Wazawai's UNS 90L

[Wazawai]

Been away from the hobby (salt and fresh) for a very long time.  Recently decided to get back into it.  A little slow on the saltwater startup compared to freshwater.  Another 90L freshwater above the saltwater 90L and four UNS 30C's above that (shrimp tanks).

Maintenance had to be easy, hence the BioMaster.  Equipment had to be quite/silent and low wattage, hence the A80's (15w each and no fan).  The rack further restricted options.

• UNS 90L
• BioMaster Thermo 350 - 60ppi sponges, canister will be mostly Seachem Matrix, 100% silicone tubing
• Aquario Neo Flow Lily Pipes - Premium with surface skimmer/Reliever
• 3x Kessil A80 Tuna Blue w/ Spectral X controller and Mini A-Series Gooseneck - need to devise a better DIY mount for them <--DIY mount completed
• Apex for temperature/heater control - had an old one in "the box"
• X1 Pro Wifi Dosing Pump for ATO - predetermined evaporation amount
• Reef Glass Nano Protein Skimmer - already have air for freshwater cubes on top of rack
• AI Nero 3

 

 

• Red Sea salt mix (standard one)
• LifeRock Nano Arches & Nano LifeRock Dry Live Rock
• CaribSea Aragonite Special Grade

Haven't thought of stocking much as of yet.  Probably easy stuff for now although the lights should be able to support most anything I'd want, tank is only ~12" deep without any substrate.

May add a Nero3, but am unsure about even the lowest setting in this tank.  My last experience with something similar was an MP10 years ago.
 

[BadCrab]

Lovely rack of tanks.

I've chosen to use many of the same products on a similar-sized tank. FWIW, with the special-grade sand you can really crank a powerhead even in a small shallow tank.  I'm using two syncd MP10s to pulse at 60% in my 22L (a little noisy, but they're a decade old.)  I think the Neros are likely another solid choice, I just don't have any personal experience with them yet.

 

I'm excited to watch where this one goes!

[Wazawai]

Thanks!  Still working on the shrimp tanks (filtration mainly) and cycling the freshwater 90L while I get the CO2 setup.

I chose the special grade for that very reason.  Previously I always used fiji pink and it went everywhere if I wasn't careful with flow.  Haven't had much luck finding anyone talking about a Nero 3 in a shallow tank, will probably end up getting one to try.

Gave up completely on EcoTech long ago.  Had MP10/20's fail, an expensive Vectra went out just outside of warranty, tried their first version of FW lights that were a total mess, etc, etc.

Trying to do things differently this time.

[Wazawai]

Rather unimpressed with the LifeRock nano arches, especially for the price.  Might use one at an end of the tank to make a cave or something.  The standard nano LifeRock is pretty good though, only one piece that looks "boring".  Don't want a ton of rock in this tank and don't need it since the canister will provide way more than enough biological filtration.

Got about 20 pounds of the special grade into the tank tonight.  Still have to play with the rocks and setup the canister filter before I can work on getting it wet.

[BadCrab]

I had some doubts about the nano arches too - half of them came with nubs broken off, and they looked very similar when laid out. 
But, I found that they locked together quite well and quickly found a hardscape I liked with just the four.  If I add more rock though, I'll be getting a box of that 'normal' nano life rock.

[Wazawai]

Not exactly what I envisioned, but here is where I'm at. Terrible pictures.

 

 

 

[Wazawai]

Better pictures...

[Lebowski_]

Cool!

[Wazawai]

Made a quick custom mount for the three A80's.  Works well for a quick job with scrap wood.  The entire thing slides forward/backward so I can easy push them back when I need to get into the tank.  Only issue is the lights currently sit about 2.5" from the (future) water line...

Kessil says coverage is 14x14 at 4" from water line.

I've never used these lights and don't know if being 2.5" from the water line will cause issues/banding with proper spread of light/spectrum.  I can move the brackets to the top of the mount and the lights will be almost exactly 4" above the water line.

On the other hand having them this low will probably help with light spillage since the tank is only 12" wide.

[Wazawai]

Pictures with all three mounted.  Comparing to my previous photos the shadowed areas seem almost exactly the same.  Back left corner/left side of the "tower" thing and a little bit on the inner left side of the far right curve of the main rock work.

Canister intake/output will be in the back left, being shadowed will probably help keep the pipes cleaner longer.

 

Think I'll leave them like this 😄

[Wazawai]

No new pictures, sorry!

Got the old Apex mounted and setup.  Using one, with a PM1 and two temp probes, to control heaters in the SW and FW tank.

 

Wires/cables for the lights/Apex are mostly routed/mounted/hidden.

Canister is mostly setup, everything but tubing and new flow, media is rinsed and installed, 60ppi sponges installed on the prefilter.

Dosing pumps are plugged in and waiting to be setup.

Ordered a Nero 3.

------

Was having an issue with the heater programming on the Apex, not something I remember ever being an issue in the past.

It was turning on and off within seconds and some times turning on 10 seconds or so after turning off.  Strange.  Had to re-familiarize myself with the defer command.  Set it for two minutes and problem solved.

[Wazawai]

Finally got the tank filled!  Sitting at exactly 17.5 gallons, probably have room for another .5 gallons but will wait to setup the Nero 3 before adding any more just in case I need the space for fluctuations.

 

Surface skimmer took a bit of tweaking, cutting down really, to get working as I have the output higher in the tank than where it would normally go because of the rocks on the left side.  Think it will work out pretty well though.  The reliever puts out strong varied flow doesn't cause any major surface agitation.  Think it'll pair nicely with the Nero 3 to make nice random flow.  I've never been a huge fan of the back and forth wave, prefer randomness.

[Wazawai]

Almost every time I order from BRS packages are delayed.  They seem like they are going down the Newegg path, to big to stay good...

 

[BadCrab]

What part of the country do you live in Wazawai?

I'm in Phoenix, I checked just now and I've placed 8 BRS orders in the last month (yikes) and I don't think any of them were delayed.  Did they end up not actually having the inventory to fill your order?

[Wazawai]

5 hours ago, BadCrab said:

What part of the country do you live in Wazawai?

I'm in Phoenix, I checked just now and I've placed 8 BRS orders in the last month (yikes) and I don't think any of them were delayed.  Did they end up not actually having the inventory to fill your order?

California 😞

They've had it as far as I know, but who actually knows.  I think it's happened to over half my recent orders.  The problems may be on the UPS end, but always happen in MN.

Just checked, out of seven orders this year five of them experienced the same "delay".

[Wazawai]

Added the Nero 3 a while ago and have it tweaked to my liking so far.

Have been intentionally taking it slow so the tank has just been running as is for a while.  Also no good place to get saltwater fish/inverts/coral within an hour drive of me...

Oddly enough I did notice some green algae and diatoms forming on the sand over the past couple of days.  Didn't think the tank would really cycle since I used dry sand and manufactured rock.

[sapling]

 

3 hours ago, Wazawai said:

Oddly enough I did notice some green algae and diatoms forming on the sand over the past couple of days.  Didn't think the tank would really cycle since I used dry sand and manufactured rock.

 

 

 

Also, how are you liking the Nero 3? Been considering it but the reviews I see from others always complain about the life of them, and I can't commit to paying what they want for something like that,

[Wazawai]

On 5/15/2023 at 3:12 PM, sapling said:

 

 

 

 

Also, how are you liking the Nero 3? Been considering it but the reviews I see from others always complain about the life of them, and I can't commit to paying what they want for something like that,

I like it so far, plenty strong enough for my tank.  Controller/power supply is nice and small (hated the size of them with an MP10).  Took me a bit of tinkering with the app to get used to how to set a schedule/program.

I can hear it when sitting in front of the tank when it is on 100%, noise drops significantly at 75% and at 50% I can't really hear it.

[Wazawai]

Not the best photo (top down through the lid), but I've never been so proud of dirty sand 🙂
 

Suppose it is about time for some basic CUC.