Waterbox 220 build thread, fully automated

NewReefer42 · Feb 5, 2022

Haven't updated this thread in a while because of all the death. Between August and about December I suffered a lot of death: snails, crabs, shrimp, nems, coral, and fish. I couldn't explain it and quite frankly it was depressing, so I took some time off. Algae took over the tank a little bit, and I basically just did minimal life maintenance for the few nems and inverts that survived. Now, however, I feel like I have turned a new leaf. I have been actively fighting algae, more carefully and frequently monitoring parameters, updating dosing schedules accordingly etc. I also added a 3rd DI resin chamber to the RODI system because I was finding that 2 was expiring too quickly for me to get to given my life schedule, so this will buy me more time without a TDS creep risk. I also added an additional RO filter to increase product water ratio and save a little water, and make it faster. I plan on making a new video on that soon. I also have been buying, QTn, and treating fish and coral, so as of now the tank contains 1 Desjardini, 1 small scopas, and 1 small blue tang. I currently have a foxface in QT. I have 4 frags in my frag QT tank from Boom corals, and a small handful, (maybe 12) in the display, of which most are doing really well. SPS encrusting, LPS colored up and fluffy, etc. Pics to come soon, and hopefully more frequent updates to this thread. The only major thing that concerns me is that at the top of my rockwork my par values are around 150-160, with the XR15s all at 100%. I'm a little concerned I may need some XR30s, or a SKy or some more light. For now, I'm going to let it ride and see how things go, but at the bottom of the tank the par is only like 50-100, so I'm not sure what to do about that yet.

NewReefer42 · Feb 12, 2022

Cleaned out my NSW mixing container today, before and after pics. I THINK this container has only ever seen Tropic Marin salt, so, well, there's that. Also moved four frags from Boom corals into the display. Foxface in QT is doing well. Few pics.

NewReefer42 · Feb 15, 2022

Quick vid from last night. Sorry R2R upload issues. Will try again later.

NewReefer42 · Mar 20, 2022

Add my two hydra 26 HDs to the system today bc there just wasn't enough par. I think I'm going to do 1 par per day increase, with jumps every 10 days, trying to get to 300 par at the tip of the rockwork. Lights are super ugly, but I ain't paying $950 for XR30s that were 800 a year ago. This'll work for now.

NewReefer42 · May 2, 2022

BRS had XR30s on "sale" for 15% off, bringing them back down to the normal $800 price, so I bought one to see the impact on my par. Also, since my electronics cabinet was a mess and didn't work out like I had planned, I decided to redo that. So, this weekend I spent many hours measuring, cutting, painting, and then undoing and redoing all my electronics, which was a huge PITA. I'm not 100% done because I need a few mounting brackets for the MP drivers and FMM module, but its in much better shape now, plus the power bricks for the XRs and MPs are better aligned for better airflow, so hopefully that will help. Also installed the XR30 and measured the par, and so far its a HUGE increase. At 60% I have like 300 at the rocktops, 400 on the leftmost upper platform, which is nice because now I can run the XR15 to its left at less than 100%, right now I bumped it down to 90% to try to not institute too much of a change at once. Also, the XR30 only pulls about 130W, which is nice. However, I have to say, I hate the Mobius app. It is cumbersome, not intuitive, and very difficult to harmonize spectra among lights. Perhaps I'm doing it wrong, but because I had 1 XR30 with an XR15 buddy (left side), and two XR15s (right side), I had to make two "groups" and then mess with each group separately. luckily my spectrum right now is just "all channels to 100%" so it was easy, but why the **** isn't there a "do AB+ spectrum" or similar. If it exists, its not obvious to use. Anyway, corals are doing great, have a batch of inverts in QT (emerald crab, fire shrimp, 10 snails), and a few frags in QT system.

NewReefer42 · May 26, 2022

I updated my automatic auto top off and AWC system video:
Moved over 10 snails and a blood shrimp (I think it was) into display yesterday after 30 day QT.

Picked up a naso tang which is now in QT.

NewReefer42 · Jul 1, 2022

Welp, the naso made it out of QT! I put him in an acclimation box to see if there'd be skirmishes w the sailfin or scopas, and they didn't give a ****. After like 30 minutes I released him into the tank. (I didn't drip acclimate him to display water because I keep QT and display at same parameters with same salt). About 2-3 minutes of sailfin inflating his fin and that was it, best frens now. It's been about a week or so now and still no issues, all is well. No fish in QT right now, but I did pick up a small oregon tort frag from LFS, and a RBT, which are in coral QT.