Hey all,
A while back, I posted a thread basically suggesting that the Waterbox 6025 peninsula appears to be absurdly uncommon on the internet. I think there is 1-2 videos of the tank in a private individual's home (read: not at a trade show), and I have seen very few images of the tank on forums. I guess the only rationale I can come up with is, if you are buying the 6025, you can probably afford the 7225. At the time, I purchased the 6025 because I though I would be placing the tank on the main level of my house, and I was very skeptical that the floor could withstand the weight of the 7225 over a long period of time. I ended up putting the 6025 in my den (concrete foundation) anyway so in hindsight, I probably should have gone with the 6025.
I'd like to share my experiences with the Waterbox 6025 as I believe it could be helpful for those considering buying this tank as an upgrade or replacement.
To start things off, I bought the 6025 as a replacement for my RSR350 and while moving to a few cities over, I ended up losing 99% of the tank for a host of reasons that would serve only to make an already long post, even longer.
This was my RSR 350, SPS dominant:
Essentially from this tank, I was able to save all of my fish (Two black storm clowns, purple tang, yellow tang, powder blue tang), my two large Duncan colonies, and two chalices. This was an extremely hard hit as I was (like most of you I would assume) extremely attached to the tank's growth and success. Ultimately, I wouldn't have been able to save a single thing if not for the extreme charity and generosity of my LFS (Cuttlefish and Corals in PDX).
After rectifying the electrical issues in the new house which resulted in losing the tank the night I transferred it over, I purchased the much larger Waterbox 6225. The process was extremely simple and waterbox was VERY easy to deal with compared to Red Sea. Any time I needed a question answered, or an update on anything, being able to call them and speak to a person within a minute was invaluable. The level of customer service from Waterbox was a huge relief.
After a couple weeks, the tank arrived and it great packaging. I did notice some damage to the crate and was sure to document that with pictures and video while opening up the crate.
Luckily, there was no damage to the tank at all due to the diligence and effectiveness of their packing, and the all was well!
Assembling the aluminum stand went quickly, but did have some hiccups that I believe could have been avoided had the manufacturing QA been a bit tighter. The holes drilled in the extruded aluminum for joining often had internal burrs that made in extremely difficult to get the bolts screwed down fully. I actually had to de-burr many of the holes to even get the bolts started. After a few hours, the stand was together and seemed solid enough.
Originally my plan was to have the tank on the main level of the house (the home is a split level with daylight den). I wanted to place it here, near the entrance (shown below with the footprint in red) but the joists underneath ran parallel with the tank rather than perpendicular. Ultimately, even though the tank would have been supported by two parallel 2x10 joists, I decided to put the tank downstairs in the den for several reasons.
The first reason was that the den had an attached full bathroom with shower, laundry room and free water connections. I knew that hauling water to the upstairs for water changes etc would have been a pain. Additionally, the den has windows placed perfectly to allow for fresh air exchange, as well as an abandoned coaxial cable passthrough in the wall that I can replace with a fresh air line for the skimmer. that was a big plus. the main downside was that the tank would be out of side, and that the den had carpet.
In the end, this is where it went(still moving in during this-quite a mess):
After setting up the cabinet and having my LFS place the tank on top (too heavy for just my partner and I alone to safely move), I noticed one of my first concerns with the layout of the waterbox peninsula. SPACE! The 6025 has essentially zero free space under the cabinet once the sump and ATO are installed. There is no wood paneling where the tank sits so that means no drilling or easy cable securing to the ceiling of the sump, and the far end (next to the ATO) for electrical components, is absurdly shallow. my RSR 350 had room for days which made cable management a breeze. Even now as I write this (knowing that I will need to remove the ATO and swap out for Red Sea's new slim profiled ATO), I'm not sure what Waterbox was thinking here. Sump space is, in my opinion, unmanageably small. Huge shame. No idea how a trident or apex or calcium reactor will fit in here. The calcium reactor absolutely will not have room in there period.
After getting everything kind of where I wanted it plumbing-wise and electrical-wise, it was time to consider aquascaping. I originally wanted something minimal, and add live rock to the sump to make up for what was missing in the display. The mock-up is below. I spent several hours considering everything longterm and after a few days of being set on this design, decided to scrap it for the sake of future plans with specific corals and possibly getting another Tesselata moray.
a little DIY live rock aquascaping. Fun.
Not sure why I didn't take a picture of the full thing, but here's how it sort of turned out. This is about 80% similar to the final placement
Water went in without a hitch, still not the final aquascaping though.
Not too terribly long of a wait for the cycle, but eventually, cycle it did. A cycled tanks means I get to go pick up my babies from the LFS!
(Day 1) Yay!
Here are some shots of the tank today:
That's all for now! I will take videos of other issues I experienced, as well as updates for calcium reactor, Trident and Apex retrofitting, as well as some more sump photos when I get some sump lighting installed. Currently I am running a reemit 1200, Red Sea Reef Dose 4 head, I, I am dosing All for Reef, and running carbon and a phosphate remover. nothing too fancy.
my partner picked me up some Zoas, a nice Space Invader Pectinia, two Alveopora frags and a clam! More photos to come.
Again, my primary motivation for doing this little series was due to the fact that the 6025 peninsula seems to be particular devoid of content on the internet.
Hope you enjoyed!
A while back, I posted a thread basically suggesting that the Waterbox 6025 peninsula appears to be absurdly uncommon on the internet. I think there is 1-2 videos of the tank in a private individual's home (read: not at a trade show), and I have seen very few images of the tank on forums. I guess the only rationale I can come up with is, if you are buying the 6025, you can probably afford the 7225. At the time, I purchased the 6025 because I though I would be placing the tank on the main level of my house, and I was very skeptical that the floor could withstand the weight of the 7225 over a long period of time. I ended up putting the 6025 in my den (concrete foundation) anyway so in hindsight, I probably should have gone with the 6025.
I'd like to share my experiences with the Waterbox 6025 as I believe it could be helpful for those considering buying this tank as an upgrade or replacement.
To start things off, I bought the 6025 as a replacement for my RSR350 and while moving to a few cities over, I ended up losing 99% of the tank for a host of reasons that would serve only to make an already long post, even longer.
This was my RSR 350, SPS dominant:
Essentially from this tank, I was able to save all of my fish (Two black storm clowns, purple tang, yellow tang, powder blue tang), my two large Duncan colonies, and two chalices. This was an extremely hard hit as I was (like most of you I would assume) extremely attached to the tank's growth and success. Ultimately, I wouldn't have been able to save a single thing if not for the extreme charity and generosity of my LFS (Cuttlefish and Corals in PDX).
After rectifying the electrical issues in the new house which resulted in losing the tank the night I transferred it over, I purchased the much larger Waterbox 6225. The process was extremely simple and waterbox was VERY easy to deal with compared to Red Sea. Any time I needed a question answered, or an update on anything, being able to call them and speak to a person within a minute was invaluable. The level of customer service from Waterbox was a huge relief.
After a couple weeks, the tank arrived and it great packaging. I did notice some damage to the crate and was sure to document that with pictures and video while opening up the crate.
Luckily, there was no damage to the tank at all due to the diligence and effectiveness of their packing, and the all was well!
Assembling the aluminum stand went quickly, but did have some hiccups that I believe could have been avoided had the manufacturing QA been a bit tighter. The holes drilled in the extruded aluminum for joining often had internal burrs that made in extremely difficult to get the bolts screwed down fully. I actually had to de-burr many of the holes to even get the bolts started. After a few hours, the stand was together and seemed solid enough.
Originally my plan was to have the tank on the main level of the house (the home is a split level with daylight den). I wanted to place it here, near the entrance (shown below with the footprint in red) but the joists underneath ran parallel with the tank rather than perpendicular. Ultimately, even though the tank would have been supported by two parallel 2x10 joists, I decided to put the tank downstairs in the den for several reasons.
The first reason was that the den had an attached full bathroom with shower, laundry room and free water connections. I knew that hauling water to the upstairs for water changes etc would have been a pain. Additionally, the den has windows placed perfectly to allow for fresh air exchange, as well as an abandoned coaxial cable passthrough in the wall that I can replace with a fresh air line for the skimmer. that was a big plus. the main downside was that the tank would be out of side, and that the den had carpet.
In the end, this is where it went(still moving in during this-quite a mess):
After setting up the cabinet and having my LFS place the tank on top (too heavy for just my partner and I alone to safely move), I noticed one of my first concerns with the layout of the waterbox peninsula. SPACE! The 6025 has essentially zero free space under the cabinet once the sump and ATO are installed. There is no wood paneling where the tank sits so that means no drilling or easy cable securing to the ceiling of the sump, and the far end (next to the ATO) for electrical components, is absurdly shallow. my RSR 350 had room for days which made cable management a breeze. Even now as I write this (knowing that I will need to remove the ATO and swap out for Red Sea's new slim profiled ATO), I'm not sure what Waterbox was thinking here. Sump space is, in my opinion, unmanageably small. Huge shame. No idea how a trident or apex or calcium reactor will fit in here. The calcium reactor absolutely will not have room in there period.
After getting everything kind of where I wanted it plumbing-wise and electrical-wise, it was time to consider aquascaping. I originally wanted something minimal, and add live rock to the sump to make up for what was missing in the display. The mock-up is below. I spent several hours considering everything longterm and after a few days of being set on this design, decided to scrap it for the sake of future plans with specific corals and possibly getting another Tesselata moray.
a little DIY live rock aquascaping. Fun.
Not sure why I didn't take a picture of the full thing, but here's how it sort of turned out. This is about 80% similar to the final placement
Water went in without a hitch, still not the final aquascaping though.
Not too terribly long of a wait for the cycle, but eventually, cycle it did. A cycled tanks means I get to go pick up my babies from the LFS!
(Day 1) Yay!
Here are some shots of the tank today:
That's all for now! I will take videos of other issues I experienced, as well as updates for calcium reactor, Trident and Apex retrofitting, as well as some more sump photos when I get some sump lighting installed. Currently I am running a reemit 1200, Red Sea Reef Dose 4 head, I, I am dosing All for Reef, and running carbon and a phosphate remover. nothing too fancy.
my partner picked me up some Zoas, a nice Space Invader Pectinia, two Alveopora frags and a clam! More photos to come.
Again, my primary motivation for doing this little series was due to the fact that the 6025 peninsula seems to be particular devoid of content on the internet.
Hope you enjoyed!