commod0re's UNS R90 Build

[commod0re]

A shell I moved over recently had a dwarf cerith hiding inside so it’s now technically the first denizen of the new tank

Started on the equipment cabinet side yesterday. Got a couple of Kasa 6 outlet wifi power strips and discovered that they are extremely long, I can only reasonably fit one in the bottom. That’s okay I’ll use a different kind of power strips above this and use this one exclusively to control things I can’t control via BLE or wifi

I also took the new lights off of the 26G and moved them over. It has its original ReefLED 50 back on it and side by side it’s looking pretty grim for Red Sea, the new lights look way way better

The new rocks are pretty much cycled so we’re going to start moving more stuff over. Today a shipment of pods and phyto arrived from TSA as well as this beautiful frag of sinularia. My wife suggested that it be the first thing in the new tank so while I moved the lights over I acclimated it and then once the lights were set up, in it went:

What a difference lights make

I’m also going to move the GSP island over today but have not done that yet

 

[commod0re]

We got excited, powered through, and moved nearly all the corals over plus all the fish, hermits, and many of the snails but not all yet. I moved the dosing pump over for now, a red sea reefdose 2, as it is working well enough for the time being, and began dosing AFR 15ml/day in hourly partial doses

I moved some of the rocks around in the sump and put the chaeto into the refugium chamber in advance of the light arriving tomorrow. Once I got it tumbling I noticed a familiar shape in the middle

I quickly pulled my gloves back on, successfully grabbed it, and moved it over to the jar pictured above. My wife also captured a second one out of the caulerpa that is still in the old tank and added it to the same jar. It is now the “pest jar” at least until another jar is chosen

Lump went hiding right away. Blennard found a cave he liked pretty quickly. Candlejack explored the tank a fair amount and then chose a corner lol. Kingpin chose a rock and seems even happier than he did already. The corals are even opening back up already. I feel we are off to an auspicious start

I need to add a second power strip, manage the cables, and choose a dosing reservoir instead of just using the AFR bottle

I will be monitoring the system with a seneye at least until my current slide runs out in 21 more days… so far things are looking as good as can be expected

 

[UNS_Parker]

A shell I moved over recently had a dwarf cerith hiding inside so it’s now technically the first denizen of the new tank

Started on the equipment cabinet side yesterday. Got a couple of Kasa 6 outlet wifi power strips and discovered that they are extremely long, I can only reasonably fit one in the bottom. That’s okay I’ll use a different kind of power strips above this and use this one exclusively to control things I can’t control via BLE or wifi

I also took the new lights off of the 26G and moved them over. It has its original ReefLED 50 back on it and side by side it’s looking pretty grim for Red Sea, the new lights look way way better

The new rocks are pretty much cycled so we’re going to start moving more stuff over. Today a shipment of pods and phyto arrived from TSA as well as this beautiful frag of sinularia. My wife suggested that it be the first thing in the new tank so while I moved the lights over I acclimated it and then once the lights were set up, in it went:

What a difference lights make

I’m also going to move the GSP island over today but have not done that yet

I'm running a similar lighting setup on my R90S. Instead of the Hydra 44, I have 2 16 primes on an HMS mount with a 36" Blade. The rear-mounted HMS looks good, though, mine are running side to side.

 

[commod0re]

I'm running a similar lighting setup on my R90S. Instead of the Hydra 44, I have 2 16 primes on an HMS mount with a 36" Blade. The rear-mounted HMS looks good, though, mine are running side to side.

Thanks! Your setup sounds awesome too

I’m planning to possibly add a second one and more blades, and also change to a hanging mount eventually, but I am getting good coverage and low shading even with just the one hydra and blade so it doesn’t feel urgent yet. Once my lighting acclimation program is done I’ll take some PAR readings and see what’s needed

 

[commod0re]

Today the refugium light arrived! Unfortunately there was some kind of mix-up and I did not receive the mounting clips I ordered. How annoying. Oh well powered through with the magnetic mount for now.
Other than that I also managed the cables and am quite happy with the results. The finger conduit makes it really easy to make everything tidy.

Pro tip: this here is a C13 to NEMA 5-15 and is a pretty standard cable, you can get them in many lengths including 1ft:

Yes that looks nice

Now that I have almost everything in here that I will have, and more than enough power outlets, I set about tidying everything else up

I moved the AFR bottle to the wet side of the cabinet, it’s sitting on top of the return chamber lid. Since I only have a 2 head dosing pump anyway I have the extra holes so I figured why not. I’m starting to realize that I should get a dosing reservoir of some kind instead of just using the bottle

And my front panel so far

I did fix the chaeto ball and got it tumbling

Caught chief tank watcher Tomes enjoying watching the chaeto tumble

The new sinularia frag is looking good

Everyone else seems to be doing well as well. I went to every LFS today looking for a hi-fin red banded goby and randall’s pistol shrimp. I saw a bunch of them recently so I figured it would be a slam dunk. Nope, fresh out. So I came home with the planned peppermint shrimp instead:

and I put a pick-up order in with Barrier Reef Aquariums for the fish, shrimp, and some additional snails and crabs

Speaking of inverts, the crustacean crew seems to really like the cave I made

All 3 scarlets were spotted at the front entrance. Kingpin hung out near the back entrance most of the day and is now set up under the arch

The peppermint shrimp, who is not yet named but will be soon, has made a brief appearance but otherwise has been vibing and doing shrimp stuff in the cave

That’s all for now

 

[RobynR]

So after a year with the Red Sea G1 Peninsula, I decided I was hooked and it was time to start seriously considering an upgrade for the purposes of a long-term build. The #1 thing my wife and I wanted out of an upgrade was to have a sump and other than that it was kinda up to me to figure out the exact size and kit I wanted for the project. I pored over catalog after catalog, just not quite satisfied with the dimensions of anything until I finally came across the UNS Reef system. I finally settled on the R90, put my order in with Buce Plant a couple weeks ago, and the freight company dropped it off today. I got it all unpacked and dry fit together and am extremely happy with it all so far. I'm still planning out all the equipment but I'll start to put together the plan here and then finally show some pictures

Going to spend a lot more time on the rockscape this time, and get a lot more rock in there. I'm planning to do drilled supports for extra security, 3D-printed eggcrate bases to keep the rock from touching the glass directly, and build higher. I'm aiming to have enough levels of lighting and flow available to support soft and LPS corals but not looking to do SPS right now.

Gear	What
Lights	AquaIllumination Hydra Edge 44HD (1x or 2x not sure yet) AquaIllumination Blade Glow 12" (2x or 4x we'll see) UNS mini refugium light
Light Mount	HMS hybrid mount plus one of: 1. HMS hanging kit with UNS Bar (Pro?) 2. 2x HMS arm kits 3. HMS rail kit
Return Pump	Jebao DCP-5000
Heat	400W Aquatop
Fleece Roller	undecided
Skimmer	Nyos Quantum 160
Doser	Red Sea ReefDose 2
Wave Makers	2x AquaIllumination Nero 3s ??
Automation /Monitoring	custom

fish stocking:

in:
1x clownfish. name: Candlejack
- 1x tail spot blenny. name: Blennard Nimoy
- 1x scooter dragonet. name: Lump
- skunk cleaner shrimp. name: Kingpin
- tuxedo urchin. name: Henry
- peppermint shrimp. name: Prawn Swanson

future:
- Royal gramma
- Hi-fin red banded goby
- Randall’s pistol shrimp
- springeri damsel
- red firefish
- blood red fire shrimp
- McCosker's flasher wrasse
- pink streaked wrasse
- yellow coris wrasse
- ???



other stuff will go here later


Here's the tank, empty:

Move day! Everyone is in

looks great!!

I just got a pictus Blenny and I’m worried about it fitting through the weir, especially the bottom one. How does it your tailspot seem in there? My clown goby is also pretty small. :S

Get that pink streak wrasse!!! They are freaking adorable and so far is the only fish of mine that has gone into the tank. Everyone else is still in quarantine. My royal gramma is a JERK, I had to put him in jail, as he was terrorizing everyone else in quarantine. I’m hoping he will chill out when he graduates to the tank. The blue assessor in another quarantine tank is SO CHILL, I feel like it’s a far more peaceful addition. Really regretting the ultra sassy royal gramma thus far.

I got a fineline pistol shrimp and she is stunning. I wanted the Randall’s, but they were never in stock in my area and the last several shipments arrived doa to the LFS. I am so happy with the fineline, but at some point might get a yasha/Randall pair for the other side of the tank. Depending on where my current goby/shrimp pair settle once in the tank.

My strawberry conch is also ridiculously cute, cannot recommend one of those enough if you don’t already have one.

 

[commod0re]

looks great!!

I just got a pictus Blenny and I’m worried about it fitting through the weir, especially the bottom one. How does it your tailspot seem in there? My clown goby is also pretty small. :S

Thank youuuu!!!

Blennard is FAT and I think he would not fit through the bottom weir if his life depended on it. I’ve had him for a year in another tank and when we see new tail spots at the LFS they look tiny compared to him

He’s in a cave right now but here he is this morning, keeping an eye on Prawn Swanson

So far I have not caught anyone even so much as investigating them. I’m thinking about designing and printing a finer grate cover that can clip over the weirs. If it works out I will share the files

Get that pink streak wrasse!!! They are freaking adorable and so far is the only fish of mine that has gone into the tank. Everyone else is still in quarantine. My royal gramma is a JERK, I had to put him in jail, as he was terrorizing everyone else in quarantine. I’m hoping he will chill out when he graduates to the tank. The blue assessor in another quarantine tank is SO CHILL, I feel like it’s a far more peaceful addition. Really regretting the ultra sassy royal gramma thus far

Interesting! I have read that the grammas are usually pretty peaceful and shy. Almost sounds more like the similar looking purple dottyback but I don’t know I might swap that with something else on my wishlist like another wrasse… We’ll see how it goes. I will definitely get a pink streak, one of the shops here sometimes gets them in… I should ask them to hold one for me

I got a fineline pistol shrimp and she is stunning. I wanted the Randall’s, but they were never in stock in my area and the last several shipments arrived doa to the LFS. I am so happy with the fineline, but at some point might get a yasha/Randall pair for the other side of the tank. Depending on where my current goby/shrimp pair settle once in the tank.

Fortunately one of the shops near me has the randall’s pistol shrimps (and two others often do) they just didn’t have the goby I wanted in stock. It’s one of the ones they stock regularly so I put in a pick-up order online and they’ll email me when they’re ready

My strawberry conch is also ridiculously cute, cannot recommend one of those enough if you don’t already have one.

I ordered a tiger conch from the same shop in the same order. I do want to try a strawberry as well but I want to “test the waters” first because my oldest tank inhabitant is a Halloween Hermit crab, and I would hate to give him a $15-35 snack, but I think he’s getting close to sizing out of tiger and strawberry shells so it might work out…

Thanks for taking a look at my tank! Here are a few more pics I took today in full light

 

[commod0re]

A couple of full tank pics too why not

 

[TheWB]

A couple of full tank pics too why not

Following along. I always like to see the local tanks. Everything looks great so far.

 

[commod0re]

I noticed that the weir between the refugium chamber and the return chamber in the sump sometimes catches my tiny little chaeto ball and stops it from tumbling

I moved two of the rocks back over from the skimmer chamber and set them up like this to interrupt the circular flow just on that side of the chamber

Now because the gyre flow is just on the front half of the chamber, the chaeto stays further away from the obstacles and stays tumbling. Nice!

 

[commod0re]

@RobynR I spent a while thinking about what you said about your royal gramma and did some reading and I think I’m going to try a lubbock’s fairy wrasse instead. Thank you!

 

[RobynR]

@RobynR I spent a while thinking about what you said about your royal gramma and did some reading and I think I’m going to try a lubbock’s fairy wrasse instead. Thank you!

I’m really hoping once it’s out of quarantine and in the tank it settles. Right now I have it and the blue assessor together, but in divided tank and they are mostly ignoring each other. Neither seem stressed at all, the assessor is way less interested in the royal gramma though, the gramma spends a lot of time beside the assessor, but just hovering, no acts of aggression that I’ve noticed.

 

[TheWB]

@RobynR I spent a while thinking about what you said about your royal gramma and did some reading and I think I’m going to try a lubbock’s fairy wrasse instead. Thank you!

Any fish can be a jerk but Royal Grammas are usually pretty easy to keep. Mine is a perfect citizen. I wouldn’t let fear of aggression stop you from getting one if you really want one. They don’t usually bother anything. If you get one that does turn out to be a jerk then back to the store it goes.

 

[commod0re]

Any fish can be a jerk but Royal Grammas are usually pretty easy to keep. Mine is a perfect citizen. I wouldn’t let fear of aggression stop you from getting one if you really want one. They don’t usually bother anything. If you get one that does turn out to be a jerk then back to the store it goes.

I appreciate the insight! It’s not just about the aggression, really, although the potential for that is part of it… a fairy wrasse also sounds like a lot more fun to watch.
I might still try a gramma at some point

 

[commod0re]

a smaller update today, just ordered a Top Lid for this tank with a spot for a future autofeeder. I thought about requesting additional feed doors but decided against that this time

I did get a few good pictures of my tail spot blenny, Blennard Part II as he has gotten comfortable with the new tank and scapes and has been exploring the rocks, finding cool caves to poke his head out of. Also pictured here is Henry, my tuxedo urchin, with his little GSP hat. He dropped his Zoas in the other tank and I haven't moved them over yet

a studious eye might notice that he only has one side fin, on the right, and as far as my wife and I can tell, this has always been the case. It seems like he never had a fin there, as it has never grown "back" in the year we've had him, but it also doesn't seem to cause him any real problems as he can maneuver around just fine

He really likes this large whelk shell although sometimes it gets tumbled around and if it's too far in the wrong position he won't go in there. I suspect he likes it because he's nosy and he can keep an eye on everything from there

Generally he has been super peaceful with everyone. In the 26G he would occasionally gently nip Lump the scooter dragonet if she got too close but there's so much more space in the new tank, and territories have reset, so I haven't seen him do that at all since the move

I don't really know why but the only thing he attacks with gusto are the two large nassarius snails; he will really wind up and shoryuken them across the tank. It's really funny to see it, although I do feel a little bad for the snails when he wallops them, it always takes them a few minutes to start moving after. I wonder why he hates those two snails in particular

I do have one coral that is unhappy but it was unhappy before the move to the new tank, too. My armageddon rhodactis mushroom is pretty scrunched up and has lost a lot of its dark pigment. At first I thought maybe the light was too low, so I moved it a little closer to the middle and observed for a few days. That didn't help so I moved it further away and observed for a couple days. It seemed like that helped some but not enough so I moved it to its current spot last night. It unfortunately has a bit of hair algae on its frag plug and I was unable to clean it off with my long tongs so today I pulled it out briefly, brushed 95% of the algae off with my algae scrubbing toothbrush, and put it back in. I'll need to give it a few days to relax and see if that helps and hopefully it does. So far mushrooms seem to be the one type of coral I struggle to keep happy :(
hopefully I can turn it around with this one still

 

[commod0re]

still waiting on the goby/pistol pair so today we went down to Sea King Aquariums and came back with a red firefish, a talbot’s damsel, and a springer damsel (yes I know, somewhat ironic to be overly concerned about gramma aggression and then come home with two damsels )

The 26 gallon tank is still up and running for now, so we put the springer damsel in there probably until after we get the future goby/pistol pair settled in the new tank. Excuse the algae, I already moved most of the CuC to the new tank. What’s left in this tank will be used by my wife to start a new nano mostly macro tank. A little shy still but settling in

The firefish has shown no signs of stress so far which is great. Seeing it swim around has also gotten Candlejack and Blennard to swim around a bit more which is awesome to see. The tank already feels more active which is awesome. So far no signs of any real aggression. A bit of calm and measured territory posturing but no beef, so I am pleased

I took these two pictures right after they went in and both of them have increased their color intensity since then. I will try to get some better pictures of them for my next update

Of course it’s always difficult not to get corals while there so I grabbed this favia, he couldn’t remember the name of the color just that it was “cool sounding” but I think it’s yellow submarine

I also got this blastomussa frag, which I unfortunately put in a spot where it’s a little hard to get a good picture of it, but I think it’s “blue raven blasto”

I don’t have a great picture of it yet because I’m still having a little trouble with both LVGL and doing i2c over long cables, BUT I have my v0. m5stack tab5 controller firmware installed! I’ve got a temperature/humidity and TVOC/eCO2 sensor in the cabinet mainly to roughly monitor CO2 trends (it’s not the most accurate CO2 measurement with a 15% error margin but it’s reasonable enough). I’m also going to attach my Atlas Scientific Surveyor pH probe to it, however I am waiting for the electrical isolation board for it and also an external ADC because the ESP32’s built-in ADCs suck

Pictures of the controller with the screen on coming soon once I’ve figured out my display issue and also once I have it mounted in place but I feel like too much of a tease talking about it and not showing anything

 

[commod0re]

Today I received my first piece of magnetic scape, ordered this awesome magnetic frag rack rock from PNW Custom (@PNWCustom) and used it to create another swim-through for the fish in the back. I’m not sure what corals I’ll put on it yet but the main idea was to start adding another element of verticality to the scape, not just to add more real-estate for corals but for the fish to feel more at home as well

I think it looks nice. I’m looking forward to adding more stuff to the back wall

We felt bad for the springer damsel being all alone in the 26G which, now that it has no CuC, is overrun with algae. It has plenty of amphipods and worms to feed it but it just hid behind the rock and peeked nervously at us so we moved it over after a few days. I fed the tank just before we moved the fish. There was a little bit of territory squabbling initially between the springer and the Talbot’s but they quickly came to terms and things have been mostlybpeaceful since then. The Talbot’s does chase the springer a little bit here and there but it’s not relentless. Both get along well with Candlejack though and nobody dares to mess with Blennard or Lump. I also changed where I feed from so that food flows more evenly into all territories and they already seem to have learned that there’s no need to squabble over food because there’s plenty for everyone

I ordered my wife a second 10 gallon fiji cube to sit next to her existing one. The existing one is currently a freshwater planted shrimp tank with a really beautiful scape that’s nicely grown in, and she (rightly imo) didn’t want to break it down to turn the tank saltwater so I said why don’t I get you a second one and then you can have a saltwater shrimp tank next to the freshwater one? Anyway the last bit of rock and sand in the 26G is destined to jumpstart that tank so we’re just waiting to finish breaking it down until that tank arrives

We finally settled on names for the newcomers:
Flameo Hotman

Lemonade

Barb

I’ve been experimenting with feeding hikari frozen clam on the half shell with interesting results. So far mostly they have gone to Kingpin and the nassarius snails, but the last one I threw in Lemonade took interest and actually had a few bites. Very cool!

I got a cheapo set of stackable camera lens filters with a phone clip to upgrade from my rectangle of orange acrylic and have been playing with it a bit. I wish the CPL filter did more but it does help. The yellow and orange filters are also nice. It also came with a macro lens. Here are some of the pictures I’ve taken with it

I drafted and 3D printed some frag plug mounts as well, which are working pretty well. I found a design online but made a few changes like adding a bit of texture to the end for grip

I’m pretty happy with them but might make another change or two before sharing the file


That’s all for now

 

[commod0re]

went to Sea King/Seattle Corals again and got a couple of new frags which I'm pretty excited about

Master Chaos zoa:

you don't see many Master Chaos zoas around so I'm especially excited about that

Hologram hammer:

I have my lights running an acclimation program while I try to get the armageddon rhodactis mushroom happy again. I temporarily disabled that so I could take some PAR measurements with my seneye and then re-enabled the acclimation. The pics below are with the acclimation program running and the PAR values are with my current lighting program (solar peak) at 80% intensity and at about 1PM. I'm pretty sure based on this, that I do not need any additional lights lol

I think the spot with the bleached mushroom in that side picture actually gets 0 PAR (not completely confident, my glove might have been blocking the sensor) so I moved that coral up to the front and off to the side, where it should get about 100ish PAR once the acclimation program is done

since I have a bunch of new rock in this tank I set up the second dosing head on my ReefDose 2 to dose Brightwell NeoPhos for a while until the nutrient levels re-stabilize

I'm also getting in there like 3-4 times a week now and just scrubbing and siphoning long algae off of the established rocks. This is something I'm liking a lot about having a sump; I don't have to wait for water change day to siphon algae, because I can siphon it into the filter socks and keep the water in the system. Once I clear away a patch of long stuff the CuC starts keeping it up again. The only exception to that so far is my friggin zoa garden! It's difficult to get all of the algae off of them. I'll keep brushing them every few days until the snails and crabs get more caught up but it's almost like they're avoiding this rock for some reason. I should try to get a few more snails this weekend probably

Still waiting on the goby/pistol pair. A little bummed about that but it is what it is. Being choosy about stuff sometimes means paying the patience tax

That's all for now

 

[Nan.roti]

went to Sea King/Seattle Corals again and got a couple of new frags which I'm pretty excited about

Master Chaos zoa:

you don't see many Master Chaos zoas around so I'm especially excited about that

Hologram hammer:

I have my lights running an acclimation program while I try to get the armageddon rhodactis mushroom happy again. I temporarily disabled that so I could take some PAR measurements with my seneye and then re-enabled the acclimation. The pics below are with the acclimation program running and the PAR values are with my current lighting program (solar peak) at 80% intensity and at about 1PM. I'm pretty sure based on this, that I do not need any additional lights lol

I think the spot with the bleached mushroom in that side picture actually gets 0 PAR (not completely confident, my glove might have been blocking the sensor) so I moved that coral up to the front and off to the side, where it should get about 100ish PAR once the acclimation program is done

since I have a bunch of new rock in this tank I set up the second dosing head on my ReefDose 2 to dose Brightwell NeoPhos for a while until the nutrient levels re-stabilize

I'm also getting in there like 3-4 times a week now and just scrubbing and siphoning long algae off of the established rocks. This is something I'm liking a lot about having a sump; I don't have to wait for water change day to siphon algae, because I can siphon it into the filter socks and keep the water in the system. Once I clear away a patch of long stuff the CuC starts keeping it up again. The only exception to that so far is my friggin zoa garden! It's difficult to get all of the algae off of them. I'll keep brushing them every few days until the snails and crabs get more caught up but it's almost like they're avoiding this rock for some reason. I should try to get a few more snails this weekend probably

Still waiting on the goby/pistol pair. A little bummed about that but it is what it is. Being choosy about stuff sometimes means paying the patience tax

That's all for now

Tank looks great! Can't wait to see everything grow out

 

[commod0re]

went to Sea King/Seattle Corals again and got a couple of new frags which I'm pretty excited about

Master Chaos zoa:

you don't see many Master Chaos zoas around so I'm especially excited about that

Hologram hammer:

I have my lights running an acclimation program while I try to get the armageddon rhodactis mushroom happy again. I temporarily disabled that so I could take some PAR measurements with my seneye and then re-enabled the acclimation. The pics below are with the acclimation program running and the PAR values are with my current lighting program (solar peak) at 80% intensity and at about 1PM. I'm pretty sure based on this, that I do not need any additional lights lol

I think the spot with the bleached mushroom in that side picture actually gets 0 PAR (not completely confident, my glove might have been blocking the sensor) so I moved that coral up to the front and off to the side, where it should get about 100ish PAR once the acclimation program is done

since I have a bunch of new rock in this tank I set up the second dosing head on my ReefDose 2 to dose Brightwell NeoPhos for a while until the nutrient levels re-stabilize

I'm also getting in there like 3-4 times a week now and just scrubbing and siphoning long algae off of the established rocks. This is something I'm liking a lot about having a sump; I don't have to wait for water change day to siphon algae, because I can siphon it into the filter socks and keep the water in the system. Once I clear away a patch of long stuff the CuC starts keeping it up again. The only exception to that so far is my friggin zoa garden! It's difficult to get all of the algae off of them. I'll keep brushing them every few days until the snails and crabs get more caught up but it's almost like they're avoiding this rock for some reason. I should try to get a few more snails this weekend probably

Still waiting on the goby/pistol pair. A little bummed about that but it is what it is. Being choosy about stuff sometimes means paying the patience tax

That's all for now

Tank looks great! Can't wait to see everything grow out

Thanks! Me too :D