- Thread starter
- #21
I am excited about the depth. You mean the step of planning the aquascape?
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Journal Currently 75 gallon walstad-like tank, soon to be UNS 120 after moving
- Thread starter Pneumonicsonic
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- Thread starter
- #22
After perusing the threads here I’ve added some things to the list:
Review: UNS 120U and stand, light will likely be 1200 L week aqua.
CO2:
I think I’m going with the large @Yugang reactor from ARC. If I set it to 50% it should be a sweet spot with 120x60cm footprint.
I’ll have to buy a co2 tank when I arrive, and I’m thinking a regulator from ARC but haven’t decided on bubble counter vs flow meter like some do here.
Skimmer: oase crystal skim 350
Filter: BM2 850 ( I hope that and the horizontal reactor fit in the stand!)
Possibly continue using my eheim as a second filter to keep the gph up but with new tubing.
Stainless steel Lily pipes (x2 if I keep using the eheim)”
Fertilizer: if I’m doing this right I should be dosing even if I do an aqua soil/capped substrate but I haven’t decided how yet.
Water: I have an RO under the kitchen sink in the new house, but I have no idea what that’s capable of and I don’t know how the wife will feel about a basement RO system, but the plan is RODI for now in some capacity, as we have a water softener otherwise in the house.
Hardscape: I have a few pieces of rock and stone now but will Likely need more for the new tank. Since I’m getting a freight order from buce for the tank they mentioned other items would have free shipping to add on so I may pick out some hardscape with them…
Fauna: my white clouds, along with some other species that can tolerate 72 degrees or so. My existing population of assorted shrimp, my grandfather nerite and any of the nerites that survive from FF that I bought last month (1 doa, 1 zebra that was alive yesterday but I’m suspicious might not be doing well, and 2 horned nerites that just popped above the surface today).
Flora: May start with a lot of what I have and morph it as it cycles and I have a better sense of what works for me. I really love buce and crypts but am interested to add some more high energy plants as I build this new thing
Review: UNS 120U and stand, light will likely be 1200 L week aqua.
CO2:
I think I’m going with the large @Yugang reactor from ARC. If I set it to 50% it should be a sweet spot with 120x60cm footprint.
I’ll have to buy a co2 tank when I arrive, and I’m thinking a regulator from ARC but haven’t decided on bubble counter vs flow meter like some do here.
Skimmer: oase crystal skim 350
Filter: BM2 850 ( I hope that and the horizontal reactor fit in the stand!)
Possibly continue using my eheim as a second filter to keep the gph up but with new tubing.
Stainless steel Lily pipes (x2 if I keep using the eheim)”
Fertilizer: if I’m doing this right I should be dosing even if I do an aqua soil/capped substrate but I haven’t decided how yet.
Water: I have an RO under the kitchen sink in the new house, but I have no idea what that’s capable of and I don’t know how the wife will feel about a basement RO system, but the plan is RODI for now in some capacity, as we have a water softener otherwise in the house.
Hardscape: I have a few pieces of rock and stone now but will Likely need more for the new tank. Since I’m getting a freight order from buce for the tank they mentioned other items would have free shipping to add on so I may pick out some hardscape with them…
Fauna: my white clouds, along with some other species that can tolerate 72 degrees or so. My existing population of assorted shrimp, my grandfather nerite and any of the nerites that survive from FF that I bought last month (1 doa, 1 zebra that was alive yesterday but I’m suspicious might not be doing well, and 2 horned nerites that just popped above the surface today).
Flora: May start with a lot of what I have and morph it as it cycles and I have a better sense of what works for me. I really love buce and crypts but am interested to add some more high energy plants as I build this new thing
Also, and/or as an interim while you're deciding on a large RO /DI, just let the NaCl salt run out in the softener, and replace it with KCl salt instead
More expensive than NaCl but great for the plants
- Thread starter
- #24
I’ve heard this before… so this is my dumb ignorant self asking, but specific to aquarium use when I’m using KCl in the water softener that does or does not change anything with the other components of TDS from your tap?Also, and/or as an interim while you're deciding on a large RO /DI, just let the NaCl salt run out in the softener, and replace it with KCl salt instead
View attachment 8650
More expensive than NaCl but great for the plants
If you're going to run your water through an rodi system i doubt that matters much other than makes the rodi's job easier.
Is that what you mean by rodi? You're going to have a separate rodi system for the tank?
Is that what you mean by rodi? You're going to have a separate rodi system for the tank?
- Thread starter
- #26
They’re sold out now
so i bought the p series instead. I know they’re a great light but I loved the silver on silver with mounting arms. Does anyone know if the L series mounting arms in black could be used with the p series?
Looking at the Week Aqua site, specifically the P series page, the L series mounting arms are shown as an accessory. Scroll to just above the Customer Reviews section.
- Thread starter
- #28
Thank you!
- Thread starter
- #29
So it happened! The move is complete, the old 75 gallon was taken down, the filter media saved (some) with hardscape and divided between a couple 5g buckets, along with 3 buckets for my cloud minnows, neocardinia, and amanos respectively. A air pump with a a couple T attachments was set up to a total of 5 buckets with air stones (my one sponge filter which has been in the tank for a month was set in the Amano bucket), and the majority of the plants were put in the two scape buckets.
Some of the remaining sts/soil mix was saved in buckets and bins and may be used in a small quantity to seed the new substrate.
The drive went well, I may have lost one minnow potentially(I don’t see #7 in the bucket) but there are many amanos and a fair amount of neocardinia in the buckets. ( I lost count of both when catching them, probably 60-70 neocardinia and at least 12-16 amano (or amano-like) shrimp. I’m 90% sure that’s way more amanos then I started with 5 years ago and there are some smaller ones that are still bigger than neocardinia in there as well.
My shipment from buce with the uns120U arrived Friday WITHOUT an appointment or a person here to receive from the freight company. I already gave the freight company a call and have a ticket in with corporate but they couldn’t get a hold of the local supervisor Friday evening/ Saturday morning. When we arrived Saturday I took pictures of the pallet and luckily they dropped it off right in front of the garage, so far so good with the shipment, the uns stand is in fine condition, it looks good and I moved it in on my own. I’m probably going to have the movers bring the 120U tank in tomorrow. The rest of the equipment arrived, everything looks good and I like the hardscape stuff I got from BP & ARC.
I’ll post pics of everything including my first attempt at a draft scape with rough 120x60cm pieces of cardboard on the stand. I think I have too much wood tbh. Plus I don’t know if I’ll use any of my preexisting scape long term. Okay, meant to attach pictures last night but I’ll do it this morning:
final meh FTS of the 75
BP freight delivery
Most of the equipment I’ll use.
First attempt at creating a scape, I think everything is in too much of a line, and probably I won’t need all the wood.
But the manzanita branch was way bigger and more awesome than I originally
Planned for.
Some of the remaining sts/soil mix was saved in buckets and bins and may be used in a small quantity to seed the new substrate.
The drive went well, I may have lost one minnow potentially(I don’t see #7 in the bucket) but there are many amanos and a fair amount of neocardinia in the buckets. ( I lost count of both when catching them, probably 60-70 neocardinia and at least 12-16 amano (or amano-like) shrimp. I’m 90% sure that’s way more amanos then I started with 5 years ago and there are some smaller ones that are still bigger than neocardinia in there as well.
My shipment from buce with the uns120U arrived Friday WITHOUT an appointment or a person here to receive from the freight company. I already gave the freight company a call and have a ticket in with corporate but they couldn’t get a hold of the local supervisor Friday evening/ Saturday morning. When we arrived Saturday I took pictures of the pallet and luckily they dropped it off right in front of the garage, so far so good with the shipment, the uns stand is in fine condition, it looks good and I moved it in on my own. I’m probably going to have the movers bring the 120U tank in tomorrow. The rest of the equipment arrived, everything looks good and I like the hardscape stuff I got from BP & ARC.
I’ll post pics of everything including my first attempt at a draft scape with rough 120x60cm pieces of cardboard on the stand. I think I have too much wood tbh. Plus I don’t know if I’ll use any of my preexisting scape long term. Okay, meant to attach pictures last night but I’ll do it this morning:
final meh FTS of the 75
BP freight delivery
Most of the equipment I’ll use.
First attempt at creating a scape, I think everything is in too much of a line, and probably I won’t need all the wood.
But the manzanita branch was way bigger and more awesome than I originally
Planned for.
Last edited:
Already excited for you! Going to be great.
That is a nice branch. I agree with you, too much symmetry. The stone on the left looks too upright/unnaturally positioned IMO.
A new build is always fun! Good luck!
A new build is always fun! Good luck!
- Thread starter
- #32
Thanks! I think in the tank it might be easier to get a sense with position, but I may play around more with it. Do you think it’s too much wood?
Good news is tank is on the stand! Stand was level on the floor before. (Joys of well built house.) and even with the movers readjusting that tank it was HEAVY. Still have the cellophane on it but it looks great!
(Picture upload pending)
OMG I am obsessed with that stand 
Really like the movement made by the larger right / foreground sweeping toward the smaller left / receding!
Really like the movement made by the larger right / foreground sweeping toward the smaller left / receding!
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- Thread starter
- #34
Thanks! We’ll see how it looks when I get the scape and soil in.OMG I am obsessed with that stand
Really like the movement made by the larger right / foreground sweeping toward the smaller left / receding!
Let’s see if the pic of the tank on the stand will work now that the fiber internet is installed, I still need to clean it and remove the cellophane :
That is a BE-AU-TY!! 
- Thread starter
- #36
This is a question for those that have DIY RO systems or top off systems @GreggZ & @plantbrain & @Naturescapes_Rocco I believe.
So looking at my piping in the basement right below the office I have a couple options if I wanted to automate things. I could T off of a non-water softened line going to a garden hose that runs under the room and either route it to a RO system or directly into a container against the wall where I could dose prime, and ferts (it would have to be big, like a 55 gallon I imagine and I don’t know about my water yet, I sent a sample in to be tested, I do know it stains toilet bowls brown over time from moving in)
Or I could put a RO system in from that bypass line I create, and store RO water inside similar fashion that I could pump into an ATO reservoir or directly into the tank. I have the room in the basement, and i already know my wife will likely not tolerate lots of water changes from the RO faucet in the kitchen for very long.
Here’s some pictures of the basement plumbing.
I’m likely going to clean the tank and start filling with substrate and scape maybe today if I can build enough furniture to offset the tank time
.
So looking at my piping in the basement right below the office I have a couple options if I wanted to automate things. I could T off of a non-water softened line going to a garden hose that runs under the room and either route it to a RO system or directly into a container against the wall where I could dose prime, and ferts (it would have to be big, like a 55 gallon I imagine and I don’t know about my water yet, I sent a sample in to be tested, I do know it stains toilet bowls brown over time from moving in)
Or I could put a RO system in from that bypass line I create, and store RO water inside similar fashion that I could pump into an ATO reservoir or directly into the tank. I have the room in the basement, and i already know my wife will likely not tolerate lots of water changes from the RO faucet in the kitchen for very long.
Here’s some pictures of the basement plumbing.
I’m likely going to clean the tank and start filling with substrate and scape maybe today if I can build enough furniture to offset the tank time
.
Install the RO system post-softener, since RO's are much better at filtering sodium out of soft water than calcium out of hard water. Softened water will greatly increase the lifespan of the membrane.
I would create a two-part system, with one part dedicated solely to ATO and another part dedicated to full WC. That's how I did it, for full redundancy/flood prevention/safety.
On the WC side:
get a 55 gal plastic drum off of FB Marketplace for $5:
Rinse it with your hose for an hour, drill a hole in it, and install an adjustable float valve. Here's the one I've been using for over a year and a half.
Connect one part of your pure RO line to this float valve. Install a Leak Protection Valve on the RO line next to your drum. DO NOT SKIP THIS! If your float valve leaks, this is the only thing that will stop you from slowly flooding your house with RO water.
This big barrel is for the large water changes, so you need a good pump to be able to lift it up from the basement. I recommend a Diaphragm pump, which never needs priming, can be adjusted to stop when pressure is felt (close a ball valve), and has plenty of head to be able to pump up multiple floors. This is the exact one I've been using for the last year and a half, too. Set it up on a smart WIFI plug like this so you can remotely turn it off and on, as well as create an automation that turns the outlet off after x minutes when turned on (for safety). Run the 1/2" PEX or vinyl tubing up to your aquarium location and you can have 55gal of RO water on demand to your tank, no kitchen hoses needed.
On the ATO side: this is where people flood their house. I do it like this to prevent that:
If your RO System in the basement isn't too far away, run a split from the pure RO line to the ATO reservoir in your stand. Though it will drop in pressure over distance, ATO reservoirs need very little RO water pressure to fill. Connect it to the same float valve I mentioned previously. Install a Leak Protection Valve on the RO line in your stand next to the reservoir. DO NOT SKIP THIS! If your float valve leaks, this is the only thing that will stop you from slowly flooding your house with RO water.
My ATO reservoir looks like this:
You can see the float valve on the right hand side, and right beneath it is the Leak Protection Valve. It's about ~8 gallons of RO water, pumped out with an Oase Optimax 560 pump.
With your system set up like this, there are multiple redundancies in place to prevent flooding/leaking, or nearly any manual effort.
How to add the water to your tank:
Here's how I do it. I have 3 SS lily pipes:
The RO water in pipe is a Return pipe with an Intake cover as a baffle, so the water being added from either the ATO pump or the WC pump is added to the tank fairly gently without disturbing the substrate/plants.
Here's the setup behind the scenes. I have two ball valves, though only the valve for the RO from ATO is necessary to prevent the WC pump from flooding the ATO.
On water change day:
Once the water has been removed, I open the WC barrel valve and close the ATO ball valve and tell Alexa to turn on my Water Change Pump. There is a 23-minute timer to turn the pump off, though it's not necessary because all ~55gallons from the barrel don't fill the tank up all the way.
The final amount is finished by my ATO reservoir (hence why I went with such a large reservoir!). This requires closing the WC barrel valve, and opening the ATO ball valve. It will stay like this until the next water change (closed on WC pump, open on ATO pump). This has the added benefit of being able to automate even the WC-amount to the float valves exactly.
I've been using this for a year and a half without issues. While IO would have liked to clean up the tubing a bit, I'm more than happy with the results. I leave the ATO running when I'm gone for weeks at a time, and I use the Water Change pump to pump 55 gal RO water usually once or sometimes even twice a week. I plumbed a drain into the wall behind my tank that the "T-valve for water changes" goes to, so I don't even have to use hoses or buckets to drain the water. It has been life-changing and I would never even attempt to take care of an aquarium this large (150p, 140 gal) without a system like this. ATO in particular is amazing -- helps with skimmers, scum/calcium lines, and finishing water changes easily.
I use a GHL Profilux 4 and two GHL float valves for double-redundancy to control my water level, but that's a bit overkill.
I would create a two-part system, with one part dedicated solely to ATO and another part dedicated to full WC. That's how I did it, for full redundancy/flood prevention/safety.
On the WC side:
get a 55 gal plastic drum off of FB Marketplace for $5:
Rinse it with your hose for an hour, drill a hole in it, and install an adjustable float valve. Here's the one I've been using for over a year and a half.
Connect one part of your pure RO line to this float valve. Install a Leak Protection Valve on the RO line next to your drum. DO NOT SKIP THIS! If your float valve leaks, this is the only thing that will stop you from slowly flooding your house with RO water.
This big barrel is for the large water changes, so you need a good pump to be able to lift it up from the basement. I recommend a Diaphragm pump, which never needs priming, can be adjusted to stop when pressure is felt (close a ball valve), and has plenty of head to be able to pump up multiple floors. This is the exact one I've been using for the last year and a half, too. Set it up on a smart WIFI plug like this so you can remotely turn it off and on, as well as create an automation that turns the outlet off after x minutes when turned on (for safety). Run the 1/2" PEX or vinyl tubing up to your aquarium location and you can have 55gal of RO water on demand to your tank, no kitchen hoses needed.
On the ATO side: this is where people flood their house. I do it like this to prevent that:
If your RO System in the basement isn't too far away, run a split from the pure RO line to the ATO reservoir in your stand. Though it will drop in pressure over distance, ATO reservoirs need very little RO water pressure to fill. Connect it to the same float valve I mentioned previously. Install a Leak Protection Valve on the RO line in your stand next to the reservoir. DO NOT SKIP THIS! If your float valve leaks, this is the only thing that will stop you from slowly flooding your house with RO water.
My ATO reservoir looks like this:
You can see the float valve on the right hand side, and right beneath it is the Leak Protection Valve. It's about ~8 gallons of RO water, pumped out with an Oase Optimax 560 pump.
With your system set up like this, there are multiple redundancies in place to prevent flooding/leaking, or nearly any manual effort.
How to add the water to your tank:
Here's how I do it. I have 3 SS lily pipes:
The RO water in pipe is a Return pipe with an Intake cover as a baffle, so the water being added from either the ATO pump or the WC pump is added to the tank fairly gently without disturbing the substrate/plants.
Here's the setup behind the scenes. I have two ball valves, though only the valve for the RO from ATO is necessary to prevent the WC pump from flooding the ATO.
On water change day:
Once the water has been removed, I open the WC barrel valve and close the ATO ball valve and tell Alexa to turn on my Water Change Pump. There is a 23-minute timer to turn the pump off, though it's not necessary because all ~55gallons from the barrel don't fill the tank up all the way.
The final amount is finished by my ATO reservoir (hence why I went with such a large reservoir!). This requires closing the WC barrel valve, and opening the ATO ball valve. It will stay like this until the next water change (closed on WC pump, open on ATO pump). This has the added benefit of being able to automate even the WC-amount to the float valves exactly.
I've been using this for a year and a half without issues. While IO would have liked to clean up the tubing a bit, I'm more than happy with the results. I leave the ATO running when I'm gone for weeks at a time, and I use the Water Change pump to pump 55 gal RO water usually once or sometimes even twice a week. I plumbed a drain into the wall behind my tank that the "T-valve for water changes" goes to, so I don't even have to use hoses or buckets to drain the water. It has been life-changing and I would never even attempt to take care of an aquarium this large (150p, 140 gal) without a system like this. ATO in particular is amazing -- helps with skimmers, scum/calcium lines, and finishing water changes easily.
I use a GHL Profilux 4 and two GHL float valves for double-redundancy to control my water level, but that's a bit overkill.
- Thread starter
- #38
This is amazing and gives me a great walkthrough for how to do this.
A couple questions. Do you remineralize your WC tank?
What if you want to vac the substrate?
That’s great though, thanks for the explanation. I need to read it another 10 times.
One other question, what kind of RO system do you use and does it have a pump system like this aquatic life smart buddie? https://a.co/d/bK20Gei
Thanks again!
No, I remineralize the aquarium after the water has been added. I do this because I would likely need another pump in the WC barrel to circulate the water, and this way I don't have to. Also, you'll likely get "creeping" hardness over time, if you can't empty the remineralized barrel completely. Leaving it 100% RO water solves this issue.
If I have to measure and dose some CaSO4 and MgSO4 powder either way, might as well just add it to the aquarium and avoid these other issues!
This is a special tip I've been saving to share later!
I use Netlea Prefilters on my tanks as the first equipment after the intake lily pipe. These prefilters are easily removable, as are the sponges inside of them. They have quick-connects with ball valves on them. I use a separate 16/22mm hose with a same-brand quick-connect on the end as the "vacuum" hose, and attach that in place of where the regular lily pipe intake goes. I then turn my filter on, and viola, I have a "water vacuum"! I've been wanting to post about this for a while so I think I will soon, but it's been amazing. The super fine prefilter sponges catch everything -- allowing me to remove it to the sink for easy cleaning. It also means that the water level stays the same while vacuuming, rather than siphoning to a bucket. This means I can remove all sorts of waste and organic detritus from the tank by catching it in the prefilter, using the existing filtration setup I currently have, quickly clean the sponge in the sink, then put it all back how it was. I only do this every 2-3 weeks and it's been amazing.
I use an Express Water RO5DX system as the "base". I've purchased 2 for myself and 2 for other family, and they've been a great system.
However, understanding RO systems is pretty simple and more important than the brand you purchase, since they're all basically the same.
Every RO system is basically the same:
Your tap goes through 3 "pre" filters, usually 1 sediment and 2 carbon filters. After the tap has been prefiltered, it goes next to the RO membrane which produces both waste water and pure RO water. There is a flow limiter on the waste water line, and the pure water line also has an Automatic Shut-Off Valve to turn the system off once your RO water storage (tank, float valve in barrel, etc) is full. It doesn't matter what system you buy, they all have the same thing: prefilters, RO membrane, shut off valve and flow limiter. That's it!
The stronger your house' water pressure, the better your ratio of pure:waste water. For most 50GPD membranes, your house's water pressure needs to be as close to 75PSI as possible. Mine is about 70-72 (very high) so I don't need a booster pump like the one you linked, but if yours is less than 70PSI I'd recommend it to boost your pure:waste ratio to 1:2 or even 1:1.
I store my RO in two 55 gallon drums that are tied together in the basement. PEX piping is run up inside the wall to just above the tank.
I use a CREEKSTONE 2500 GPH Submersible Waterfall Pump from Harbor Freight to pump the water up to the tank. I ran a switch to just above the tank to turn the pump on and off.
While I was at it I also ran another PEX pipe up the wall. It attaches to a pump that is always in the tank that runs down to a basement drain.
So one switch to drain, one switch to fill.
As I remove water from the tanks I dose all macro's into the holding tanks. They each have circulation pumps inside that run 6 hours a day to keep the water moving and dissolve the nutrients. Been doing it that way for many years now.
I can tell you this. It does take some work to get it all set up, but still to this day I get a kick out of it when I drain and fill the tank. I can't imagine doing it any other way, especially on a larger tank.
And I've never seen the need for an ATO, as I just flip the switch on the pump if the tank needs a few gallons from evaporation.
Hope that helps and I look forward to seeing what you come up with.
I use a CREEKSTONE 2500 GPH Submersible Waterfall Pump from Harbor Freight to pump the water up to the tank. I ran a switch to just above the tank to turn the pump on and off.
While I was at it I also ran another PEX pipe up the wall. It attaches to a pump that is always in the tank that runs down to a basement drain.
So one switch to drain, one switch to fill.
As I remove water from the tanks I dose all macro's into the holding tanks. They each have circulation pumps inside that run 6 hours a day to keep the water moving and dissolve the nutrients. Been doing it that way for many years now.
I can tell you this. It does take some work to get it all set up, but still to this day I get a kick out of it when I drain and fill the tank. I can't imagine doing it any other way, especially on a larger tank.
And I've never seen the need for an ATO, as I just flip the switch on the pump if the tank needs a few gallons from evaporation.
Hope that helps and I look forward to seeing what you come up with.
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