Journal UNS 60L High Tech Countertop Build

[ample]

Uh oh! Made the leap and purchased a UNS 60L aquarium today to replace my UNS 5N. It's going to go on the edge of my kitchen island, so keeping equipment minimal and attractive is going to be a priority here.

The aesthetic goal is something resembling an Iwagumi that can be viewed from 270 degrees. Biggest inspiration currently is this scape by @qball_aquatics in Sydney. I'm not a huge Iwagumi person and I normally like substantial hardscape, but something about the plant selection here scales so perfectly in this long shallow tank, so I'm simply going to copy it.



UNS 60L Dimensions: 24" x 8" x 8"

Tentative Equipment List
Filter: Oase Filtosmart 60
Inflow/outflow: ASG 10mm Stainless Steel Inflow/Outflow pipes
Light: Chihiros CII RGB or ONF Flat Nano - intentionally going for a short light for more of a spotlight effect with shadowing on the outer edges
CO2: Paintball setup, potentially mounted horizontally with brackets under the counter

Plants:
Glosso or HC carpet
Eleocharis parvula for height around the stones
Echinodorus 'Aflame" centerpiece plant

Livestock:
Blue dream neocaridina
Maybe chili rasboras

How does this setup sound? Very open to suggestions.

 

[ample]

Slowly gathering the supplies for this build.

The ASG stainless steel pipes arrived sooner than expected, and I’m pretty pleased with the quality. Works perfectly with the 9/12 Filtosmart 60 hoses.

My biggest gripe is that it doesn’t come with holders, and the ones they sell are both ugly and expensive for what it is, and I’m not finding any standalone holders for pipes this small. So this weekend’s project has been 3D printing some holders. So far we haven’t had any luck with the uploaded designs on Makerworld, so we’re just designing our own based on these simple FZone ones.


We’re also having some issues with bothersome pests…




Once we get that sorted out, it’ll be time for hardscape and dark start. For now I’ve decided to go with the Chihiros CII RGB light, and a 2.5lb CO2 setup, after weighing the pros and cons of that versus a paintball setup. I can get a 2.5lb cylinder for $50, and my local beverage place that refills my 5lb for about $13 can also fill a 2.5lb.

 

[JayP]

That cat fish is on borrowed time in a tank that hasn't been cycled yet.

 

[ample]

8 hours and many iterations later… custom 10mm pipe holders have been successfully fabricated! Ended up going the extra mile and designing it as a detachable two-piece holder like the Fzone set I have on my other tank.

Here’s a shot of the Fzone acrylic clamp that we modeled it after:

It has a pretty genius and sleek sliding channel to make it detachable.

And here’s our final printed product:



Perfectly fits these tiny 10mm pipes and 5mm glass, and is detachable for quick and easy hose/filter maintenance.

The only limitation of the PETG is that it’s not quite as rigid as acrylic, so even with increasing the infill and thickness, the thinner part that sits against the glass can flex and lift away from the glass slightly when the screw is over tightened, so the clamp ends up being able to rock side to side a bit if too much lateral force is exerted on it. Basically, the material isn’t rigid enough to brace the screw enough against the glass and completely prevent movement. However, using suction cups mitigates this problem. You could also stick a piece of padding between where the glass and clamp contact as well to increase friction and prevent movement.

Highly recommend spending an entire day of work and frustration to save about $15, less if you count the amount of filament used in printing all of the test models.

 

[ample]

Commencing dark start!


Finally all set up and scaped. All hardscape is reused seiryu stone that I had in my previous UNS 5N layout. Definitely not a true Iwagumi, and perhaps not as much impact as I would have gone for if I had selected new stones from scratch, but I really really wanted to not buy new hardscape. The main stone is really nicely textured and none of my scapes have really done it justice. Hopefully a simpler layout will allow it to finally shine.




So the main thing about this build is that it’s sitting on the end of a kitchen island and will be viewed from both sides like a room divider. Here’s the scape from the counter stool, where we eat all of our meals.

An Iwagumi style layout is especially suited for this IMO. In my last scape, I had too much going on with the hardscape and plants, and it ended up feeling cluttered.


The filtration. Because of the countertop location, it was really critical that the filter could live on the counter while still being aesthetically reasonable. There was no space to hide a canister in a stand or below.

I saw LitiAquaria doing nano builds with the Oase Filtosmart 60 and the hoses oriented this way, which is what inspired this.
The Filtosmart is very prone to tipping, and I didn’t want to take my chances in a high traffic area. The L shaped thing is just a piece of stiff compact foam that came in a package for something. Cut to size, it works perfectly to brace the filter securely without adding any more visual clutter.


Here’s what we have going on directly below. (The cat water fountain will continue to live there, because they like it and drink the most water when it’s placed there versus near their food.) I had big plans to mount the CO2 cylinder on the wall, but decided it would be too much of a liability for an apartment. A full 2.5lb cylinder and regulator would have been close to 10lbs. We were looking at ways to mount it on a stud at the corner of the island (far from the electrical), but the aesthetic payoff just wouldn’t have been worth the headache and risk. At most, I’ll look into 3D printing a base stand for the cylinder to minimize tipping and get it off the floor.

I just ordered the Aqua Rocks Colorado dual gauge regulator and will probably do a normal in-tank diffuser.

The Oase Filtosmart 60 is a bit weaker than I was expecting, but it does appear to be moving water across the entire length of the 60cm tank. Fingers crossed it’ll be adequate long term.



The light is a Chihiros CII RGB. Immediately printed some shades for it so that we don’t get blinded when we’re sitting at the couch viewing it from a low angle. Love the light, but the mount design is absolute nonsense. They made the clamp open so that one can slip the cable in. However there’s way too much tolerance and the ONLY thing securing the arm in the clamp is a stupid O ring. For some reason they even flared the opening at the top too. The entire fixture leans noticeably if it’s outstretched from the center of gravity at all, and it’s driving us crazy. I can’t believe they didn’t design a grub screw or fastener of some sort to tighten around the shaft.

I’m ordering a suction cup to see if I can stabilize the bottom of the arm. Otherwise we’ll have to come up with some engineered solution to shim the gap or something.

I also did purchase a lid for this tank. It’s sold out nearly everywhere and I got one of the last couple from a store in Florida. The shipping cost as much as the lid, but it’s a necessity when you have S**t head cats. I don’t allow mine on the counters at all, and they do indulge me except one of them who sits next to or on top of the tank every morning while waiting for me to come out and feed her breakfast. Doesn’t go on the counters or care about the tanks at any other time. She’s only 8lbs and so far these UNS lid clips have been holding her weight lol.

Plan:

1. Set up CO2
2. Plant - Monte Carlo and glosso mixed carpet, and eleocharis parvula around the main stone
3. Stock - Blue dream neos, possibly neon blue rasboras

 

[JayP]

Oh you can definitely see in the cat's eyes, it's plotting.

 

[MrJG]

Looking good! Great to know that the uns clips will hold up a cat if necessary. I had a nightmare after I got my 90L setup that my bad one was going to give it a shot. That extra foot of length though I’d imagine if she hit the middle it would be no bueno.

Going to add some disconnects for the hoses or just going to lift/bucket everything out at once for cleaning?

 

[ample]

Looking good! Great to know that the uns clips will hold up a cat if necessary. I had a nightmare after I got my 90L setup that my bad one was going to give it a shot. That extra foot of length though I’d imagine if she hit the middle it would be no bueno.

Going to add some disconnects for the hoses or just going to lift/bucket everything out at once for cleaning?

It’s pretty easy to service this tank since everything is on the counter. For now I’m going leave it. I’ve already had to open it up a couple times to adjust the biomedia. Not too much of a mess if I have it in a shallow tub. But if I come across a good deal on some hose disconnects that fit then I would definitely be open. They tend to be pretty bulky and with my hoses coiled this way it might be too much strain.

 

[gnatster]

FZone uses the same O-Ring method for height. Fixed the problem with an M4 x 0.7 4mm nylon-tipped grubscrew tapped into the mount.

 

[ample]

CO2 is all set up. 3D printed a stand/holder for the cylinder, but after seeing how top heavy it was with the regulator, redesigned it to be tip proof. Cable management will of course be optimized soon.

This is the Aqua Rocks Colorado Premium Dual Stage Regulator. I’ve heard it’s a rebrand, but I have nothing to compare it to. Construction seems fairly solid.

Went with an in-tank diffuser and settled on the UNS one because it’s acrylic and comes with a separate U bend piece so I could use it on this very shallow tank without issue versus the single piece diffusers with a fixed length.





View attachment IMG_0347.mov

Okay. So I knew this would be a challenging setup for a variety of reasons. It turns out that the Oase Filtosmart 60 just isn’t strong enough to give adequate flow across 60cm. I was really hoping it would be. Not only is the flow too weak, but the tubing size makes it impossible to find an in-line diffuser. If I had the option to put the filtration in a stand, I would have gone for a bigger filter for sure.

Regardless, I’ve been doing a lot of research and can’t seem to find a more powerful compact external filter, so I’m going to try to stick with this one. I’m most likely going to get a little submersible pump to augment the flow, but I’m also considering some kind of bell-inspired 3D printed piece to capture the bubbles going to the surface. Not quite sure if that’s a worthwhile endeavor but I have a 3D printer and am willing to experiment, especially if anyone here has any ideas for a design that would be effective.

Kind of a bummer because I’m trying to keep this build very minimal and straightforward, especially with regards to equipment in and around the tank, but I’m already this far into it and want to succeed.

 

[JayP]

Kind of a bummer because I’m trying to keep this build very minimal and straightforward, especially with regards to equipment in and around the tank, but I’m already this far into it and want to succeed.

What about something like this:
hygger Backpack Aquarium Filter

 

[ample]

What about something like this:
hygger Backpack Aquarium Filter

I had a super terrible experience with a SunSun version of the same filter, so I’m very wary of all of the new cheap backpack style HOBs.

 

[MrJG]

That’s unfortunate. I looked up the thermo 100 just to check and I don’t think it’ll fit. :-/
Thought about just moving the diffuser underneath the output and see if it will at least push across the tank?

 

[ample]

That’s unfortunate. I looked up the thermo 100 just to check and I don’t think it’ll fit. :-/
Thought about just moving the diffuser underneath the output and see if it will at least push across the tank?

I did try that orientation as well. About 2/3rds of the way across the tank, the mist still ends up at the surface and never reaches the filter return. The tank is just so long and also so shallow. I think my only option is a power head at the moment.

 

[Koan]

Cable management will of course be optimized soon

Question of the Day Post in thread 'Hobby Hacks - your best tips, tricks and time-savers!'

Nov 10, 2024

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• Koan

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[Koan]

the tubing size makes it impossible to find an in-line diffuser

Well if you want to use an in-line diffuser, this adapter will allow you to run one, with two short pieces of silicone tubing on either side



I use similar to run 12 mm lily pipes on standard 16mm hosing