UNS 5S Pico Lagoon

[dinkyend]

After several years out of the hobby, fate has thrust a pico build on me. My father (who has been in and out of the hobby most of his life/influenced me to keep reef tanks through childhood/high school) asked me to join him at reef-a-palooza today. Upon arrival, nearly every other person I walked by had a small UNS tank under their arm, which led me to ask my dad, “are they giving these away or something?”

Sure enough, UNS was in fact giving them away (in exchange for an instagram follow and story repost), and I was lucky enough to snag a 5S model (14.1”x8.6”x4.7”, 2.5 gal, see below picture I sent to break the news to my wife).

Not my first choice of tank (the earlier recipients snagged the better-sized 5N, which is twice as tall), but I’ve always liked the lagoon/top-down builds, so I decided I would give it a try. First order of business was to spray paint the back glass (luckily my dad had a black rattle can laying around, see below our masking job).

Next order of business was to steal a spare rock my dad had laying around to “aquascape,” if you can call placing a single rock in an empty taking aquascaping.

And last order of business for the day was to water test (featuring one of my two cats)

The tank sits at about hip level, so it will be viewed almost entirely from the top down (so I’m thinking a pendant-style LED with a gooseneck would work best).

I plan to spend the next few days ordering a pump (thinking the smallest internal filter style pump I can find), a heater, and lighting, and then to fill with saltwater next weekend (when I can steal some DI water from my dad, who is local and has offered to be my water supplier). I’ve decided I need to get a smaller rock (or make the big rock into a small rock) as it takes up the whole tank.

Any suggestions for pumps/heaters/lighting?

For lighting, I’d like to stay under $100 if possible (understanding there may be some quality/functionality issues at that price point). I suspect this should be doable given the small footprint/5” depth.

I’m trying to keep this build as simple and cost effective as possible, and I’m thinking zoas/mushrooms and MAYBE the smallest goby I can find for livestock. Any and all recommendations are welcome.

Thanks for following along (and bearing with my long-winded post)

-dinkyend

 

[blaxsun]

If this is all you came back with from Reef-a-Palooza your wife should be ecstatic! Good luck with the pico!

 

[dinkyend]

A few updates from the past week:

Went with the reefbreeders pico LED and the finnex pure-7 (which is the smallest HOB I’ve ever seen, thanks to King Tide Corals on YouTube, who has one on his UNS 5S and inspired me)

Here they are on Wednesday with a tank full of fresh water and my giant rock.

My sand, salt and ro/di water (thanks Dad) arrived on Friday, so today was time to scape and fill. Here are the scape, mid-fill, and post-fill photos. My power strip I was using went bad, so I don’t have enough outlets to run my light until I go grab a new one, but I’m not particularly in a rush and I plan to leave the light off while the tank cycles.

Please feel free to drop any comments on the setup or any suggestions—especially stocking suggestions. I’m still back and first on wether to have any fish or go invert only (I’ve always been obsessed with shrimp and goby pairs, so that seems like the fish is most likely go with). I’m also waiting to see what the temperature is running at—I have my eyes on a few options for pico heaters (and of course would love recommendations). Otherwise, I will drop in with a new update post cycle.

 

[RichWise73]

Looking forward to see how this build progresses over the next few months.

 

[dinkyend]

. . . and one more picture with the light (sorry for the awful iPhone blued-out picture—will need to grab a lens filter)

This is with the light at 60%, which looks appealing to me, but will have to test out to see what the best setting will be. Water is clearing up quickly after being super cloudy earlier.

 

[Lebowski_]

That's a neat little tank. Personally, I would remove about 75% of the sand, or even all of it. You could carpet the bottom in Zoas. Save as much water capacity as possible.

The light looks real nice.

 

[dinkyend]

That's a neat little tank. Personally, I would remove about 75% of the sand, or even all of it. You could carpet the bottom in Zoas. Save as much water capacity as possible.

The light looks real nice.

Thanks—I’m pretty happy with the light. I think it looks super clean!

And I was back and forth on the sand. Personally, I like the look of sand as opposed to bare bottom, and I wanted to have enough sand for a pistol shrimp, but looking at it now I may have gone a touch too deep. Will definitely consider shallowing out the sand bed.

 

[Gumbies R Us]

. . . and one more picture with the light (sorry for the awful iPhone blued-out picture—will need to grab a lens filter)

This is with the light at 60%, which looks appealing to me, but will have to test out to see what the best setting will be. Water is clearing up quickly after being super cloudy earlier.

Neat looking tank!

 

[Fapman]

This makes me want to set mine back up

 

[dinkyend]

Minor update: added two scarlet leg hermits and two cerith snails late last week. Hoping to add an RFA and/or a couple zoa or mushroom frags this weekend—an LFS has a 3 for $35 frag deal that I will take advantage of, though they’re not the most spectacular frags at that price.

Here is a FTS from today with the moonlight on:

The HOB filter has pretty low flow (52gph)—the tank is super calm, and there’s almost no movement on the right side.

Curious to hear anyone’s thoughts on whether I’ll need more flow for zoas/mushrooms/an LPS frag or two.

I’m concerned there’s no great powerhead option for a tank this small—the hygger mini looks appealing, and would be the perfect form factor for this tank, but I’m worried even that at its lowest setting will be too powerful.

Curious to hear others’ thoughts—I will be sure to update with pics once I get a couple corals in this weekend.

 

[dinkyend]

First corals are in—some zoas and a yuma from the LFS and an orange mushroom donated by my dad.

Everything is still opening up but seem to be adjusting quickly.

Current FTS:

Very happy with my progress so far—already thinking of how to tell my wife I’m going to want something a little bigger.

 

[MDAquatics]

Pretty Cool!

 

[dinkyend]

An update after a few new additions—my dad gifted me a tiny baby green cabbage leather that sprouted off of his big cabbage (front right), a green RFA that’s about 1.5” in diameter, and a cheap purplish/blue acan frag (my wife picked this one out after she was disappointed I told her we couldn’t get any of the seahorses or corals that “look like sticks”).

Current FTS:

New acan and RFA

I had a very short lived diatom bloom last week—noticed a number of brown spots on the rocks/glass, but my CUC of 4 made shockingly quick work of the diatoms. I don’t see any of it left.

I’m still back and forth on whether I want to add a yellow line or neon goby (or any fish at all). I do about a 50% water change every weekend, but I’m just worried that in this small water volume, any fish would just be too much bioload (and I am still not convinced even a neon goby would be happy in something this small).

 

[NanoJHB]

Great little set up! Definitely following along.

I think I'd skip the fish. You can add some sexy shrimp and a pompom crab if you'd like some activity and interaction from the tank