80 Gallon Sea Horse Build/Upgrade

[Spartanman22]

I currently have a 20 gallon that has been going for about 2 months now and have been wanting a larger tank. I told my parents thats what I wanted for christmas when my dad reminded me I had the old 80 bow in the garage. So I am now starting a build thread with my 80 bow for my seahorse tank.
Here are some pics of the current tank. After having set up the 20 gallon, IMO it is just way too small.

Here is the current tank

Here are its few inhabitants waiting to be put in the 75 reef.

 

[Spartanman22]

Continued..

Continued..

Here is the tank that I will be using to upgrade with.

And here is the sump

My first question is how to plumb this. The tank has two holes drilled in the corners on the bottom of the tank. The way it was previously plumbed was that it had two standpipes, a return and a drain. This is really the only way I can think of doing it with the way it is drilled, but I do not know how to construct my drain and return. The tank will be in my room so the drain has to be quiet, and I don't know how to go about doing the return either.

 

[Hook]

check out dursostandpipes.com...they have a diy section that is very well written...should fix your noise problem

 

[pledosophy]

Congrats on the the bigger tank.

On the plumbing, if it were me I would:

Use one of the holes as a drain to the sump.
I would use the other hole as an intake for a closed loop.

Have the sump return split, one onto each side of the tank, control it with ball valves or gate valves if you prefer. Have it come up and over the back wall.

Run the closed loop into spraybars behind the rocks. I would split that in two as well and also control each side with a ball valve.

Running the returns and CL will allow you to take out the powerheads, if you desire too. If you do decide to use power heads make sure they are seahorse safe.

 

[Spartanman22]

ok im not quite sure as to how to do the spray bar. Do i just do a normal return and the have the pvc come up the back of the tank and over and out through a spray bar or up the back on over and to the bottom of the tank into a spray bar?

 

[pledosophy]

I would do the return over the top of the back of the tank, and down into the tank. Depending on the amount of flow, depends on how many holes and how large of a spraybar. I Would start with the holes on the bottom and work up myself. Make sure to leave a syphon hole or two right under the waters surface.

JMO

 

[Spartanman22]

I think I am going to go with a durso drain and figure out some return for the other hole. I don't think I am going to do a closed loop just because I don't have another pump, and IMO it will be easier this way. Today I am getting the tank in my room and the drains and return done and hopefully some sand, rock, and water in it by the end of today. So I will have pics later.

 

[pledosophy]

It's later.

 

[Spartanman22]

sorry for the delay but it took a while to figure out the plumbing, but tonight the tank is coming in and is getting plumbed so I will hopefully get pics up tonight.

 

[ilikelps]

Gratz on the new tank, and is that tanka 72 bowed front or a 75?
I have been thinking of upgrading to at least a 72 or 75 for some tiem now and was just wondering what size that was.

ben

 

[Spartanman22]

it thik it is an 80, but am not sure it seems a tad bit taller than a 72 bow. But finally here is an update. Sorry it took so long but school and volleyball get very time consuming.

 

[Spartanman22]

Under tank- sump and ballasts

Tank half full with drain and return

It took me several tries to find the right heigth for the drain and even after finding it I still have to dial back the return because the return was returning faster than the drain was draining.
After filling her all the way up I found a small leak, and I then remembered that in this spot i didn't glue it for some reason. And of course the leak was in a spot where i would have to completely drain it to glue. So I have now drained the tank and am currently waiting for the glue to dry to fill her up.

So in the mean time here are some pictures of my 75 in wall.

sorry for the bad pictures. My moms camera broke so I am stuck with my 5 year old garbage camera.