Adding custom intank sump, integrity questions

[Leyth]

Hey, I have a tank that is rectangular in shape and I was considering adding my own internal sump area. Kind of like how Nuvo Fusions have the internal overflow box, but I'd like to add it to the short side instead of how the Nuvo Fusion 20 has it on the long side.

I was going to use acrylic to implement the divider and the baffles. Would I be messing with the structural integrity of the tank or introducing new issues by doing this?

Just to give dimensions of my idea:

24x12 tank, I'd like to make the total display area 19x12 so the wall would exist at the 19-20" line. Here is a diagram to show what I was thinking.

 

[kfisc]

No, the integrity should be fine- you're not increasing the overall water volume in the tank at any particular area. It would be different if somehow a tank could be increased vertically with additions.

 

[Leyth]

No, the integrity should be fine- you're not increasing the overall water volume in the tank at any particular area. It would be different if somehow a tank could be increased vertically with additions.

Cool, that's what I thought as well, I just wasn't sure and definitely didn't want to find out I was wrong the hard way. I actually found some solutions that I can order. I was googling the wrong terms. "all in one conversions" seem to be the key terms.

 

[Rubasu]

Just want to be careful on one thing... Acrylic, when in water, expands. Make sure there is enough space to allow it to expand. If you fit it right up against the glass, it will break it after a while.

 

[Leyth]

Just want to be careful on one thing... Acrylic, when in water, expands. Make sure there is enough space to allow it to expand. If you fit it right up against the glass, it will break it after a while.

Really good to know, thanks. I wimped out anyways and will just stick with the aquaclear 70 for now.

 

[Chibils]

You can get a glass shop to cut you pieces of glass to fit for fairly cheap. Ask for beveled edges so it's clean looking and won't cut you. Having someone else do it reduces the risk of messing up to about 0. Leave about 1/4" on either side of the glass for the silicone bead to fill. If the inside of the tank is exactly 12" wide, get the glass cut to 11.5 x [height of baffle] so the silicone can fill the gap. It's just like building a DIY sump, and glass will bond to glass stronger than glass + acrylic by an order of magnitude.

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