Ibn
Guest
I went over to Alan's (Hyacinth) place yesterday to pick up a couple of items, one of which is the Waterbox 20G AIO tank. I cracked my last starfire QT tank and needed another, so figured I might as well get an AIO for QT of corals and fish. Waterbox is really new on the radar and I haven't seen any of their tanks before. They're advertised as 5-sided starfire tanks.
This review is of a unit that was sealed in box shipped from Saltwateraquarium.com. No water running in it yet, since I'm having some issues with the overall unit. Let's take a look at some of them.
Topdown of the 6mm starfire glass used.
Reminds me of the starfire used in some of the other tanks manufactured in China (e.g. AquaJapan).
In comparison, this is the top down of the 1/2" starfire used in my Crystal Dynamics tank. Sorry for the aquarium lights in the shot, but overall it's more clear, with a bluish tint in it instead of the green.
Cradle. Nice that it came with one with all the included media. The charcoal, in the topmost compartment, is something that I've never seen before. Big chunky pieces, like what you would use for an ABG (Atlanta Botanical Garden) mix.
The cradle felt a little less than square, so I emptied the contents of it and took a careful look at it.
Crack at the bottom of the media cradle.
One of the side seams wasn't properly glued down.
Not deal breakers by any means (yet). I decided to flip it over regardless to install the leveling mat that it comes with, but then discovered the following.
As you can see, one of the baffle walls isn't glued down all the way. I figured it was just a misstep during the manufacturing process. A quick side shot reviews otherwise.
What you see there is bad quality control. The baffle wasn't cut straight. I'm guessing that the gap is ~2mm deep.
Since the tank was sitting upside down, I also noticed the poor silicone job on the bottom.
Hard to kind of see it in this next shot, but the silicone doesn't sit flush with the pane of glass there. There's small bits of it missing.
Overall, the tank doesn't exude the quality that they market it as such. You get what you pay for, but I'm surprised that these all made it through QC.
Oh, lastly, let me show you what caused me to do a thorough inspection of the tank (what prevented me from setting it up).
That's the output side of the EcoPlus Eco 185 that the setup ships with. It's the largest fitting out of the box, at 1/2". The black tube is the tube that feeds up to the return nozzle, which is too big. I measured the tubing and the ID of the tubing is 5/8. The kit doesn't come with any sort of clamp that would hold the 5/8" ID tubing over the 1/2" OD fitting.
This review is of a unit that was sealed in box shipped from Saltwateraquarium.com. No water running in it yet, since I'm having some issues with the overall unit. Let's take a look at some of them.
Topdown of the 6mm starfire glass used.
Reminds me of the starfire used in some of the other tanks manufactured in China (e.g. AquaJapan).
In comparison, this is the top down of the 1/2" starfire used in my Crystal Dynamics tank. Sorry for the aquarium lights in the shot, but overall it's more clear, with a bluish tint in it instead of the green.
Cradle. Nice that it came with one with all the included media. The charcoal, in the topmost compartment, is something that I've never seen before. Big chunky pieces, like what you would use for an ABG (Atlanta Botanical Garden) mix.
The cradle felt a little less than square, so I emptied the contents of it and took a careful look at it.
Crack at the bottom of the media cradle.
One of the side seams wasn't properly glued down.
Not deal breakers by any means (yet). I decided to flip it over regardless to install the leveling mat that it comes with, but then discovered the following.
As you can see, one of the baffle walls isn't glued down all the way. I figured it was just a misstep during the manufacturing process. A quick side shot reviews otherwise.
What you see there is bad quality control. The baffle wasn't cut straight. I'm guessing that the gap is ~2mm deep.
Since the tank was sitting upside down, I also noticed the poor silicone job on the bottom.
Hard to kind of see it in this next shot, but the silicone doesn't sit flush with the pane of glass there. There's small bits of it missing.
Overall, the tank doesn't exude the quality that they market it as such. You get what you pay for, but I'm surprised that these all made it through QC.
Oh, lastly, let me show you what caused me to do a thorough inspection of the tank (what prevented me from setting it up).
That's the output side of the EcoPlus Eco 185 that the setup ships with. It's the largest fitting out of the box, at 1/2". The black tube is the tube that feeds up to the return nozzle, which is too big. I measured the tubing and the ID of the tubing is 5/8. The kit doesn't come with any sort of clamp that would hold the 5/8" ID tubing over the 1/2" OD fitting.
Last edited:
