Sump glass/acrylic suppliers?

[NeveSSL]

Hi all!

I have a two questions... first off, what thickness of material do I need to get for my sump?

I think I'd rather go with acrylic because I will probably need to cut teeth into it with the sump design I think I'm going to do. Whats a good source? Whats a good minimum thickness? I checked Lowes tonight (didn't get a chance to hit Home Depot) and they had (I think) 1/5 and 1/4... The 1/4 seemed ideal, but it was quite expensive. $40 for a 2x4 sheet. The other size (I think it was actually 1/8) was smaller, but much more affordable. Could acrylic be had somewhere else for cheaper? I'm thinking the 1/8 is too thin. It seemed to be, but I guess it could possibly do.

Any other thoughts about it are welcomed.

Here is my planned sump:

EDIT: The reason I would like to have acrylic is because it would be easier to do this design with... although I guess technically I could put eggcrate on top of the refugium glass... hmmmm...

Ok, nevermind... either one.

Thanks much!

Brandon

 

[DMBillies]

I don't know of a good supplier, but I know the 1/8 is way to thin. I saw a sump built with 1/8" baffles and they bowed like crazy until they popped out (and the baffles were only about 6" high, so they weren't holding back that much water.

I'm sure you can find better deals than from lowes/hd, but acrylic is not cheap (I have always just bought from there figuring the amount I need is usually small enough that the convenience was worth it). The cost of acrylic is one of the reasons that skimmers (which are really just big plastic tubes with a pump) are so damn expensive. On the plus side, acrylic is a lot easier to work with and, if you have an acrylic sump, you can get some weld-on and make sure those baffles never come loose.

I'm not following from the diagram were the input from the tank is going and how you plan to flow water to the refugium, but I would be real careful how you design the bubble trap and make sure that you get all of the bubbles out of the water before it gets back to the return pump. Microbubbles in the display are really annoying and usually really hard to fix once you've built the sump and placed it under the tank. For this reason, a lot of people build the return from the tank on one side, then feed the dirtiest water to the skimmer, then go through a fuge/macro grow-out area, and then to the return pump. There's obviously many ways to skin a cat, but the fuge/macro area will usually help "catch" any bubbles that make it out of the bubble trap or little ones that might be produced by the skimmer.

Good luck with designing it and finding the supplies.

 

[cee]

Yours has very similar dimensions to mine, and I went with 1/4" thk acrylic. If I had to do it over again, I might go a tad thicker, but it has held up well. All the pieces, cut to size from a local plastics supplier, cost me like $90 a few years ago. They even offered to flame polish the edges after I finished constructing it, but I never took them up on it.

Dave

 

[fishdoc11]

I used 1/4" on my last 2 sumps as well. If I remember correctly I bought a 4 x 8 sheet for around $50 ciut to my specs from a plastic place in Galatin. It's best to call around. Some places will be much higher.

hth, Chris

 

[pitbullpooch]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=9822988#post9822988 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by DMBillies
I
I'm not following from the diagram were the input from the tank is going and how you plan to flow water to the refugium, but I would be real careful how you design the bubble trap and make sure that you get all of the bubbles out of the water before it gets back to the return pump. Microbubbles in the display are really annoying and usually really hard to fix once you've built the sump and placed it under the tank. For this reason, a lot of people build the return from the tank on one side, then feed the dirtiest water to the skimmer, then go through a fuge/macro grow-out area, and then to the return pump. There's obviously many ways to skin a cat, but the fuge/macro area will usually help "catch" any bubbles that make it out of the bubble trap or little ones that might be produced by the skimmer.

Good luck with designing it and finding the supplies.

from what i took of the diagram he is gonna feed the right and left side from the main tank and the middle is the return like he has labeled in the diagrahm. There is a drain from the tank to the sump which splits and feeds the right side wich is the fuge side and is usaully fead at a slower rate by a ball valve to keep the flow slower on the fuge side since you want to have less flow going to the fuge and the other side(left side) where the skimmer will be at a faster rate. then it all meets up in the middle and as he has in the diagrahm the left side that will hold the skimmer has a bubble trap to elimate microbubbles before it meats in the return area and gets pumped back to the display. i seen alot of setups like this and planned to do the same on my next tank.

 

[NeveSSL]

Mike is right in his assessment. Sorry guys! I should have specified!

$50 for a 4x8 is much more reasonable than $40 for a 2x4!

I'll call around and see what I can find out.

What about glass? What is the minimum I should accept for glass?

The reason I ask is that Brian brings up a good point. I think many people have had good success with both this design and having the fuge after the skimmer. I want my refugium to be as good as possible because I'm wanting a mandarin in due time.

I've read recently that chaeto does well in high flow waters, and I'm probably only going to have about 300GPH, anyways... I don't think thats terrible... so I may just go ahead and do glass. This is going to be a modified 29 gallon, anyways.

With Brians input and from going back and forth, I may do this design instead:

http://www.melevsreef.com/acrylics/sumps/glass/

Which is also used in this thread: http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?threadid=1058115&perpage=25&pagenumber=1

Thanks guys. I'll hit the yellow books now. I just thought I'd check with you all.

Brandon

 

[drfdisk]

I had mine built at Glasscages and its very simular to yours but its a 48" 65G. They custom built it for about 200 bucks. I am going to have to add a bubble trap on the fuge side because the bubbles break the surface too much and the pump sucks them in. As narrow as your return section is I would add another bubble trap or dont make "teeth" along the top. The only way I can keep it from breaking the surface is to turn the ball valve on the fuge side to barely a trickle.

 

[NeveSSL]

Interesting... thanks for replying.

I think I actually may go with Melev's Glass Sump Design, where the fuge is just right after the skimmer. I really don't want to have to deal with microbubble issues.

Thanks again for sharing!

Brandon

 

[drfdisk]

Mine is built as a Type F on Melev's site. The demension are a little different since I used an already built sump. With a bubble trap on the fuge side it will work just fine. I just need to head to Lowes and have them cut 2 peices of acrylic.

If you have dual overflows the type F kinda works out perfect.