Waterbox Cube 20 Build Thread

[msummerf]

Review - The product itself is amazing. The stand is sturdy, UV coated, sturdy hinges, great cutouts and just looks super modern. The tank itself also looks very sleek and very well built. Also for a great price. A few cons would be I wish they provided the white AI prime light with the plus version since their stands are white. Also, the stands do not come with directions and they don't have specific directions for the cube 20 stand so someone that isn't handy like me it took a long time. Also customer service are hard to get a hold of, for me both email and voicemail took days to get a reply and you can't get anyone to answer. With that being said I don't regret my purchase I love the product and can't wait to start filling it up with goodies. 

 

Build Thread/Stocking Ideas - This is my first fish tank ever, never even owned a beta lol. So i may have a bunch of failures. 

 

Rocks - 20lbs life rock shapes (aquascaped with marco cement)

Return pump - stock pump (may upgrade to sicce 1.0 to try and get it very quiet) 

Flow - Koralia 425 

Heater - 2 x 50 watt eheim jager 

inTank media basket (filter floss, seachem matrix, chemipure blue)

Tunzee 3155 ATO (5G jug)

DJ switch that is labeled. 

Big Temp monitor that will alert me if temp gets off. 

BRS 5 stage RODI Unit

 

Stocking

 

1 clown fish

1 yellow spotted goby/candy pistol shrimp pair

1 purple fire fish

Lots of rock flower Anemones

Mixed reef

Sexy shrimp/Porcelain crab and other cuc

 

Tank has been cycling 1 week, hopefully can add a fish in a week or two. I'm probably in the wrong hobby since I don't have patience lol. 

 

[Christopher Marks]

Welcome to the community @msummerf! 👋

 

You're off to a great start with your first aquarium, it sounds like you’ve done all your research too! 👍

 

Looking forward to following along with your journey. 

[Deejax]

Awesome start! I'll be following this thread. I just ordered and am waiting on a waterbox 15 and have a similar stocking plan. It will be cool to compare our reefs as they hopefully flourish!

[shaner014]

Great start for a first tank! Excited to see where this goes. Nice scape too!

[Seanano]

Nice setup!  Just put water in mine a few days ago.  They are beautiful tanks. Looking forward to seeing your progress.

[hotdrop]

What are you using for the power switch?

[msummerf]

4 hours ago, hotdrop said:

What are you using for the power switch?

Using an american DJ 8 channel power switch. Just google that and you should find one. There’s a few brands but they do the same thing. Makes it really nice to turn off pumps and stuff.

[Dantrasy]

Looking great 😃

 

Did you use any seeded media?

 

 

[msummerf]

8 hours ago, Dantrasy said:

Looking great 😃

 

Did you use any seeded media?

 

 

Thanks! No this is my first tank so didn’t really have any available and didn’t want to buy any live rock. But I bought some ammonia and bacteria booster stuff at the LFS, that with live sand and the bacteria on the life rock, he said it would be cycled in a week so we will see if that holds true hopefully I can get a fish in a day or two. I have nitrate and phosphate tests but didn’t want to buy ammonia and nitrite tests since the lfs can do it for free and I won’t use them again. 

[Deejax]

6 minutes ago, msummerf said:

Thanks! No this is my first tank so didn’t really have any available and didn’t want to buy any live rock. But I bought some ammonia and bacteria booster stuff at the LFS, that with live sand and the bacteria on the life rock, he said it would be cycled in a week so we will see if that holds true hopefully I can get a fish in a day or two. I have nitrate and phosphate tests but didn’t want to buy ammonia and nitrite tests since the lfs can do it for free and I won’t use them again. 

It should cycle by then. make sure you have ammonia and nitrate tests. Don't rush getting fish, even though it's tempting, waiting an extra day for the cycle to be right and the water to be perfect can end up making a world of difference,

[msummerf]

@Deejax do I need to test ammonia after the cycle is over? I thought you only needed the ammonia test for during the cycle (which I can have the lfs check for me for free), or do I need it for later uses as well. And yes I suck at patience, Ill definitely be patient with the fish cause I don’t want to kill one but I’m sure I’ll lose a little coral rushing haha. I’ll just get a yellow watchman goby or clownfish first and then wait to add more. How long is the consensus on waiting to add coral? 

[Deejax]

12 minutes ago, msummerf said:

@Deejax do I need to test ammonia after the cycle is over? I thought you only needed the ammonia test for during the cycle (which I can have the lfs check for me for free), or do I need it for later uses as well. And yes I suck at patience, Ill definitely be patient with the fish cause I don’t want to kill one but I’m sure I’ll lose a little coral rushing haha. I’ll just get a yellow watchman goby or clownfish first and then wait to add more. How long is the consensus on waiting to add coral? 

after the initial cycle you shouldn't have to test though it's a good practice to know what's going on in your tank. Not completely necessary though as long as you are staying on top of maintenance. Nitrates you should probably be testing though. If your LFS does it for free weekly tests would probably suffice. Really you should be able to add coral with fish as long as the ammonia is gone and the nitrates are near 0. I'd definitely get a second opinion on that though.

[msummerf]

@Deejaxok thanks man appreciate it. I might try the cheapest coral they got and see what happens if my ammonia is good on Monday, that way if it bites the dust no harm no foul. 

[hotdrop]

Once amonia hits 0 and nitrites hit 0 you can probably put fish in though the system will be far from stabilized. You might use amonia alert though and go super slow on feeding.

 

might read up here 

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/15-steps-to-starting-a-saltwater-aquarium-the-lasse-method.556865/

 

 

[msummerf]

The tank fully cycled at 4 weeks. Since week 2 it has been going through this bacterial bloom that makes it very hazy. Very annoying but not much I can do accept wait it out. At week 4 I bought a premium phantom clown I think that is what it was called. He has been in there for a week and is doing very well. I think I am going to add a royal gramma in the next few days. Hopefully this bloom will go away so I can start adding my corals! Want to get the GSP backwall started and maybe some zoas, frog spawn and maybe a duncan to start out. I did upgrade my return pump to the Sicce 1.0 since my return pump was loud. Come to find out it wasn't the pump but the rubber tubing that was making the noise. I changed the tubing to soft silicone tubing from BRS and that silenced the pump. Also, I just ordered the KPS powerhead to replace the Koralia powerhead so I can customize the flow (I felt like the flow was a little too much and wanted to have a night mode so the fish could have a break from the flow.) That's where I'm at right now, patience is the hardest part for me in this hobby. 

[msummerf]

UPDATE: So tank is 2-3 months old now, because of all of the research I did I am proud to say I haven't had any issues besides a royal gramma passing away on me. I am slowing adding corals every week. I had issues getting the GSP to glue to the back glass, I eventually had to get some magnets from BRS to get it to stay. Phosphates are getting a little high (.07) so working to keep that in check right now. Haven't had any algae breakouts yet besides a little diatoms. Personalities of the clownfish and blenny are hilarious. The clownfish was so happy to have another fish in there she stayed right by his cave until he decided to start coming out and now they are right next to eachother at all times. The clown even started to peck at rocks like the blenny. Fun to watch. One thing that is hard for me is placing corals. Working with super glue in the water is hard for me it just gets everywhere except where I want it lol. Having a blast, can't wait to start  seeing some growth from the corals. 

 

Corals: GSP (backwall), toxic hammer, ricordia, sitosa, 5 zoas and a duncan.

 

Inverts: Tiger Sand Conch, blood fire shrimp (lucifer cause he steals food from corals), 3 snails, 3 hermit crabs

 

Fish: Clownfish (Pennywise or Penny for short), Tailspot Blenny (Swim Shady)

[msummerf]

Forgot to ask, I need advice on bringing down my phosphates. I don't have room for a reactor so something to put in my inTank media basket. I have some phosphate pads I can cut up but I read they release stuff into the tank so I'm scared to use them. If I put the pads in a media bag would that work? 

[msummerf]

Got some new stuff yesterday for the tank. Purple hammer, Indo Frogspawn (seen in the sideview) and rainbow acan. Installed a cheap UV sterilizer from Petco that clears the water if I have a small bacterial bloom or anything. I just run it for 24 hours and its clear again. Great investment. Checking parameters weekly and everything is staying stable and I haven't had to start dosing yet, which starting dosing seems a little scary since I've never done it. Might start with Kalk in ATO to start until it can't keep up. Also, the Setosa I added last week started looking a little pale so I moved it to sandbed to let it recover and will slowly move it back up to acclimate to lights. Haven't really seen any growth in any of my frags except the utter chaos zoa, hoping to see some growth soon. 

 

 

 

[EastCoastScpaing]

What zoas do you got on the rock so far? Its looking really good btw

[msummerf]

Thanks! The only 2 names I know is the Midas Touch (yellow) and the Utter Chaos. I don't know the other names. My favorite one is the one below. Orange outside blue inside and green mouth. The only one that seems to be growing is the utter chaos 1 head to 3 heads, but the others haven't really done much. Hoping they fill that entire rock. 

 

 

[EastCoastScpaing]

3 minutes ago, msummerf said:

Thanks! The only 2 names I know is the Midas Touch (yellow) and the Utter Chaos. I don't know the other names. My favorite one is the one below. Orange outside blue inside and green mouth. The only one that seems to be growing is the utter chaos 1 head to 3 heads, but the others haven't really done much. Hoping they fill that entire rock. 

 

 

Looks 

Looks almost exactly like my omega zoas

[msummerf]

15 minutes ago, EastCoastScpaing said:

Looks almost exactly like my omega zoas

I think you are right , now I know the name. Thanks!

[ReeferBray]

To be honest from your first post to your last I can see you did read and learn alot 

Your tank looks great I like that I'm not seeing a rushed tanked cause it would of gone bad. Share some more parameters of the last test you did 

[msummerf]

15 minutes ago, ReeferBray said:

To be honest from your first post to your last I can see you did read and learn alot 

Your tank looks great I like that I'm not seeing a rushed tanked cause it would of gone bad. Share some more parameters of the last test you did 

Thanks, it's definitely hard to go slow and not impulse buy but after reading so much advice on this forum I tried to follow it and it's paying off. I know I will make stupid mistakes but just trying to minimize them. 

 

Last testing day (Sunday)

 

Alk- 8.4 

Ca-420

Phosphate- .06

Nitrate 3-5

Salinity 1.024-1.025

Temp 78

PH 7.9 - 8.0

 

[ReeferBray]

Spot on great work this is going to be a great tank your scape everything looks just so good wish you all of the best

And start sending individual photo of that great colour corals