SCA 120 Gallon PNP Build

AKay3600 · Feb 19, 2017

Another YouTube subscriber here. Your videos and this thread are part of the reason I joined up on here. Everything looks to be coming along well! I'll be plumbing my first tank with PVC later this year, hopefully, I'll definitely be stealing some ideas from you.

Keep up the good work man!

CJs Aquariums · Feb 20, 2017

Just when you think dry plumbing was time consuming... reality strikes then you realize you have to tear it all apart.. I marked all of the elbows and hoped all of my unions would give me room for error

all of those 2" pvc pieces that were in between elbows are now almost impossible to remove.. I had to use some unused fittings and a hammer to luckily knock them out of the unions and elbows..

After 3 trips to all of my local dept stores I came up empty on my search for clear pvc primer. So I settled for the good o purple primer.. my plan was to line the pvc with tape.. that failed so I just moved forward hoping to not make a huge mess..

After a full weekend of dry fitting and gluing I finally was able to finish the sump. Mistakes where made!! I screwed up my manifold elbow and had to Intall a extra union to save the build ... other than that it's done so I'll roll with it haha

I wanted to limit the amount of soft hosing.. so I added about 5" for vibration dampening from my Jebao DC 12000 return pump

The last bit of hose was from my reactor... I plumbed a couple extra 1/2" elbows to line the barbs up perfect to limit bends in the hose... I routed the output right into the baffle.. made sure it faces away from the front of the sump so you can't notice them much

All that's left is cleaning the pipes to remove my markings when I glued...

System is setup for herby style drain.. gate valve for full siphon.. I included ball valves on all lines from the tank including the emergent drain.. of I ever had to completely cut off the flow this will make life easier

I used a TON of unions and true union ball valves trying to plan ahead for maintenance or modifications as I add more equipment

I was able to add my Santa Monica rain2 alage Scrubber to the manifold as well.. my refugium will not have macro alage.. I'll be using this instead

For those that like to watch .. here is the Scrubber build video:

So at this point it's safe to say the tank is FINALLY finished.. small things left to clean up but it's time to water test this baby...

Then we can get to the fun part Aquascaping...

To be CONTINUED....

Mydoghasfleas · Feb 20, 2017

What an awesome build! Your plumbing job is amazing!

CJs Aquariums · Feb 20, 2017

Hella_Reef said:
Cj what's up big dog. This thread will be like a harry potter book. Should I read it or just watch the videos [emoji23] haha I'm just playing, good to see you on that thread life. Very informational, good job dude. See ya on the next shack. -ariefeht

it's all good man... just look at this as a preview of future videos... some things posted here may never make it to a video. Just like the movies haha

CJs Aquariums · Feb 20, 2017

Mydoghasfleas said:
What an awesome build! Your plumbing job is amazing!

Thank you! This turned out better than I exspected for it only being my second time plumbing a sump lol

Hella_Reef · Feb 20, 2017

Plumbing came out nice man.

pelphrey · Feb 21, 2017

Time to add water!!

CJs Aquariums · Feb 22, 2017

For those that would rather watch....

revhtree · Feb 22, 2017

Things rarely ever go as planned. But your build still looks awesome!

Sppf121 · Feb 22, 2017

Following You CJ. Great stuff

FlReefer88 · Feb 23, 2017

Definitely enjoy watching your videos and watching you grow as an enthusiast. One of the best YouTube channels I subscribe to.

AlexG · Feb 23, 2017

I tuned in last night for a while on your live stream the tank is looking good.

Scurvy · Feb 23, 2017

Very Nice, I found some of your YouTube vids just last night and then these today. Liked your JBJ a lot! Looking forward to seeing how this one goes! Good Luck with the leak tests!

Ubans13 · Feb 23, 2017

Nice to see you on here!

CJs Aquariums · Feb 23, 2017

Judgment night arrived.. leak tested the tank... with all the unions and true union ball valves I easily had 40-50 potential failure points...

To my surprise none of the unions had one single drip... but I wasn't completely lucky.. all 3 of my bulkheads had a small leak.. and I couldn't find my channel locks or pipe wrench to tighten them..

Lucky for me one of my neighbors saved the day! I was able to tighten those bulkheads.. and after baby sitting the tank late into the night I went to bed..

Next morning ... 0 leaks!!! so we have officially passed the last major test of this build.

Only thing left to do is use some shims to level the tank after I drain it... and work out a solution for vibrations on my sump. I already have river hose from the return pump and a rubber mate under the sump...

To be continued....