New Deep Blue 80 gal rimless build.

[JasonT]

I am going on a little over 4 years in the hobby and recently awoke at 5:30am to find my 3 year old 60 gal diy acrylic tank had sprung a leak. I was very lucky to be home when it happened and even luckier that i had dug an old 75 gallon glass tank out of my shed to possibly give to a friend just a few weeks before and had it on hand quick enough to save all my fish and corals. After a frantic few hours and using every towel in the house to mop up about 40 gallons of water off of my "thankfully" tile floor i had the crushing realization that i might be done in the hobby but after the depression and regret from my poor acrylic building skills wore off and my wife gave me the slightest hint that buying a bigger tank would be cool i perked up and started researching new tanks. I decided on the DBP 80 gal as i love the 48x24x16 foot print and is a very fair price for how nice of a tank you get. My tank will be here soon and i will be making regular updates. Here is a picture of my 6am nightmare

 

[CodyRVA]

Following. I have a custom build for a DBP 80 rimless, very nice tanks.

 

[Diesel]

Good luck and by that I'm on the follow train ;)

 

[JasonT]

Tank and sump came in today. I had considered using my previous sump that I had built as I really loved my design and it fit perfectly in my square closet behind the tank. It had one sketchy seam and I didn't want to risk it failing in the future. With my current time constraints building another was not an option so I went with a trigger systems 34.

 

[JasonT]

they do an excellent packaging job.

 

[JasonT]

I don't like putting my sump under the stand and I was spoiled by having it in the closet behind the tank. So to wife's dismay I did this.

 

[JasonT]

The plan is to have The sump about 6 inches under the tank and will line up the pre drilled holes in the bottom With the return chamber. I'm going to use the 3/4" for the return and the 1" for the emergency. I'm going to drill 2 new 3/4" holes in the back of the tank 1 for the main syphon and the 2nd pipe will be very low flow so the 1" will stay a dry emergency. So 3 drains and 1 return.

 

[JasonT]

Painted the back and drilled the 2 holes.

 

[JasonT]

I am going to be running 8 rapid led par bulbs that I already have. I have had pretty good results and like the color. If I were to upgrade at some point what would you guys run on a tank this size? Also for flow I have a pretty strong return pump and a mp40 do you think it will be enough.

 

[john.m.cole3]

This looks interesting... Following along. I like those tank dimensions!

 

[Daniel@R2R]

Cool! Following!

 

[john.m.cole3]

What size return pump will you be using?

 

[JasonT]

I have most of the plumbing done and the tank is in place looking great.

 

[JasonT]

Using a Rio 17hf it's rated just a bit over 1000 gph

 

[john.m.cole3]

Using a Rio 17hf it's rated just a bit over 1000 gph

It could work with proper rock/coral placement. Maybe aiming the return nozzle along the back wall of the tank, then have the mp40 on the end off set towards the front of the tank. There's only one way to find out...

 

[pastelball]

Could you explain how you are using the 2 holes you drilled? I am looking to upgrade to the same tank in a couple of months.

 

[JasonT]

Ya id be happy to I have the tank up and running I transplanted my corals I'm just waiting for the water to clear so I can figure out my aquascape.

Sorry if what's to follow is a big run on sentence.

Starting at my return pump it goes up to a tee that's splits into the refugium section where I have a pipe with holes drilled creating a circular flow with the water coming in from the skimmer chamber (this should be good for rolling chaeto). Above the first tee is a 2nd one coverting from 3/4 to 1/2 and hard plumbed into my synergy reactor running Carbon and a tiny bit of GFO I have it hooked up with a union and the outlet just sits in one of the sump drains that way I can close the ball valve unscrew the union and remove it to change the media. After the 2nd tee it elbows into a gate valve (probably didn't need this) to control flow then another elbow into the 3/4 bulkhead in the bottom of the tank then a check valve and the elbow to loc-line.

For the drains the 1" pre drilled in the bottom of a dry emergency it uses 2 45s to go right into the pump chamber.
The top 3/4" hole in the back is my main drain full syphon going back to my main sump drain the 2nd lower hole has to elbows and a stand pipe it has very low flow so it makes no noise and drains to my refugium area. Pics below should help all that make sense sorry if that was too much info.

 

[pastelball]

Thanks. looks really nice.

 

[JasonT]

Water is clear looks good considering I just threw all my rocks in like this I'll probably let the tank settle for a few days before I start moving stuff like I want it.

 

[iLLwiLL]

I have the same tank and tried to like the mp40 and mp10 I had on hand for flow, but they really weren't enough.

I picked up a single gyre 130 and loved it, then upgraded that to a gyre 150 because ... why not? I feel the wider spread is much better suited for shallow tanks with large footprints. the 150 is overkill and currently at 40% giving me all the flow I need and then some in my 80