Criticize my Waterbox 20 - SPS Build Proposal

[maxinf]

Dear community, I had my Cube with great success for a year and a half, until my 2 sons were born and had to take a pause.

This time I want to go SPS Dominant with bare bottom and a lot of lessons learned. Would love some feedback, specially regarding coral placement to see if it will work out.

Many thanks


My build:

• Tank: 20 gallon Waterbox AIO 17.7" length x 14.6" depth x 15.7" height Display
  • Light: Kessil A360X Tuna Blue + Narrow Reflector mounted at 6" above water.
  • Flow: 2x MP10
• Water
  • Salt. Tropic Marin Pro Reef Salt.
  • Water. Aquaticlife RO/DI Buddie and Auto topoff
  • Dosing. Not sure yet if necessary.
• Filtration
  • Skimmer: Icecap k1 Nano
  • Biological: First Chamber with 3-Media Basket (Intank filter floss, Seachem Matrix and Chemi Pure Blue) Second Chamber Bioballs
  • Refugium: Not sure, but in the future might install an Eshopps CUBE Nano Refugium Sump
  • Sand: bare bottom
  • Rock: Marcos
  • Reactor: IM MiniMax Reactor with BRS Bulk GFO - High Capacity

My scape:

My idea of coral placement:

 

[ReefStable]

Overall, seems like a well thought out system! Personally, I would put the matrix in the refugium. That would give pods more places to hide and grow, and it would work the same. But if you like the clean fuge look, then the media basket works well.

Great job on your design and thoughtfulness!

 

[ReefingDreams]

Nix the GFO. More harm than good in such a small tank. Also consider dissing kalk when you need to start that.

 

[Macbalacano]

Welcome back! Super exciting build!

I have a Waterbox 15 AIO and just a couple of thoughts from my experience so far:

- GFO works well for me, but I’d say only drop it in once you know you need it based on your PO4 levels. I don’t run mine in a reactor. It’s just in a media bag. I only have 2 clowns and I don’t feed corals currently. My levels stabilized at 0.05ppm.

- 2 MP10s may be overkill for the size. I had a really hard time rightsizing a wave maker as the ones I tried at first were way too powerful and they still weren’t as powerful as MP10s.

- I do not run a skimmer or fuge. I have trouble maintaining detectable nitrates. I do have a little algae in the tank so I know I have some nitrates for sure.

- With SPS in that size of tank, it’s very likely you’ll need to dose. I didn’t want to either at first. I wanted to just keep it up with weekly water changes. I ended up having to hand dose and after doing that for a month, I ended up getting a kamoer single head doser and I am dosing All For Reef.

- Love your scape!

More details in my build thread. Looking forward to seeing yours soon!

 

[Gumbies R Us]

Dear community, I had my Cube with great success for a year and a half, until my 2 sons were born and had to take a pause.

This time I want to go SPS Dominant with bare bottom and a lot of lessons learned. Would love some feedback, specially regarding coral placement to see if it will work out.

Many thanks


My build:

• Tank: 20 gallon Waterbox AIO 17.7" length x 14.6" depth x 15.7" height Display
  • Light: Kessil A360X Tuna Blue + Narrow Reflector mounted at 6" above water.
  • Flow: 2x MP10
• Water
  • Salt. Tropic Marin Pro Reef Salt.
  • Water. Aquaticlife RO/DI Buddie and Auto topoff
  • Dosing. Not sure yet if necessary.
• Filtration
  • Skimmer: Icecap k1 Nano
  • Biological: First Chamber with 3-Media Basket (Intank filter floss, Seachem Matrix and Chemi Pure Blue) Second Chamber Bioballs
  • Refugium: Not sure, but in the future might install an Eshopps CUBE Nano Refugium Sump
  • Sand: bare bottom
  • Rock: Marcos
  • Reactor: IM MiniMax Reactor with BRS Bulk GFO - High Capacity

My scape:

My idea of coral placement:

Nice looking aquascape!

 

[maxinf]

Thank you community for all the tips and compliments. I have a couple questions

Nix the GFO. More harm than good in such a small tank. Also consider dissing kalk when you need to start that.

Could you elaborate? why GFO could harm the tank? also, when would be the appropriate time to dose Kalkwasser? I'm asuming that when coral growth/demand is high enough but I wanted to make sure.

I have a Waterbox 15 AIO and just a couple of thoughts from my experience so far:

very impressive nano! you coral selection is amazing. Also I will start researching dosing pumps.

 

[ReefingDreams]

Thank you community for all the tips and compliments. I have a couple questions




Could you elaborate? why GFO could harm the tank? also, when would be the appropriate time to dose Kalkwasser? I'm asuming that when coral growth/demand is high enough but I wanted to make sure.



very impressive nano! you coral selection is amazing. Also I will start researching dosing pumps.

GFO can bottom out your PO4 pretty quickly, especially in a small volume of water. It also actively strips trace elements out of your water, which will be more pronounced in such a small volume of water.

For kalk, when your alk demand surpasses your ability to moderate it with water changes. This will happen sooner than you think, so be ready. It's an alternative to 2-part dosing. You probably won't need to worry much about magnesium dosing for quite a while as long as you keep up woth a regular water change schedule.