Extreme Makeover: Sump Edition

[glaudds]

I thought I would share the revamping of my sump area, since I have gotten many great ideas from this site over the years. Comments/suggestions are welcomed....thanks for looking!

This is my current sump area which has been running since the tank been setup almost eight years ago. Basically it is two Rubbermaid totes plumbed together with ABS pipe fittings.....

This is the right side where the tank drains into... has a five gallon bucket fuge dropped in, lit with a LOA fluorescent bulb....

This little cut out with the Tupperware is for my CA reactor effluent and pH probe connected to a controller. It drips back into the drain area....

Left side is the return area with the skimmer and also has a kent float valve within for a gravity fed auto top off.

 

[glaudds]

My reasons for redoing the sump are thisââ"šÂ¬Ã‚¦.

After eight years, I was concerned that the Rubbermaid Totes would become brittle and crack.
I wanted the skimmer in the drain area so that it would skim ââ"šÂ¬Ã…"œrawerââ"šÂ¬Ã‚ water.
I wanted more room underneath the tank to make maintenance and placement of equipment more efficient.

More to come....

 

[jimsta]

cool cant wiat to see what it looks like

 

[ZOKU]

What are your plans with it...?

 

[glaudds]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7187444#post7187444 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by ZOKU
What are your plans with it...?

I've got an old 55 gallon acrylic tank that I'm converting to a sump.

 

[ste6168]

what size tank is this for, the 125 in your sig?

 

[glaudds]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7187989#post7187989 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by ste6168
what size tank is this for, the 125 in your sig?

Yes, this is going under my 6 foot 125. Here's a tank shot from about 1.5 years ago when it was primarily a softy/LPS tank.

Over the past year, I've been slowly converting over to primarily SPS. Here's the tank in its current state....

 

[glaudds]

Here is the tank I'm converting to the sump after I made the first cut to remove the top. It's an old 4 foot 55 gallon I got from someone tearing down their FW tank. As you can see it was in pretty bad shape (they had cut the top bracing off and tried to repair it.)

Another angle...

 

[glaudds]

I cut the top off using a router with a straight bit. I used double stick tape to attach a straight edge on the tank to use as a guide for the router. This is my first time working with acrylic so I'm learning as I'm going.....

 

[glaudds]

Okay, here's a top view schematic of the planned sump...Don't laugh at my feeble attempt at MS paint.

 

[rustybucket145]

I'm a little confused. It looks to me like you just cut the top supports out of the tank. Is that right? Another thing I am curious about is: How do you plan on getting the new sump under the stand? It looks like the center brace is going to be in the way.

 

[glaudds]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7193139#post7193139 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by rustybucket145
I'm a little confused. It looks to me like you just cut the top supports out of the tank. Is that right? Another thing I am curious about is: How do you plan on getting the new sump under the stand? It looks like the center brace is going to be in the way.

Yes, the previous top bracing was originally cut off/cracked/repaired and was in pretty bad shape. When I cut the top of the tank off, there was a fair amount of bowing of the tank. I plan to replace the bracing across the top of the tank. Also, the baffles and planned refugium will hopefully reinforce the sump.

I'm planning to cut a hole on the end of the stand and slide the sump in from the end. Then replace the cut piece along with some moulding trim. I also considered cutting out the center brace and bracing the stand temporarily with some 2x4's while I put the sump in, but I'm not sure I want to chance it.

 

[glaudds]

Much of the inspirtation and ideas for this sump came from www.melevsreef.com. It is a great source of information!

Here's some sump assembly shots. I used 1/4 inch acrylic from lowes. The pieces were cut on a table saw using a 80 tooth blade. Weldon 4 and weldon 16 were used to bond the pieces into the tank.

The main problem I had was the extreme warping and bowing of the tank after cutting the top bracing off. I used weight plates and dumbells to flatten the tank out and get a tight fit while bonding the pieces in. I also clamped pieces of wood to the sides to flatten them. Here's a shot of the baffles being bonded in....

After the baffle cured, I flipped the sump over and attached to bubble tower to the back corner. Again the need for weights and clamps...

 

[glaudds]

Again after the appropriate curing time, I attached the sides for the internal refugium...

 

[glaudds]

Sump finally done! Top bracing, internal baffles, and refuge walls have corrected the bowing of the tank.

 

[mg426]

Looks to me like you are going to be mighty happy with the new setup. Looks like its coming together nicely.

 

[glaudds]

Thanks mg426...I pretty happy with the results so far considering this was the first time working with acrylic. The holes for the bulkhead and float valve still needs to be drilled.

 

[glaudds]

Water testing....had a small leak in the refuge...Grrr..... patched with bead of weldon 16.

 

[SaltyMember]

nice work. Good luck with it.

 

[glaudds]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7264827#post7264827 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by SaltyMember
nice work. Good luck with it.

Thanks Salty...
Here's a shot of the hole I cut in the end of the stand to slide the sump in....I didn't want to mess with the center brace of the stand. The sump is plumbed and running

Covered the hole with the cut out piece trimmed with molding