Sean's Waterbox 130.4 Mixed Reef Build

And just like that it has been six months since my last tank update haha… this will be a long one and I apologize in advance. Tank has gone through a lot of changes since June. After seeing amazing growth through probably August, I started losing frags and in some case mini SPS colonies and my tank went into a major tail spin and CRASHED hard. I lost pretty much all of my acros. It was absolutely heat breaking to see them melt away. I never experienced something like this before in the hobby. It was mostly RTN / STN starting at the tips of the corals and working its way down to the bases but some were the opposite as well. I didn't see any sign of pests whatsoever but over the next two months, pretty much everything died minus a select few monti’s, euphyllia and a few across. See the tank before the crash below:

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After doing multiple ICP tests from different companies (Triton / ICP Analysis) and double checking all testing (Hanna, Salifert, NYOS, Red Sea), calibration, etc,, I couldn’t find anything wrong. All levels stayed in the ideal ranges and there were no tank / equipment changes. Only thing I could come up with was slightly dirty RODI filters. I do 10% weekly auto water changes and always have and religiously fill my mixing tanks at the same time and monitor TDS during / after to confirm everything is good. I ended up getting a 1 TDS reading when I went to go mix up a new batch after a few weeks into the first signs of problems occurring in the tank. The only other things I could come up with was maybe my city water was treated with something that got through to the system somehow or someone in my house (kids, dog, cleaning lady, etc) dumped something into the tank accidentally. I highly doubt any of these were the issue either because all them know better, my cleaning lady uses no chemicals in the basement where the tank is and we do not burn candles, etc.

With that said, I don't give up easily so I proceeded to change all my RODI filters, cleaned and sterilized mixing bins, replaced incoming RODI tubing, ran carbon more frequently and did a few larger water changes and restarted my 10% AWC process with fresh salt. I started adding Brightwell bacteria and amino's back into the system and continued to feed heavily. I eventually switched to the KZ flatworm stop and coral booster program for the (3) months following and stayed the path. I let the tank run its path and tank recovered very nicely and started growing coralline algae by the sheet. All parameters have stayed super consistent and I’m having a much easier time keeping nitrates and phosphates at a manageable level compared to having to dose previously. In early December, I added the first new batch of tester corals from WWC and all has gone really well. See some pictures below of WWC testers and some additional TSA corals added in:

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I added a male Blue Jaw Trigger Fish (my favorite fish) and will be looking to add a few new tank mates now that the tank has settled out again. My Walt Disney is popping new heads constantly, green anacropora growing great and monti’s have recovered nicely. I have some additional corals coming in from Fraghouse this week and am happy to get back to growing acros finally. This hobby has a great way of humbling you but that is why I love it. Happy New Year and happy reefing! I hope 2021 brings huge coral growth and healthy fish to all!

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I went thru a nasty bout of stn/rtn just before I took my last tank down and it continued in my frag tank for a couple months. It wiped out some of my favorite old corals. In your case and in mine I don't believe it has anything to do with water parameters. It's an infection that spreads. Its just one of the ways you get rtn/stn but I think its the worst because it is so hard to stop.I used Stop RTN, which definitely helped and I now use a UV on the system too. The UV won't prevent outbreaks, but it should help slow the spread. Glad to see you persevere.
 
I went thru a nasty bout of stn/rtn just before I took my last tank down and it continued in my frag tank for a couple months. It wiped out some of my favorite old corals. In your case and in mine I don't believe it has anything to do with water parameters. It's an infection that spreads. Its just one of the ways you get rtn/stn but I think its the worst because it is so hard to stop.I used Stop RTN, which definitely helped and I now use a UV on the system too. The UV won't prevent outbreaks, but it should help slow the spread. Glad to see you persevere.

No kidding! It’s interesting because between fish sickness and this Acro RTN / STN, I am in the process of figuring out and designing a UV for my system. Did everything the right way with fish and still got hit with disease so far. I’ll definitely be giving UV a shot. Can’t wait to come over and check out your new set up Paul! Let me know if you ever need a hand.
 
I was kind of bored during the entire COVID work from home order so I decided that I would add a frag tank. I wanted to connect a frag tank into my existing system but space was very limited. I decided on a custom 14” wide x 24” long x 12” tall acrylic peninsula tank and reached out to Advanced Acrylics. I went with two returns and an external overflow. They were awesome to work with and I would absolutely use them again. The frag tank would sit directly next to my Waterbox 130.4 and be tall enough to utilize the WB sump but not block any viewing panes of the 130.4.

Pictures of the tank / frags racks from Advanced Acrylics
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Now onto building my own stand because I needed a very custom height to accommodate plumbing and not block the display. I looked at and priced out extruded aluminum for this but between price and lead time, it just wasn’t worth it when I could build a stand myself so here we go:

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Designed some new, tiered frag racks that would slide under each other for cleaning purposes and utilize the long side of the tank for viewing in lieu of the front, short side like the advanced acrylics racks. My buddy lasered them for me and I glued some acrylic leba

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Tank and stand in place and leveled, now to plumb it in! I had to do a tie into the main system return so I installed temp heaters and let the glue dry for 8 hrs before running any water through the new joints. Plumbing was very tight while trying to maintain access to existing equipment and piping.

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Built a Jump Guard screen top to keep the wrasses in:

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and the new frag tank is wet and AI Hydra 32 mounted / PAR tested!

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I had already bought an AI Nero 5 for flow with the guard before the Nero 3 came out so I had a lot of flow. Had to add some suction cups to the bottom of the frag rack feet to keep them in place with the flow but it worked perfectly! Time to break it in, work the lights up slowly and add some frags! Very happy with how everything worked out.

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I was kind of bored during the entire COVID work from home order so I decided that I would add a frag tank. I wanted to connect a frag tank into my existing system but space was very limited. I decided on a custom 14” wide x 24” long x 12” tall acrylic peninsula tank and reached out to Advanced Acrylics. I went with two returns and an external overflow. They were awesome to work with and I would absolutely use them again. The frag tank would sit directly next to my Waterbox 130.4 and be tall enough to utilize the WB sump but not block any viewing panes of the 130.4.

Pictures of the tank / frags racks from Advanced Acrylics
View attachment 154587
View attachment 154588

Now onto building my own stand because I needed a very custom height to accommodate plumbing and not block the display. I looked at and priced out extruded aluminum for this but between price and lead time, it just wasn’t worth it when I could build a stand myself so here we go:

View attachment 154589
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Designed some new, tiered frag racks that would slide under each other for cleaning purposes and utilize the long side of the tank for viewing in lieu of the front, short side like the advanced acrylics racks. My buddy lasered them for me and I glued some acrylic leba

View attachment 154591

View attachment 154592

Tank and stand in place and leveled, now to plumb it in! I had to do a tie into the main system return so I installed temp heaters and let the glue dry for 8 hrs before running any water through the new joints. Plumbing was very tight while trying to maintain access to existing equipment and piping.

View attachment 154593

View attachment 154594

Built a Jump Guard screen top to keep the wrasses in:

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and the new frag tank is wet and AI Hydra 32 mounted / PAR tested!

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I had already bought an AI Nero 5 for flow with the guard before the Nero 3 came out so I had a lot of flow. Had to add some suction cups to the bottom of the frag rack feet to keep them in place with the flow but it worked perfectly! Time to break it in, work the lights up slowly and add some frags! Very happy with how everything worked out.

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That’s great! What are the legs made out of! You said leba, what is that?
 
@hurdbird did you get the UV up and running? I set one up on my tank and it's currently help with green filamentous algae on the Marco rock. Once it's pretty much gone, i'll lower the pump for Ich management aspect.
 
@hurdbird did you get the UV up and running? I set one up on my tank and it's currently help with green filamentous algae on the Marco rock. Once it's pretty much gone, i'll lower the pump for Ich management aspect.

I haven't gotten to the UV yet but it is on my project list for the near future. I have to post a little lighting and coral update first! Coming soon...
 
I’ve been wanting to add some additional PAR, reduce potential shadowing and get some more blue light into the tank so I was originally looking at a T5 hybrid fixture but ultimately decided to try the Reef Brite XHO add on kits with my Radion XR30 G4’s. Super happy with what I’ve seen so far. Added 75-100 PAR all over the tank and brought the awesome color and coral pop I had heard about. Spoke with Reef Brite and went with the 90 watt power brick so I could power both kits off of one power strip and one Bluetooth controller. They were very helpful in answering my questions.


Before the added XHO kits
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Parts / pieces of one kit
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Super easy app Bluetooth connection and app control with the Reef Brite Bluetooth controller. Has a battery on board to store settings.
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Had to scrub the Radions while they were down.
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Testing, look at the glow. Love the color!
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They are alive and mounted! Still need some wire management but done for now :ROFLMAO:
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Overall, super impressed with the Reef Brite kits so far. Time will tell but they added exactly what I was looking for. I can get well into the 450-475 PAR range on the bottom of the SPS shelf while keeping the spectrums I like to see. Grow baby grow! Bunch of new acros in as well. I’ll get some pictures posted soon. Happy reefing!
 
I’ve been wanting to add some additional PAR, reduce potential shadowing and get some more blue light into the tank so I was originally looking at a T5 hybrid fixture but ultimately decided to try the Reef Brite XHO add on kits with my Radion XR30 G4’s. Super happy with what I’ve seen so far. Added 75-100 PAR all over the tank and brought the awesome color and coral pop I had heard about. Spoke with Reef Brite and went with the 90 watt power brick so I could power both kits off of one power strip and one Bluetooth controller. They were very helpful in answering my questions.


Before the added XHO kits
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Parts / pieces of one kit
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Super easy app Bluetooth connection and app control with the Reef Brite Bluetooth controller. Has a battery on board to store settings.
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Had to scrub the Radions while they were down.
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Testing, look at the glow. Love the color!
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They are alive and mounted! Still need some wire management but done for now :ROFLMAO:
View attachment 156094

Overall, super impressed with the Reef Brite kits so far. Time will tell but they added exactly what I was looking for. I can get well into the 450-475 PAR range on the bottom of the SPS shelf while keeping the spectrums I like to see. Grow baby grow! Bunch of new acros in as well. I’ll get some pictures posted soon. Happy reefing!

I decided to add 5 of these add on kits to my radions after watching the BRS videos on them. There are 10 radions, but I figured 5 should be enough to give me the extra pop I am looking for. I can always add more if I want to. Just going to put them on a timer and see how that works out.
 
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