Sean's Waterbox 130.4 Mixed Reef Build

hurdbird

Well-Known Member
BRS Member
https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/seans-waterbox-platinum-130-4-build.533454/

Hi everyone! After a long hiatus and a lot of life changes, I have had the itch to get another reef tank going and finally finished my house renovations and have a place to put it. I started the thread above on R2R but wanted to convert it over here. I had completely forgotten about Boston Reefers during my long break, not intentionally, you guys were awesome during my last build and helping me through my first reef tank! I appreciate the help in the advance and will be keeping the thread updated with a ton of photos and progress updates. It may start a little slow because I just had my first daughter last week but I am pushing forward haha.

First up is building my mixing station in a closet local to my tank. My (2) new 25 gallon storage tanks arrive end of this week and I have been assembling the necessary parts / pieces to get this portion started. Can't wait! Proposed equipment list for the tank below. I will be going for a mixed reef and eventually want to be able to work into more serious SPS if all goes well. Open to any / all comments and suggestions!

Tank / Stand / Sump-Waterbox Platinum Reef 130.4g (96.3 display, 30.6 sump, 5.5 ATO)
Lighting - (2) Ecotech Radion XR30w Pro
Main Return Pump - Ecotech M1 (2000 GPH). Open to suggestions. WB recommends min 1200 GPH. Thoughts?
Protein Skimmer - NYOS Quantum 160 - I've read about of a lot of people having problems with these skimmers when it comes to shutting down for feeding and restarting. Thoughts?
Powerheads - (2) Ecotech MP40QD Wireless
Heaters - Not sure yet. Open to suggestions.
Cheato / Algae Reactor - Have been debating an algae reactor or a (20) gallong DIY remote refugium
Calcium Reactor or other reactors - Needed? Open to suggestions.
Controller / Accessories - Neptune Apex WIFI, Ecotech Wireless Module, Leak Detection Module
and ATO Kit
 
Nice looking list. For heaters I’d recommend Eheim Jagers. Also I see a lot of Neptune stuff but maybe read up on the ATK. Read about people having issues with them. Maybe look at the offering from tunze as well for that.
 
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Welcome back! I’ve been running a 130.4 since September. Great looking tanks. I’m using the M1 too and the stock sump won’t handle the 1200 gph, mine is maybe 400-500 and I’m good with that. Having that extra head room though makes me wish these came with a built in manifold for reactors/scrubbers. I’m running the Reef Octo Classic 202-S, overkill for the tank but it pulls some nasty stuff out.
 
Nice looking list. For heaters I’d recommend Eheim Jagers. Also I see a lot of eco tech stuff but maybe read up on the ATK. Read about people having issues with them. Maybe look at the offering from tunze as well for that.
Thanks Jah-hoeva! I'm thinking I'll buy two of them. Set one to control off the Apex and have the second one set for slightly below as a back-up. Is that standard operation? Sounds like there are very mixed opinions on the Neptune ATK ATO. I want something with the most safeties possible because I've always had the nervous feeling of this being the biggest flood / tank issue exposure.
 
Welcome back! I’ve been running a 130.4 since September. Great looking tanks. I’m using the M1 too and the stock sump won’t handle the 1200 gph, mine is maybe 400-500 and I’m good with that. Having that extra head room though makes me wish these came with a built in manifold for reactors/scrubbers. I’m running the Reef Octo Classic 202-S, overkill for the tank but it pulls some nasty stuff out.
Thanks Zach! Excited to be working on another build. I wonder if I'm better off going with the Ecotech S1 return pump at that point. I'm thinking about doing a remote fuge / algae reactor and other reactors eventually. Could you fit two separate S1's in the return pump section of the sump? If not, I may go with the M1 and figure out how to convert that metric plumbing and start a reactor manifold. What's the sump protein skimmer section dimensions and return pump section dimensions?
 
Sean,
The skimmer section is 12.5” wide by 17.25” deep and the return is 9.5” deep by 7.75” wide. I don’t think you’d have room for two pumps in there, but I’m not sure of the width of the S1. I’d save the money though and go with that, like I said I run mine at maybe 40% so I would think the S1 would me more than adequate. Here’s my sump and DT. Sump is in a bit of disarray since I added the Klir a month ago and still fighting new tank “uglies” from dry base rock.



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Sean,
The skimmer section is 12.5” wide by 17.25” deep and the return is 9.5” deep by 7.75” wide. I don’t think you’d have room for two pumps in there, but I’m not sure of the width of the S1. I’d save the money though and go with that, like I said I run mine at maybe 40% so I would think the S1 would me more than adequate. Here’s my sump and DT. Sump is in a bit of disarray since I added the Klir a month ago and still fighting new tank “uglies” from dry base rock.



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Thanks again Zach! How are you liking the Klir? Heard some good things about those.

Is that a skimz algae reactor in there too? How are you liking that?
 
I need to order my dry rock and start curing / seeding it too. I would like to try and avoid some of the “dry rock” uglies that I read so much about so I was thinking of buying dry rock from Marco or a different source and putting like 20 lbs of clean, pest free live rock in with it inside a brute for a few months and trying to cycle it. What do you think?
 
Sean, I’m still trying to figure the Klir out. I had it in the second sock chamber (closest to front) at first and the filter roll lasted three weeks, moved it to first chamber and it lasted less then a week. Back to the second chamber and I’m over a week now with less than a 1/4 roll gone. Overall I like it and haven’t had any issues with it, I hate changing filter socks and this gives me peace of mind when I’m gone for a few days and don’t worry about the filter sock sitting there overflowing.

The skimz reactor is great! I seeded it with just a small amount of chaeto I got from Lovely Pets and in the two months it’s been running I’ve emptied it twice with very full and dense chaeto.

I would definitely try and cycle the dry rock first with some seeded live rock. Hopefully that’ll help speed up the process, I was too impatient for any of that :)
 
I've been looking into dry rock and it seems like I will probably go with Marco dry rock or Caribsea liferock dry rock. I'll have to do some more research into which one and make the order. Anyone have preferences between these two or another brand and good / bad experiences with these?

I was thinking of trying to set my aquascape and cement it first with the dry rock and then seed that with the seeded live rock in a brute barrel with a heater and powerhead. I'll have to look into this process more and how long it will take but I'm sure a few months would go along way while I get the rest of the tank / equipment together and built.
 
I did ~ 30 lbs Caribsea and 70lbs of BRS base rock. Can barely tell the difference now. I wish I had laid mine out better, I wanted a lot of swim holes for the fish and didn’t give much thought to Coral placement. I gave up a lot of real estate by making a centered island instead of having some pieces go all the way to the back wall.
 
Got a bunch of stuff in over the past few days to start getting going on my mixing station. Tanks were supposed to be 4-6 weeks out but showed up in 7 days. I’ll take it! Hopefully finishing up the piping over the next few days and start water testing. Let the fun begin! Where the CO2 tank is sitting is the wall where the tank will be located so it will be nice and local. I will have my quarantine tank set up below the mixing station tanks as well.
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Nice! I like the closet near by to hide a bunch of the equipment. I have seen some great set ups that put the tank in front of the closet so that everything can be pumped from one reservoir to the next. Is the space to the left of the closet available for the tank? I would suggest that so you can use the inside of the closet for wire management and extra space to add stuff on.

There is not so much room in a stand [emoji23]


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Nice! I like the closet near by to hide a bunch of the equipment. I have seen some great set ups that put the tank in front of the closet so that everything can be pumped from one reservoir to the next. Is the space to the left of the closet available for the tank? I would suggest that so you can use the inside of the closet for wire management and extra space to add stuff on.

There is not so much room in a stand [emoji23]


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

The door with the level leaning up against it leads to a mechanical room / laundry room and shares a wall with the tank location. Mech room has a water source / drain in it for washing machine so I will be creating some space in there for a remote fuge / RODI set up, etc.
 
Made some progress today but boy do I hate plumbing PVC haha. RODI tank on left and mixing on right. Piping configuration will allow me to be circulating mixing water and still be able to gravity fill RODI for ATO in Waterbox sump. Vectra S1 will be used for mixing / water change pump and will back up my main return system S1.

Any issue with using 45’s in line going down to pump vs 90’s? Heard some problems with returns on tanks using 45’s but flow will be better with 45’s in lieu of 90’s.

Go Patriots!

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Also, return pump suction side connection is 1”. I have all 3/4” piping ran for the most part and was going to increase to 1” approximately a foot before the pump. Am I at risk of creating air in the piping switching to a larger pipe size (3/4” to 1”) right before the pump inlet?
 
On the return it should be fine. You are going to lose pressure/power of the return but if it is changed before a horizontal section it should just fill and decrease pressure.




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On the return it should be fine. You are going to lose pressure/power of the return but if it is changed before a horizontal section it should just fill and decrease pressure.




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Thanks!! That’s what I was thinking but wanted to make sure before I finish it up.
 
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