Waterbox 180.5 Mixed Reef
Plumbed into 2x 40 Gallons via central sump
February 2025 FTS
Hector Hectoring
Blue Star Leopard Wrasses are getting bigger!
Black Storm Clownfish being photogenic! 📸
I found a visitor in my sump! I think it must've hitchhiked in from a recent online cleanup crew order. I believe it is a Leopard Polyclad Flatworm.
Since Hurricane season is about to ramp up, I decided to get a battery backup for my return pump. I went with the Ecoflow Delta 2 1024Wh LiFePO4 (LFP) Battery after some great suggestions from this thread.
January 2024 - In order to lower & eliminate the elevated Tin levels, I ended up doing multiple large water changes over a few months and bottoming out my nutrients which started my next major issue…dreaded DINOS. I also started following the Reef Moonshiners method at this time and doing monthly ICPs for corrective dosing since I needed to halt water changes.
I purchased a microscope and identified the dinos as Large Cell Amphidinium (LCA)
My "lab"
This type of dino isn’t particularly toxic but burrows in the sand at night so they are incredibly difficult to eliminate. My protocol for fighting the dinos was to raise nutrients, dose silicates, dose live phyto + copepods, and dose microbactr7. I kept my nitrates around ~20 and my phosphates around 0.1.
February 2024 - Started seeing some progress here after elevating nutrients…lots of cyano
May 2024 - After a few major diatom blooms, it took about 3 months to stop seeing LCA dinos on my microscope slide samples. I am hopeful that this battle might be over.
February 2024 - I ended up hanging all the lights and rearranging the fishroom furniture
February 2024 FTS
Left Rock Progress
Black & Orange Storm Clownfish
Sailfin is getting big!
and so is the mimic tang!
feeding time
Zoa progress on left rock
Branching Green Hammer growth
Yellow/Green Branching Octospawn growth
We visited World Wide Corals!
We got a pair of Blue Star Leopard Wrasse while we were there. They were eating prepared foods and already bonded so we jumped on them. We kept them in our left 40 gallon with our Toby Puffer until we could rehome our melanurus wrasse who tried to murder them…they are now in the main tank and there’s 0 aggression between all the other tankmates. We’ve had them in the main tank for a few months. They group up with our diamond goby to help clean the sand bed. We call them the Salamanca twins and the goby’s name is Hector.
I caught our Blue Star Leopard Wrasse Pair waking up and popping out of the sand!
August 25, 2023 - I had some issues awhile back with a few frags so I decided to do an ICP test and found out I have elevated tin in this system. I am thinking the plumbing I added for the 40s is causing this so I've been doing weekly water changes. All of the frags seem to be much happier now. I'm finally seeing some growth and better coloration. I'll send out another ICP soon and post my results. I'm also dosing trace elements now too!
I got custom mounts made for my Radion Mounts to allow for mounting my new 48" AI Blade Glow over the main tank. I'm hoping to eliminate some shaded spots in the front of the tank.
I've also added a few new critters. I added a small Papuan Toby Puffer to the left 40 gallon (he's very friendly) and 2 cleaner shrimp to the right 40 gallon.
Coral Progress! Green Branching Hammer
Yellow/Green Branching Octospawn
Green Sinularia
July 13, 2023 - The tangs are getting along...so far
The anthias are fattening up!
July 2023 FTS - Cyano & Diatoms & Algae, oh my!
April 2, 2023 - Finished the aquascapes for the 40 gallons! I'll soak and rinse the rock this week and add it next weekend. I used the same method as the main tank: attached rocks with super glue then secured the rocks with e-marco-400 then covered the e-marco joints with super glue + rock dust.
Aquascapes in place! The main tank is getting some new color as it enters its ugly phase!
Left 40 Gallon Aquascape
Right 40 Gallon Aquascape
April 3, 2023 - Added a Mimic Half Black Tang (Acanthurus chronixis)
March 18, 2023 - Drilled & Painted the 40 gallon Breeders
March 19, 2023 - Plumbed the 40 gallon Breeders. I made sure to add unions for every connection.
March 20, 2023 - Cut the old cabinets to fit under the stand, added another Kasa smart powerstrip, added labels, and organized power supplies.
Back of Left and Right Cabinets
Used some old vinyl siding for hiding the wires/plumbing between the tanks
Temporary Overflow Plumbing
March 24, 2023 - Mixed saltwater and turned on Left Tank and adjusted Return
March 25, 2023 - (My Birthday) Turned on both tanks & no leaks so far!
March 26, 2023 - I am temporarily housing a single clownfish in each of the 40 gallon breeders so they'll eat the autofeeder food from the return line. I decided to cleanup their main tank (my old 25 gallon) in the meantime. Once I aquascape each of the tanks, I'll start planning the 40 gallon inhabitants.
I am contemplating doing something weird...I have a 40 gallon breeder + stand, and I am considering getting another and plumbing them into the main display and using them as display "fuges" with macroalgae and maybe some fish/inverts that are not considered reef-safe. The main purpose is to just add water volume and have something new to mess with.
Here is the plan I'm thinking of:
I am wondering if I can repurpose the Waterbox 180.5's return manifold. I ordered some plumbing to see if I can get the barbs to 1/2" instead of the tiny nozzle, but I am unsure if this will provide enough flow to the 40 gallons. I am only using the Vectra M2 at about 30% right now. Does anyone know if this would work? :face-with-raised-eyebrow:
Here is what I'm thinking about doing for the return/overflow lines in my sump.
I also ordered the plumbing supplies to get the 40 gallon breeders plumbed into the main tank! I still only have 1 40 gallon so I'm on the look out for another 40 gallon breeder...no local fish stores have them in stock. I've also been looking on here for lights & powerheads for the tanks.
This is what I have planned for plumbing. I am thinking of putting the overflow and return next to each other and close to the main tank on either side so that I can get decent return pump pressure to the 40 gallons from the return manifold.
My current concerns: Will there be enough room in the sump for all 3 tanks to drain (might have to run the water lower than usual). Will there be enough pressure from the return pump to reach the tanks (pump is running at 30% right now). This is why I am only doing 1 return hole per tank.
My larger black storm clownfish became a nuisance to the other smaller black storm. He was non-stop attacking, chasing, and preventing the other from eating. After the bully wasn't letting the other clown sleep, I decided to put the bully into an acclimation box for a week to see if his aggression would settle down. He went right back to being a bully after reintroducing him... luckily, my LFS said I could exchange him so I ended up exchanging him for a beautiful orange storm clownfish. The black storm and orange storm took a few days to bond but now they are inseparable and no aggression yet just normal clown twitching/weirdness for now.
Nitrates are finally elevating so Zoas and Ricordeas are looking better!
Sideview: Featuring Clowns
February 2023 FTS
The anthias are so fast...I can never get a good picture but at least the Sailfin and Clowns like to pose.
Sailfin Posing
Anthias
Sailfin Posing
Orange Storm Clownfish
Added a powerhead to my return chamber and hooked up an Avast "The Plank" Auto Feeder to the return line so the food is quickly dispersed and hidden from view. I am feeding on a 1 min timer using my Kasa Smart Powerstrip with 1 min increments throughout the day. The return chamber mixing pump & Auto Feeder pump turn on a few minutes before feeding and stay on 2 hours after feeding.
In order to get the Pipe and Avast's mixing pump to work in my sump, I had to extend the default pipe. It's just standard 2" PVC.
See Below:
Added another Scribbled Anthias and a Sailfin Tang! The Sailfin seems to diffuse the aggression between the Anthias. He's the peacekeeper.
We are feeding mostly Mysis, Mysis + Spirulina, and Brine + Spirulina 3 times a day (8 AM, 3 PM, and 7 PM). The tank is currently experiencing a small diatom bloom with this new feeding schedule but nothing terrible. It allowed for us to add the start of our cleanup crew: 2 Turbos, 10 Margaritas, 10 Dwarf Hermits, 1 Scarlet Hermit, and a Tiger Conch. The Tiger Conch is really interesting and doing a good job at sifting the sand.
The soda ash dosing setup seems to be working. Alkalinity is currently 8.5, and I'm dosing 1.1 ml every 2 hours.
FTS - Featuring the Algae Bloom (Nikon D7500)
Sailfin Tang - I didn't realize how much they eat! (Nikon D7500)
Right Side Panel - Interesting shot I found on my phone from last week. (Google Pixel 6 Pro)
Added a soda ash doser to help keep my alkalinity up. I'm using the BRS soda ash mix and a BRS 1.1 ml/min pump. I ended up pairing that with my kasa smart power strip to dose in 1 min increments 8 times a day. My alkalinity is currently sitting around 8.4.
I visited my LFS (Nemo Aquarium) and purchased 2x Scribbled Anthias and 2x Blackstorm Clowfnish!
Scribbled/Bimaculatus Anthias
Blackstorm Clownfish Pair
Oct 4, 2022 - Added a few frags and updated the return pump plumbing.
Ricordea Frag
Hammer Frag
Clownfish (Extreme Misbar Ocellaris)
Plumbing Upgrades - I worked with Bulk Reef Supply to figure out what plumbing I need to get from the Waterbox's metric braided vinyl tubing to the Vectra M2's standard plumbing. I initially had the tank plumbed using Ecotech's barb kit but the barb was slightly too small and did not fit well. I had to use multiple clamps and zipties to keep it on. The first iteration of plumbing I ordered was a conversion to a 25mm barb but it turns out that the Waterbox 180.5 uses 32mm vinyl tubing even though 25mm is listed in the specs.
After finding the appropriate 32mm barb from Coralvue, I was able to plumb a 1" PVC from the Vectra to a DN32 (32mm to 1") Metric to Standard Coupler then to the 32mm barb. I had to heat the vinyl tubing in some hot water to slide it on the barb.
Here's what I ended up with:
Progress Picture
September 19, 2022 - Ecotech Marine featured the tank on Facebook & Instagram!
June 28, 2022 - Installed 3x XR15 G6 Pros!
July 1, 2022 - Added side tables to hide equipment and easily access controllers. I also added sand, finished plumbing, and started leak testing!
July 12, 2022 - She passed the leak test and got salty!
July 15, 2022 - Let the cycle begin!
August 7, 2022 - Added some plants around the tank
September 5, 2022 - Added the first tank inhabitant (my old clownfish from another system...now he's in the left 40 galllon living his best life). We also got a table for viewing 😊
June 12, 2022 - I started working on the rockwork. I created a PVC shell of the tank size (slightly smaller).
June 20, 2022 - Continued work on the aquascape...I ended up liking the look of this but realized it wouldn't offer enough hiding places for fish/inverts.
June 22, 2022 - Here's the start of the new aquascape. So much dust...
June 25, 2022 - I finalized the aquascape after many bottles of BRS super glue, insta-set, and 2 buckets of E-Marco-400.
June 26, 2022 - Transferred the rock into the tank...It was extremely heavy. I ended up putting each rock on a piece of wood to carry it into the house and into the tank. This is where the foundation pieces came in handy.
December 7, 2021 - Received the tank from Waterbox. The delivery guy was super helpful!
May 20, 2022 - Installed new floor in the dining room (now fish room), updated our house's circuit breakers to all have AFCI and GFCI protection, and moved the tank to its final location.
I was unable to get the tank properly leveled with the provided leveling feet and my uneven foundation but a reef2reef user (tenurepro) suggested these leveling feet from Amazon and they did the trick! Thanks again!
June 5, 2022 - The tank is level and ready for leak testing! The supervisors are pictured below.
