Another UNS R90 Build

[Tyler929]

Hello everyone! I am a brand new to the saltwater world and hopefully I can be a successful reefer. I am making the switch from freshwater and hope that I am up for the challenge. I started into aquariums because my youngest son wanted a fish out of nowhere, but I’m pretty sure it’s because I won’t cave into letting him get a puppy. He recently moved to the other side of the house near his older brother so that left us with an empty room. We are in the process into making it a TV/game room and I was given a small area from the wife to put a tank. I went back and forth on size and brand and ultimately settled on the UNS R75. I was pretty much dead set on the tank, but as I was awaiting the much anticipated release, my wife said one day “that tanks pretty small. Why don’t you get a bigger one?” Done deal so I went with the UNS R90.

Here is the wall that she gave me permission for the tank. I guess it’s like my blank canvas. Please ignore the mess, it’s a progress in work.

I removed the carpet and placed some laminate after leveling the floor. I bought some transition pieces for the flooring, but honestly I figured that could wait. I wanted to move the tank in as soon as possible.

The tank arrived as fairly quick and I couldn’t wait to unwrap it. This thing looks much bigger in person.

Got it all set up and in place. Fits just about perfect and now the waiting game for everything else to arrive in the mail. I’ll update soon enough.

 

[Tahoe61]

00000 nice tank, Congratulations!!!!

 

[UNS_Parker]

Looks Great! Keep us updated!

 

[Tyler929]

Got everything in the mail. I went with the more popular equipment and more or less the tried and true. I’ll update on the progress once I have a little more time.

 

[omar91]

Looks great. Where did you bought the smart roller from?

 

[Tyler929]

Looks great. Where did you bought the smart roller from?

Aquacave but it looks like they are sold out now. Nature Aquariums looks like they may have some in stock.

 

[omar91]

Thank you. I had originally ordered it from AquaCave, but then they called me and told me it was out of stock.

 

[Gumbies R Us]

Following along!

 

[Tyler929]

Got everything installed and the wires routed. No big problems or issues so far. As this is my first tank I’m sure I’ll run into issues soon enough.

Routed the MP40s and the return pump. I may buy some 3D printed mounts, but for now a little Velcro and they are good to go.

My rats nest of cables. The controller box and cable management tracks actually held more cables than I expected.

Nothing too exciting but I’m going with a clean look. This should leave me with options to mount any additional modules in the future.

 

[Nan.roti]

Looks great! Welcome to UNS club. The tanks is well put together and well thought out.

I saw you have the UNS fuge light. Let me know how well it works. I'm using the Tunze right now.

 

[Jalvarez12]

How high is your return area does it flow into the over flow or a little below?

 

[UNS_Parker]

How high is your return area does it flow into the over flow or a little below?

It should just barely be trickling into the emergency. This will help with surface skimming of the tank as well.

 

[Tyler929]

How high is your return area does it flow into the over flow or a little below?

I have mine set to where you have yours roughly. I’ve found the sump level to be the most consistent with it there. I’ll have to try Parker’s recommendation to see how that works.

 

[Jalvarez12]

where i have it in the picture is deff more quiet i also put filter floss on top of the mesh and its almost silent i only hear a small hum from the

I have mine set to where you have yours roughly. I’ve found the sump level to be the most consistent with it there. I’ll have to try Parker’s recommendation to see how that works.

yea i found where i have it the most quiet i also put filter pad under the return drain and it’s basically silent

 

[Sharbuckles Reef]

Man you’ve got yourself one heck of a fiest reef tank! All the bells and whistles. Can’t wait to see it up and running.

 

[Tyler929]

Quick little update. I have the hardscape in and all set up where I want everything. Not much of a pro but I used Marco rocks with mortar. I am just about 4 weeks into the fishless cycle and everything is going well. Zero ammonia with just a trace of Nitrites and I think the Nitrates were around 18. I used a combination of bacteria that included Dr Tims, Brightwell and Polyplab Genesis. I’m sure the combination probably slowed the cycling down but my mindset is trying a get a strong diversity of bacteria. If everything looks good in the next week I’ll probably add some fish slowly and go from there. I have a couple Clowns and a yellow watchman in QT.

 

[Tyler929]

A little bit about my reef factory smart roller……….
So I bought the smart roller before reef factory went bankrupt and I have been navigating the thing pretty much without support. I did not download the app until after the fact and now I can not get the thing registered or even create an account for the app. No worries, I figure the worst case scenario I just have to manually push the button on the motor when I want the roll to advance. It still beats changing filter socks, however it seems to advance and work just fine without the app. Once the water level reaches the sensor, it will advance and the water level drops. Fingers crossed it continues, but if not I’m sure I’ll be able to a different solution.

I’ve seen a lot of websites sold out of the replacement roller mats so I looked into different replacements. I know some companies will cut these to any custom size and I’ve seen some use Aliexpress with good results. Luckily I bought some replacements, but I also noticed the Bubble Magus filter roller mats was the same size of 7.87” and had the same micron rating. I bought some on a whim and they seem to fit and work just fine. I’ll post any updates or problems I have but for now they seem to be a good replacement.

Once I hooked up the filter roller the power cable that comes with it is extremely short so I bought a cheap extension off Amazon
(Amazon product ASIN B0CF88G1YK).
Seems to work and I was able to properly route the power cable. I also bought the UNS roller mat adapter and I’ve seen a couple people have some issues with these. Whether it’s with noise or a good seal. In order to have it set up I noticed the filter roller sat up mostly out of the water in the sump. I also say Bayarea_reefer’s sat up on a couple of his videos. There was also a YouTube review that showed it sitting up.

The water is at the “water level” line and I know some have the filter roller more submerged but once I lowered it the adapter would no longer fit. I’ll test it at this height and see how it goes.

Lastly, I was not getting a good fit/seal with everything so I decided to add some aquarium safe silicone the adapter and I also put a thin layer in the connection of the filter roller elbow. This way once I pushed the adapter into the elbow, I got a water tight seal. You can see in the pic the water line is above the “water level” and there isn’t any leakage and lucky for me the noise is very minimal.

 

[Sharbuckles Reef]

What a bummer to hear about reef factory going bankrupt! Was considering one of their rollers.

The rock scape looks fantastic!!

 

[iprayforwaves]

Got everything installed and the wires routed. No big problems or issues so far. As this is my first tank I’m sure I’ll run into issues soon enough.

Routed the MP40s and the return pump. I may buy some 3D printed mounts, but for now a little Velcro and they are good to go.

My rats nest of cables. The controller box and cable management tracks actually held more cables than I expected.

Nothing too exciting but I’m going with a clean look. This should leave me with options to mount any additional modules in the future.

Which flat plugs did you use on the power bar? I just got the same tank and would like to mount my apex power bar in the same way.

Thanks!

 

[Tyler929]

Which flat plugs did you use on the power bar? I just got the same tank and would like to mount my apex power bar in the same way.

Thanks!

Got them from Amazon. Works great and hides the mess.