Rudolph Reef: Waterbox 220.6 build

GrouperBait · Mar 28, 2020

Hello reefers. This is my Build thread for contests and for anyone interested. It has been a long process of a build that I started a few months ago. I am not the best at navigating R2R, so I have delayed sharing this build until now.

Starting at the beginning...
I had a crappy FOWLR tank in dental school from 2009-2013. It was a fun tank, but it was a noob tank. I don't really even consider this getting my feet wet.

Fast forward to Hurricane Irma in 2017... I lived in Gainesville, FL, and I was cooped up in my house with no power for a week. During this time, I watched Chasing Coral on netflix, followed by the whole 52 weeks of reefing. This was the hook, line, and sinker.
I attempted to drill my old fowlr tank, and of course it was tempered. Then I picked up a 55g petco tank and 29g petco for a diy sump, and used wood from hurricane irma to build a stand. I learned a ton of do's and don't's the first year. I had access to a LFS that were very nice people but didn't always give me the best advice, so there was a ton of trial and error and learning from the internet. I had diy blackbox lights that I rewired, and then added t5's. I put this under a diy canopy, and put it on the wall with a tv mount. I was very very DIY for this entire build.

In the fall of 2019, we moved to Chattanooga, TN. I really wanted a custom reef savvy tank, but after we moved in, I realized the dimensions that would fit my space was the same as the WB 220, so I decided to save some cash and buy the commercially available tank. I took almost 3months to receive it. during this time, the frags from my 55g tank were sitting in the garage. I gave the 55g tank away when we moved, and made a little temporary set up to keep corals alive.

In September, I gathered rock for the 220.6. I ordered off amazon. I took pictures and documented every single thing I did to that rock to cure it. At some point, I may make a post about why I think cheap rock is just as good as Marco rock, but I'll hold off on that for a rainy day.
Long story short, I cycled 200lbs of mined rock for 4 months in a brute 100g tub. I added a bottle of biospira as well as microbacter7. every few weeks, i would add a shrimp from the grocery store or some mysis pellets. I turned up the heat to 84F and the salt was at 1.018 with a lot of flow. I put a big piece of ply wood over it to minimalize evaporation.

I will update in a little bit. I have lots to share!
coming up: stand, fish room, plumbing, hood. as well as apex system, frag tank, water change setup, and future plans.
here is where it stands on march 27th, 8 weeks old:

Daniel@R2R · Apr 21, 2020

Great-looking reef! Following!

Dr. Phil · Apr 21, 2020

Beautiful tank! I love my Waterbox.

platinumreef · Jul 20, 2020

GrouperBait said:
Hello reefers. This is my Build thread for contests and for anyone interested. It has been a long process of a build that I started a few months ago. I am not the best at navigating R2R, so I have delayed sharing this build until now.

Starting at the beginning...
I had a crappy FOWLR tank in dental school from 2009-2013. It was a fun tank, but it was a noob tank. I don't really even consider this getting my feet wet.

Fast forward to Hurricane Irma in 2017... I lived in Gainesville, FL, and I was cooped up in my house with no power for a week. During this time, I watched Chasing Coral on netflix, followed by the whole 52 weeks of reefing. This was the hook, line, and sinker.
I attempted to drill my old fowlr tank, and of course it was tempered. Then I picked up a 55g petco tank and 29g petco for a diy sump, and used wood from hurricane irma to build a stand. I learned a ton of do's and don't's the first year. I had access to a LFS that were very nice people but didn't always give me the best advice, so there was a ton of trial and error and learning from the internet. I had diy blackbox lights that I rewired, and then added t5's. I put this under a diy canopy, and put it on the wall with a tv mount. I was very very DIY for this entire build.

In the fall of 2019, we moved to Chattanooga, TN. I really wanted a custom reef savvy tank, but after we moved in, I realized the dimensions that would fit my space was the same as the WB 220, so I decided to save some cash and buy the commercially available tank. I took almost 3months to receive it. during this time, the frags from my 55g tank were sitting in the garage. I gave the 55g tank away when we moved, and made a little temporary set up to keep corals alive.

In September, I gathered rock for the 220.6. I ordered off amazon. I took pictures and documented every single thing I did to that rock to cure it. At some point, I may make a post about why I think cheap rock is just as good as Marco rock, but I'll hold off on that for a rainy day.
Long story short, I cycled 200lbs of mined rock for 4 months in a brute 100g tub. I added a bottle of biospira as well as microbacter7. every few weeks, i would add a shrimp from the grocery store or some mysis pellets. I turned up the heat to 84F and the salt was at 1.018 with a lot of flow. I put a big piece of ply wood over it to minimalize evaporation.

I will update in a little bit. I have lots to share!
coming up: stand, fish room, plumbing, hood. as well as apex system, frag tank, water change setup, and future plans.
here is where it stands on march 27th, 8 weeks old:

Hey, love the canopy on this tank! I am looking into getting a WB 130 but I need to know if a canopy can sit on the tank so the blue light doesnt shine throughout the whole house. Can you please tell me if you made this one, and if so, how? Or if you bought it, and if so, where you got it from?

GrouperBait · Jul 20, 2020

platinumreef said:
Hey, love the canopy on this tank! I am looking into getting a WB 130 but I need to know if a canopy can sit on the tank so the blue light doesnt shine throughout the whole house. Can you please tell me if you made this one, and if so, how? Or if you bought it, and if so, where you got it from?

Sorry I have not updated any on the build. I’ll get around to it at some point.

The hood and stand are steel and they were built by my dad. The hood is 8 inch sheet with some support. I have the supports positioned where I want lights now and also anywhere I may want future lights or t5 supplements. The track for the lighting can be found at tractor supply. I painted it the same color as the wall. There are holes in the track so that I can raise and lower the hood as need to access the tank.
The bottom bolt can be adjusted for angle and the top bolt is pinned into the track.

It would not be possible to attach the hood to the rim with the way I have mine. But it would be possibly to get it floating super close to the rim.
the way mine is set up, there is very minimal light spillage because the lights are mounted high in the hood and the steel on the hood is angled.

I have used tv mounts in the past, and that has worked great, and recently I saw a post on Facebook with an elective tv lift attached to the hood so it can be raised and lowered remotely. I’ll probably try that option on my next tank.
To make the hood- if you don’t have access to steel or welding, then you can used aluminum angle found at a hardware store and drill in to it and wrap it with vinyl plank or pvc trim. The trickiest part is attaching it to the wall, and I personally like the track method better than the tv mount method. It just feels sturdier.

Back to the 220 hood: I started a video on how it was made at one point and I need to try to finish it up, but we have a new baby coming in the next few days and have been working hard to prepare.