UNS vs WB vs IM

[LowDime]

Good morning everyone. I am looking at stepping up to a 60 inch tank ideally a peninsula style as it sits in a corner. But looking for real life first hand experience of owners of UNS WB OR IM tanks. I believe UNS is the new kid on the block and has the fancy mitered corners. But they are 1000 more than the same WB 6025.

 

[Bucrob]

I personally have experience with IM and WB, only reason I don't have experience with UNS is because it is extremely challenging to source them if you live in America. If you're in Australia or even some parts of Europe I believe they are more readily available but I am yet to even see a store selling any of the UNS tanks around me.

I personally believe that IM is overpriced for what it is. Mighty Jet return pumps are a plus side but I feel like they are just significantly overpriced.

I have a waterbox REEF 130.4 that I bought 3 years used. The tank has now been running for another year and I have yet to have any issues with it.

Take this with a grain of salt but I would personally go with the Waterbox tank if I was in your shoes.

 

[Gumbies R Us]

I am going to throw Eshopps into the ring of options. The tanks are a little expensive, but the quality is top-notch!

 

[Bucrob]

I personally dislike eshopps. The instructions for assembly don't make sense a lot of the time.

 

[chrizo]

I personally believe that IM is overpriced for what it is. Mighty Jet return pumps are a plus side but I feel like they are just significantly overpriced.

Can you explain why? I just purchased an IM aquarium and I think it was a great price.

 

[cwerner]

Can you explain why? I just purchased an IM aquarium and I think it was a great price.

I'm not the OP but I share his opinion. The stands are not amazing IMO either, they're very steady, but I dislike that they use plastic and foam panels around the aluminum framing. It makes it difficult to mount (and remove) equipment to it without damaging the paneling trying to remove it.

 

[commod0re]

I have a UNS R90 and absolutely love it. It was spendy for sure but the dimensions are what I actually wanted and it’s a gorgeous tank. imo the dimensions are slightly better than IM’s nuvo int 75. Also seems like the IM doesn’t come with a sump so that’s something else that has to be bought separately

I don’t have any personal experience with waterbox so I can’t help there but I would definitely choose UNS again in the future based on my experiences with them so far (wife also has a UNS 40 she uses for freshwater)

 

[MikeReefs]

Love my WB Marine X

 

[exnisstech]

No experience with UNS. I have a WB 330.7 and have no complaints. A small IM20 AIO I'm happy with. Since @Gumbies R Us already mentioned them I'm working in finishing setting up an eshopps mariner MP100 peninsula. I have a few things about the Mariner I'm not loving but nothing that would stop me from purchasing again. I picked mine up when there was a pretty decent discount sale and I bought from a retailer that has sales tax built into the price so it's basically tax free. That saving alone was huge. I had the tank sitting here in just over a week. Complaints since i mentioned them are they use a ball valve on the main drain and I think they suck trying to tune an overflow so I installed a gate valve. The aluminum framed stand is interesting. Instead of being a full aluminum frame with adjusting feet on the aluminum vertical supports with panels attached it's like an aluminum reinforced frame inside the stand to reinforce the wood. The base is wood and the little 6mm adjusting feet thread into inserts in the woods base. Just seems like cost cutting which I get but not what I was expecting. Inwas expecting a full aluminum stand with panels like my WB. But that's in me dor not doing enough research. Just figured I'd mention it.

PS I have seen a couple of post recently about some UNS quality issues that looked concerning so it may be worth looking into. They could be one off things but one I saw had some very questionable silicone.