This video tours Dwayne's award-winning 4ft Waterbox reef tank, crowned Australia's Best Reef Tank 2025 by Monsoon Aquatics. Dwayne shares his journey in the hobby, the detailed infrastructure and DIY solutions behind his successful SPS-dominant system, and showcases his vibrant corals and diverse fish collection. The video concludes with the bittersweet news that Dwayne will be shutting down the tank due to an upcoming house renovation, seeking new homes for his livestock.
Dwayne's 33-month-old Waterbox 130.4 is a heavily grown-in 4ft mixed reef packing SPS, LPS, softies and gorgonians, crowned Monsoon Aquatics' Australia's Best Reef Tank 2025. Its standout is the extensive DIY infrastructure — a through-wall garage wet room, self-coded Apex ATO, T-piece siphon-break auto water changes, and a Bubble Magus reactor plumbed to offset pH via the refugium. Despite the impeccable result, Dwayne is shutting it down due to an upcoming house move and renovation.
Ran the whole sump, skimmer, reactor, frag tank and water station into an adjacent garage 'wet room' through the wall, keeping all mess, noise and smell out of the living space while gravity-feeding the display.
Built his own top-off using Apex pseudo-code and DIY float sensors on a breakout box, adding programmed redundancies and text alarms since the ATO reservoir sits above the sump (siphon risk).
Auto water change uses a simple looped T-joint as a siphon break so residual water drains back to the reservoir — no check valves or small holes to clog, so it runs essentially fail-proof.
Drips acidic calcium-reactor effluent into the bubbling refugium return so the chaeto consumes the CO2-rich water, helping offset pH while boosting macro growth.
Lets the toxic-green GSP grow up the weir; when it chokes the overflow and salinity/level shift, it flags that it's time to trim — a living maintenance cue.
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Filtration
Great White
Protein skimmer
External cup with a float switch and reservoir tied to the Apex — it alarms and shuts off when full, so Dwayne can safely run it wet.
Lighting
Ecotech Marine
Radion XR30 Gen 6 Blue
Display lights ×2
Cable-hung centrally from an EcoTech rail with DIY acrylic mounts and 3D-printed shades — factory light, home-built rigging.
Self-coded in Apex pseudo-code with DIY float sensors on a breakout box — programmed redundancies because the reservoir sits above the sump, a siphon risk.
