Waterbox 70.2 Platinum Reef Build

I am under the impression that these tanks are made overseas and shipped to Waterbox. I doubt they even inspect any of them except maybe a few. Using metric plumbing is a definite flag for this. It is almost impossible to get metric plumbing in the states bar a few places and it's expensive. I like mine but saw the same thing with strands of silicone around on the glass. Kinda funny because it was not black silicone like the seams are either.
This is why I love forums like this. I can hear about experiences from other others and share mine as well. I saw those strands and wasn't sure what they were. At first I thought they were all scratches but I was able to clean one off and figured the rest would clean off as well, so I didn't bother looking any further. I was just bored last night and had some free time and just happened to grab a flash light to see what areas needed to be cleaned better.

There was one area below the sump I saw when my buddy and I pulled the sump out. It looked like a divot in the glass and I was freaking out. I went to touch it and it was glue of some sort. I was able to peel it from the glass.
 
This is why I love forums like this. I can hear about experiences from other others and share mine as well. I saw those strands and wasn't sure what they were. At first I thought they were all scratches but I was able to clean one off and figured the rest would clean off as well, so I didn't bother looking any further. I was just bored last night and had some free time and just happened to grab a flash light to see what areas needed to be cleaned better.

There was one area below the sump I saw when my buddy and I pulled the sump out. It looked like a divot in the glass and I was freaking out. I went to touch it and it was glue of some sort. I was able to peel it from the glass.
I have a 130.4 being delivered tomorrow and now I am a little nervous around what I will find when I unbox it. Will certainly go over it throroughly and report back if I find similar defects. Hoping yours was a rare situation and that Waterbox will make it right.
 
Everyone, you were right about Waterbox actually caring!

They reached out to me today and are making things right. My replacement tank is being sent out today or tomorrow, worst case. I'm very glad that handled this as fast as they did.
 
R+L Carriers picked up tank up today and it's scheduled for delivery tomorrow between 10 and 2.
 
My replacement tank arrived today, and I just finished cleaning it up. Overall, I'm extremely pleased with how fast Waterbox addressed my issue. With me living so close to them, I received my tank right away. I wasn't able to get the tank moved into the house until 7:30 this evening, but I just wiped it down and while I am pleased to say that after and I'm serious, 45-60 of going over this tank with a fine tooth comb, there are no major scratches that stand out like the first tank. However, there are a handful of smaller, hairline scratches. I'm sure most, if not all will disappear when the tank is filled. I do have one hairline scratch on the outside of the front pane. I'll post pics in the hour.

I'm still pleased with the price point for what I am getting but I am curious to know about Red Sea owners. Are their tanks delivered with hairline scratches in the star fire glass or are they perfect? I guess that's the downfall with Starfire and low iron glass, they scratch super easy. Heck, even while wiping down the glass I was careful to dust it off first, didn't want to scratch it while I was cleaning it.
 
For anyone else that has a Waterbox, does your overflow look like this under your lights? The overflow looks normal until I added the AI prime to help me look over the tank and right away I saw that the overflow looked weird.

overflow 001.jpg


overflow 002.jpg


overflow 003.jpg
 
I believe it's because it's glass now, mine isn't. But under bright light I could see through it. Once I added water I no longer can. It does look as if there is glass dust in the slots, if that's what you mean.
 
Ok, so the replacement tank came in and I took about an hour to inspect it. While I didn't find any major scratches on the tank, I did find a handful of hairline scratches mostly on the inside and one on the outside. I don't think the MFG is taking precautions with the Starfire glass. Thankfully, with the tank full of water, the lights and movement of water, it's hard for the eye to focus in on my hairline scratches and some can only be seen from certain angles and with the placement of my tank, they are basically invisible now.

Good news, as you can see the tank is up on the stand, but there is NO need for so many leveling feet. It only made it harder to level! I can't imagine what it will be like for everyone who got the larger tanks as mine is only the 24x24 with 17 feet. I did have a few holes where the leveling feet screw it, the hole was too big and I wasn't able to lock the nut in place, so I just put a small washer on every foot, and it worked perfect and distributing the weight of the nut.

Overall impression of my Waterbox 70.2: I am very pleased with their level of customer service. I had an issue, and they took care of it very fast. The tank itself is beautiful. As you can see, it stands out in a good way in my living room. It towers above everything else. Some people don't care for the white stand, but for me, I picked the white because when I mount a light above the sump area for maintenance, I'll be able to see better inside the stand than if everything was black. I have already thought about doing a furniture grade vinyl wrap on the stand and since the tank basically floats above the stand, there is plenty of room to take a razor blade to cut the film and never come near the tank. Then the tank stand will truly stand out! I LOVE that Waterbox gives you the option of where to place their name badge on the stand. I chose not to mount it because I am planning on wrapping it.

20180713_161848.jpg


20180713_210204.jpg
 
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I believe it's because it's glass now, mine isn't. But under bright light I could see through it. Once I added water I no longer can. It does look as if there is glass dust in the slots, if that's what you mean.
It isn't glass dust. I sent Waterbox pics and they sent it to their team for review. There is a problem with the water etching.
 
Below is a link to my very first YouTube video. It's just a slideshow, showing how my stand went together.

I assembled the stand together wrong, UGH! At :32 when I add the two back supports, those two pieces are identical and I set them up with the screws facing the inside of the stand, not the outside (back, towards wall). They came with heavy duty cover stickers so I might be ok but I'll keep an eye on them to ensure they stay dry in there.

Just wanted to give anyone a quick heads up so you don't make the same mistake I did. This would not happen if instructions were included with the stand, lol.
 
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I wanted to make a quick video about how quiet the overflow is with the new gate valve! I am currently running a Quiet One Lifegard Aquarium Pump, 758-Gallon, which is underpowered for this system, but it took me less than 2 minutes to tune it and this is my first reef ready system. I will be looking at upgrading my pump but this will suffice for now.
 
As for the AI Prime HD, I was going to contact Waterbox and see if I could purchase a spare overflow cover because the original plan was to cut a hole in the center back of the lid for the mounting bracket. I have a picture above that shows the light bracket sitting in the overflow, in an empty tank. What the picture doesn't show is that the plumbing wasn't installed yet. With the plumbing in there, my bracket with screw will not fit. I thought about cutting the screw down, but I still don't think that will work. It's a tight fit in the overflow box, not much room to work with.

No worries, so the new plan is to order the hanging bracket and hang the light plum above the center of the tank. For a cleaner installation, I will splice into an outlet wire in the attic and install an outlet so the cable will come down from the ceiling. I am also going to play around with using a conduit to hide the wire and cable, but this is a project for another day. I didn't want to have someone ask, why is the light on the left panel of glass, throwing off the symmetry.
 
Ok, so the replacement tank came in and I took about an hour to inspect it. While I didn't find any major scratches on the tank, I did find a handful of hairline scratches mostly on the inside and one on the outside. I don't think the MFG is taking precautions with the Starfire glass. Thankfully, with the tank full of water, the lights and movement of water, it's hard for the eye to focus in on my hairline scratches and some can only be seen from certain angles and with the placement of my tank, they are basically invisible now.

Good news, as you can see the tank is up on the stand, but there is NO need for so many leveling feet. It only made it harder to level! I can't imagine what it will be like for everyone who got the larger tanks as mine is only the 24x24 with 17 feet. I did have a few holes where the leveling feet screw it, the hole was too big and I wasn't able to lock the nut in place, so I just put a small washer on every foot, and it worked perfect and distributing the weight of the nut.

Overall impression of my Waterbox 70.2: I am very pleased with their level of customer service. I had an issue, and they took care of it very fast. The tank itself is beautiful. As you can see, it stands out in a good way in my living room. It towers above everything else. Some people don't care for the white stand, but for me, I picked the white because when I mount a light above the sump area for maintenance, I'll be able to see better inside the stand than if everything was black. I have already thought about doing a furniture grade vinyl wrap on the stand and since the tank basically floats above the stand, there is plenty of room to take a razor blade to cut the film and never come near the tank. Then the tank stand will truly stand out! I LOVE that Waterbox gives you the option of where to place their name badge on the stand. I chose not to mount it because I am planning on wrapping it.

20180713_161848.jpg


20180713_210204.jpg

Congratulations! The room looks great!
 
I was just looking at Waterbox's FB page and I saw someone left a 2 star review because the measurements on the tank were off, and then I went to measure my tank and it's not 24x44x22. It's actually 23 5/8 x 23 5/8 x 21 something with the mat. Not a huge deal breaker for me, but why not advertise the true sizes or at least make the tank what you advertise?

This is my first reef tank system. I wasn't sure if Red Sea does the same thing or are their measurements the same as they advertise?
 
Red seas dimensions listed are correct atleast on the reefer 250
 

IF YOU HAD TO TAKE A REEFING EXAM, WOULD YOU PASS?

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