Billy's 4g Waterbox Cube 🐳

[billygoat]

Oh man, it's been a long time coming, but I'm finally setting up the 4g Waterbox that I impulse-bought about seven months ago. It's been sitting in its shipping box on my bedroom floor for this entire time, which I know is basically criminal. Today is the 1-year anniversary of my 18g Caribbean biotope tank, so I decided to commemorate the occasion by finally getting some water in the Waterbox! It's a very exciting time. 🎉

 

Here's the rundown!

Tank: 4 gallon Waterbox cube

Light: Kessil A80 Tuna Blue (no controller, just an analog timer)

Circulation: Stock return pump (80gph AquaTop)

Heater: 75w Cobalt NeoTherm

I have no plans to add any additional equipment at this time.

 

I started the system today with rock that's been curing for 2 months in the back chambers of my 18g tank, some water-change water from the 18g (2.5 gallons or so) mixed with freshly-mixed saltwater, and about 3/4" of dry CaribSea aragonite sand. I'll run it with the light off for awhile and maybe ghost feed it a bit to get the biofilter going. Nothing in there but the 'scape right now but here's a few pictures!

 

(12/15/2019)

Front:

 

Right side:

 

Left side:

 

Top down:

 

The pioneering inhabitants of this brand-new pico will likely be snails, a hermit, and algae. The rear chambers of this tank are not large enough for a refugium, so I intend to incorporate some macroalgae into my display. After that expect some pretty standard-issue softies like mushrooms, zoanthids, and perhaps a gorgonian to start, followed by simple stony corals such as Acanthastrea, Pavona, and the like. If all goes well with these first inhabitants I hope to eventually incorporate some Alveopora as well, as that is my favorite coral.

 

As for fish, I am not 100% sure if I want one in here or not, but if I do decide on a fish it will probably be a yellow or black clown goby. That's way down the line though and will probably be the last thing I add, if I even get one at all.

 

Anyway, there probably won't be much going on in here for a little while but thanks for checking it out! 😊 I'm a little bit nervous starting such a tiny little tank, but I'm very excited to finally have the ball rolling!

[billygoat]

I decided to do some "cleaning up" of the 18g and moved a few stray macro frags over into the pico this morning - a bit of red grape, some fire fern, and a stub of gracilaria. I also tossed in a few coralline-encrusted rocks and shells to seed the tank. Starting tomorrow I'm going to be running this system with the light on for a few hours a day so I can get some algae growing, and the first cleaner animals (along with some additional macros) will arrive later this week. 

 

 

A few other observations I've made during the first 24 hours of the tank's life:

• Having an oversized heater definitely seems like a must. This tank is in my bedroom, which is a poorly insulated area that experiences dramatic temperature swings at night, especially in winter. A heater that's the "right size" for this tank (e.g. 25w or so) would almost certainly not be able to maintain a steady temperature, so I'll stick with the 75w Neo Therm for the time being. Last night it kept my tank's temperature rock solid even as the ambient temperature of the room dipped into the 50s.
• The stock return pump that I'm using is pitifully weak. Water movement inside the display is quite unimpressive, to the point that I don't think it will be possible to keep any sort of coral that requires more than minimal flow. I'd like to avoid incorporating a powerhead if possible, so my stocking options may be more limited than I originally anticipated. This means that Alveopora may not be in the cards after all, since it's not the easiest coral to keep even in the best of times. 😥 I could upgrade the pump of course, but I'm having trouble finding one small enough to fit into the rear chambers.

•  I am not anticipating much of a cycle since the only thing in the tank that's not from my other system is the shallow sandbed, but I added a hermit crab from the 18g this morning to serve as a test subject just in case. 👌

Okay, that's all for now! Thanks for reading all that! 😅

 

 

[billygoat]

The tank is about 1 week old now, and pest algae is beginning to show. Over the past week I've added a few more macros, a small gorgonian frag, and a single palythoa, as well as some snails. Everything seems to be doing pretty well so far. Lots of pods are visible on the glass.

 

 

I'm starting to realize that this tank will more than likely end up being a lot like my other one: a bunch of soft corals and macroalgae, with nothing fancy or complicated. 😅 That's just how I like to reef I guess! So much for Alveopora... but I just don't really want to bother with the maintenance required to keep LPS/SPS coral in such a small volume of water.

[CD_Scapes]

49 minutes ago, billygoat said:

The tank is about 1 week old now, and pest algae is beginning to show. Over the past week I've added a few more macros, a small gorgonian frag, and a single palythoa, as well as some snails. Everything seems to be doing pretty well so far. Lots of pods are visible on the glass.

 

 

I'm starting to realize that this tank will more than likely end up being a lot like my other one: a bunch of soft corals and macroalgae, with nothing fancy or complicated. 😅 That's just how I like to reef I guess! So much for Alveopora... but I just don't really want to bother with the maintenance required to keep LPS/SPS coral in such a small volume of water.

I feel your pain, I am getting the 29 Biocube prepped and thinking...wow this will end up almost the same way at the 5 gallon 😂

[DNR88]

Good luck with this new tank! I bet you make this into a success as well. 👍

[billygoat]

24 minutes ago, DutchNanoReefer88 said:

Good luck with this new tank! I bet you make this into a success as well. 👍

Thanks! 🤗 It's funny though, I'm actually thinking about taking this system down before it gets too mature. The more I think about it, the more I realize I am going to have a lot of trouble keeping it going in the long run. Since it's in my bedroom it's going to get absolutely cooked in the summertime, as temperatures in this part of the house routinely exceed 85 F. I also don't know what to do about the power outages that often occur here in the summer months. My 18g tank has a battery back-up, but this one has no such luck. 🤔

 

There's also the financial commitment of stocking and running the tank, which is not too bad in a 4 gallon but still not negligible... So yeah, I might just break it down, but also maybe not. We'll see what happens! 😂

[billygoat]

Well, this tank didn't last too long. 10 days to be precise! 😂

 

 

This was just a bad time for me to start a 2nd tank, I think. I don't have the energy or money to give this system the attention that it deserves, so I decided to break it down and focus on my 18g for the time being. This cube back into storage for now.

 

Thanks for following along for the brief time that this pico was running! 😅 Perhaps some time in the future I will get it going again.

[DNR88]

Haha, and I thought to be seen quickly within 30 days, buy 10 days is really short! 😂

[CD_Scapes]

3 hours ago, DutchNanoReefer88 said:

Haha, and I thought to be seen quickly within 30 days, buy 10 days is really short! 😂

I'm starting to think my next build wont even start for 4-6 MONTHS...much less 10-30 days 🤣