QOR’s Waterbox 220 Build

[Queenofreef]

Howdy Reefers! Welcome to my first build thread for my third reef tank - the Waterbox 220 Reef Pro.

This tank is significantly larger than my previous tanks (Biocube 29g and IM 40g), and I couldn’t be more excited about my options with this bad boy. I’m going to have my first ever SUMP!! And first non-nano sized fishies!! It hasn’t truly sunken in that this is going to be my new aquarium yet, it still feels like I’m dreaming...

I can’t wait to share the progress of this build with you guys!! Would love to hear any tidbits of advice/experiences you guys may have as well

- day of tank arrival, had to sit in it of course lol


THE EQUIPMENT:

• Display: Waterbox Reef Pro 220.6 (72.3“ x 25.3” x 23.6“)
• Lighting: Radion Gen 5 XR30s blue (4x)
• Skimmer: Nyos Quantum 220
• Return pump: Vectra L2 Pump (Mobius)
• Sump: Waterbox - 39 gallons
• Rock: Real Reef Rock
• Substrate: Caribsea Special Grade
• Powerheads: Vortech MP-40 (4x)
• Heaters: Eheim 150 watt (2x)
• ATO: Tunze Osmolater 3155, Waterbox ATO Reservoir 18.1 gallons
• RO/DI: SpectaPure 90 GPD 4 stage RO/DI
• Doser: Apex DOS pump — unsure whether to actually eventually use, prefer to hand dose but maybe in the future depending (I’m scared of automated equipment!!)
• Controllers: Neptune trident, Apex controller system (only as a safe check, hand dosing and weekly manual water testing until I **maybe** get over my fears)

^ I’m posting weekly updates this tank build as it progresses on my YouTube channel if you want to check that out here

Looking forward to sharing this journey with you guys! ;Happy

 

[Queenofreef]

Another shot of the beauty! It’s pretty much the size of my living room

 

[Queenofreef]

The delivery was so hectic! Barely managed to get this guy in

 

[Queenofreef]

UPDATE: BUILT AQUARIUM STAND...TWICE

I assembled a crew to prepare for battle. Armed with power tools and feelings of existential dread for how the heck they got dragged into helping me with this, we were ready to tackle the beast. We got ready to build the aquarium stand.

Things started off smoothly, as they usually do. The Aqua Studio’s army worked swiftly -- afterall, aquarium stand building was just standard procedure; familiar, but nevertheless painfully miserable for all parties involved. After hours of sweat and choked back anger to agreeing to this charitable stand building mission, the army was nearing the end of battle. And finally, after all of the cursing and hustle-and-bustle, we had reached the final moment...installing the very last side panel.

But as everyone here is aware, I am sure, aquarium stands like to test you when you’re already down. As the final side panel was getting ready to be placed, the drilling holes were not aligning. The aquarium stand mercilessly mocking us. Tossing it up to a misdrilled tank stand component, we let it be and the monstrosity of the Waterbox 220 gallon remained on my living room floor for yet another week.

That is, until Reef Mama (my mother) got word of this news. Taking the first flight in from Chicago, she was ready to tackle the wrath of the beast. The thing about Reef Mama is that she is Romanian and she is an engineer. Those two things taken alone may not mean much but coupled together they are deadly force that hold no bounds—an aquarium stand’s most feared encounter. You see, Reef Mama is more than familiar with the CNC machine. To her, the possibility of a miss-drilled side panel was absolute blasphemy. As the daughter of said engineer, to even suggest that the stand could even possibly be miss-drilled brought shame to the family name.

So, naturally, she took the stand apart. Yes, you read that correctly. She tore down the entire stand...completely. What seemed like decades of misery and gloom building that retched thing gone at the hand of her screwdriver within the hour. And just as you would expect of a Romanian engineer with her mind set on something, she set off rebuilding it.

But alas, even a Romanian engineer can sometimes forget just how powerful the despair an aquarium stand is capable of. Can you guess what happened? Yep, turns out it was a mispackaged side panel all along.

Long story short, I placed a claim and Waterbox overnight shipped a replacement side panel, so Reef Mama did finally conquer the beast in the end. A few days later I brought back the army and we managed to place the tank on top of the stand (tanks are much friendlier than the stands they sit on that’s for sure). Overall, the tank is stunning and is truly the centerpiece of my living room now.

Anyway, friendly reminder to never underestimate the headache of aquarium stand building.

Here’s a video of how we put together this thing:

 

[MERKEY]

Well hello and welcome to R2R!

Great videos and updates, get some water in that bad boy!!!

 

[Queenofreef]

Well hello and welcome to R2R!

Great videos and updates, get some water in that bad boy!!!

Thanks!! I hope to soon Even after all of these years of reefing, still no patient bone in my body but I’m trying my best not to rush the process haha

 

[MERKEY]

Thanks!! I hope to soon Even after all of these years of reefing, still no patient bone in my body but I’m trying my best not to rush the process haha

Patience is so hard to come by in this hobby hahahah

We have the same tank and love it. What are you planning livestock wise?

 

[Queenofreef]

Patience is so hard to come by in this hobby hahahah

We have the same tank and love it. What are you planning livestock wise?

Good question!! i’m SO pumped for the fish possibilities with this build

I’ve only ever had 29g and 40g reefs so my fish choices were limited and I’ve always just focused on corals. Kind of lost with all the stocking possibilities and what fish can be housed together so it’s a bit overwhelming hahah

 

[Queenofreef]

Patience is so hard to come by in this hobby hahahah

We have the same tank and love it. What are you planning livestock wise?

Coral wise, I have a pretty severe case of acro fever but also love a good euphyilla garden so naturally have to make it mixed ;Shamefullyembarrased will be fun playing around with flow in this thing

 

[Miguel Negron]

Can’t wait to see the colorful corals!

 

[Queenofreef]

Here she is in all her glory!

 

[Miguel Negron]

The dog makes the picture lol

 

[Queenofreef]

The dog makes the picture lol

Doggo approved

 

[Bleigh]

Welcome to R2R! I can't wait to get a bigger tank in my house!

 

[Queenofreef]

Welcome to R2R! I can't wait to get a bigger tank in my house!

Found your build thread on your 60 gallon!! Congrats on your acro growth That’s one thing I’m for sure excited about with this new build, keeping sps in a small tank has been exhausting haha. Any future plans to go larger??

 

[Bleigh]

Found your build thread on your 60 gallon!! Congrats on your acro growth That’s one thing I’m for sure excited about with this new build, keeping sps in a small tank has been exhausting haha. Any future plans to go larger??

Heck yeah! I am wanting to do a 300-400 gallon. I have a few house projects that need to be done first. Just purchased new windows for the entire house... suppose to be installed in December, and I have a pool company coming to give me some quotes at the end of this month... once that is all settled, the tank upgrade will be my top priority.

Cant' wait to see your acros!

 

[naked_dog_reefer]

Howdy Reefers! Welcome to my first build thread for my third reef tank - the Waterbox 220 Reef Pro.

This tank is significantly larger than my previous tanks (Biocube 29g and IM 40g), and I couldn’t be more excited about my options with this bad boy. I’m going to have my first ever SUMP!! And first non-nano sized fishies!! It hasn’t truly sunken in that this is going to be my new aquarium yet, it still feels like I’m dreaming...

I can’t wait to share the progress of this build with you guys!! Would love to hear any tidbits of advice/experiences you guys may have as well

- day of tank arrival, had to sit in it of course lol


THE EQUIPMENT:

• Display: Waterbox Reef Pro 220.6 (72.3“ x 25.3” x 23.6“)
• Lighting: Radion Gen 5 XR30s blue (4x)
• Skimmer: Nyos Quantum 220
• Return pump: Vectra L2 Pump (Mobius)
• Sump: Waterbox - 39 gallons
• Rock: Real Reef Rock
• Substrate: Caribsea Special Grade
• Powerheads: Vortech MP-40 (4x)
• Heaters: Eheim 150 watt (2x)
• ATO: Tunze Osmolater 3155, Waterbox ATO Reservoir 18.1 gallons
• RO/DI: SpectaPure 90 GPD 4 stage RO/DI
• Doser: Apex DOS pump — unsure whether to actually eventually use, prefer to hand dose but maybe in the future depending (I’m scared of automated equipment!!)
• Controllers: Neptune trident, Apex controller system (only as a safe check, hand dosing and weekly manual water testing until I **maybe** get over my fears)

^ I’m posting weekly updates this tank build as it progresses on my YouTube channel if you want to check that out here

Looking forward to sharing this journey with you guys! ;Happy

Welcome

Howdy Reefers! Welcome to my first build thread for my third reef tank - the Waterbox 220 Reef Pro.

This tank is significantly larger than my previous tanks (Biocube 29g and IM 40g), and I couldn’t be more excited about my options with this bad boy. I’m going to have my first ever SUMP!! And first non-nano sized fishies!! It hasn’t truly sunken in that this is going to be my new aquarium yet, it still feels like I’m dreaming...

I can’t wait to share the progress of this build with you guys!! Would love to hear any tidbits of advice/experiences you guys may have as well

- day of tank arrival, had to sit in it of course lol


THE EQUIPMENT:

• Display: Waterbox Reef Pro 220.6 (72.3“ x 25.3” x 23.6“)
• Lighting: Radion Gen 5 XR30s blue (4x)
• Skimmer: Nyos Quantum 220
• Return pump: Vectra L2 Pump (Mobius)
• Sump: Waterbox - 39 gallons
• Rock: Real Reef Rock
• Substrate: Caribsea Special Grade
• Powerheads: Vortech MP-40 (4x)
• Heaters: Eheim 150 watt (2x)
• ATO: Tunze Osmolater 3155, Waterbox ATO Reservoir 18.1 gallons
• RO/DI: SpectaPure 90 GPD 4 stage RO/DI
• Doser: Apex DOS pump — unsure whether to actually eventually use, prefer to hand dose but maybe in the future depending (I’m scared of automated equipment!!)
• Controllers: Neptune trident, Apex controller system (only as a safe check, hand dosing and weekly manual water testing until I **maybe** get over my fears)

^ I’m posting weekly updates this tank build as it progresses on my YouTube channel if you want to check that out here

Looking forward to sharing this journey with you guys! ;Happy

Welcome to R2R!!!! Bigger tanks take a little while to get used to but are way easier in my opinion as far as stability goes

 

[Queenofreef]

Heck yeah! I am wanting to do a 300-400 gallon. I have a few house projects that need to be done first. Just purchased new windows for the entire house... suppose to be installed in December, and I have a pool company coming to give me some quotes at the end of this month... once that is all settled, the tank upgrade will be my top priority.

Cant' wait to see your acros!

Woah that’s an exciting build! Can’t even imagine owning a tank of that size ;Shamefullyembarrased Looking forward to seeing how that gets up and running one day!!

 

[Queenofreef]

Welcome

Welcome to R2R!!!! Bigger tanks take a little while to get used to but are way easier in my opinion as far as stability goes

It’s going to be an odd transition, not really sure what to expect! I’m so used to the small/nano tank daily stress over stability it’s going to be weird having it be ”easier”? Hopefully it doesn’t get boring, kind of sickly enjoy the challenges of stability in our water keeping haha

....but the tangs ;Happy

 

[Queenofreef]

Nothing rocks about staring at a brand new, dry and empty aquarium. My lack of patience has been seriously testing me recently and my sanity has been on the rocks. I just want to hurry up and rock the boat already with getting water in this thing, but sadly, there a few stepping stones I must take first. But not to quarry fellow reefers, we are one step closer— my shipment from Real Reef Rock has finally arrived!! 90lb of shelf rock and 70 lb of regular real reef rock has made it to my garage, and we are now ready to rock and roll on getting this aquascape built

Ok terrible rock puns aside before I erode our friendship here, I’m really excited to start playing with this. One step closer.....