My "Free Is Good" Waterbox Marine X 90.3

[justdeb1107]

On the back end of one of the most aggravating weeks ever, I got a call from one of my longtime besties. She, her daughter, and her son-in-law were out to dinner and were discussing him putting his 3-year-old Waterbox on Marketplace. But because I'm apparently God's favorite (hahaha), my name came up. Instead of putting it up for sale, he offered it to me FREE. As in, free FREE.

Did I technically *need* a new tank? Of course. lol

Before sanity could restore its grip on Josh, I said, "Yes, please, I'll come tomorrow!!!" So it began.

It came with all of the things, including an Apex and Trident, etc., etc. These are pics at the system's former owner's home. I did a quick tally and realized this was a $7k system. I am lucky, but usually not *this* lucky. He also threw in every single thing pertaining to the hobby: Hanna testers, coral food, extra reagents, CO2 scrubber, you name it.

 

[justdeb1107]

As with all used systems, it required a bit of scrubbing and polishing to get it back on track. Still, it wasn't nearly as bad as my used 210. Only problem I had was cleaning day was over 90 degrees outside. I was out there until after sunset, but I knew I would only get one chance to clean it before setup, and it needed to be right.

 

[justdeb1107]

Just about every single thing in this system is automated, which meant it had some sort of controller thingie to house. Quickly determining the cabinet provided was too small for all of the gadgets, I ordered a new one off Amazon. (So much for free...) Unfortunately, the back of it was cardboard. Couldn't mount anything on that, so I decided to cut out part of the smaller cabinet and attach it to the back of the new cabinet. From there, I started attaching gray and orange thingies everywhere. I know everyone loves to gripe about Apex, but I honestly LOVE the one I got for my bigger tank. Don't judge.

 

[justdeb1107]

This was taking forever because I had to keep googling owner's manuals for every component, so I sold my 32 gallon a BioCube (the end of an era, RIP).

Making a pickup appointment with its new owners gave me a deadline, so I spent a few evenings into the early morning hours putting everything together. Josh had given me a cable management system (that he'd never used), and I was determined to make everything look as neat as possible. That's all fine and dandy until you realize one of those cords you crammed with nine other cords into the cable rails needed to come back out. Spoiler alert: it's always the one on the bottom. This part took F.O.R.E.V.E.R. But an electrician would faint dead away if they looked in my 210 gallon stand. I only shocked myself a couple of times with that stuff. Scout's honor.

This pic is the clean version of the back of the cabinet, and not even all the wires yet. One of my buddies commented that it takes a lot of power to play God with a glass box of ocean. He's not wrong.

 

[justdeb1107]

It just so happened that the Chattanooga Reefstock show was that weekend. I was completely restrained in my purchases, of course. Hmm, free tank is getting less free by the minute.

 

[justdeb1107]

Then, YAY, water day arrived. Now I am one of those people who post a pic of their boring, moonscape tank with just a couple of rocks in it. Whoops. Obviously, I'm going with a negative space aquascape look, but already planned to make caves in the back for the fish to enjoy. All the BioCube rock was used, plus some live rock I'd had percolating in a bucket with a heater and powerhead since May. It had come with the big system off Marketplace.

 

[justdeb1107]

The folks came to pick up the BioCube. It will be their first salt tank. I warned them a BioCube is a gateway drug, gave them 5 pages of notes, and a bunch of free stuff (like duplicate Hanna testers that came with the Waterbox) to pay it forward, so to speak. I even threw in all the coralline algae on the back wall free of charge. haha

My two fish (the gem tang that had been in there for observation since early July and a flame angel) were in a bucket, so I transferred all the live rock to the new tank (some in the display, some in the sump), poured in some Dr. Tim's One and Only, a confused hermit crab, and PRAYED. The gem was a risk, but I also put a little Prime in, as well as 30 gallons of tank water from my 210 system as starter. Figured this new tank's bacteria needed a small amount of nutrients to kickstart things. Also figured it was no worse than putting her in a sterile QT and watching the numbers. Three days later, no ill effects whatsoever. My live rock and gently used tank water have done the trick. I also threw a few hardy corals in because the tank looked so darn barren. They're all happy, so I must have done something right.

 

[justdeb1107]

My mind cannot comprehend all the ways to change the AI Prime lights on their app. My Chinese black boxes are a million times easier to schedule, albeit I'm sure they're not as good. I had the moonlight channel running 24/7 at 12% somehow, so I figured out how to download light schedules from other people. The first one I tried was Saxby's. It looked so darn blue all day. Then I downloaded one from Pennywise. It's not as bad, but also pretty blue. I keep my other tank more on the blue side, but this is too much. Will still need to work on that. Bummer.

 

[justdeb1107]

I decided to be cute, and put my Trident into one of those 3D printed mini covers. Thought I had everything fine, but keep getting the dreaded, "No Water Sample" message. It was about 2 a.m. when I was trying to fix this, so I gave up for the day. Luckily, when I got back to it the next day, it was just a pinched sample line. Apparently, it was stuck in the electrical rail I'd run it through. Obviously, it needs to settle in and then I will calibrate it in 48 hours or so.

 

[justdeb1107]

Despite the fact that I still need to figure out the MP40 and mount the shelf for my other doser, the pure neatness of this setup gives me joy. My other one was thrown together with absolutely zero knowledge. The extra work it took to route my wiring and actually plan it all out paid off. I am pretty happy with how the sump and equipment cabinet is organized.

 

[justdeb1107]

Official tank mascot, crocheted for me by my daughter.

 

[justdeb1107]

Setup Includes:
Waterbox Marine X 90.3 (60 gallon MD)
2 Klir Fleece Roller Filters
Dalua GW-7 Great White Protein Skimmer
Apex EL
Neptune Trident (housed in 3D printed mini case to save space)
DOS Doser (original)
Apex COR-20 return pump (1,400 GPH)
Vortech MP40 wave maker
Two AI Prime 16HD lights
CO2 scrubber
Aqua Medic Doser

First Inhabitants:
Gemma, our Gem Tang
Flame Angel
and rando blue legged hermit

Already evicted: straggler asterina starfish

Don't come at me, Tang police. I bought the gem not fully realizing how badly the powder blue and purple tangs in my 210 would try to obliterate her. She's been in a smaller observation tank for 2 months with zero signs of stress, happily bossing her angelfish tank mate. If she seemed stressed in this tank, I would risk adding her to the big system, but she isn't.

 

[Theo1203]

On the back end of one of the most aggravating weeks ever, I got a call from one of my longtime besties. She, her daughter, and her son-in-law were out to dinner and were discussing him putting his 3-year-old Waterbox on Marketplace. But because I'm apparently God's favorite (hahaha), my name came up. Instead of putting it up for sale, he offered it to me FREE. As in, free FREE.

Did I technically *need* a new tank? Of course. lol

Before sanity could restore its grip on Josh, I said, "Yes, please, I'll come tomorrow!!!" So it began.

It came with all of the things, including an Apex and Trident, etc., etc. These are pics at the system's former owner's home. I did a quick tally and realized this was a $7k system. I am lucky, but usually not *this* lucky. He also threw in every single thing pertaining to the hobby: Hanna testers, coral food, extra reagents, CO2 scrubber, you name it.

On the back end of one of the most aggravating weeks ever, I got a call from one of my longtime besties. She, her daughter, and her son-in-law were out to dinner and were discussing him putting his 3-year-old Waterbox on Marketplace. But because I'm apparently God's favorite (hahaha), my name came up. Instead of putting it up for sale, he offered it to me FREE. As in, free FREE.

Did I technically *need* a new tank? Of course. lol

Before sanity could restore its grip on Josh, I said, "Yes, please, I'll come tomorrow!!!" So it began.

It came with all of the things, including an Apex and Trident, etc., etc. These are pics at the system's former owner's home. I did a quick tally and realized this was a $7k system. I am lucky, but usually not *this* lucky. He also threw in every single thing pertaining to the hobby: Hanna testers, coral food, extra reagents, CO2 scrubber, you name it.

Hi!! Oh my gosh I am soo jealous that you got all this for free. I have a question! I also have the exact same tank with a skimmer that is rated for aquariums bigger than the Marine X 90.3. So I was wondering, what skimmer are you running on this tank, and does it work well when it comes to its size?