"SUPRISE UPGRADE" Waterbox 220

MERKEY · Sep 15, 2020

fishguy242 said:
nice ,see told ya ,no biggie ,beautiful tank

Holy cow the stress of driving was pretty....fun lol

A few times I heard rocks hit the wheel well and I swore it was the tank popping a crack!

When I got to his house he had alreafy put all of the equipment in buckets.

Nothing labeled at all, a complete rats nest.

He wanted that thing gone NOW!

At this point I am sure some things were left or forgot as we were pretty rushed but all in all I couldn't be happier with it and feel so lucky!

MERKEY · Sep 16, 2020

Quick update....

While putting the plumbing together we noticed the rubber seals for the inside side of the overflow were not on the pipes. Im not sure if he didn't have them on and was causing an issue that he was having or not but a quick call to WB and new ones will be here by Saturday. Thank goodness for the fx6.

Put the sump in and the ATO. I dont think we will use the UV, reactor or roller yet but once we get going Im sure we will.

Apex is being a bit frustrating but I'm not a tech guy so 99% is most likely my fault lol

At this point I'm stuck on the FMM and setting up the ATO. The one he uses does NOT use a float sensor but uses electric sensors. A little more youtube searching and I'm sure I'll get it. Dumping about 5 gallons a day into this thing is nuts hahah

The livestock all looks great!

We put our old pair of clowms with our single lomg fin and they all group now

Both pairs of manderins just swim next to each other like they aren't even there.

The only sad guy is our pink spot goby as he wants sand so bad....we may put a small island on one side just for him.

fishguy242 · Sep 16, 2020

looking good,how about a bowl of sand for him ,won't just get spread around

MERKEY · Sep 16, 2020

fishguy242 said:
looking good,how about a bowl of sand for him ,won't just get spread around

I will have to try that!

He is a bit of a jerk and pulls all frags or snails into his hole lol

MERKEY · Sep 17, 2020

So we rented a par meter and ran the 2 radion xr30 g4's and 1 hydra 32 and like the numbers so far.

This is with the them at 55% with whites at 25%.

Its going to be a mixed reef so only a few sps. Im thinking we have enought light for what we are growing and if we do end up getting into sps we will most likely add a hybrid system instead of adding more leds.

Sorry the white is hard to read...

thefort15 · Oct 5, 2020

Nice score on the tank. Looking good!

mattgsa · Oct 6, 2020

You got a great deal on a great tank. Congrats!!!

MERKEY · Oct 7, 2020

mattgsa said:
You got a great deal on a great tank. Congrats!!!

thefort15 said:
Nice score on the tank. Looking good!

Thanks guys!

Here's a little update...

We think we have everything were we want it and everyone is settling in nicely.

Added 2 of the 4 hydra 32s that came with the tank to our lights ( 2 xr30 g4 and 1 hydra 32) and now get even spread the whole 6'. All lights are at 20% and getting about the same par as the last readings.

Already getting coraline spots on the bottom of the tank, which is pretty exciting for how long we have had it running.

Also added our first SPS, a green mili a couple days ago and so far its doing well.

Wanted to add a new fish that would finish out our BIG fish slection and most likely be the last of the larger fish we add. We want to leave space for them all to sleep well.

We are excited to say we chose a Gem tang and have her/him in his QT for the moment.

Still trying to figure out all of the Apex programming and I believe its my hesitancy to trust what I am doing that limits what I'm using at the moment lol.

Overall we are really happy with the way things are going and can't Wait to really see the tank take off.

Thank you all for the support and stopping in!

fishguy242 · Oct 7, 2020

just amazing...

and a real "gem " to top it off,sweet...

fishguy242 · Oct 7, 2020

oh yeah..the apex

i shelled out 1600$ few years ago..enough to monitor 3 tanks..buddy instructed what to buy,he came over ,we started unboxing while he was explaning how this works yada yada yada,

nope not for me boxed it up sold it in 2 days for1200..live and learn ..not that day

old school ph monitor ,good enough for me

not to heighten your fear but

lol ,once you got it they are sweet

MERKEY · Oct 7, 2020

fishguy242 said:
oh yeah..the apex i shelled out 1600$ few years ago..enough to monitor 3 tanks..buddy instructed what to buy,he came over ,we started unboxing while he was explaning how this works yada yada yada,nope not for me boxed it up sold it in 2 days for1200..live and learn ..not that dayold school ph monitor ,good enough for me
not to heighten your fear butlol ,once you got it they are sweet

Seriously I feel like a caveman

I do like the capability of it all but I know once I set it up to start auto dosing or auto top off or turning the dual 600w heaters on and off something will go wrong...Murphy and I are like brothers hahahah it will go wrong!

fishguy242 · Oct 15, 2020

sblam

nornicle · Oct 15, 2020

Wow did the owner give a reason for getting rid of it? That seems like a huge investment for only six months.

MERKEY · Oct 15, 2020

fishguy242 said:
sblam

And so it begins....

Seriously can't wait for your corals on friday!

MERKEY · Oct 15, 2020

nornicle said:
Wow did the owner give a reason for getting rid of it? That seems like a huge investment for only six months.

Friday! Had a 20g long he set up for his 2 young daughters. They liked it so much he bought the 220.6 for their playroom. He had everything automated and it seems he let the girls try to take care of the tank.

It flooded twice and they had to have the flooring cleaned and repaired after we took the tank.

He was very well off and it definitely didn't seem like he was worried about any loss of money.

It was one of those moments that doesn't happen and we jumped on it. The owner of the LFS where he bought it knows us both and wanted to help the guy get rid of it fast so he contacted us knowing we wanted to upgrade. We by no means were planning such a big upgrade.