressed with their new series...and I don't know how many of these issues are shared with Red Sea, so they may stack up quite well with each other. What I do know is that I am much happier building something on my own where I control the design.
