Planning a sump- Need advice

J

jolopy409

New member
Heres what I have.
Main tank is a 40 gallon acrylic with 2 blowers one 700 the other 600.
-30 long glass for sump.
- Eshoppe hang on overflow


I want everything out of the tank except the rock, fish and coral.Maybe not using the overflow at all. So I was wondering if they make acrylic bulkheads. That way I can plumb it all to the sump but I can't seem to find any online. What do you guys suggest as this would be my first sump. Plumbing not an issue.

ps- The stand already has openings for plumbing to be dropped down in the top of the stand in the center towards the back. I would attach pictures but long story short - harddrive failed, excuse to spend money, built new computer case doesnt have multicard reader and dont have my camera cord to connect it. Maybe my phone.
 
There are overflow boxes available that have a bulkhead built into them. Check around, I thought with acrylic you could use a normal hole saw. Check out glass holes overflow boxes. They have a 700gph and some smaller ones. For a 40G you are looking for about 200 GPH turn around, power heads will do the rest of the work. My experience has been the closer to the box capacity you get the noisier the box gets.
 
We seem to be mixing terms here... What do you mean when you say acrylic bulkhead? "they" make PVC bulkhead fittings that fit normal PVC pipe. Most of us use home-made acrylic boxes siliconed to the inside back or side wall for our overflow with bean animal style overflows, or modifications thereof.

Great lakes is great lakes plastics. It's on Broadway near bailey and they carry all sorts of acrylic. Their hours SUCK though, 9-5 m-f only. There are plenty of acrylic suppliers on the intergoogles though. I tend to like mcmaster.com and usplastics.com as well as grainger.com for my materials orders, although I will stray for specific products.
 
Maybe I'm using the wrong meaning for bulk head. I never made a sump nor drilled a tank so I assumed when you drilled the hole there must be some fitting that slides into that hole making a seal allowing you to.connect plumbing or a connection to it. Sort of like an o-ring but with grooves. Or do people simply cut a hole large enough for there pipe and just caulk around it?
 
Lol, yes, PVC bulkheads. We usually get our diamond hole saws from ebay too. Much cheaper. Have you decided on your flowrate and trudged through the calculators on the main site to figure everything out?
 
jolopy409 said:
Wow I'm a moron. I've been searching for acrylic bulkheads instead of pvc bulkheads.:lmao:
Click to expand...
you're NOT a moron. We all attempt new projects and might sometimes FEEL like a moron but making mistakes means you're learning.
I can't help you out with plumbing supplies in Buffalo but you're sump project is definitely a step in the right direction.
Make sure to use the bulkhead calculator to figure out which one(s) you'll need for the hole(s) you drill.
Never use putty to seal a bulkhead.

edit: I just did a quick search of the RC Archives. See if any of this helps you with sump design:

Here's a link to part one of a 3 part series on sump design:
http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2003-01/gt/index.php
 
Last edited:
Thanks for the link you posted gary. I took a look at the calculators on the front page and it says I need about .88 inches for my drain hole. I picked up my pump today, a Mag 7. The chart that came with it states at 3 foot of head height the flow should be about 458 gallons per hour.Thats 3 ft up with 2 90's and a 45. Was trying to guess what i might need in my head. Def the 2 90s. So seeing as its .88 my mind tells me to pump it up to 1 inch rather than down. Am I correct? or less water draining better?


On a side note. What are the chances I could use pex piping for the run up. Only problem I can see is when they label pex as 1/2 in or 3/4 in its the outside of the piping and not the inside diameter.
 
With my glass holes 700 im barely 1/3 way up the teeth, but I also t'ed my reactor off it. Either way I wish my turn over was higher.
 
Going today to pick up the bulkheads. Thought I read online that its worth the extra money to get schedule 80 vs 40 bulkheads bc of the strength of the bulkhead and threads. What do you guys think? Went to one lfs and they wanted $17 for one sched 40.
 
Buy a water sensor. Either a water bug that will screech when in contact with water or water sensors hooked up to an apex that shuts off the system and sends an email. I learned the hard way.
 
Picked up the bulkheads now the tough question or am I over thinking. The hole saw. Bc my tank is acrylic I figured I dont need a diamond blade correct? so I was measuring up the bits on my 1 in drain and the closest fit was a 1 an 3/4 hole saw. The blades where almost the exact diameter as the threads maybe very very slightly bigger. Would that make it the correct size for the 1 in? I dont want to mess this up and clearly want to get the finished hole as close to the thread size as possible. So if the bit is the size of the threads am I in the clear?
 
Why can't people put things away correctly at home depot. Should have looked more closely when picking up my 90's 1 side slide 1 side thread.
 
First off, I have found lowes much better than Hd for pluming. Two I never read the bins, just assume they are incorrect.
 
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