# Waterbox 2420 Black



## Matt1994 (31 May 2021)

Hi all,
(Firstly hope this is in the right place for the subject, as only my 3rd post)

Matt here, so long story short I've ordered a waterbox 2420 tank and cabinet.

I currently have an aquascaper 600 which has been running around 6 and a half months.  It was my first ever aquascape and I have enjoyed it so much I just wanted another project. 

You might ask why not just rescape the 600?
The 600 was not only my proper aquascape it got me through a very very tough time in my life. 

Not sure on times yet but the waterbox was ordered this morning, not going to deny it its probably going to be another project over months with ambition to set it up around December all being well.


Anyone have the tank ? How've you scared it ?

Many thanks 
Matt.


Will post a picture of my aquascaper 600 currently to this post


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## Tom72 (1 Jun 2021)

A face on picture would be good,


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## Matt1994 (1 Jun 2021)

Tom72 said:


> A face on picture would be good,




Hi Tom72!  probably would help haha 
Will post one now


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## Matt1994 (10 Aug 2021)

Hi all, 
Little update.
Tank arrived a month or so ago maybe 6 weeks, now has the onf flat one plus 60cm 
And hardscape , the hardscape I have just sat in the tank for now to get it off the floor. Hoping to have a play with it over the weekend to see how I can have it.


Many thanks to horizon aquatics for the hardscape 
(The bowl is just to support it so I'd doesn't scratch the glass and fall)



Also love the onf flat one plus 60cm, also from horizon aquatics 
The colour rendition is amazing. Tried it over the aquascaper 600 to compare to the twinstar 600s. And wow the greens popped!!!!



Will keep everyone updated as this progresses and will upload some more pics at the weekend when I'm happy with the hardscape 

Oh and my geordie scaper t shirt and scraper arrived 😁😁😁

Thanks all 
Matt 😃


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## Matt1994 (24 Sep 2021)

Evening all, the latest hardscape layout the one I'm happy with !

I also have a bag of ada aqua gravel to add to the foreground but can't decide on whether to have laplata sand and grade it to the aqua gravel 

Also do I stick with oase 350 thermo or go for the 600 (have the oase 350 on the aquascaper 600) 



Really wanting to stock this once complete with croaking gourami 


Thanks everyone for viewing this thread 

Thanks 
Matt 😃


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## Wolf6 (24 Sep 2021)

Looking like a good start this far


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## Matt1994 (24 Sep 2021)

Wolf6 said:


> Looking like a good start this far


Thanks wolf6 got a few more pieces of millenium stone to break up at some point and the cardboard is there just to try reduce scratches


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## Deano3 (24 Sep 2021)

Love that scape looks great and oase 600 should be fine as flow isn't too powerful  also ada laplata sand is really nice sand my favourite 

Sent from my SM-T595 using Tapatalk


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## bazz (25 Sep 2021)

It's all looking good mate!


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## Matt1994 (6 Nov 2021)

Evening all, 
It's been a long time since I've added any updates to this thread, journal 

I had some surgery in September 
And had a few set backs but on the road to full health again


My birthday was October and all the family bought me some very special things

Got 2 bags of ada amazonia 
2 backs of ada power sand advance 
1 bag of la plata sand
1 back of ada aqua gravel 

Way to much and progress on this tank has slowed down a little due to been off work at the minute due to the surgery 

The other night I glued the wood to the rocks using cigarette filters and liquid superglue 


But this evening I've had my brother come round and he's helped me put in the substrate 

He's left me to add the aqua gravel (can use a cup and scatter it about where i want it)

But the tank now has substrate in 
Sand foreground and with some finer details to add over the next few days 

Filter floss was used to close the gaps in between the milenium stone.


I have never done a sand foreground before and this is only going to be my second scaped tank 
Put a lot more thought into this one and hoping for a less amateur result I guess


Thanks all for reading 
Will attach a photo now 

And again sorry for the very delayed thread with not as many updates as I hoped to have at this point 


Many thanks 
Matt 😀


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## Djoko Sauza (6 Nov 2021)

Looking good! What are the dimensions of the tank? And have you already decided which plants you'll be using?


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## Karmicnull (6 Nov 2021)

That millennium stone looks great. And compared to my last scape your progress is positively bionic.  Hope you recover back to full health quickly.


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## Matt1994 (6 Nov 2021)

Diogo Sousa said:


> Looking good! What are the dimensions of the tank? And have you already decided which plants you'll be using?





Thankyou very much Diogo Sousa 
The tank dimensions are 60cm wide
50cm front to back and 45cm height 

I originally went for this tank as it is the same footprint as my aquascape 600 which I love but with more height 


I haven't yet decided I don't want a lot of red in there but definitely want a little so think h'Ra will be in it somewhere but plant list is still to do !! 

Thanks for your kind words 
All the best
Matt 😃


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## Matt1994 (6 Nov 2021)

Karmicnull said:


> That millennium stone looks great. And compared to my last scape your progress is positively bionic.  Hope you recover back to full health quickly.




Thankyou Karmicnull

I really like it, for some reason I love grey stone, have mini landscape in my aquascaper 600 but absolutely love the textures of this millenium stone

Thankyou, I've mostly tried to correct what I feel could have been improved on my last scape

Main ones being I love the manzanita wood in my current tank and loved my initial idea but since the plants growing in it can't really be seen 
And also it was my first planted tank and as you do I went for plants I liked on pictures but not knowing how they'd grow I placed them a bit all over, it has bugged me since around the 6month mark
I've never done sand foreground before but felt it added some depth to this scape but also hopefully going to make the fish stand out and give me a viewing point

I am really happy with it and it has turned out or (turning out) better than I could have hoped for

But thankyou very much for your kind words really appreciate them and makes all the changing of hardscape ideas I had till this one 

It's nice to hear considering the levels of scapes you find on this forum I've got a lot more to learn but definitely learnt from my first scape have I feel a bit more of a dramatic and bold hardscape for when the plants mature and to go out your comfort zone

Thanks again 
All the best 
Matt 😃


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## sparkyweasel (6 Nov 2021)

The tank is looking good. 
All the best for your recovery.


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## Matt1994 (6 Nov 2021)

sparkyweasel said:


> The tank is looking good.
> All the best for your recovery.




Thanks sparkyweasel

Touch wood 🪵 
But think I'm on the last stretch of recovery now got my fingers crossed ad itching to do a large maintenance session on my current tank as appose to family members haha 
All the best 
Matt 😃


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## Matt1994 (14 Nov 2021)

Evening everyone, hope everyone OK,


Started to add a few little details to the scape, need to smash up a little bit more of leftover pieces of milenium stone to get some more tiny pieces but a bit more detail added, tried to add a sense of depth especially in the front hand left side with the rocks as I intend to have some ephyphites creeping through the rocks here, still can't decide on plants 

So just a little more done not much more yet but every little counts 

This is my second aquascape so by no means professional level  just trying to use and encorporate what I've learnt over the best past of the past year (almost) from when I set up my aquascaper 600 


Many thanks 
Matt 😃


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## Angus (14 Nov 2021)

For a second aquascape, that hardscape is mad.... very natural looking and the transition between wood rocks stones and sand really flows....


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## Matt1994 (14 Nov 2021)

Angus said:


> For a second aquascape, that hardscape is mad.... very natural looking and the transition between wood rocks stones and sand really flows....




Wow! Thanks Angus for those kind words! 
Means a lot! I've tried just to encorporate some of the few bits I've learnt since setting up my aquascaper 600 last December 
There's bits that have bothered me in the tank since (was no real sense of depth) and I just put the plants everywhere and anywhere with out real thought ! 

So that's really made my day cheers mate!

All the best 
Matt 😃


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## Angus (14 Nov 2021)

As far as a sense of depth goes, in person it's very hard to achieve, but you can sort of cheat and gain depth by changing photography angles etc, also planting schemes and different heights of plants can help to create the illusion of deeper spaces in the tank, i have to say you have much more patience for hardscaping than myself, never do yourself down.

your 600 is also a really lovely jungle style, now you have to test yourself with the planting on the waterbox.

Keep up the good work matt. 

Gus.


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## Matt1994 (14 Nov 2021)

Angus said:


> As far as a sense of depth goes, in person it's very hard to achieve, but you can sort of cheat and gain depth by changing photography angles etc, also planting schemes and different heights of plants can help to create the illusion of deeper spaces in the tank, i have to say you have much more patience for hardscaping than myself, never do yourself down.
> 
> your 600 is also a really lovely jungle style, now you have to test yourself with the planting on the waterbox.
> 
> ...




Cheers Gus,
I'll have to once set up have a play with angles etc...

I definitely didn't use the foreground midground and background planting ideas in the aquascaper 600 but it's still going and its helped me so much in learning things 

And truthfully I am not the most patient person but found doing 30-45 mins every other day has helped me and then giving it a day to re look at it and rethink I've had the stones in about 10+ positions 🤔



Thanks again for the kind words!! 

Matt 😃


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## Matt1994 (16 Nov 2021)

Evening all 
 No more to update on the waterbox as of yet, however had a bit of a change around in the aquascaper 600, I've been unable to do my weekly maintanince these past 2 months. Had family members do it but they weren't as precise as I'd like but have still tried their best however the tank suffered a fair bit of algae and just didn't look as good as it once did. I am planning on doing an iwagumi scape in it hopefully at some point next year once the waterbox is up and running but for now i have removed  the dwarf hair grass at the front and removed all the leaves I could possible see with any signs of ill health or algae and have replaced the dwarf hair grass with 

Tropica Hemianthus micranthemoides 

Also replaces the super red at the back with some 
Tropica Ceratopteris thalictroides


Looking forward to it all growing back in and soon being able to get back to my proper maintanince routine 



Will post more updates as the waterbox progresses

Will post a pic of the aquascaper before and after below:


Thanks all 
Matt 😃


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## Matt1994 (29 Dec 2021)

Evening all!
Hope everyone has had a good Christmas 


The tank is now planted as off about 2 hours ago !!


Loving the aquario neoflow inlet and outlet and the calaqua double drop checker 

Running the oase biomaster 600 thermo with 1 blue sponge at the bottom 
Middle matrix and the top orange sponge 


Tried to plant as heavy as I could 

Cannot wait for it all to grow in over the next few months 

Thanks all 
Matt 😃


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## Matt1994 (29 Dec 2021)

A few pictures not longer after it was planted


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## LondonAquascaper (31 Dec 2021)

I had a waterbox peninsula 15 and it was great. I really rate their tanks. The pump started making a noise and they replaced it without question. Great company.


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## Matt1994 (3 Jan 2022)

Hi all,

Day 5 

All seems to be going good so far, apart from some tannis from the wood nothing the daily water changes aren't taking care of

Added some frogbit yesterday 
Going to be continuing daily water changes for at least another week and then go to every other day 


Plants were mostly 1-2 grow other than the bolbitus and anubus petite 

But all showing signs of growth and looking healthy 

Running the light at 50% for 6 hours with a 15min ramp up and 15min ramp down 

And dosing 2Hr aquarist Zero 3ml daily 


Will attach some photos 

Thanks everyone 
Matt 😃


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## Matt1994 (3 Jan 2022)

LondonAquascaper said:


> I had a waterbox peninsula 15 and it was great. I really rate their tanks. The pump started making a noise and they replaced it without question. Great company.



Hi London aquascaper
It's my first waterbox aquarium 
My other tank is the aquascaper 600
I really like it seems really good quality and really solid stand too

I queit like it been taller than the aquascaper 600 but same width and depth 

Thanks 
Matt 😃


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## Matt1994 (7 Jan 2022)

Evening everyone 

Day number 9 and all seems to be going good, plants seem to be growing great All looking healthy and no signs of melting or poor health 
Been carrying out daily water changes of around 80% and, dosing seachem stability daily. 

Dosing 3ML of 2hr aquarist Zero daily 

Going to do daily water changes till next Wednesday, which will be the two week mark then go on to every other day for a week, then every couple of days the following week then hopefully down to once per week following maybe 2x a week. 


Will attach a couple of photos,
First is the day it was setup and second is from today (day 9) after a water change 

The third and fourth photos are also from today and are just some side shots of the tank.

Tannins seem to have pretty much gone now which is also good, so will probably add a bag of purigen into the filter in the next week or two to make sure the tannins have gone completely 


Thanks 
Matt 😃


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## LondonAquascaper (9 Jan 2022)

Great to see! That's going to look amazing grown in!


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## Matt1994 (26 Feb 2022)

Evening all, been a while since I posted the tank. 

It's had 2 trims since the last post I posted back in January.

Struggling with a little bit of staghorn algae at the minute 


After the 3 week mark the tank seemed to explode in growth.

I kept up daily water changes for 3 weeks and the  was doing 3 for the next week then have done two since.
I'm not sure if it's related but had a manic couple of weeks at work and have only managed to get one water change in a week so not sure if this has triggered the staghorn

Dosing 3Ml of 2hr Aquarist Zero daily 
Drop checker is lime green at lights on and running the oase biomaster thermo 600 so around 10x turnover an hour  


The tank is stocked with 3 german blue rams and 11 pentazona barbs along with Amano shrimp and 6 red onxy shrimp 


Thanks all and sorry for the big delay between posts 


Thanks
 Matt 😀


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## Matt1994 (8 Jun 2022)

Hi all, just gone past the 6 month mark with the waterbox 2420
Had a little bit of a stag horn algae outbreak but all seems to be clearing up now after upping water changes to two 70% a week 
Added some gravel to the foreground
And absolutely in love with the apistogramma 

Also had a move around with my house plants and made a nature inspired corner! 

Dosing 3ML of 2hr aquarist apt zero daily and apt fix after every water change 


Thanks all 

Matt


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