Waterbox 10 gallon build

CT_10

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#1
Hello there fellow reefers. My name is Cesar and I live in the I.E near Temecula. Long story short, I had a 60 gallon tank years ago that ended up crashing and taking all the livestock with it, after that happened I kinda left the hobby. But couple months ago I started getting random adverts on my IG and FB about corals and reef setups, so me being me I started to look into it again and saw all kinds of tanks from big to small and that right there was enough to get my attention. So pretty much I ended up with what the title says “WATERBOX 10 gallon tank” in my office/game room.

Currently in the cycling stage, bout 2 weeks in.
Feel free to comment and leave your thoughts and or questions. Glad to be back in the hobby even if it’s with a nano tank (which I don’t mind at all)

First I was looking into getting some sort of table/stand for the tank but while aquarium stands were 200-300 dollars, night stands/counters weren’t that cheap or greatest either. Wife and I decided to take a trip to IKEA, where I ran across this “stand”. It’s actually meant for a sink to go ontop but I cut out a piece of MDF wood plastidipped it white (since it’s water proof) placed it over the top, placed tank and would you look at that custom made for under $100, and in my eyes looks just as amazing as a aquarium stand and perfect fit for the waterbox 10g.

Next the aqua scape, I wasn’t too happy about, I tried adjusting the rock many diff ways with nothing that really tickled my fancy. So I know in a nano tank less is more so I started breaking the rock apart hoping to get better shapes and sizes.

What I ended up with was a floating rock that will eventually turn I to a floating reef. I used crazy glue (gel kind) along with some fish epoxy putty forgot name of it to attach rock to each other. Left it over night to cure.

Next I mixed my Water places heater in added my ammonia and bacteria to start the cycle. At the time I had a power head from my previous 60g tank that I put in the nano just to get the water moving (even on the lowest setting it was too much flow)

So at this point the tank is being cycled but the water is evaporating kinda quick. Me being me I went ahead and designed something quick and easy, some clips that I could attach to the sides to be able to put some sort of lid. I remembered I had some left over plexiglass which I cut and placed over and to me it looked pretty darn good. Aside from that I wanted to see if I could buy a smaller power head or do something that requires no power head and that’s when I came across these RFG. Printed some out diff shapes and sizes, and to my surprise they seem to work really well to where I ended up taking out the power head.

After waiting a month or so I got my light. I was gonna go with the AI 16HD prime light but got a good deal on this coralbox light which pretty much is the same just less expensive and so far I’m liking it. Easy to use and programable as well.

Couple days pass and I’m getting tired of manually topping off the tank so I remembered I had a aqua lifter in my 60g that I was using for dosing, so I fired up the 3D printer designed a quick bracket to hold a float switch, cut spliced solder wire to switch and now have a cheap inexpensive ATO! I placed an order for a 2nd float switch to work as a safe switch that if for some reason my ATO switch stays on the 2nd one will turn off the system once it reaches a certain water level. So there will be more to that in the near future.

Currently I am waiting for the cycle to be over with to add a fish or two as the wife keeps asking when are we gonna get a fish and not just have a tank full of water.

Attached are pics I took from what i could, beginning to current state .

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CT_10

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#5
Update, The other day i was sitting staring at a empty tank and was wondering if there was anything that could be placed to cover up all the wires and things hanging from the overflow. I searched and came across some overflow covers that could be purchased. I was thinking about 3D printing a 2 piece cover instead but I remembered that I had left over plexiglass from when I did the lid. I got the dimensions for the overflow and went to work. After it was all done I used black plastidip to paint it. I’m happy with the finished product because in the end it did what it was intended too and that was to cover the wires/overflow, but of course not perfect as I didn’t have the right tools to cut straight pieces.
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After that was done I wanted a safety switch for my ATO. So I went ahead and ordered another float switch to invert and make it so if the main float switch was to get stuck, the secondary one would trigger causing the pump to turn off once it got to a certain water height. Once wired I went back and had to edit the previous hanger for the first float switch as I needed this safety switch to be a bit lower as I had to flip it upside down.
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Once all that was done I was browsing the forums/FB and came across a LFS that was open and somewhat close to us. So we went ahead and drove about 30-40 mins away to it . Wife and I were looking at some clowns and all they had on their display tanks were reg Ocellaris ones (nothing wrong with them but we just wanted something fancier/nice for this tank). One of the workers asked if he could help us with anything and I happened to ask if they had any other type of clowns and he said to follow him. We ended up in the back of their store and turns out they breed their own clowns and had pretty much every kind you could think of. Sadly some weren’t ready to be sold but we ended up with some Davinci clowns for a great price !!!
The wife’s is on the bottom left
(white Mohawk lol )
Mine is top right
(Thinking of what to name them still)

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Next purchase might be maybe some CUC and frags. Deff will post update when that happens
 

CT_10

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#12
Happy Easter everybody, here’s a small little update on what’s going on in the WaterBox 10g as of today.

Yesterday was water change day so I did about a 20% water change on the tank, after it was all done the hammer and frog spawn loved it as they were huge and extended out more than usual ! Sadly I couldn’t get a good picture of them in action. Soon after I met up with another local reefer from which I picked up some Zoa frags off of, nothing too exciting but surely will be something nice to look at in the mean time.

(Utter chaos/BloodSuckers/God of war/Circus/Avocado)
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Ontop of that I did notice a small diatom bloom happening as parts of my rock,sand Bed, and glass started getting that brown color on them. Not really worried about it, I’m just going to ride out Unless it starts to get out of hand. Also debating on what CUC to put in this 10g tank still as it’s almost time to bring some onboard.
 
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#14
Tank looks great! What are you using for media? I use chemi pure blue and seem to be best especially for nano tank since there's not alot of room for errors. Clowns look awesome and like to get some like those soon. Whats name of store you went to?
 

TonyTech

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#16
I feel somewhat confused and lost. Am I reading this right. You're tank is 18 days old, you used dry rock, live sand and you have 2 fish and purchased corals already?

I think it looks great don't get me wrong but you're scaring me smalls.
 

CT_10

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#17
Tank looks great! What are you using for media? I use chemi pure blue and seem to be best especially for nano tank since there's not alot of room for errors. Clowns look awesome and like to get some like those soon. Whats name of store you went to?
As of right now I just have filter sock ruble rock and bio balls not much, but am looking into getting rid of sock and adding a basket with some filter floss chemipure blue and rubble rock or carbon depending how things go maybe even a nano skimmer, but as of right now everything seems to be doing fine since bio load is minimal. I will have to get back to you with the name of the store as I don’t recall
 
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CT_10

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#18
I feel somewhat confused and lost. Am I reading this right. You're tank is 18 days old, you used dry rock, live sand and you have 2 fish and purchased corals already?

I think it looks great don't get me wrong but you're scaring me smalls.
Tank has been up for roughly a month, has gone through the cycling process. Cycled tank with beneficial bacteria along with DR Tim’s ammonia if your wondering how cycle was started.Tested for Ph-8.4/Ammonia-0/nitrite-0/nitrate-5/10ppm just the other day so nothing out of the norm. I’m no expert but from the readings and comments I’ve read in diff post I’d say it safe to have pair of clowns and as for coral not much harm is done by them.
 
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#19
How much glue did you use? I been thing of going floating reef but have my reservation want the sand exposed. Nice job


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CT_10

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#20
How much glue did you use? I been thing of going floating reef but have my reservation want the sand exposed. Nice job


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I used about a bottle of crazy glue gel and also almost full tube of that putty you mix together.
 

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