Texas Waterbox 220.6 +Plus HD

TheShrimpNibbler · Feb 28, 2021

jstephens24 said:
The flux rx really worked. Not sure if it was the 3 days without power or the no more fish so no more feeding or combination of it all but the algae has really disappeared. Maybe I never had red hair algae and it was byropris. Whatever it was its pretty much all gone. The only algae on the rocks right now is "flat" green that a toothbrush can wipe off. I have kept the protein skimmer on and it has still been pulling stuff out of the water. I plan on doing a large water change tonight when I get home...around 60-70 gallons.

I also decided I will be going with the same style of fish as before just maybe some different choices. Placed my first order of fish that should be coming in this next week. I ordered some wrasses and 2 clowns. I also placed a CUC package order from reefcleaners. I only have a few hermit crabs alive.

A lot of zoas have recovered and opened up. Also looks like the 3 gorgonians survived and toadstool leather.

I’m glad to hear some coral made it! Definitely post pics of the fish when they get there!

jstephens24 · Mar 3, 2021

First batch of fish showed up yesterday. Well FedEx dropped of 2 out of 3 packages. The third got delivered to their facility after the driver left so I won't get it in til today. The fish that came in are: 2- ORA osc. clownfish, 1 bluehead fairy wrasse and 1 katherine fairy wrasse. Hopefully the rest of the fish make it to me alive. I redid the aquascape while I was doing water change and cleaning sand so I will post a pic of that eventually. Little more caves and places to hide for the fish.

I also won a giveaway on IG for some paypal to help rebuild my tank livestock. I plan on using the money for some euphyllia maybe next month

TheShrimpNibbler · Mar 3, 2021

jstephens24 said:
First batch of fish showed up yesterday. Well FedEx dropped of 2 out of 3 packages. The third got delivered to their facility after the driver left so I won't get it in til today. The fish that came in are: 2- ORA osc. clownfish, 1 bluehead fairy wrasse and 1 katherine fairy wrasse. Hopefully the rest of the fish make it to me alive. I redid the aquascape while I was doing water change and cleaning sand so I will post a pic of that eventually. Little more caves and places to hide for the fish.

I also won a giveaway on IG for some paypal to help rebuild my tank livestock. I plan on using the money for some euphyllia maybe next month

I’m glad to hear that some of the fish made it! Is it possible for you to go pick up the rest of them from the facility yourself?

jstephens24 · Mar 3, 2021

TheShrimpNibbler said:
I’m glad to hear that some of the fish made it! Is it possible for you to go pick up the rest of them from the facility yourself?

FedEx called me back yesterday but i couldnt answer phone and they said they were trying to find package on voicemail they left. I checked tracking today and its now in Houston instead of the city it was in yesterday but it was at a hub and didn't say out for delivery. I called again and all they said was they see same thing and to leave my number so someone could call. I stressed again that there were animals inside and they will die if not delivered. I did order thru Live Aquaria so they have 7 day guarantee but its about $400 worth. I called them yesterday also to give them a heads up.

jstephens24 · Mar 4, 2021

To my shock I checked tracking a little bit after I called FedEx and it actually showed out for delivery and within 2 hours the fish arrived on doorstep. As of yesterday evening all fish were alive. It is so nice to see fish swimming again in the tank

jstephens24 · Mar 23, 2021

so far so good with all the fish. Im really happy with this live aquaria purchase. I noticed about a week or so ago that some cyano started in sandbed and rocks. Ordered some chemiclean that showed up yesterday and did a dose so hopefully that will knock that out. It was kinda expected since I read that I will probably get it since power turned off and I had so much death. Chemiclean worked really well the first time I used it so crossing fingers again.

I am lucky enough to win a giveaway from DropOffCorals through IG that will help me add more coral to the tank. Other reefers donated cash and coral to them so that they can contribute to people who lost their livestock during texas freeze. I might be getting that package at some point this week.

Future fish additions that Id like to get are blue tang, purple tang and one spot foxface. I would like to order these through TSM so I know they will be healthy. Just have to wait til they are in stock but I did send them an email.

jtroxel1 · Mar 23, 2021

jstephens24 said:
Background: Growing up I always wanted a saltwater tank. Seeing all the cool colors of fish and coral was awesome to me. Parents said doing a saltwater tank is too difficult so we just had some cichlids when I was younger. Fast forward to being married and have a little extra money I decided to jump in and try to do this saltwater thing. I didn't do much research before buying a tank so I just went to a local fish store and bought what they had. It was a 75 gal tank witIh stand, not drilled. They sold me a canister filter and some small pebbles for sand. I will give them credit and they didn't try to sell me any fish right away. Unfortunately after I bought all this I then decided to do some research on what to get. All the fish I really wanted needed a bigger tank but already dropped all this money on a 75 gal so I stuck with it.

So fast forward and I've had the 75 gal as a FOWLR going for the last 4 years. I like most people did water changes every couple weeks but eventually slacked off. I did have a reef octopus HOB skimmer that I use and a nice Tunze ATO. I stopped using RODI water and just used tap water and slacked off on testing. I used dry pukani for rock and after a year bought some sand so I could get some wrasses. I was lucky that I have never had an algae problems before. I have had ich problems and that wasn't fun. Current live stock include 2 osc. clowns, purple dottyback, yellow wrasse, sailfan fairy wrasse, yellow tang, bangaii cardinal and 2 cleaner shrimp. Within the last month or 2 I got the itch again to go bigger on a tank. I have always read build threads of larger tanks and was jealous that I didn't go bigger from the start. So that brings us to this past weekend...

I got the green light from the wife to pull the trigger on my dream tank: Waterbox 220.6 +plus HD. I thought about Redsea 750xxl but the all the bad news recently I decided to stay away from them. I liked that going with Waterbox that it included pretty much everything. I have never had a sump before so I was nervous to try my hand at plumbing. I decided to go ahead and get the Plus version because I needed to get new lights and it is a little discount if you buy from them. I did finance with the 0% interest for a year so that made it easier to pull the trigger since the only thing that I can reuse on my existing tank is my Tunze ATO.

For equipment for new tank I am leaning:
(4) AI Hydra 32 HD
COR 20 for return pump
(2)MP40WQD

I am thinking I will eventually get an Apex so I would like the equipment to be compatible with that system. I still need to research on heaters and protein skimmer. Waterbox recommends a NYOS Quantum 160 but I liked my Reef Octopus so might go with one of theirs. My goals for corals are soft and LPS but that would probably be a year I am guessing. Eventually I guess I will need a dosing system for them.

I love reading detailed and pic heavy build threads so I will try to make this one. 6-8 week wait for tank delivery so got some time to think and plan. The Waterbox will go where my current tank sits so I will need to move that first.

For corals the only must is a torch. I like to see movements in the tank so I will try to get more of that type. Still need to do a ton of research on corals

For fish the musts are a Powder blue tang and blue tang. I really like Copperband butterflys but heard they are tough eaters and might pick at corals. I would like to get more wrasses so it might be a wrasse heavy tank besides the 3 tangs.

Super excited for you - congrats on the big upgrade! I am sure you've thought through this (or at least your wife did - ha!) and know what you're getting into; however, a word of caution: reading through your journey I need to stress that bigger isn't going to be easier or less of a time commitment.

I'm sure you're excited today, but taking care of a tank that large - especially the first year to eighteen months - is going to be a huge time commitment. I mention this so that I can give you this recommendation: go in early on the APEX.

If you got bored with the first tank and started taking shortcuts, what has convinced you that a bigger reef tank will be different? Is it the additional opportunities for fish and corals? Great! That's the most demanding part of the tank journey (and not the cheapest, either).

You don't want to lose an investment in a large tank; the rule of thumb I've found to be true is that a two year cost of ownership is roughly $100 per gallon. So, my 300 gallon is a $30k tank... your 750 is going to be more, and how much more depends a lot the type of fish you get and on how much coral you buy versus frag. But the husbandry is expensive on it's own: every 10% water change you make is going to cost you $100. Heck, it's going to cost you $1000 just to put water in the tank the first time. A sump for a 750 is probably close to the size of most people's dream tank. Flow in your tank for corals ... you're looking at maybe $3 to $5 thousand.... and lighting a tank that large... oh the fun you'll have shopping!

All I'm saying is that you're going to be committing a huge investment into a tank that is amazing and in many ways also my dream tank (well, on the bottom end of a dream tank... I'm eyeing these new fiberglass 5000+ gallon containers with acrylic viewing windows measured in feet). But it's also a daily investment of time and patience - and if you've historically identified that you're quick to grow bored of the hobby... just reflect on that. Last Friday's BRS Live video actually addressed this in the industry: Ryan and Randy had a group of reefers that started the journey when they launched the YouTube channel and half of them were out of the hobby in 2 years. The other half are still in it. If you were given the opportunity to flip a coin and either keep $30k or give $30k away, you might not choose to flip the coin. Welcome to reefing.

jstephens24 · Mar 23, 2021

jtroxel1 said:
Super excited for you - congrats on the big upgrade! I am sure you've thought through this (or at least your wife did - ha!) and know what you're getting into; however, a word of caution: reading through your journey I need to stress that bigger isn't going to be easier or less of a time commitment.

I'm sure you're excited today, but taking care of a tank that large - especially the first year to eighteen months - is going to be a huge time commitment. I mention this so that I can give you this recommendation: go in early on the APEX.

If you got bored with the first tank and started taking shortcuts, what has convinced you that a bigger reef tank will be different? Is it the additional opportunities for fish and corals? Great! That's the most demanding part of the tank journey (and not the cheapest, either).

You don't want to lose an investment in a large tank; the rule of thumb I've found to be true is that a two year cost of ownership is roughly $100 per gallon. So, my 300 gallon is a $30k tank... your 750 is going to be more, and how much more depends a lot the type of fish you get and on how much coral you buy versus frag. But the husbandry is expensive on it's own: every 10% water change you make is going to cost you $100. Heck, it's going to cost you $1000 just to put water in the tank the first time. A sump for a 750 is probably close to the size of most people's dream tank. Flow in your tank for corals ... you're looking at maybe $3 to $5 thousand.... and lighting a tank that large... oh the fun you'll have shopping!

All I'm saying is that you're going to be committing a huge investment into a tank that is amazing and in many ways also my dream tank (well, on the bottom end of a dream tank... I'm eyeing these new fiberglass 5000+ gallon containers with acrylic viewing windows measured in feet). But it's also a daily investment of time and patience - and if you've historically identified that you're quick to grow bored of the hobby... just reflect on that. Last Friday's BRS Live video actually addressed this in the industry: Ryan and Randy had a group of reefers that started the journey when they launched the YouTube channel and half of them were out of the hobby in 2 years. The other half are still in it. If you were given the opportunity to flip a coin and either keep $30k or give $30k away, you might not choose to flip the coin. Welcome to reefing.

well I have had the tank up and running for a year now and still enjoying it even though i had setback with freeze

jstephens24 · Mar 25, 2021

Package from dropoffcorals arrived yesterday and they went above and beyond. It included: 1 hellfire torch, 3 sets of 2 candy canes, 2 hammers, 1 frogspawn, 1 ricordia and 1 lobo. Now the pressure is on me to keep all these great pieces alive

jstephens24 · Apr 26, 2021

Wanted to add couple more fish to the tank but it seemed like no one had all the fish I wanted. Saw a post about NYaquatics thursday morning so decided to check them out. Their prices were really good and they had all fish in stock so decided to give them a try. I placed order around 10-11a and got shipped notification later that afternoon. I received all fish on Friday so was super happy. They ship with water at 1.018 so brought up salinity slowly. Pretty sure they use copper but all fish arrived healthy and happy. I ordered: foxface (3-4"), purple tang (3"), blue tang (1"), firefish and sand sifting starfish. I would not hesitate to use them again

TheShrimpNibbler · Apr 26, 2021

jstephens24 said:
Wanted to add couple more fish to the tank but it seemed like no one had all the fish I wanted. Saw a post about NYaquatics thursday morning so decided to check them out. Their prices were really good and they had all fish in stock so decided to give them a try. I placed order around 10-11a and got shipped notification later that afternoon. I received all fish on Friday so was super happy. They ship with water at 1.018 so brought up salinity slowly. Pretty sure they use copper but all fish arrived healthy and happy. I ordered: foxface (3-4"), purple tang (3"), blue tang (1"), firefish and sand sifting starfish. I would not hesitate to use them again

Getting new fish is always exciting! Hopefully you can get some pics of the fish for us some time soon!

jstephens24 · Apr 26, 2021

Here is a quick pic of dory. Smallest fish in the tank. Looking forward to watching it grow for many years. Also can see purple tang in the shot

jstephens24 · May 6, 2021

Still slowly bringing up magnesium levels. I have no idea how it got so low to begin with. I noticed that the top layer of sand has a crusting effect on it when I was doing water change couple days ago. I know it was like that after the freeze too. Maybe the sand soaked it up? Or a bad bag from instant ocean? I don't check every bag but each one I have done its been in the 1200s.

Unfortunately little dory died. Day after I did the water change wife noticed it didn't come out when she went to feed tank. When I got home it was stuck inside the rock where it would hide/sleep. Its been eating every day and would be in water column swimming so I have no clue how it could have died. Thought maybe got stuck but would not think being stuck 24 hours would do it. No other fish effected or show any signs.

Loving having the foxface in the tank. The little nuisance algae that was popping up pretty much disappeared.

jstephens24 · Oct 4, 2021

well time for an update. turned out my Mg was never low, it was just a faulty test kit since reagents were low. Mg went to over 1500. Tank was going alright but still had some behind the scenes stuff happening with the freeze. Ended up losing all the LPS from dropoffcorals unfortunately. It was weird that majority zoas stayed mainly open but everything else was effected. The corals just withered away. I did change out UV bulb during this time so who knows if this had any effect.

I really didnt do much to the tank this entire time away. I went on vacation for a week during summer and turned off protein skimmer. When i got back tank was pretty dirty and then had a hard time dialing the skimmer back in. Cyano started on rocks and some spots in sand. Thought about chemical treatment but took it slow and made skimmer wet skim and kept up on changing filter socks. It eventually went away. I did cut out evening pellets so just feed 1 cube a day of mysis plus some nori every now and then.

Iv been getting the itch again to add some things so this past weekend i visited FJW aquarium. Main goal was to pick up reef nutrition pods and some GSP for my rock island i want covered in it. Possibly add a blue tang since both my kids miss having one in tank. I was going to buy the smallest tang they had but when Dennis fed it he noticed some spots and said i shouldnt get that one which i highly appreciate. He gave me a discount on another one and I was able to pick up a couple torches as well. Picked up couple frags of GSP and their last battle of pods.

Tank looks like it has more life in it now with just a couple additions. Im crossing my fingers everything goes smooth. I know I will be away from tank for 10 days around thanksgiving so for skimmer i think im going to adjust it where it pulls thick instead of wet. I havent done a waterchange in a couple months and figured my levels would be way off. I tested it the day I bought torches and Alk- 8.4, Ca-400 and Mg 1420. I was quite surprised but only corals were some zoas. I notice some spots of coraline on rocks so that was a nice surprise.

jstephens24 · Oct 4, 2021

Here is pic. Hopefully not too big since posting from phone

BifrostReefer · Oct 11, 2021

Are you worried the skimmer cup will over flow on vacation, is that why you turn it off? I am on vacation now and worried about that. Before I left, I found a large container that was skinny enough to fit in the cabinet with my sump. It has plenty of space for skim. I also take the doors off while I am gone and set up a cheap eufy security camera so I can watch everything.
Here is a quick security cam picture, you can see the skim container in the front.
I also use an optical sensor in my sump to turn off the skimmer if the water level gets too high. I have had a quick power outage, like just a flash off and back on, that would cause the skimmer to over flow continuously. That would be a big problem with the external skim container.

jstephens24 · Nov 4, 2022

Man guess its time for my yearly update haha. Did not realize its been that long. Tank has been on cruise control with my hands out of it. I haven't done a water change in forever (like maybe this entire year). I just keep up with protein skimmer and ATO level, drop off a frozen cube of mysis every day and nori every few days. Coraline has exploded! I've been even lazy cleaning front glass so it's even covered that. These past few weeks I've been slowly scrapping it off. I haven't checked chemistry levels in probably a year so no telling where they are at. Coral wise I have my zoas, GSP rock island and my lone torch which they all seem to be doing good. I did have a head from candy cane come back from when it died during freeze. Current fish: 2 clowns, 1 blue tang, 1 purple tang, 1 foxface, 2 blue reef chromis, 1 bicolor angel and 1 niger trigger.

edit: i did have a big problem a couple months ago. One night after I went to bed my wife woke me up saying she smelled like something burning near fish tank. Immediately I got out of bed and tried to see where it was coming from. To make a long story short it was my UV sterilizer that somehow got so hot it burned a hole in part of it where water was dripping out. No idea how that happened but I disconnected it and threw it away. Tank has been doing great still so not planning on getting another. Disaster averted