making acrylic sumps?

[puckbs]

does anyone in the club do this? or can give really good advice on how to?

not much room under 55g's for other options....thanks in advance!

 

[cb747]

a 20 long would work nicely. That was my old setup when i had the 55

 

[puckbs]

those fit underneath? for some reason i didn't think they did...I'll check it out, thanks Chris

 

[cb747]

20 Long is 12 inches wide. Little challenging maneuvering it into place if i remember but it fits!

 

[steelerguy]

I built one without any prior experience and it turned out great. I just read the pins method of gluing acrylic thread in the do it yourself section. I designed it on paper and then ordered the acrylic and solvent, and glued it up and it works great. Cost me about $80 and a few hours of reading and gluing. I was limited in room under my tank so I needed kind of a weird sized sump, I built it 24.5x10.5x14 outside dimensions and it fits perfect and leaves me with a little room for skimmers skimate storage tank and misc. stuff.

 

[puckbs]

i'm all up for do it yourself...but this isn't going under my tank...lol..although that kinda does make me wanna try it..thanks for the info steeler

 

[steelerguy]

I thought it was going under your 55 gallon in the stand. Regardless, it is easy enough to build one to your dimensions, but if it was going to be out in the open and you want it to look really purty it might be best to have a pro build it. Mine didn't leak at all, but I used too much solvent on a couple joints and it marked up the sump a bit.

Here is a pic for reference.

 

[puckbs]

it is for a 55g...just not mine where did you get the acrylic?

 

[steelerguy]

Ahhh, gotcha. I got the acrylic here: http://www.graphicspider.com Had never heard of the place, but they got me cell-cast Plexiglass cheap. If I remember correctly it was $55 or so plus shipping.

 

[puckbs]

did you get all the pieces cut to size through them or did you do that yourself? there is a place in bluepoint i got black acrylic from...

 

[steelerguy]

I got the pieces cut to size. They used a table saw so there were some marks on the cut sides that I sanded down so they were smooth. Since it was for a sump going under my stand I didn't polish them or anything, just wanted a good flat surface to glue didn't care as much how it looked.