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Back in the Saddle - Waterbox 70.2 - Floating Reef (1 Viewer)

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b_d_e91

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Howdy folks, I have been in and out of the hobby since 2009. Circumstances changed throughout that time but my love for the hobby hadn’t. In January, we went to Belize for a few days and as we were returning to the surface, from our first dive of the trip, I knew I wanted to start an aquarium again. When we got home, I immediately started looking at the Waterboxes and Elos aquariums. I ended up going with the Waterbox as the tank would be going directly in the middle of our living room, and I needed smaller footprint. As I was finalizing my cart on Waterbox’s website, another member put up his Waterbox 70.2 for sale. We exchanged PMs and the next day, I was over at his house to see it. Lo and behold, I end up walking out with a new tank and ready to jump back into the hobby. Thanks @xWildReefx!

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The entire set up with the sump is 69.1 gallons, display tank is 47.2 gallons and the sump is 22 gallons with a 3.6 gallon ATO reservoir.

It made it home in one piece and got set up. Despite having bought the tank, stand and sump used (it didn’t look used), I was going to get the rest of my equipment new. I purchased the vast majority of my equipment from BulkReefSupply. Everything came in on time and was exactly what was ordered. The equipment included:

Filtration:
eSsence S-130 Internal Protein Skimmer - Reef Octopus
BR-70 Biopellet Reactor - Reef Octopus
8 Watt Advantage 2000 UV Sterilizer with Hanger Spout - Aqua Ultraviolet
Poseidon 200 Ozone Generator - Black Edition - Ozotech*
*MC125 pH/ORP Controller Combo - Milwaukee Instruments
Mutiny Ozone Reactor v2 - Avast Marine

Heater:
HC-810M Digital Heater Controller - Finnex
(2) 200W Titanium Heater Element - Bulk Reef Supply

Dry Rock:
40lbs of Shapes LifeRock Dry Live Rock - CaribSea

Water Movement:
Octo Pulse 4 Wave Pump (4500 GPH) - Reef Octopus
Octo Pulse 2 Wave Pump (2700 GPH) - Reef Octopus

Return Pump:
VarioS-6 Controllable DC Pump (1720 GPH) - Reef Octopus

Light:
Radion XR15 G5 PRO LED Light Fixture - EcoTech Marine

Dosing Pump:
BM-T11 Dosing Pump - Bubble Magus

RO/DI:
7 Stage PRO Plus 200 GPD Water Saver RO/DI System - Bulk Reef Supply

Monitor:
Seneye Reef Monitor

While I was waiting for my equipment to be delivered, I started my rockscape. I had seen a few pictures of a “floating reef” in smaller tanks and wanted to do this tank the same way. I found a local acrylic fabricator who was willing to create the shelf the rocks would sit on that would bonded into the aquarium.

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I bonded it to the front of the tank’s overflow box with a considerable amount of loctite. I let it sit a day to dry and then began fumbling around with the rocks.

At this point all of the plumbing was in place, glued and work began on the “cord keeper” within the stand. The plumbing T takes part of the return water to go through a bio pellets reactor. The reactor pushes out via Kuri-Tec tubing to a HOB UV unit and then back into the tank.

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To prevent the rat nest of cords, I wanted the cords to be run as neatly as possible and most importantly, not to be seen. I ordered this PVC sheet board online and used it to effectively run my connection and power cords through and behind it. The rubber grommets were added to give it a more finished look.

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After a freshwater leak test (glad I did it, as I didn’t have bulkhead completely tight). I was ready to start aquascaping for the floating reef.

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It took a few attempts and some experience with the reef mortar, but I finally got it figured out after a couple of attempts.

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I let it cure for another day and was then finally able to start making some saltwater. The next day, the tank was wet with no leaks.

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The following day, I began dosing with Dr. Tim’s One and Only and his Ammonium chloride. I was able to watch the ammonia rise and fall with the use of the Seneye. Confirmed the readings with a few Red Sea tests.

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My tank did not cycle per Dr. Tim’s “prescription” for a fishless cycle. At Day 9, they indicate that one would be able to get your first fish. My ammonia on Day 9 was sill above 0.200ppm. On Day 13 of the cycle, I was concerned with the still elevated levels of ammonia so I got a bottle of TurboStart 900 from FJW.

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I was hesitant to believe that the ammonia levels would drop enough in a 24 hour period to be ready for fish. By the time 4pm was here, it had fallen more than 0.10ppm and was down to 0.053ppm.

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So with that, I went back to FJW and picked out some of the extremely rare Amphiprion ocellaris to take home.

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I haven’t finished my stocking options, but I do want this to be a SPS heavy/mixed reef. The problem is, I do also like to see a lot of fish. Now that these clowns are in, I was going to let the tank go on “cruise control” for about two weeks before adding the next item. I plan to do 30-40% water change sometime before then.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk late at night; subsequently edited*
 
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