adding partition to a sump

[badazztealcobra]

Since it's just the sump, you can use acrylic or glass baffles and silicone them in with GE Silicone I.... Make sure it's Silicone I which is in the blue and grey label. The Silicone II has mold inhibitors which is bad, Silicone I is 100% pure silicone. $4 for a tube at Home Depot...

I just finished building a sump for my brothers tank, acrylic sheets, GE Silicone I..... Works like a charm. I actually have an extra tube from that build that you can have if you need it....

 

[dviper150]

Since it's just the sump, you can use acrylic or glass baffles and silicone them in with GE Silicone I.... Make sure it's Silicone I which is in the blue and grey label. The Silicone II has mold inhibitors which is bad, Silicone I is 100% pure silicone. $4 for a tube at Home Depot...

I just finished building a sump for my brothers tank, acrylic sheets, GE Silicone I..... Works like a charm. I actually have an extra tube from that build that you can have if you need it....

Thanks. I will get on that. As far as cutting the acrylic sheet, how much distance should I leave between the acrylic and glass? Sump is 12" deep.

Is this the silicon that you are talking about? http://www.homedepot.com/h_d1/N-5yc...splay?langId=-1&storeId=10051&catalogId=10053

 

[badazztealcobra]

I always cut the acrylic just slightly short of the edges of the glass.... Maybe 1/16" on each side at the most..... Then I take a few pieces of 1" foamular I have left over from a project and use it for the spacers... first I lay it on the bottom and silicone the middle piece of the bubble trap, then after it dries I pull that out and put a piece on each side, clamp my other two pieces of acrylic/glass onto it, and silicone away....

The painters tape is just to put lines so I know where my baffles should be.... I didn't have an expo marker to draw lines with that time. :lol2:


That's the silicone I'm talking about..... Used it on every sump I've built and never had a problem.

 

[dviper150]

I went and just picked up a bottle of that silicon and another thick sheet of acrylic. I do have a question before I start this. I just found out that I have some spare glass sheets that are sitting around and wanted to know if I go with the glass instead of the acrylic, will the GE silicon I glue the 2 glass pieces together? Does it make much of a difference using either acrylic or glass in the sump to setup as baffles?

 

[badazztealcobra]

The GE Silicone I works great for a sump. If you were building a tank I would suggest a different silicone, but for a sump you'll be more than fine with the GE Silicone I.

The type of material also doesn't matter much in this application. The silicone doesn't hold acrylic to glass the greatest but for baffles you're not looking for structural integrity, you just want to make sure the water is all going in the one direction and not getting around the baffles. There is always pressure from the weight of the water on each side of the baffle, so it doesn't have to be the best strongest silicone out there like you would use for a tank which has to hold all the water against one pane and nothing against the other.

I've always used GE Silicone I on my sumps, and I've never had an issue with glass or acrylic baffles. You're more than fine either way.... Now stop worrying and get to work !!!! :lolspin:

 

[badazztealcobra]

I was wrong, the last picture I showed was my sump on my tank.... it went skimmer => fuge => return and was done with glass baffles and GE Silicone I.....

Here it is up and running:

This one is my brothers:

This one I'm using acylic baffles and is fuge => return <= skimmer for the layout. I also went with black acrylic so all the light will stay in the refugium. I also added a small piece of eggcrate to keep anything else that goes into the fuge in the fuge.

 

[dviper150]

I had spare pieces of glass sitting around so instead of paying 15$ for a sheet of acrylic, i just decided to cut the glass. This is exciting . My first Diy sump. I am going to set it all up before I go to bed so it has overnight to dry out and then in the morning I can test it.

 

[dviper150]

I just glued the baffle in. It did come out a bit slant because it was a tad too big but it besides that it fit nice. Now we wait...

How long does it usually take for silicon to dry?

 

[kawicivic]

I usually wait 2 days.