80 gallon SC Aquarium build

[dreaddinit]

Alright guys! The time has come for me to put together my own thread for this build. It started about a month ago when the tank arrived but has been at a standstill until I had the funds to get her up and running. Thank you for taking the time to view this and any input you have is very welcome. Lets have some fun!

The day it arrived. Getting this 300 total pound thing off the back of an 18 wheeler was no easy task but we got her in.

This is it after a couple hours of putting the shell together sitting next to my current 30 gallon.

More to come!



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[CafeReef]

Looking good, whats your plan for the plumbing? I have the 50 SCA cube, ended up drilling the back for my return line, and ran a herbie system. Tossed all the plumbing that came with the setup.

I dont envy you at all with having to lift the tank off the freight truck. My driver was super cool and used his pallet jack to haul the tank and stand up to my garage.

 

[dreaddinit]

Looking good, whats your plan for the plumbing? I have the 50 SCA cube, ended up drilling the back for my return line, and ran a herbie system. Tossed all the plumbing that came with the setup.

I dont envy you at all with having to lift the tank off the freight truck. My driver was super cool and used his pallet jack to haul the tank and stand up to my garage.

Its a herbie. These tanks come pre drilled for it and they include the schedule 40 to go with it which is super nice. I tossed the rest of the plumbing and hard plumbed it which youll see soon. Im a little behind on the build thread so some of these things have already been done. Im catching the thread up to my current progress.

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[dreaddinit]

First coat of paint after the primer for inside of the stand.

Final product!

Here is all of the plumbing that comes with the new tanks now. You will see since I hard plumbed it, some of it was thrown out. Yes, that is schedule 40 that comes with the tanks now. Which is fantastic.

I painted the top pipe black to match so it wouldnt stand out. Im trying to look at every detail and make it right the first time. Excuse the dust. This bad boy needs a cleaning i know

Final product for my plumbing under the cabinet. Not bad for my very first time. I hard plumbed everything, painted it, and even added some nice stickers labeling each pipe which you will see in later photos

For this build I am adding under cabinet puck lights from amazon, Jebao PP-4 and PP-8 wavemakers, MarsAqua 300w LED, and some new testing goodies I found. More to come very soon!

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[JMorris271]

It looks really slick. Please pardon my question but I'm a newb. Which way will your ato feed come from? What is the blue pipe about?

 

[dreaddinit]

Thanks! Im a new to buddy so no worries. The blue tube is just the adjustment tube for the skimmer. I wont be doing ATO just yet. I invested in some other things i needed and never had like TDS meter, refractometer, and some good test kits

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[dreaddinit]

Heres a quick snapshot of some of the new toys i got. Test kits came from my LFS to support a great local shop that cares about the hobby and not the money

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[dreaddinit]

As a typed this yesterday the UPS man dropped off a few more items for me.

300w Mars Aqua LED

This thing is bright! You can feel the intensity coming off of the bulbs.

Big ole box of salt

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[dreaddinit]

Got some time today to put ALL my lights in the sump and hang my Mars Aqua. If the mailman comes any slower with my RO/DI unit its going to be xmas. I am so excited for this build! Still lots to do! Thank you for stoping by to see it progress. If there is something you see that you would do differently/add please let me know.

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[LowHangingFruit]

Nice setup! I'm about to drop some coin on a 180 gallon SC Aquarium myself. You might want to put your heater in one of the other two sump chambers just in case the return chamber runs dry.

 

[moondoggy4]

Nice tank, what are dimensions of the tank?

 

[dreaddinit]

Thank you! Its 32x24x24

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[pelphrey]

I had my eyes on a 120 or 150, but I've change directions and I am now looking at the 80 or 90 gallon cube. I can't make my mind up! I know I want the new 36" tall stand. Your tank looks huge!

 

[Mr.Tan]

very nice so far.

Only thing i would have done was allowed the drain pipes to come at more of an angle (a 45) instead of having it drop to 90s and then another 90 into the tank, the 45s would allow for a smoother flow without hitting a "wall" when descending. The 90 angles might also cause some more noise

 

[homer1475]

I have the exact same tank, sump and stand. SC makes some great looking tanks, but the junk they give you with the PNP systems deserves to be in the garbage. The return pump is huge and loud, the flex pipe they send is garbage, 99% of the plumbing is metric, and the bulkheads are a very cheap plastic and I would recommend replacing them with quality bulkheads.

I did 2 of the 300W mars aquas hung from the ceiling over mine. 0 shading, and everything gets a nice bath of light in every corner of the tank. I also did 2 pp8's combined with 2 mp10's. Great flow through the entire tank. I will say though, the 302 skimmer is a beast, just make sure you don't bump it cause it will overflow very easily. The pipe that adjusts the water level is very touchy.

 

[homer1475]

OOh i just noticed, on your full siphon line, your going to want to change that out for a quality gate valve. You won't get a fine enough of adjustment with the ball valve as opposed to a gate. An 1/16" turn makes a huge difference in the water height in the overflow.

Also I'll suggest 2 45's on your emergency drain line so its above the T for the returns. Otherwise your water level will be roughly 2 inches from the top of the tank. Which is fine, but if you like a more fuller tank(like I do) you'll want to add those 2 45's.


You'll want to change out those down turned elbows on your main siphon line. Just put shorten the line so it stays under water, and put a strainer on it.

 

[homer1475]

Also just noticed you didn't put the foam between the tank and stand, or the foam pad under the sump. Forgot or was there a reason you didn't? It's supplied with a rimless tank to protect the tank from any bumps or hard objects that might stick up on the stand creating a stress point.

I also think you might want to put a small piece of flex hose between your hard plumbing and the return pump. It will lessen the vibration of the pump being amplified by the hard plumbing.

Plumbing your tank could be quite a bit simpler if you switch the sump around. Have a look in my build thread on how I did mine for some help, or not. lol Just throwing out some things that stick out to me from doing my own build.

 

[brett559]

Very nice! Love those red pipes!

 

[dreaddinit]

Awesome guys. Thanks so much for the replies. Homer i did use the foam pad under the tank but not the sump. I simply took a black marker and colored the white sticking out.

I did notice during testing that the pump was a little louder than id hoped and the skimmer made it a lot worse. However it was fresh water and the skimmer just bubbled to it wasnt optimal environment.

I will certainly take a good look at all that was mentioned. I may not be able to do much to the plumbing as it is already glued in place. Is that all the gate valve is for is raising and lowering the level of the displays water?

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[dreaddinit]

How is your flow homer? To much? I went with the PP-8 and a PP-4 just to be sure it wasnt to much. That little PP-4 rocked my current 30 gallon quite a bit.

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