WaterBox or RedSea Tank?

[Isaacthedev]

Hi! I am looking to get a 20 Gallon AIO tank and I am in between the Red Sea Cube 18.5G, and Water Box 20G. Which do you all recommend? Also , weirdly , the Red Sea measurements are larger than waterbox, but less gallons? how does this make sense? 

Red Sea Tank
18.5 Gallon 
17.7" x 17.7" x 16.5"

WaterBox
20 Gallon 
17.7" × 17.7" × 15.7"

 

[Staticmoves]

Possibly the running water height in the display.

as far as volume variance. 

[Airedale.Reef]

I don't think you can go wrong with either...personal preference really. 

 

If I had to choose though, I would pick the Waterbox. 

[Crawford_T]

I have the cube. It’s a very good looking tank that appears to be quite well made. My only gripe is the size of the return chamber and the positioning of the return nozzle. Both a non issues with correct equipment. 

[Isaacthedev]

7 hours ago, Crawford_T said:

I have the cube. It’s a very good looking tank that appears to be quite well made. My only gripe is the size of the return chamber and the positioning of the return nozzle. Both a non issues with correct equipment. 

You have the water in cube or Red Sea 

[Crawford_T]

13 minutes ago, Isaacthedev said:

You have the water in cube or Red Sea 

Probably should have elaborated a bit more huh, Red Sea cube

[mcarroll]

13 hours ago, Isaacthedev said:

Red Sea Tank
18.5 Gallon 
17.7" x 17.7" x 16.5"

WaterBox
20 Gallon 
17.7" × 17.7" × 15.7"

Going by the dimensions, that's 4,919 cubic inches vs 5,169 cubic inches....or in other words 21 gallons vs 22.3 gallons.

 

It's just the 0.8" height difference.

 

As for the "18.5 Gallon" stat, my guess without going to red sea's website is that's the volume of the display area – aka tank volume minus filter area.

[KC2020]

Both are excellent build quality and you really can't go wrong either way. Having said that, I just set up a WB20 and I really like it. I find it a bit easier to work on than the Red Sea which I had. The main difference is the layout of the AIO chambers. 

 

[geekreef_05]

11 hours ago, KC2020 said:

Both are excellent build quality and you really can't go wrong either way. Having said that, I just set up a WB20 and I really like it. I find it a bit easier to work on than the Red Sea which I had. The main difference is the layout of the AIO chambers. 

 

Agreed with KC. Both are excellent quality. Cant go wrong either way. 

 

I also have a Waterbox 20 cube. Im only 1yr into it, but no regrets so far. Reliable and asthetically super nice to have in our Den TV room.

 

Also there are lots of aftermarket support for various filters and items. 

 

[Isaacthedev]

23 hours ago, KC2020 said:

Both are excellent build quality and you really can't go wrong either way. Having said that, I just set up a WB20 and I really like it. I find it a bit easier to work on than the Red Sea which I had. The main difference is the layout of the AIO chambers. 

 

What makes it easier?

[KC2020]

In the WB AIO the chambers are all baffled to the same height, just below the full height of the tank and the return inlet is at the top. With the Red Sea the center and return chambers are baffled lower so that you can put their skimmer in the middle and ATO in the return. But of those are both optional.

 

With or without them the water volume in the middle and return chamber are less than half the height of the tank. This limits what you can put in the middle chamber, like a different brand skimmer or turf scrubber. In the return chamber you have a very low water level above the return pump and it returns to the tank about half way up the rear wall. 
 

[Isaacthedev]

I went with the water box cube 20! Going to post a build thread. 
 

any recommendations for a pump and skimmer 

[KC2020]

I'm using an Innovative Marine Mighty Jet DC pump and I really like it. It's completely silent, has 8 flow rates on its standalone controller and uses very little power. I have the 326 GPH pump running on its lowest setting and it's using 8 watts of power. The smallest model will work great as well. 

I'm not planning on using a skimmer. I have a turf scrubber and plan on changing 5 gallons of water per week. 

[geekreef_05]

Im using a nero 3 in my waterbox for dynamic flow / wavemotion and a sicce silent 0.5 as a return pump. 

 

Although sicce is billed as silent, they make some noise and vibrate a good amount. 

 

I believe there are even quieter pumps out there, if silence is what you want.

 

For flow, the nero 3 i highly recommend over a vortech mp10, as the whole pump, can be submerged, allowing you to put it in the back chamber. A vortech pump would take up glass space. Its also silent and super reliable and wont fall off the glass like my vortech. The hyggar wavemaker is a good, more affordable option as well.

 

Ive never run a skimmer on a 20 gallon...too small for me... i think small water changes, even monthly when stable, would be enough to keep even a heavy bioload (3 fish, 2 shrimp, snails, coral). 

 

For my 37 gallon office reef i was using a Reef Glass skimmer up until recently. Its compact, simple and very efficient. Cost effective too. Kept pH up at 8.2 nicely too. 

 

Only downside is that i needs a cleaning once every two weeks like clockwork or it cloggs up. I needed my automation to last longer, so i removed it. What also lead to the decision of removing the skimmer is that my office reef stablized around 10ppm nitrates without it. So i asked myself... do i really need this?  

 

And for note, thats a heavily stocked reef... 8 fish, 1 shrimp, 50ish snails ,(trochus, nass, etc). And it gets fed 20x a day! No coral yet. 

 

Biological filteration can be powerful!

[Isaacthedev]

On 4/15/2024 at 9:51 AM, geekreef_05 said:

Im using a nero 3 in my waterbox for dynamic flow / wavemotion and a sicce silent 0.5 as a return pump. 

 

Although sicce is billed as silent, they make some noise and vibrate a good amount. 

 

I believe there are even quieter pumps out there, if silence is what you want.

 

For flow, the nero 3 i highly recommend over a vortech mp10, as the whole pump, can be submerged, allowing you to put it in the back chamber. A vortech pump would take up glass space. Its also silent and super reliable and wont fall off the glass like my vortech. The hyggar wavemaker is a good, more affordable option as well.

 

Ive never run a skimmer on a 20 gallon...too small for me... i think small water changes, even monthly when stable, would be enough to keep even a heavy bioload (3 fish, 2 shrimp, snails, coral). 

 

For my 37 gallon office reef i was using a Reef Glass skimmer up until recently. Its compact, simple and very efficient. Cost effective too. Kept pH up at 8.2 nicely too. 

 

Only downside is that i needs a cleaning once every two weeks like clockwork or it cloggs up. I needed my automation to last longer, so i removed it. What also lead to the decision of removing the skimmer is that my office reef stablized around 10ppm nitrates without it. So i asked myself... do i really need this?  

 

And for note, thats a heavily stocked reef... 8 fish, 1 shrimp, 50ish snails ,(trochus, nass, etc). And it gets fed 20x a day! No coral yet. 

 

Biological filteration can be powerful!

Thank you , the Nero is a good idea since it can be hidden. It's not too strong? im using the JEBAO copy now, but its crap. 

[geekreef_05]

The Nero has so many settings. Using the app you can set the speed/strength and so many other things.