UNS 90LA AIO Build Thread

[TomBale]

This is my first post and first build thread so go easy on me :-). If you have any feedback, advice or questions let me know!

I picked up a UNS 90LA peninsula tank around a month ago but didn't have room to get setup until all the Christmas stuff was out of the way. I am downsizing from a 90 US Gallon tank with sump and electrical\ATO cupboard to this 21 US Gallon tank in the hope of making maintenance easier, upkeep cheaper and get some much needed space make in the house.

With some planning and prep ahead of time I got the tank wet within one day. Once I am happy with flow and water parameters I will start to move a few corals\fish from my old tank while selling anything that cant be moved across. I am really want a simple minimalist look that looks great but doesn't dominate the room, as little equipment as possible would be an added bonus

Here is the old tank with new one in front to give some scale of how much smaller the new tank is compared to the new one!

Prepping new stand (sanding as flat as possible and protecting the wood\adding frosted film as a background

Finally got the tank on the stand and in the house!

Added 15lb Caribsea special grade dry sand. I was worried that this wouldn't be enough sand but it worked out perfect. Also added a scoop of sand from the old tank to try and kick start the cycling process.

The tank came with 2 UNS bio media blocks so I put them in the middle of the three chambers

I had too much rockwork in my old tank so I wanted to go more minimal while also adding some height. Added one rock from display of old tank and all other rock that had been sat in the sump for years. This was the hardest part of the setup, I have never scaped a tank with dimensions like this. I think I am happy for now but I may end up moving things around a bit as I add corals.

1,2,and 3 buckets of salt water added. I did a water change on the old bigger tank and used the old water for the first 2 buckets.

I am pretty happy with how things went, the water cloudyness went down overnight and I installed a temporary light to get a better idea of how it looks.

Next steps

- Install a different heater temporarily, the thermostat seems to be broken. I have a temperature controller on my old tank that I will move across once I start moving livestock over.

- I have ordered the UNS ATO\Filter sock kit but they have not arrived in the UK yet but should hopefully be delivered in the next few weeks.

- Add some more bio media to the middle chamber

- Begin moving livestock from old bigger tank to the UNS 90LA

 

[revhtree]

Love it already but I love Peninsula tanks!

 

[TomBale]

Been testing to compare water between old and new tank, pleased that they are still similar (even if not perfect levels) I have been ghost feeding the new tank.

I want to add an anenome first so that it can wonder round to find it's spot before adding other corals. How long would you wait before adding the anenome considering all rock and some sand is from the old tank?

Some might say the tank too small for a nem but I love watching my clownfish hosting.

 

[mattali]

Awesome, I have one on order from charterhouse but that will be a few weeks, I ordered the Ato, media tower and filter socks too thinking I could put the tower in chamber 2 and sock in one but looks like I can’t, so will be using tower in 1 and getting a skimmer for 2.

Currently have a Fluval Evo, only got that a month ago(went with it as it was smaller and thinking wife wouldn’t moan) till the wife asked why I didn’t getting something bigger so ordered the 90LA right away they will be in my home office.

I have a RBTA in the Evo, put that in after 10 days and seems to be doing great.

I did order the glass lid too, but might get a polycarbonate one cut to size too to use instead.

 

[TomBale]

Awesome, I have one on order from charterhouse but that will be a few weeks, I ordered the Ato, media tower and filter socks too thinking I could put the tower in chamber 2 and sock in one but looks like I can’t, so will be using tower in 1 and getting a skimmer for 2.

Currently have a Fluval Evo, only got that a month ago(went with it as it was smaller and thinking wife wouldn’t moan) till the wife asked why I didn’t getting something bigger so ordered the 90LA right away they will be in my home office.

I have a RBTA in the Evo, put that in after 10 days and seems to be doing great.

I did order the glass lid too, but might get a polycarbonate one cut to size too to use instead.

Yeh, the combination of what can be used in which chamber was a bit confusing. I'm gunna pickup an anenome in a week. I have 2 in my old tank but they are waaay to big for this tank.
Charterhouse recently told me the accessories are on the water so should be shipped out in January, hopefully that shipment has a tank on there for you :-).

I have the UNS lid but I don't like it much. It fits really well (which is great for condensation/heat retention) and looks great but it's really awkward to get on and off and has no feeding hole. LAD have good looking lids but cost too much for my pockets.

 

[thebookshark]

I just set my 90LA up yesterday! Love this tank already!

 

[TomBale]

I just set my 90LA up yesterday! Love this tank already!

This looks awesome, I like the rock arrangement. What light are you using?

 

[thebookshark]

This looks awesome, I like the rock arrangement. What light are you using?

Kessil AP9X, secondhand off eBay. Love it so far!

Here’s my equipment/stocking info.

 

[mattali]

Yeh, the combination of what can be used in which chamber was a bit confusing. I'm gunna pickup an anenome in a week. I have 2 in my old tank but they are waaay to big for this tank.
Charterhouse recently told me the accessories are on the water so should be shipped out in January, hopefully that shipment has a tank on there for you :-).

I have the UNS lid but I don't like it much. It fits really well (which is great for condensation/heat retention) and looks great but it's really awkward to get on and off and has no feeding hole. LAD have good looking lids but cost too much for my pockets.

I contacted them last week to ask for them to ship the AI Blade first as I need to take some measurements for a mount, they mentioned everything should be arriving in a few weeks so fingers crossed.

I was thinking of the glass lid and decided to get this made as I run a small canister filter too so needed the cutouts and also a feeding hole, I will try get the glass lid cut too when that arrives. This was £60 with all cutouts and corners for wiring (polycarbonate).

I saw the ones LAD do but I don’t really want an open to, with it being in my office I have a lot of items I need to keep track of humidity on.

And yes, they bloody expensive.

Humidity

 

[TomBale]

A few small updates:

Added small zksj USB powerhead to increase flow at the far end of the tank, might need to add another at some point.

Cycled the tank with nt labs satus recommended by my LFS even after using Rockwork and some sand from the old tank.

Added a bubble tip anenome, I'm sure it looked bigger in the store. Really hope the clowns don't love it to death! I'm going to let it walk around for a week before adding any other corals.

Need to get rid of some bits/Rockwork from the old tank before I can catch the last fish, probably best to do things gradually anyway.

Moved clowns from the old big tank to the new small tank.

Popped on an old temporary light.

 

[SaltyGirlMom]

Cute clowns, and I love this tank. I set one up in May. (Multiple nems have worked for me - a tube, rock, Sherman and a Seabae.)

How are you liking downsizing/simplifying your system and equipment so far? I’m looking at much larger systems now but feeling a little bit apprehensive about increasing my maintenance time by a lot.

 

[TomBale]

Cute clowns, and I love this tank. I set one up in May. (Multiple nems have worked for me - a tube, rock, Sherman and a Seabae.)

How are you liking downsizing/simplifying your system and equipment so far? I’m looking at much larger systems now but feeling a little bit apprehensive about increasing my maintenance time by a lot.

Wow you have lots crammed in a small space!

I'm really pleased with the simplification, its nice to not have lots of equipment\cables but I need to be disciplined to keep up with water tests. I worry about it being really unstable because such a small change\mistake can make a big difference.

Because the tank is still new and I have only just finished moving everything the tanks have still taken lots of my time. I am hoping that this will pay off soon. I don't feel like going smaller has reduced the amount of time the tank needs......old tank was so lightly stocked that I didn't do water changes anyway.

I am looking forward to the lower electricity bill though :-).

 

[TomBale]

Quite a bit has happened with the tank since my last update a few weeks ago. Parameters seems to stay stable so I have moved all corals\fish across from the big tank and sold\traded in everything that I couldn't keep. The old tank is now completely empty of all livestock. Now just the return pump on so that any potential buyer can see it full of water.

Add a second ZKSJ powerhead so that there is one on each side at the back, both are in gyre mode to make more random flow.

Also treated the new UNS 90LA to a large frag of utter chaos and small acan using the money from selling and trading in, never had an utter chaos before but the colors looked amazing in the stores display tank so fingers crossed.

ATO still hasn't arrived so I have been topping up the tank daily which is getting a little tedious.

Ill try and grab some vids\pictures and post them in here soon.

 

[muffinmanXL]

Thanks for sharing, following your journey (similar to mine, in that I'm downsizing / simplifying to a 90LA AIO). What lights are you going with?

 

[Gumbies R Us]

Following along!

 

[TomBale]

Thanks for sharing, following your journey (similar to mine, in that I'm downsizing / simplifying to a 90LA AIO). What lights are you going with?

I'm using an old TMC light at the moment. When I move the tank to its final location it will get the lights from my old bigger tank which are nicrew hyperreefs that I got really cheap second hand from a local seller a few years ago. I might need to get the controller to give me some more control of their intensity though.

How far along is your tank?

 

[muffinmanXL]

I'm using an old TMC light at the moment. When I move the tank to its final location it will get the lights from my old bigger tank which are nicrew hyperreefs that I got really cheap second hand from a local seller a few years ago. I might need to get the controller to give me some more control of their intensity though.

How far along is your tank?

How do you plan to mount the Hyper Reefs? The long, shallow dimensions presents some challenges with light mounting IMO

I've almost started - waiting for the tank and gear to arrive.

Btw, really like how you frosted the background. With these smaller, narrower tanks, I feel like the clear to semi-clear background vs. black adds a sense of depth and makes the tank look larger than it really is.

 

[TomBale]

I'm using an old TMC light at the moment. When I move the tank to its final location it will get the lights from my old bigger tank which are nicrew hyperreefs that I got really cheap second hand from a local seller a few years ago. I might need to get the controller to give me some more control of their intensity though.

How far along is your tank?

How do you plan to mount the Hyper Reefs? The long, shallow dimensions presents some challenges with light mounting IMO

I've almost started - waiting for the tank and gear to arrive.

Btw, really like how you frosted the background. With these smaller, narrower tanks, I feel like the clear to semi-clear background vs. black adds a sense of depth and makes the tank look larger than it really is.

To be honest I havnt really thought how to mount the lights yet. The old tank had them mounted under a shelf above the tank so I'll probably do something similar. Because the tank will be against a wall on the long side I might build some sort of canopy to reduce light spill.
I like the lights to be high enough so that they don't have to be moved when doing maintenence.

Yeh, I'm pleased with the rear frosting, I not a fan of being able to see the wall behind the tank but also not a fan of the black/blue backgrounds so it seemed like a nice halfway option. I might put a small LED strip behind the tank to give it some extra depth.

Tank on the way.... exciting times. If your in the UK I presume you've ordered from Charterhouse Aquatics but I think they are struggling with getting stock.

 

[TomBale]

Here are some photos to show how the tank is looking now that corals, fish and the extra powerhead have been added.

 

[KrankBait]

How are you liking this tank overall? I'm looking to buy it as my first reef tank. I just love the length and shallowness of it. I don't really want to complicate anything.