Diederik's Waterbox Cube 10 Nano Build

[Diederik]

Hello everyone,

After struggling for over a decade with a high light, co2 injected planted freshwater tank, I have finally managed to make it a succes this year. Plants are growing, colors are amazing, fish are happy and it is mostly algae free. Besides a weekly waterchange with remineralized RODI water, it is basically running itself. But me being so used to the struggles made me ready for the next challenge. So I have decided for a Waterbox Cube 10 gallon, how hard can a nano be?

Since saltwater aquarium shops aren't plentiful in the Netherlands, I made quite the drive to purchase all the equipment. For corals I am mainly going to rely on fellow hobbyists, since lifestock can be very expensive in the shops.

Equipment:
Tank: Waterbox Cube 10
Light: Red Sea Reefled 50, currently running at 18% blue, 2% white for 9 hours a day.
Return pump: Aquamedic dc runner 1.3, dual VCA Random Flow Generator
ATO: Red Sea ReefATO+
Test kits: Salifert for KH, NO3, Calcium and Magnesium. Hanna Salinity Checker and Hanna Phosphate ULR. Plus cheap refractometer for good measure.
Salt: Tropic Marin Pro Reef
Rock: 4 kg Marco Rocks
Sand: Caribsea Special Grade
Filtration: DIY filter media basket with filter floss to replace the filtersock. Porous filter media for biological filtration, I used Aquario neo media pure. It is made for freshwater, but so far it looks like it is working.

Current lifestock:
1x Trochus snail
2x Scarlet hermit crabs
2x Nassarius snail

19x Zoanthids, including Rastas, Pink Zippers, Utter Chaos, Magicians, Blueberry pie and Alien antivenom
4x Ricordea

FTS. 1 sept. 2023

The aquascape consists of two pieces of Marco Foundation rock, directly on the bottom glass to prevent shifting later on. The upper parts are made of broken up pieces of Marco rock, glued together with superglue covered in rockdust. I tried to make different levels, shaded places and places directly under the light. Some of the arches are connected, some aren't. At first I liked the look, but after purchasing my first corals I realised I don't actually have that much real estate. Or maybe I have enough, just not enough to house 19 different zoanthids. I keep running into nicer and nicer looking specimens and I just can't help myself not buying. So I made a custom frag rack out of Tunze Care Magnet Pico and a piece of black acrylic I had left over from the media basket.

DIY frag rack already full.

Ricordea garden in the making.

Not bad for a cellphone camera and a clip on orange filter

One of my favorites, it looks a bit more red under the blue lights though. 15 euro, not bad.

So the tank has been running for two months now, everything is going smooth for as far as I can tell. I have a bit of algae growth here and there.
Already had some aiptasia growing on two fragplugs. After removing the frags from the plugs and glueing them to new rocks, I haven't seen any new aiptasia. So with some luck it stays that way (probably not).

Right now my water isn't very clear for a new FTS. As soon as it clears up I will follow up with a new FTS.

Thanks for reading!

 

[Gumbies R Us]

Love the aquascape design!

 

[dawi03]

what fish do you plan on stocking?

 

[krayzie]

beautiful scape! How is your tank looking after a few months?

how did you plumb your aqua medic 1.3 to the bulk head? Do you have any photos or parts lists?

 

[Diederik]

Thank you! The scape is still a work in progress and probably always will be. I already had to reinforce the structure a few times on different places, this time using coral epoxy hopefully for a more solid bond.

With what this tank will be stocked, I still haven't decided yet. Since it will probably only hold 1 or 2 fish, I want to pick the right one. Small size, decent colors and interesting behavior. I would love to have a dragonet, but I know it is probably not possible in this size tank nor a tank of this maturity. So maybe a pistol shrimp and goby pair. Perhaps some sexy shrimp, when I have a guard for the overflow. They will probably go right through the slots.

I have setup a phytoplankton reactor and I am culturing tigerpods, so if I figure out how to daily auto dose live copepods I can give a dragonet a try in a few months. If it doesn't eat I will have to return it to the store.

The Aqua Medic 1.3 is connected to the original hose and bulk head. I used a Eheim hose connector I had laying around, since the pump doesn't come with any fittings. It has on both ends 16/22 mm hose connectors. The original hose is a tight fit though. The end that connects to the pump I had to modify. I cut it shorter and sanded it down for a tight fit inside the pump connector

Original connector, original hose with modified Eheim connector and pump
It is a great pump, dead silent and has fine adjustments in power. The app could be better. Hope this helps.