Waterbox 50.3 - The First Reefing Journey

[Gizmoreef]

Well, turns out I lied. I couldn't resist and just had to get her filled up.

I am really surprised by the flow from the Nero 5s. I decided to put RO water in the tank and throw in the salt in the tank to see the salt dust move around in the tank. Seems like my design did a pretty good job.

The reef is angled left front to right back so the waterflow doesn't collide into the rockwork from the beginning and everything behind gets poor flow.

Also started to configure the Apex A3 Pro but only got the temp sensors up as it was almost 2am and I had to get up at like 6.

Going to be very happy when all the cablemess is cleaned up. My desk is a mess with stuff laying around everywhere.

 

[skey44]

I decided to move the Cube 10 into its own build thread as it makes more sense.
You can follow the progress here: https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/waterbox-cube-10-the-softie-sidekick.1078061/

The supports have arrived for the 50.3!
10pm here local so not going to spend a few hours now to get the tank going but hopefully tomorrow I will have some time after work.

Really curious to see how this tank is going to turn out. The Cube has a pretty basic scape but the more I look at the 50.3, the more I like the scape on it. Nice little reef with room for the fish to swim around all the rocks.

Also got to look into getting a quarantine tank going. I have decided that every piece of coral/fish will get QT beforehand and I am considering doing a wide spectrum of preemtive treatments for broad-spectrum diseases. Any opinions on this are very welcome.

Nice looking tank! For QT I personally am doing a simple 14 day QT on fish. Copper Power at 2.0-2.5 the whole time and general cure on day 1 (after fish are settled in and eating so this may take 3 days before I actually start the 14 day countdown) and 7. It’s what I have come up with that seems to be working for me. Of note I use a cycled 29gallon tank (could easily get away with a 20 long) with a lot of biological filtration (inert type eg. Seachem matrix) and flow and pretty much leave the same water running in it besides partial water changes, and frankly have gotten slack on those. I don’t scrub down between fish groups (I would if I encountered a major disease). I utilize pvc pipes for hides There’s a lot of holes in my approach when you do a deep dive, but it’s working for me. Also note some fish (wrasses) do not tolerate these medications well though I did have a flasher wrasse make it through ok, just seemed very stressed when I dosed the general cure.
There are many more comprehensive approaches but I’m finding this works for most general fish disease.
I don’t QT corals yet. I do have a future plan to utilize the resources (mostly time, space, and my wife’s patience) used for fish qt for corals once I have my fish stock list complete. I do put the corals through a rigorous one time process of removing as much of the plug or rock as possible, dipping in bayer complete care and then coral revive, and I also inspect closely and am pretty much only putting aquacultured frags in my tanks. Some hair algae has made it through and I know this isn’t a full proof process but it’s what I can do with the resources I have. I don’t QT inverts but I do scrub any shells with an electric toothbrush. Not a perfect system but so far it’s working for me. I also recently started utilizing a UV sterilizer as an added measure of insurance for my display.

Three fish currently in QT.

 

[Gizmoreef]

Thank you for the feedback!

I'm also not sure what QT approach would be the best. I am pretty occupied often so I want to try and reduce a lot of possible issues as much as possible so I can use my free time to enjoy the tank more than chasing cures, fighting battles or solutions the whole time.

I'm leaning towards a QT with preventive treatments for the more common diseases. Seems like that is the safest choice. Not even dipped my toe in how to do it for corals but that's an issue for later. First I'll try to work it out for the fishes

 

[Gizmoreef]

Some more tank spam.

Cycle isn't very exciting to report on but I can really admire the tank filled up.
I really am SUPER happy the way it looks right now.

Also getting the computer set up step by step. Still got quite a bit of probes and modules to add but getting there.
Still trying to find a good way to guide the cables on the back of the tank.

Also started working on a custom dashboard to control the tank. WIP so still tons of stuff to do but got to start somewhere right?

 

[ZzyzxRiver]

Are those spirorbid worms on the back wall? Personally I sort of love them, they make the back wall look like a starry sky!

 

[Reef_at_Sea]

"2 Kessil lights because they are amazing for the shimmer effect due to LED density"

What exactly do you mean by this?
I have a waterbox 50.3 as well, you can check my build thread for a recent video.

 

[Gizmoreef]

Are those spirorbid worms on the back wall? Personally I sort of love them, they make the back wall look like a starry sky!

Airbubbles haha.

Spirorbid worms? I’ll look it up. Never heard of em.

"2 Kessil lights because they are amazing for the shimmer effect due to LED density"

What exactly do you mean by this?
I have a waterbox 50.3 as well, you can check my build thread for a recent video.

Kessil has a very dense LED matrix so the light doesn’t shatter. It gives a very cool effect. Some people dislike it but I personally love it. Just look up “kessil shimmer” on Youtube!

 

[ZzyzxRiver]

Ha, that was my second guess. Spiroribids are teeny tiny filter feeder hitchhikers; I can tell I’m over feeding when I get a bloom of them. They scrape off flat surfaces easy but they obviously go on your rock too (and snail shells!). I guess they bug some people but they’re just tiny white dots (unless they get way out of control).

 

[Gizmoreef]

New parts arriving today!

I bought a basic quarantine tank, tidal HOB filter, heater and a autoaqua smart touch duo AWC system for it.
Should make it easy to quarantine and do waterchanges quick if necessary.

For the main display, I bought the Neptune Systems auto topoff kit v2.
I know there are many good systems out there but after research I decided I wanted to get the ATK v2.

The reason is this part. Dual optical sensors and a third mechanical failover point. For once the Neptune salespitch is correct: the most advanced ATK system out there.
I will be adding a water level sensor in the main display aswel as it will add more redundancy and is an extra failsafe. If for whatever reason the waterlevel drops in the backchambers, for example mechanical clogging, the return pump pushes the water out of the sump and the ATO might overflow the tank.

A simple line of code like ''if display tank sensor is closed - disable ATO'' which I can combine with the liquid level sensor I'm using in the return chamber right now to pretty much eliminate any sort of failure of the ATO systems. I already have a v2 utility pump from Neptune laying around as I built my own ATO with it before, so I can use that pump as a spare in case the other one breaks.


Also bought the conductivity probe for salinity, which in my opinion was ridiculously expensive at over 200 EUR (220ish dollar).

Tank is coming along nicely now! Technical side of it is getting on point. Very pleased!

 

[Gizmoreef]

Salinity probe added, ATK sensor fitted and re-arranged it a bit so the ATK is middle of the chamber where the waterlevel is most settled for more accurate ATO results.

Pretty happy where it's going. Tomorrow I will add the tubing and get it going.

Also got a basic glass QT tank for fish. Looking for a nano coral frag tank aswel but can't seem to find these in Europe.

 

[Gizmoreef]

Ok I managed to get the ATK up and running, had a bit of spare time on my hands.

Not looking forward to the cable management job. Still need to modify a few things to the desk before I will finalize and reroute pretty much all the cables and lines but atleast the tank is getting established while I finish that (and find a fair amount of time for it)

Final layout with the ATK sensor. Moved a few things around so the optical sensors are where the water is most calm keeping in mind to get the salinity probe also to an area less prone to micro bubbles. Moved the heater to the other side as to not get 'radiation' heat getting picked up by the temp probe.

I also added a displaytank sensor as a failsafe. I had my office flood once, never again.

1. ATK optical sensor one
2. ATK optical sensor two (failsafe 1)
3. Mechanical float (failsafe 2)
4. Sump Level sensor (failsafe 3)
5. Displaytank Level sensor (failsafe 4)

Still reviewing a bit of programming code to make sure and I need to do a few tests but I will keep track of overflow clogging which I had before in freshwater tanks with overflows.
Triggering failsafes results in cutting ATO pump and reducing return pump flowrate so I don't overflow the displaytank.

Also modified a bit further on my custom dashboard I created. I'll probably end up starting from scratch again but it's nice to see what possibilities I can discover.

 

[Gizmoreef]

I need some feedback here.

I really dislike filter socks for multiple reasons. There isn't really a decent roller option for the Waterbox imho.

I did some research on power filters and came up with this:

These should fit the sump chambers for the filter socks.
Fill these with fine filter material and I have a mechanical filtersock that, if clogged, won't change the waterlevel in the return chamber sump.

Sicce Corporate

www.sicce.com

Any opinions on this idea?

 

[Reef_at_Sea]

I need some feedback here.

I really dislike filter socks for multiple reasons. There isn't really a decent roller option for the Waterbox imho.

I did some research on power filters and came up with this:

These should fit the sump chambers for the filter socks.
Fill these with fine filter material and I have a mechanical filtersock that, if clogged, won't change the waterlevel in the return chamber sump.

Sicce Corporate

www.sicce.com

Any opinions on this idea?

I'm starting to despise filter socks as well.
Currently I'm 3D printing 2 media cups wich i can fill with filter floss or other media.
This way i can just put in new floss every day or 2 & throw out the bad floss in the trash, no more cleaning socks!

i'll let you know how it turns out.

 

[Reef_at_Sea]

Some more tank spam.

Cycle isn't very exciting to report on but I can really admire the tank filled up.
I really am SUPER happy the way it looks right now.

Also getting the computer set up step by step. Still got quite a bit of probes and modules to add but getting there.
Still trying to find a good way to guide the cables on the back of the tank.

Also started working on a custom dashboard to control the tank. WIP so still tons of stuff to do but got to start somewhere right?

Make sure to aim a powerhead towards the water surface!

 

[Gizmoreef]

Make sure to aim a powerhead towards the water surface!

You mean the outlet? Could you elaborate?