Waterbox Marine AIO 40.2 Build (by ingchr1)

[ingchr1]

Setting up my first reef tank, a Waterbox Marine AIO 40.2. The last tank I had was about 20 years ago and was a 55 gallon fish only. I selected an AIO since the location I have for the tank will not accommodate any other cabinets for housing supplies and electronics. The footprint of the area is ~30” x 24”, so a tank with a sump would not have left much room in the stand for housing these other items. The location is in the dining room and adjacent to the kitchen. I could have used the kitchen cabinet on the other side of the wall from the tank (made a pass through the wall), but ended up ruling that idea out.

I went with the Waterbox 40.2 for the dimensions and their tanks seem like a good value for the quality. I did get the tank during their Blue Monday event. I actually got most of my equipment through Black Friday sales, along with a few items from the for sale section of the forum. I considered several other tanks and used a spreadsheet for comparison. I also used the spreadsheet for equipment selection and on-going cost tracking.

Here are the major components of the build:

Tank: Waterbox Marine AIO 40.2
Stand: Waterbox Black
Lighting: GHL Mitras LX7 with Flex Mount
Controller: GHL Profilux P4
Power Heads: Tunze 6040 (x2)
Heaters: Eheim Trutemp 125W (primary) Eheim Trutemp 125W (backup) (Post on initial heater change) (Post on final heater change)
Backup Heater Controller: Cobalt Neo-Stat The P4 (Post on final heater change)
Cooling: GHL PropellerBreeze II (3 fan)
Skimmer: Tunze 9004 DC
ATO: Tunze Osmolator
Aquascape: Marcorocks Shelfscape 30, plus an additional small foundation rock
Sand: Caribsea Special Grade 20lbs

Here is how I sized up the location; the box was 20” x 24”:

Here is the tank in place:

 

[ingchr1]

The chamber layout I'm going to try is (left to right from the front):

Chamber 1: Stock filter sock
Chamber 2: GHL Probes
Chamber 3 (middle): Heaters, dual return pumps and ATO
Chamber 4: Skimmer and Neo-Stat Probe
Chamber 5: Stock filter sock

 

[ingchr1]

To run dual pumps I made this from hardware store PVC (changed to black Locline: Black Locline Post). The tubing supplied with the tank was long enough to cut in half and run to each of the pumps. This does take up a lot of real estate in the chamber, but I do have room for both of the heaters.

 

[ingchr1]

The Waterbox stand is open in the back. So I had to make a couple of braces for the Flex Mount. I used 1 x 4 and spray painted it black. I was originally going to mount the light from the side of the stand, since I though the light itself would look better long ways, but I didn't like how the mount looked on the side. It threw off the look of the tank.

 

[ingchr1]

For the aquascape I'm using Marcorocks ShelfScape 30 package. I added a small foundation piece and ended up not using two of the shelf rocks that came with the package. I bought some Epo Putty just incase the rocks needed some bonding, but did not use any of it. These rocks really lock together nicely and are stable.

I have moved the rocks some what, as they were too close to the glass for cleaning.

Right now I'm filling the tank and have added the sand. The tank is very cloudy and about half way full. My RO/DI makes about a gallon of DI an hour.

 

[ingchr1]

Here is my water station. I have a RO/DI unit from Air, Water & Ice. It's their Hurricane Dual Home Reef 75GPD. I've actually had the unit for several years as I use RO for home brewing. I bought this one with the DI knowing I was going to have a tank down the road.

For water containers I'm using 8 gallon buckets from my local home brew store. They comfortably hold 5 gallons or so. I plan on keeping one filled with DI and the other with saltwater. I'm also using a old heater and power head (previously used for reverse flow under gravel) to mix the saltwater. The water source is from a y-adapter at the spigot for the washing machine.

 

[ingchr1]

Upon filling the tank I realized my plan to run the ATO in the second chamber will not work. Due to the baffling of the chambers the level remains constant in all but the middle chamber. I need to get the ATO into the middle chamber, but with the Flex Mount there's no room for the magnet to mount the Tunze ATO sensors. Having two pumps and two heaters also takes up a good deal of space in the chamber.

While reading the Tunze ATO manual I noticed that they have a universal mount (Support for Osmolator). I think I have enough room to mount the sensor on one side of the Flex Mount and the safety float on the other. The only place I could find this was directly through Tunze in Germany. I ordered one and it should be here in a week or two.

Here's how the mount works:

Here's what I have to work with:

 

[mrkjeezy]

Very Nice build! Any reason why you converted into dual returns?

 

[ingchr1]

Very Nice build! Any reason why you converted into dual returns?

Thank you

I wanted two pumps for redundancy. If one fails then there will still be return flow. I plan on having one powered via the P4 Powerbar and the other just a normal power strip.

I don't have the P4 setup yet. The stand doesn't have any shelves. I just ordered a couple of rollout shelves that I'm waiting on.

 

[ingchr1]

The tank is now full, took 31 gallons.

 

[Hella_Reef]

The tank is now full, took 31 gallons.

Looking good

 

[ingchr1]

Looking good

Thank you

 

[Tuffyyyyy]

Love it! Love how high you went with your 'scape. One of my peeves is when the aquascape only takes up 1/3 of the tank.

 

[ingchr1]

Love it! Love how high you went with your 'scape. One of my peeves is when the aquascape only takes up 1/3 of the tank.

Thank you, it's around 2/3.

 

[Hella_Reef]

11/16ths [emoji6]

 

[ingchr1]

So I had to increase the size of my heater. I had 125W Eheim Jager Trutemp and temperature in the tank maxed out at 77F with the heater continuously on. I was concerned that this left no margin. I now have 150W Cobalt Neo-Therm, which is getting the job done. I didn't go with the 150W Ehiem because of the length, the Neo-Therm fits a lot better. I'm using the Eheim has the backup. For reference, the temperature in my house is between 64F and 68F. It's 64F when we are not at home and at night.

 

[ingchr1]

With the back wall of the tank not being completely black, it's more of a smoke where you can see into the back chambers, I was not happy with how visible the white PVC on the returns was. So I changed it out to black Locline.

 

[new2reefin]

Following along. Your setup looks great.

 

[ingchr1]

Following along. Your setup looks great.

Thank you

 

[ingchr1]

Upon filling the tank I realized my plan to run the ATO in the second chamber will not work. Due to the baffling of the chambers the level remains constant in all but the middle chamber. I need to get the ATO into the middle chamber, but with the Flex Mount there's no room for the magnet to mount the Tunze ATO sensors. Having two pumps and two heaters also takes up a good deal of space in the chamber.

While reading the Tunze ATO manual I noticed that they have a universal mount (Support for Oscmolator). I think I have enough room to mount the sensor on one side of the Flex Mount and the safety float on the other. The only place I could find this was directly through Tunze in Germany. I ordered one and it should be here in a week or two.

Here's how the mount works:

Here's what I have to work with:

I received the universal mounts from Tunze and they worked out perfectly for the space I had to work with. I really like them. Apparently they don't sell many and keep only one in stock, so I had to wait until their stock was replenished. Tunze has provided me with excellent customer support.

Here are the two mounts, one has the optical sensor and the other the safety sensor. I also have the fill there. A lot of stuff packed into the center rear chamber, with the redundant pumps and heaters.

For an ATO container I'm using a Reliance 2.5 gallon Aqua-Pak (https://www.amazon.com/Reliance-Pro...r=8-1&keywords=reliance+products+aqua-pak+2.5). I drilled a hole in the top for the wire and tube along with a grommet.