WaterBox Marine 110.4 Upgrade

[BContos]

I just saw this tank build and I think it is looking wonderful I have the same tank and found it for free. I got super lucky the tank came with everything and some. It has a full apex system and much more. A few things I want to do with the tank is have a bigger refugium. Right now I’m just using the ato reservoir as my refugium since that is how the tank was set up before. Besides the point I love to see your tank and it inspires me on mine. I’ll add a photo of my tank just to show. I can’t wait to see your tank in the future!

What an amazing find!! What I am doing for the fuge is getting a sump baffle made! Do you have a build thread? Would love to follow along!

 

[BContos]

Tank looks great! Always fun to see someone with the same tank and the myriad of ways to go about putting a system together. Looking forward to following along.

Thank you!

Yes it is cool seeing how others set up the same tank! You can get lots of ideas- may they be what to do or not to do- it is great to see!

 

[BContos]

I have spoken with Matt at Octo Aquatics and verified all measurements so hopefully the lid will be in production soon and received quickly!

I have also spoken to Dr. Reef's people about my first order of fish- 1 Bartlett Anthias (male), 1 Lyretail Anthias (female), and 1 Resplendent Anthia (female) that I have asked to be shipped the first or second week of February. I am so excited to get a few more fish to add some more color and movement to the tank! I know people typically get the anthias in a single species of trio's but since I do not have a super large tank the goal is to have the most variety of colors and movement with fish and coral!

I also asked about their corals to see if I could place an order for things not listed on their site. In my 32 gallon I got aiptasia from the first frag I added. In my inexperience at the time I did not realize it would take a foothold as quickly as it did and before I knew it there was an infestation. I tried berghia- after several months of the infestation only getting worse by the day I assumed they did not make it. Then I tried two peppermint shrimp- never touched one aiptasia. Finally, I tried F- Aiptasia and that only made it 10X worse because babies were popping up everywhere! So, to say I am gun shy of that happening again is an understatement. I will be quarantining every coral, removing frag plugs upon arrival and dipping day 1 and at least one more time before going in my main DT. I would like to do more research on the different life cycles of common pest's eggs and align my dip schedule with that to hopefully make sure they are all eradicated before entering the DT. My hope is though I will have better luck buying from Dr. Reef knowing the process for fish parasites and other things has been completed so I have less to do on my end. If y'all have any recommendation's for companies that sell quality corals that are proven not to show up with a myriad of parasites I am all ears!

The list of corals I inquired about first are blue or green kenya tree, capnella, cespitularia, pulsing sinluaria, neon green nephthea, waving hand anthelia, colt coral, gorgonians, and toadstools. Depending on what they can get and how hectic life looks next month I may place an order for some or all of them. I am a gardener so early spring is busy prepping/planting/tending to seedlings and I am usually short on time. I also need to sit down and look at some tanks I am drawn to in order to figure out placement of corals and what it is exactly about each tank I find so alluring before ordering the corals. This tank I am hoping to make a centerpiece of our living room and want to make it as ascetically pleasing as possible. If anyone reading the tread also QT's their coral prior to adding to their tank I would love to hear what your process is. I understand most people just dip and add but again this got me in a world of mess I am trying desperately not to repeat!

 

[BContos]

Update:

Yesterday I received my order from Dr. Reef on the CUC. These hermits are the smallest I’ve ever seen! They are comparable to the dwarf cerith snails I’ve received in the past. Only 2-3 of the 10 I was supposed to get made it through shipping which is a bummer but all the snails made it intact. These conch’s are HUGE! I almost got 3 but now I’m glad I only got two lol

The half gallon of pods from Dinkins Aquatics also arrived and were added last night. They were so kind and upped my order of 16 Oz of phyto to a half gallon!! The quality appears top tier and will absolutely give them my business again!

The tank is experiencing a diatom and some type of hair algae bloom on the Marco rocks and sand but my rocks transferred over from the old tank don’t have either. I don’t think it’s the normal GHA because it’s not thick (pictures are a little deceiving). It also doesn’t really have the vibrancy of bryopsis and I can not remember if this happened when I set up my last tank. I turned my light intensity down and hope the inverts can eat it all sooner rather than later. The ugly stage is so ugly

 

[Kodock]

Right after we added the rock, sand and water!

Nice!! I’ve got almost the same setup as you, still working on the setup. Your aquascape is awesome! Did you glue/mortar?

 

[BContos]

Nice!! I’ve got almost the same setup as you, still working on the setup. Your aquascape is awesome! Did you glue/mortar?

Thank you! I bought it from Chandler Rocks Aquascaping already done! 10/10 recommend him!!

 

[BContos]

Mini Update: I have turned lights off to help reduce the hair algae growth. My CUC just cant keep up yet! I am hoping not having lights for a week or so will help curb some of growth and give the inverts and biofilm time to catch up!

I received a conformation email from Dr. Reef on my anthias last week. They are shipping out the week of February 5th! I am so excited to start getting the tank stocked a little more!! It looks a little empty with the 4 small fish in there. I am hoping these 3 fish give more movement.

I had started using the auto feeder/feed ring combo about a week after the transfer. It dispenses the smallest amount of food the feeder will allow. My hope was to teach my current fish how that works so when the anthias arrive they can pick it up quickly. My fish are doing great with it and know when it goes off its time to eat!

I went ahead and placed my order for the quarantined captive bred yellow tang and a powder blue. Dr. Reef said he can get them small and close in size. These will be my first tangs and I am so EXCITED! They will ship out first week of March! I picked up a 10 gallon tank and HOB filter the other day (for a future coral QT) I am debating on putting the baby tangs in the 10 gallon for a week or two of observations? I don't want to stress them out any more than absolutely necessary but with them being so prone to itch I am nervous. I am sure they will fine I have had nothing but success with all the quarantined fish I have bought from Dr. Reef but its still a little nerve racking!

 

[BContos]

I tested my nitrates and phosphates last night on my Salifert testing equipment-

Nitrates: Between 10-25 not quite as light as 10 but not dark enough for the 25!

Phosphates: Less than 0.03

My fuge light is on from 11pm-6am. I am not sure if I should hang tight where its at or bump it up? I am seeing some GHA growth in the sump but not too concerned about that considering the hair algae and diatoms in the DT are slowly fading. I am planning to do the tanks first water change Wednesday night to help lower nitrates and my anthia order from Dr. Reef will be here Friday! I am so excited to get some more movement in the tank!

My skimmer replacement pump is not working properly. This has been pretty frustrating. I have torn it apart twice to make sure it wasn't something I put together incorrectly and still the new pump refuses to work properly. I have contacted AquaCave to let them know what was going on (01/28) and they refuse to return my email. I am pretty frustrated with all of it. I will continue to monitor nutrients closely to determine when I should bite the bullet and buy a new unit. I am hoping to hold out until summer but time will tell.

 

[BContos]

Update:

I received my order of turbo snails and anthias Friday!

Unfortunately one of the snails perished in the bag during transit mucking up the water they were all kept in. I immediately removed all snails with the disk still attached from the bag and placed them in fresh saltwater with an air stone forgoing the temp acclimation hoping to save some of them. After several hours in a dimly lit room I checked on them and several more had perished. I repeated the process of removing the dead ones, changing the water and checked later that night and all had passed. Dr. Reef said he would send me another batch with my March order of fish.

Dr. Reef sent two of the male Bartlett anthias and they are tiny! They came in bags that were 3/4 blacked out so I assumed they do not ship well and I was sent an extra in case one did not make it. I thought that was very considerate and very appreciated! There were no issues with acclimation but when released into the tank the went belly up and one immediately got suctioned to the overflow. After a split second of shock and panic I helped the little guy get free from the weir and cut the wave maker down to where it was barely moving any water and turned the lights off.

The female Lyretail anthia went belly up during acclimation but ended up doing fine during after being released into the DT.

The female resplendent anthia is HUGE! Like 4 1/2inches. When I pulled the bag out of the shipping box my mouth hit the floor LOL I had requested small fish so that was a shocker but she is beautiful. I was concerned that this fish was a male bimac sent to me by mistake but when I reached out to Dr. Reef he said he did not have any in the warehouse so that wasn't possible and it was a resplendent.

I had to go to work after I put everyone in the tank after acclimation and after returning home several hours later everyone was swimming around right side up thankfully! The new additions have been eating well and look great! They seem to be getting the hang of the auto feeder as well. I am currently feeding frozen 3X daily with auto feeding small amounts of pellets twice daily. I will have to be more mindful of watching my parameters now with the increase in feeding quantities

My existing fish are not happy though which is odd because they had never shown any issues with new fish in the past. My clown started getting grumpy with the falco hawkfish and the Lyertail wanted to be BFF's with the midas who was not having that even for a second. The midas for a solid day and half kept swimming back and forth between his three dens over and over as if to say, "This is my home, and this, and this one too. Keep out!"

Has anyone had success keeping 2 male Bartletts at a time if introduced small? I am worried about potential aggression as they grow but I do not want to move them around any more than I have too with as small as they are.

 

[Jim Gomoll]

Beautiful Additions

 

[rs1831]

Any updates?

 

[BContos]

Its been awhile since I have updated!

Unfortunately the two little Bartlett anthias did not end up making it. I do believe I was sent a a Bimac male and even though Dr. Reef did not agree, he kindly sent me two resplendent anthias on my next order along with a yellow tang and PBT. I believe when I was not paying attention the large Bimac ended up taking out the Bartlett twins.

Other than that everything seems to be going good!

We made it through 6 1/2 days of not having power with hurricane Beryl with zero losses- not even a snail! Thankfully I had purchased a small generator last winter in case we lost power through a storm and it paid off ten fold during that horrible week lol

We seem to officially have been out of the ugly diatom/algae stage for awhile now and are starting to see the dry rock scape that was cured in a brute can get some beautiful coraline algae color taking hold. I also have my first generation of tank raised Trochus reaching adult sized so I must be doing something right! Haha!

All the fish are doing great and I am planning my next order for Dr. Reef in probably a month or so depending on how the weather is looking. We have a heat index of 115 most days with 100% humidity (yay for living on the coast!!) and with the threat of a super active storm season I am trying to be smart about adding anything new. I am going to buckle and get my female clown a male. She lost her swim partner (green chromis) when the anthias were added and has been staying in the corner of the tank unless its feeding time so I am hoping it will cheer the little monster up. I am thinking about adding two wrasses so any suggestions for colorful ones that are active would be great! They just have to be reef safe and not going to bother my future clam I am determined to get lol

I am also starting think about future coral additions. I really want to start with some softies to get my 'reef legs'. I will wait however until hurricane season is done because I plan to quarantine it all (since my fish, inverts, etc. have all been) and I don't want the stress of running two tanks on the small fish tank generator if we lose power like that again. Who is y'alls favorite soft corals vendor that has cool colors and not just the common stuff? I do not plan on any zoas/palys anytime soon if ever.

I'll snap some pictures of the tank when I get some extra time! Life has been pretty crazy as of late! Thanks to anyone following along!

 

[BContos]

Decisions, decisions....

I have decided on my next fish order being a small black ice clown, a filamented flasher wrasse, Exquisite wrasse (Fiji variation) and a pair of the Biota captive mandarins.

With this larger order I can qualify for free shipping ($64 savings) but it will be more fish than I have received at one time. The clown will need to be less than 2 inches to avoid issues with the female I currently have and the mandarins will be very tiny from my understanding. So the dilemma is should I add them all at once since 3 of the fish will be very small and watch parameters closely/have water made and on hand for a WC if needed? Maybe throw in some Microbacter for a few days? Or break out the 10 gallon coral QT I haven't set up and put the clown in that for a 2-3 weeks?

What would you do?

 

[BContos]

Update:

I started a phytoplankton and copepod culture yesterday. I chose tetra for the phyto strain and apocyclops pods. I bought two one gallon glass jars to culture in. I washed them then filled with tap water+ a splash of bleach and let them sit 24 hours. After that I rinsed them really well and wiped them down with 90% rubbing alcohol and wiped all the tubing down as well. No matter how hard I tried I was unable to attach the rigid airline tubing to the flexible airline. I tried warm water, a lighter, and brute force! Nothing worked. So I grabbed two rubber bands and cut the rigid tubing in half and rubber banded them together to give it the weight to not sit in the top. I didn't like how the tubing in the phyto vessel didn't touch the bottom so I grabbed one of the suction cups that came with the air pump to hold the airline and ended up using that to help it stay closer to the bottom. I have also ordered some clear bags to use in the phyto container to make the process a little easier. I am really hoping this works! I will probably add another strain or two of phyto in the future and another type of pods if everything runs smoothly.

I have been reading up on the benefits of daily phyto dosing and am excited to see if/how it makes a difference. If nothing else I am hoping that the future Biota mandarins will be happy!

I also ordered a custom sump baffle from Octo aquatics this week to create a dedicated refugium space and a light shade for my refugium light. The light shade came in but unfortunately it didn't make the impact I wanted on reducing light spill. GHA is growing like crazy in my sump and gets sucked into my DT anytime I do anything in the sump. I contacted the company who made the light shade and asked if they could custom make me one that was longer. They are working on it now and I hope to have it shipped out soon. I am additionally waiting on BRS to have the little vacuum attachments back in stock and once they do and the baffle/light shade arrive I will be giving the sump a through clean to remove the detritus while also removing the GHA to replace with some chaeto. At some point I will get around to installing the UV light I bought last year but honestly I am nervous to mess it up and not sure where to fit it under the cabinet so we will see.

I still haven't replaced the broken skimmer yet but its on the list for the BRS black Friday purchases. Once the baffle is here I won't have to worry about the macro algae getting sucked into the skimmer. And while the GHA is an eye sore it is keeping nutrients in check!

Thanks for reading and following along!

 

[BContos]

Update:

Tetra phyto (Top Shelf) culture is doing great! I have split it twice (tomorrow will be the third) and increased to a gallon culture. I have since added T-Iso (Top Shelf) and Rhodomonas salina (Reef Legends). The T-iso took 5 days to get some color and I thought I had lost the batch but thankfully it did darken up and by day 7/8 I harvested. The Rhodomonas salina culture was started a few days ago I have not had a chance to harvest yet but so far so good. I have started daily dosing on my DT each week adding more as the cultures get bigger and I am excited to see the effects it has on the tank overall!

I also added Tig pods (Top Shelf) and Tisbe (Reef Legends) cultures to the mix as well!

I would like to brag on @ReefLegends for a moment though! Skyler has been top notch in communicating! He has answered all of my questions and given tons of advice on how to pick out and handle various cultures. I would also like to note I ordered the first pod cultures of apocyclops and tig from Top shelf. I was not super pleased as there was hardly any pods in each 8 oz culture. But the 8oz tisbe pod culture from reef legends? PACKED! I have another order from him being shipped out today for more tisbe and apocyclops pods and I can't wait to see how good these look! I will continue to buy cultures and pods from him here on out!

The original apocyclops culture started on 08/22 is finally starting to show signs of life. Considering the starter culture was so poor I wasn't expecting it to do much but time will tell!

My sump baffle arrived from Octo Aquatics along with the light shade from Eel River Corals and I have ordered the Vivid Aquariums vacuum attachment from BRS. I hope to get the detritus vacuumed out and hopefully keep algae confined to the new refugium area instead of having GHA in the entire sump.

A few day's ago I sat up the coral QT tank. It is just a standard 10 gallon with an HOB filter, a DIY frag rack, heater and two palm sized rocks from my sump. I did 6 gallons of fresh saltwater and 4 gallons of tank water. My first orders of corals are supposed to ship out tomorrow! I ordered some softies from K&P aquaculture and some gorgonians from KP aquatics. I have the smaller version of light for the QT that's on my DT so I hope it wont be too big of an adjustment when they leave QT. The plan is 6 weeks @81 degrees with 3 dips. I will post pictures once they all arrive!

 

[ReefLegends]

Update:

Tetra phyto (Top Shelf) culture is doing great! I have split it twice (tomorrow will be the third) and increased to a gallon culture. I have since added T-Iso (Top Shelf) and Rhodomonas salina (Reef Legends). The T-iso took 5 days to get some color and I thought I had lost the batch but thankfully it did darken up and by day 7/8 I harvested. The Rhodomonas salina culture was started a few days ago I have not had a chance to harvest yet but so far so good. I have started daily dosing on my DT each week adding more as the cultures get bigger and I am excited to see the effects it has on the tank overall!

I also added Tig pods (Top Shelf) and Tisbe (Reef Legends) cultures to the mix as well!

I would like to brag on @ReefLegends for a moment though! Skyler has been top notch in communicating! He has answered all of my questions and given tons of advice on how to pick out and handle various cultures. I would also like to note I ordered the first pod cultures of apocyclops and tig from Top shelf. I was not super pleased as there was hardly any pods in each 8 oz culture. But the 8oz tisbe pod culture from reef legends? PACKED! I have another order from him being shipped out today for more tisbe and apocyclops pods and I can't wait to see how good these look! I will continue to buy cultures and pods from him here on out!

The original apocyclops culture started on 08/22 is finally starting to show signs of life. Considering the starter culture was so poor I wasn't expecting it to do much but time will tell!

My sump baffle arrived from Octo Aquatics along with the light shade from Eel River Corals and I have ordered the Vivid Aquariums vacuum attachment from BRS. I hope to get the detritus vacuumed out and hopefully keep algae confined to the new refugium area instead of having GHA in the entire sump.

A few day's ago I sat up the coral QT tank. It is just a standard 10 gallon with an HOB filter, a DIY frag rack, heater and two palm sized rocks from my sump. I did 6 gallons of fresh saltwater and 4 gallons of tank water. My first orders of corals are supposed to ship out tomorrow! I ordered some softies from K&P aquaculture and some gorgonians from KP aquatics. I have the smaller version of light for the QT that's on my DT so I hope it wont be too big of an adjustment when they leave QT. The plan is 6 weeks @81 degrees with 3 dips. I will post pictures once they all arrive!

Thanks! This week was crazy, let me know how your package arrives tomorrow!

 

[BContos]

The first round of corals made it from both vendors! A few of the soft corals were not attached to anything, a couple had attached to some reef sand, and two came in on plugs. All the gorgonians were attached to tiny rubble pieces. I put them in QT after acclimation and let them adjust to ambient room lighting before turning on the aquarium lights. A few hours later I noticed a small aiptasia poking out between one of the corals and the frag plug! I let the corals settle for the night and the following evening (yesterday) I took a razor blade and sliced the two corals on plugs off at the base completely removing the plug. I am crossing my fingers they survive but would rather lose a coral than introduce aiptasia into my DT. They were pretty angry and shriveled up looking before bed but we will see how they fair over the next few days. I also glued some of the other pieces that came without plugs onto some rubble and man they were ticked off too. I figured I would give everything a few more days to recover and dip them. I have a feeling this 6 week quarantine is going to go so slow lol