DIY Sump

1/4" plexiglass, tank your dimensions to HD or Lowes they should be able to cut it for you.

Leave about 1/8" for fitting purposes. If it doesn't fit 100% straight it's not the end of the world either just install it slightly angled.

The important factor is ensuring you don't have any leakage in your silicone. You want to be able to control the water flows. If there are leaks that defeats the purpose.
 
Okay so basically I have to use silicone correct? I would rather not have to wait a week or even two weeks for the silicone to cure
 
Unless you're bonding acrylic to acrylic you pretty much have no other good options than silicone.

The 2 stage epoxies MIGHT work, but I wouldn't try it. Stick with proven working methods.

You could shave a few days off the cure time if you use aquarium safe silicone, I wasn't able to find any locally which is why I opted for GE Silicone I - Windows & Doors (no mold inhibitor in it). The bottle of any silicone may say "cures in 1-2 days" but that's cure to the point that it won't leak, that doesn't make it safe for fish tanks at 1-2 days. The only way to truly make it safe is let it cure for minimum a week then use the water leeching method as an extra precautionary measure.

This is a hobby of patience, especially DIYers, I wouldn't rush it if I were you.
 
DIY Sump

How about using the weather striping? Has anyone had any luck with that? I like that they can easily be moved or re-moved and is clean. No need to have flawless silicone skills to avoid a crap looking sump. I'm about to try on a 20 high.
 
But really, who cares what the sump looks like? If you do you're in for a surprise. The purpose of the sump is to keep it messy and established so the display tank stays cleaner.

As for the weather strips they won't work all that well, they aren't designed to keep water out, they are designed to keep wind out. If you opened up the stops of a window you'll see silicone in there. The stop is a weather strip of sort.

Plus when the acrylic or glass flexes you will lose the seal. Silicone will move with any flexing.

Go for it though, I'd be really curious to see how well it performs.
 
If you don't want to wait the week or so the other option is to buy a premade sump. Otherwise if you are DIY then you need to wait the time frame otherwise you risk the walls caving in and killing your livestock. Waiting the week isn't that big of a deal when you consider what kind of damage can occur if you don't wait the week. If time is an issue then buy a hanging the back filter and run the filter until your sump is ready. Your not going to find a product out there where it drys in like 30 minutes and is fish ready in that time frame. Stuff takes time to cure.
 
ThisGuy12 said:
But really, who cares what the sump looks like? If you do you're in for a surprise. The purpose of the sump is to keep it messy and established so the display tank stays cleaner.

As for the weather strips they won't work all that well, they aren't designed to keep water out, they are designed to keep wind out. If you opened up the stops of a window you'll see silicone in there. The stop is a weather strip of sort.

Plus when the acrylic or glass flexes you will lose the seal. Silicone will move with any flexing.

Go for it though, I'd be really curious to see how well it performs.
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There are a lot of people who enjoy a nice looking sump or refugium and have great established tanks. Esp if you don't include a fuge and utilize a reactor for bio balls. That with a sock will keep a pretty clean sump. Many people put a lot of effort in what's under the stand as being aesthetically pleasing as what's on top. Now if you have a fuge, nasty is good.
 
NittyGritty said:
There are a lot of people who enjoy a nice looking sump or refugium and have great established tanks. Esp if you don't include a fuge and utilize a reactor for bio balls. That with a sock will keep a pretty clean sump. Many people put a lot of effort in what's under the stand as being aesthetically pleasing as what's on top. Now if you have a fuge, nasty is good.
Click to expand...
To each his/her own. I'm not saying let the tank get green with algae. I'm meticulous, my sump is clean the water is clear but there is good algae growth that I have no desire to remove.

But I do agree, I don't mind sitting back and watching my sump once in awhile, its interesting to see what goes on in the ecosystem. Though I'm still not all that concerned with a less than 100% perfect caulking job.

OP - if you want to do a good caulking job you can tape 1/4" each way along the glass, when you remove the tape it will make a nice clean edge. I learned this trick after I did my caulking unfortunately so it does have some overage.
 
Your better off just using the silicone and waiting the time required instead of using a product that will probably leach crap into your tank. In the long run you will probably have more issues. But hey go for it and let us know what happens. I'm putting my money on that it doesn't work and over time it falls apart and leach crap into your tank. There is adhesive on the back of the weather stripe that's not good for your tank either. If you have anything in the tank that you care about I would strongly urge you not to use the weather stripping. Heck I wouldn't use ge silicone 1 because I think it's crap. But a lot of people have used it with success I guess. I would use rtv silicone like 108. But that's me.
 
thompson2224 said:
Im going to try and use this on some acrylic before I use the silicone http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000HE7YQM/ref=oh_details_o00_s00_i00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
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Best of luck to you. Show us some pictures when you do it.

Keep this in mind, if it doesn't work, you could have already picked up the silicone and have it cured already by the time the weather stripping is shipped and arrives.

Either way, I do applaud you for innovative thinking, just don't think it's going to work very well.
 
If you want to make a removable baffle or adjustable baffle do a search here. Many people have accomplished this with out using weather stripping.
 
This is the material I have been seeing everywhere for this. It is very safe and says it will not deteriorate in the water. Look it up, everywhere says that this is one of the only good ones for this. It looks like quite a few people have used it with success
 
madean said:
If you want to make a removable baffle or adjustable baffle do a search here. Many people have accomplished this with out using weather stripping.
Click to expand...
Interesting, did a quick forum search made it through 10 pages of threads and didn't see one thread about removable baffles. Though, I didn't look all that hard to be honest. Mind directing me, curious to see what the outcome was.

thompson2224 said:
This is the material I have been seeing everywhere for this. It is very safe and says it will not deteriorate in the water. Look it up, everywhere says that this is one of the only good ones for this. It looks like quite a few people have used it with success
Click to expand...
I opened your link. It's weather stripping material. Deterioration wasn't any concern, flexing and losing the seal will happen even if the material is intact.

Look, it's your sump, people have provided their input that silicone is the best method for a seal. You've stated you can't wait that long, fine, it's your choice, we're just answering your question.

If you want to use weather stripping go for it.

I'm not saying it's impossible, but it's improbably and unreliable, it won't hold as seal as well as silicone.
 
I like two baffles. I cut both the same size mount first to bottom then raise the second about 3/4 inch. Forces water over first baffle bad under second. I placed mine 4 inches apart. Perfect location for any other media. I also keep a new filter for my qt in there. When I buy a fish qt is ready to go quick and I just drop in a new filter so after qt is broke down I can throw away the filter just used in qt. I also prefer plexi over glass. Main reason is if you are working under there glass breaks easier. My two cents. Good luck
 
For the "weather seal" product above, I'd wonder if you'd have to have so much side pressure to keep the glass and seal in place that you'd risk bursting your tank? I'd also assume that the width of your panel would have to be pretty exact - not too tight and not too loose.

The silicone you can build up if the cut is a bit shy, and if the silicone looks sloppy a razor blade on a straight edge will clean it up nicely I'm sure.

But hey, man - go for it! Someone has to try it first.
 
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