# UNS 90L 21 Gallon Sophmore Effort



## desantes (Jul 3, 2019)

Hi Team. A quick primer on me. I started my first ever planted tank at the beginning of the year. I learned a lot in 6 months. It started off as an Iwagumi layout but morphed into a test bed of sorts. I lost like 20% of my carpet early on so I kinda abandoned the Iwagumi layout and started to grow whatever I could find locally. 











































The tank pictured is the UNS 90B. The 35" length is what initially attracted me to this particular size. However, it isn't very wide at 8" which I quickly found out is not ideal in creating an interesting layout where depth is concerned. Then I found the UNS 90L which is the same length but 12" wide instead. Much better!

I also had been eyeballing a certain stand from UNS for months and that's where we start my journal. I hope you guys don't mind all the pics!

Things started off shaky. I had ordered the stand from a company who shall remain nameless, who said it was in stock. This was about 2 months ago. A month went by and still no stand. At this point, I knew it was still on back order because every other company I contacted said so and the virus only delayed things more. Not sure why the company had to lie to me though. Long story short, got my refund and did a pre-order with Buceplant. A week later it arrived.


----------



## desantes (Jul 3, 2019)

As soon as the stand came back in stock so did the tank. Of course, I ordered the tank immediately but when it arrived my worst fear came true. :crying:










*Uhhhhhhhh*










































Can't say enough good things about Buceplant though. I sent them the pictures they requested and they handled everything with FedEx and shipped out another tank almost instantly.

*Good times!*


























































Dimensions:
Length: 35.43"
Width: 11.81"
Height: 11.81"
Glass thickness: 8mm
Volume: 21 gallons


----------



## desantes (Jul 3, 2019)

The light I chose was the Twinstar 900S. It's a really beautiful light. I was pleasantly surprised about the gunmetal accents. From the pictures on the website the same areas appear to be black.



















































I've also been collecting hardscape during this time. I wanted to go a bit more bold so I looked for very large pieces. Shout out to Aquascaping Supply in Orlando. I'm in Jacksonville Florida but I make an effort to go down there once a month because their hardscape and plant selection is incredible. Its only a 2hr drive. Anyways, here's what I'm thinking for my layout. I'm on the fence about the tallest rock in the 3-rock bunch. I may remove that one but everything else feels good to me. 



















































Please don't be dumb like me and put a shallow layer of substrate down or something to protect the glass. One of the big pieces fell down and my heart literally stopped. I was sure the tank cracked lol...but it didn't. So scary.


----------



## andrewss (Oct 17, 2012)

Very good! The stand is very very nice and the tank as well, nice choice with the light as well... the hardscape mock up looks great!


----------



## belka085 (May 10, 2020)

Great start! I'm really liking the hardscape. I recommend egg crates if your doing mock ups in the tank to protect the glass. it's pretty cheap and can be versatile if you end up wanting to use them to create levels once you add substrate.


----------



## P.Isley (Feb 18, 2020)

Drooling!!! The Natural UNS Stand is so nice and the Twinstar S series will let you grow anything. Make sure you get a programmable dimmer for the light! Oh, wait. You know that already... just realized you also have a twinstar on your 90B. Looking forward to seeing how the scape progresses!


----------



## desantes (Jul 3, 2019)

Thanks for the tips and kind words everybody!

I am using UNS Controsoil Black Normal granules as my base layer. I plan on topping this with Extra Fine granules before planting.

I think I have a better shot at steep slopes this time because of my hardscape. In my first tank, my slope pretty much collapsed as soon as water hit it.

The right and left rear slopes are comprised of small chunks of lava rock to help the slopes stay put. I apologize, I forgot to take pics of the lava rock.



























This is a little experiment. Not sure if I'm keeping it this way yet. I still wanna conquer the full tank carpet and this would take away some real estate if I chose to go with this foreground. I know that I'm going with stems in the background but if I were to go with a complete carpet front to back I think this would probably look cool.


----------



## Crude (Nov 8, 2011)

Looking good! Where did you come across the "gravel"? I spent an hour with a masonry chisel and a hammer in the backyard trying to split up some of the seiryu stone I'd bought and hardly had a quarter of what you've got there.


----------



## Mike00726 (May 23, 2011)

Move faster, please. I need to see this thing planted!


----------



## mourip (Mar 15, 2020)

desantes said:


>


You will never get that filter under the stand.


----------



## desantes (Jul 3, 2019)

Crude said:


> Looking good! Where did you come across the "gravel"? I spent an hour with a masonry chisel and a hammer in the backyard trying to split up some of the seiryu stone I'd bought and hardly had a quarter of what you've got there.


I also tried a chisel and hammer with no significant luck. Buceplant sells rubble, that's where I got mine from. 




Mike00726 said:


> Move faster, please. I need to see this thing planted!


Incoming!




mourip said:


> You will never get that filter under the stand.


hahaha, I would have to agree. Artoo is bigger than you think. I remember building his feet and second guessing the plans. They were ginormous!



Here's a picture of the Extra Fine UNS Controsoil being poured in the front. I made a conscious effort to have a lower profile for the soil line that's viewable from the front. The one thing that bothered me a lot from my old tank was how thick it was and I planted too close to the glass so you could see the roots.











You can see I'm going for a curved soil line. I've seen this done by other people and I always thought it looked great. Before pouring Extra Fine in the background I wet all the soil. I saw this tip from an ADA aquascaping video. Its supposed to help with the slope and so the the Extra Fine will stick and not just roll down. I poured the Extra Fine in the background and everything stayed put. So far so good!






































I chose HC Cuba for my carpet plant this go around. I really like the smaller leaves and the challenge it may bring with growing it. I bought 12 pots and it took me about 3 pots in to figure out how to separate it into workable portions. The roots are very delicate. The soil in the foreground is made primarily of Extra Fine soil so I didn't have any issues with them staying down thank God. 




















A lot of anxiety during this part as you can imagine. lol A few straggler stems came up but that's pretty much it.











And then this is when I realized I did not order nearly enough stem plants. This is Pearl Weed on the left which will be the primary stem plant and then a bunch of Rotala peeking from behind it. At least this is the plan when I get more Pearl Weed.


























I will also have Hydrocotyle Tripartita in the midground, hugging the edges of the rocks. I may also try some moss on the rock faces but I need to do more research on that. I've never grown any mosses.


----------



## desantes (Jul 3, 2019)

A week has gone by since I planted. The growth has been awesome. The HC is starting to crawl horizontally which I've read is a good sign of CO2 levels. The stem plants are bending which I hate. I cut down the green Rotala to see how it reacts before I trim the other stems. I am hoping it will grow straight again. I noticed this behavior in my first tank as well and it eventually straightened out after a trim.

I still haven't received my next shipment of plants so that's a little frustrating. I'm hoping the algae continues to stay away despite my low plant mass.











Here's what's going on underneath the cabinet. I'm really liking the inline CO2 diffuser. I noticed right away that the CO2 was being dispersed much better than in my first tank. I would have to say that the length of this tank has been very challenging to get good flow throughout. Get the biggest filter you can afford if you want to give these long tanks a try. I also have the Twinstar Nano inside the tank and that inadvertently shows me the flow pattern when its on which is pretty cool.


----------



## vijay_06 (Apr 11, 2017)

Nice setup! Looking forward to seeing how this evolves.

Where did you buy those adapters that allow you to control the water flow in inlet and outlet hoses? 


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


----------



## Fat Guy (Nov 19, 2003)

Hey cool start. I’ve always liked the look of those stands, especially the one you chose.


----------



## gjcarew (Dec 26, 2018)

desantes said:


> A week has gone by since I planted. The growth has been awesome. The HC is starting to crawl horizontally which I've read is a good sign of CO2 levels. The stem plants are bending which I hate. I cut down the green Rotala to see how it reacts before I trim the other stems. I am hoping it will grow straight again. I noticed this behavior in my first tank as well and it eventually straightened out after a trim.
> 
> 
> 
> ...


Looking good! We have almost the same setup in terms of hardware and tank size. 

Forgive me if you already know this but that pearlweed is very easy to spread by trimming and replanting so you probably don't need to buy more pots.

If the rotala has horizontal space to bend over it will do so. It happens with all of them but rotala rotundifolia is particularly bad. The best way to go is just to plant them as densely as possible and trim any long stems so the only space they have to go is up.

Sent from my Pixel 3 using Tapatalk


----------



## monkeyruler90 (Apr 13, 2008)

Looks like a great start

Only comment would be to mount the electrical stuff higher, I've had so many small leaks or splashes that turn into an issue so better to be safe and prepare for the worst.


----------



## desantes (Jul 3, 2019)

vijay_06 said:


> Nice setup! Looking forward to seeing how this evolves.
> 
> Where did you buy those adapters that allow you to control the water flow in inlet and outlet hoses?
> 
> Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


I got mine from Buceplant only because I have never seen the white/grey combo before lol. Amazon also sells the Eheim ones and a few Chinese ones too. Just search for "aquarium double tap".




Fat Guy said:


> Hey cool start. I’ve always liked the look of those stands, especially the one you chose.


Appreciate it! Love at first sight with me and this stand lol.




gjcarew said:


> Looking good! We have almost the same setup in terms of hardware and tank size.
> 
> Forgive me if you already know this but that pearlweed is very easy to spread by trimming and replanting so you probably don't need to buy more pots.
> 
> ...


This makes a lot of sense. Thank so much for the Rotala tip. I will definitely give it a shot. As far as the Pearlweed, I think you may be right. It is growing pretty quickly but unfortunately, the order is in transit already. 




monkeyruler90 said:


> Looks like a great start
> 
> Only comment would be to mount the electrical stuff higher, I've had so many small leaks or splashes that turn into an issue so better to be safe and prepare for the worst.


100% agree. Working on it as we speak! Thank you.


Ever since the beginning, I've always heard people breaking their lily pipes sooner or later. Here I thought was special, 6 months without incident LOL.

I literally adjusted my intake oh so very slightly and it tapped the glass and broke clean in half.











Luckily I had an intake screen in stock but you can see the break behind the screen.











Got 3 Otocinclus on Monday. They seem to be doing well. Pretty cute, I like em.


----------



## andrewss (Oct 17, 2012)

The pipe 

This is why I got stainless pipes.. haha, and glass looks dirty pretty quickly, but I have to say I really like glass pipes when they are clean, plus the different styles seem like cool features.

Hope the Otos stay healthy!


----------



## monkeyruler90 (Apr 13, 2008)

oh noooo, I hate when they break! I actually like the look. Do you think flow is improved since the restriction is taken away?


----------



## Zebra_Pleco (Mar 30, 2014)

Which model Oase Biomaster are you using for that length of aquarium?...Is it enough flow?...I’m currently setting up the same 90L aquarium.


----------



## desantes (Jul 3, 2019)

andrewss said:


> The pipe
> 
> This is why I got stainless pipes.. haha, and glass looks dirty pretty quickly, but I have to say I really like glass pipes when they are clean, plus the different styles seem like cool features.
> 
> Hope the Otos stay healthy!


I like stainless too. On my bucket list to use one of these days.




monkeyruler90 said:


> oh noooo, I hate when they break! I actually like the look. Do you think flow is improved since the restriction is taken away?


I'm not sure if the flow improved but I know the strainer gets really ugly with gunk stuck to it! lol




Zebra_Pleco said:


> Which model Oase Biomaster are you using for that length of aquarium?...Is it enough flow?...I’m currently setting up the same 90L aquarium.


I use the 350. I think it's good flow. I'll have to get a video for you so you can see the flow pattern. When the Twinstar Nano comes on, the fine mist fills the tank and you can see the flow really well. I originally had the Ehiem 2213 on my 90B and it was not enough IMO for the length of these tanks and that's why I upgraded to the 350.

Did a trim on the stems and replanted the tips really tightly to hopefully promote more vertical growth. Also trimmed the HC Cuba a little bit to hopefully nudge horizontal spreading along.


----------



## desantes (Jul 3, 2019)

Week 3 updates. The rocks and glass have started to show green algae. I'm going to start doing smaller water changes during the week on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. I want to get ahead of my TDS which is hovering at 190 at the moment. I found 100-120 the sweet spot on my old tank. 

Some clumps of HC Cuba have started to float. I attribute this to me planting them in too large of bunches. When this happens, I just take the bunch and separate it into smaller single strips and plant 3 strips of HC together at a time. I can plant them much deeper this way.

I also got my new intake tube. I didn't know Cal Aqua was such a fancy brand.

I also threw in some Anubias and Buce in from my old tank. I couldn't stand to throw them away.


----------



## Chizpa305 (Feb 13, 2011)

Looks very pretty


----------



## vijay_06 (Apr 11, 2017)

Any update on this?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


----------



## mfnatik (Aug 22, 2014)

desantes said:


> Hi Team. A quick primer on me. I started my first ever planted tank at the beginning of the year. I learned a lot in 6 months. It started off as an Iwagumi layout but morphed into a test bed of sorts. I lost like 20% of my carpet early on so I kinda abandoned the Iwagumi layout and started to grow whatever I could find locally.
> 
> 
> 
> ...


Nice setup! I just bought the same stand and 90L. I am in the processing to deciding which light to go with and I really dig the acrylic legs on the 900E and am trying to avoid getting the EA version with the steel legs. I see you are using adapters for the 900E? Where do you purchase those? They look like the metal feet from SA series? Any reason why you didn't re-use the 900E? Or did you just leave it on your 90B? Also, isn't the light output of the 900SA just insane for a tank only 12" high? I would think you'd have to dim it a bit? The output from the 900E seems to match the more shallow depth of the 90L/B better no? Thanks for any insight!


----------



## mfnatik (Aug 22, 2014)

@desantes still around? Any updates on this scape since it looks pretty sweet and I'd love to see how the tank filled in. Any feedback on the Twinstar 900E fitment and workaround would be appreciated as well


----------

