Jump to content

Seatown Waterbox 135.4 Our Couples Therapy Build


Bighoho

Recommended Posts

First off we just want to say "Hello!", visited this forum quite a bit for research and insights, finally figured we have a worthy enough tank to post :) 

Quick intro, my wife Jackie and I (David) have been in the hobby now for a little more than a year now.  We started off with our nano 25g bow front, It's undergone quite the transformation since we started.  We've spent quite a bit of time cutting our reefing chops in a small water column.  Our weekly water tests and water changes, learning about chemistry, corals, fish and pests, really put us through the ringer early on especially when we rushed though adding things (oh how the blame game really gets between two loving reefers).  In truth this love for our tanks has brought us closer together, we've quickly found our "roles" in our relationship and aquarium care.  Jackie is the chemist, fish speaker, health care provider, tinker, me I'm the planning, tech support, heavy lifting, aquascaper it's been a great balance for us.  

So now we've graduated to our Waterbox 100g and the fun of starting a new tank together has been so rewarding!  We are grateful for this PNW community and all the advice, corals and most of all support... We're happy to be here!         

 Oldie tank 25g known now as "Sick Bay" (its our QT tank)     

60204017240--41918D9A-B213-49E2-B938-01F1CA826BB6.thumb.JPG.38e80c44baaad8a328639eaf87c37f7e.JPG

The Mother Ship:  Home of corals from our LFS and reefing community!  Right side is the home of our beloved LPS and softies, Left side is the SPS, zoa and mushroom gardens

IMG-1828.thumb.jpg.3301110a51e048170fc1b4070122f7fa.jpg

Gear list:

2x Radion XR30 Gen1

Orphek OR3 LED Blue

Maxspect XF330 / 350 

2x MP10QD

Reef Octo VarioS 6

Reef Octo Regal skimmer

DIY Refugium

BD81A14F-5513-4A61-95F2-B1312677C3D0.thumb.jpeg.1323f8dc4e3d0a8ca44555eff61a0dc4.jpeg

What the future holds... probably a bigger tank but I'm getting ahead, in the short term though lots of dosing and hopefully coral growth :)

  • Like 5
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Welcome to the club, and nice looking tank!  My Reefer XL 425 is a similar sized tank, and sometimes I wish I went a little lighter on the rockwork like yours.  My tank seems very crowded with rock and the corals are very crammed together.  Yours has a very nice open look to it.

Be sure to add yourself to our Members Map and take a look at the other fellow reefers on the map in your area.  

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

14 hours ago, Emerald525 said:

Welcome to the forum. It’s quite dangerous when couples are into the obsession. It is easy to go to fast. We have all done it! Be careful you will end up with 5 tanks !

I am not as familiar with waterbox tanks but they look really nice. 

Thank you!  I have to share that we do have 5 tanks in our house already :)  3 freshwater and two salt 😱  Though we're trying to downsize now... water changes are becoming a day long event making and mix RODI water.  

For our first "big" tank we planned on a WB or RS, we ultimately decided on the Waterbox because of the stand, I'd read a few reviews where the stand quality of RS had gone down we just didn't want to take a risk.  Though I think we would have been happy either way.      

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

14 hours ago, Danik said:

Welcome to da club, I see you really like torch corals. 

We love our euphyllia... but now were moving more towards the SPS space.  We've seen some amazing SPS tanks and now we're hooked:)

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, Bighoho said:

Thank you!  I have to share that we do have 5 tanks in our house already :)  3 freshwater and two salt 😱  Though we're trying to downsize now... water changes are becoming a day long event making and mix RODI water.  

For our first "big" tank we planned on a WB or RS, we ultimately decided on the Waterbox because of the stand, I'd read a few reviews where the stand quality of RS had gone down we just didn't want to take a risk.  Though I think we would have been happy either way.      

I loved my Red Sea 250 except for the stand and I like shallow tanks. I retrospect I would have had someone build me a better stand. I have had 5 or 6 tanks up at a time because you just can’t do everything you want in one tank. 

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

4 minutes ago, Emerald525 said:

I loved my Red Sea 250 except for the stand and I like shallow tanks. I retrospect I would have had someone build me a better stand. I have had 5 or 6 tanks up at a time because you just can’t do everything you want in one tank. 

Oh boy... If we ever decide to get rid of the freshwater tanks I'm hoping to replace them with a peninsula, lagoon and frag tank :) I fully agree one tank isn't enough ;)  

  • Haha 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 3 months later...

Build thread updates:

Parameters this week:
Nitrates: 5
Phosphate: .5
Alk: 7.3
Mag: 1280
Calcium: 400
Salty: 1.025

What's new?!?

We sadly lost two fish in the past month and it's been little bit of a heartbreak. First our Hawaiian cleaner (Density for you Back to the Future folks), our Midas Blenny (Frank)... both wouldn't eat regularly and which lead to their eventual starvation. We tried everything, even isolation image.gif. We partially think it was due to us going away for two weekends... makes trying to find a good tank sitter for our next longer vaca.

So the good news the tank has been looking pretty good considering our parameters dropping or spiking in certain areas.
 
IMG_3060.jpg

We finally got some SPS on the left rock!!!

Euphyllia:
 
IMG_3072.jpg

The euphyllia garden is taking off, whatever we're feeding (RS Reef Energy, benepets) is really working. We've had to move everyone else out (except for the leathers, soon to happen though)

Mushrooms:
 
IMG_3076.jpg
 
 
IMG_3069.jpg

Mushroom garden is bouncing around! The new OG gets it's own little glass apartment because it's special. The electus produced it's first baby... I don't know how long it had been hiding under the rock, it's about the size of a nickel.
The New Stuff:
With every new vacation though there is always a stop at the local fish stores here are some of the new additions either coming out of QT, in QT or resting in the tank:
 
IMG_3062.jpg

Interstellar mushroom and the "I refuse to anchor myself" Jawbreaker. If anyone has advice on getting mushrooms to stay put I'm all ears I've tried everything except glue. All my normal methods haven't worked.
 
 
IMG_3064.jpg

Our meaty Mr. Wellsophyllia who has to stay caged due to our pecking Valentini puffer "Seachicken"
 
 
IMG_3068.jpg
 Loved this mushroom the moment I saw it... not sure of the name but the colors had me at hello. If you have an ID please comment below.
 
 
IMG_3071.jpg

Our fake invader pectinia posing menacingly from it's perch. I've been spot feeding it daily and it's getting bigger... OH MY!

What's hanging out in QT?:
 
IMG_3080.jpg
 
 
IMG_3081.jpg
 
 
IMG_3053.jpg

Derasa clam getting ready to suck some of the Nitrates our of the DT.

Deal of the week!
 
IMG_3028.jpg

The final one is a mushroom rock we found at a LFS for 50% off for $60. I couldn't believe someone hadn't snagged it and then I realized that it was in a tank with red flatworms and vermited snails. Decided that wasn't a deal breaker... got it home, flatworm exited and coralRX'd the crap out of the rock, it's been a few weeks now and it's fully recovered. We have about 30 fuzzy mushrooms on there, this rock will probably never make it to the DT so I'm looking at fragging the the mushrooms onto other rocks. @LRT and @ReeferBlaine ones going to each of you, when I know I got all the pests and if you have the space.

Last but not least l finally got a fighting conch!!! Then I realized I probably need to glue everything down in the tank image.gif
 
IMG_3073.jpg


Upcoming:
My first frags with the new Grphyon bandsaw!
Fish decisions.. .what replaces the Hawaiian cleaner and the midas blenny?
Did the clam really lower nitrates?

Thanks for reading and following along! Till the next update image.gif

PS future mushroom rock... should I break it?
IMG_3083.jpg
 

 

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

Loading...
×
×
  • Create New...