building sump need HELP

[thekid55]

im building a 40 gal sump for my 120 gal tank. i have a couple of questions

1) can i buy glass from home depot that is cut how i want it?

2) is their any special way to silicon glass to glass

3) any advice.

[corywilson]

thick plexiglass/lexan you can score yourself

[thekid55]

score??

[corywilson]

yeah you use a little knife type thing that you put a small cut in the plexiglass and they you can snap it along the line.

[thekid55]

still kinda lost but getting it a little. score so the silicon bounds better.

[corywilson]

no. you score plexiglass in order to cut it to the correct length/shape. you would take this little blade and basically scratch a line down the plastic where you want to cut it. you then prop up the plastic and snap it along the line.

[chicagoman_35]

You would be better off using acrylic for a sump that size. The bonding methods and agents are much easier to use and stronger. I built mine from acrylic and it turned out beautiful!!!

[MattTVI]

this should help you, but you'll def. want to use acrylic instead of plexiglass. You can order acrylic on line or some of the local builders might sell to you.

You will need a squeeze bottle w/ a needle as well as an acrylic bonding agent. For that size sump, 1/2" acyrlic will be more than enough for your needs, imo.

good luck,

Matt

[jenajet]

sounds like kid is wanting to use the 40 gallon tank he has and is wanting to add compartments to it. I am also curious if this can be done and how to go about it. Can you attack acrylic to glass?

[GLXTRIX]

if you have an exhisting glass tank and want to make a sump out of it, and if you can find glass thats cut to what you want, just use regular silicone made for aquadic use, pets mart has it really cheap. To silicone glass to glass, just put a 1/8" bead along where the two pieces are going to meet, hole those together but what ever method you ahve of holding them so it doesnt move. After that bonds, I'ld say give it a few hours, but make sure you clean off any that goos out. Then you can run another bead on both sides where the glass pieces meet, smooth those out by pressing your finger into the corner and run it from top to bottom or vice versa. If you cant find glass to make your baffels you can use plexi, stay away from the really thin stuff, it will bow and prolly break seal under all the water pressure. If youre attaching it to glass, use the same method as the glass to glass, that really is the only way to attach it. You might want to think about adding a top piece that comes out a few inches just to add some extra support, not necessary if after fully cured ( 24 HOURS) the baffels seem pretty stong. Now if youre fully building it from scratch, I'ld say go with a plexi all around, its a lil more expensive than to convert an old tank, but you know for sure you'll have no issues. To bond plexi to plexi order the bonding agent from tap plastics http://www.tapplastics.com/shop/product.php?pid=131& make sure you buy the lil syringes that they have, it makes applying the glue easy as can be. This stuff is water like and will run everywhere, be careful, and it bonds within 20 seconds, so make sure you have the piece where you want it. Thats really about it, jsut make sure if you use silicone for glass and or glass/plexi make sure you let it fully sure 24 hours befor adding water. The all plexi should be about the same for sure time even tho it bonds extremely fast. Ejoy and if you have any questions feel free to pm me.

[chicagoman_35]

If he is using a glass tank, he'd be better off using glass panels for dividers, silicone doesn't adhere very well to plastic in my experience...

[Kullas]

if useing glass panels ya should get the edges ground. ya dont want to get cut every time ya want to clean the sump

[MattTVI]

oh, i see...

I built my sump out of a 20g H aga tank using lexon material from HD. I attached it to the glass using DAP aquarium sylicone which I also bought from DAP. Over a year of running and the baffles are all as solid as they were day one. I used almost all the DAP on four baffles. If you can get glass cut to size, that's the better way to go though.

[thekid55]

thanks guys.

i did hear that glass to plastic is a bad idea.

i have a 40 gal tank that i want to use as a sump. going to get the stuff today will post pics lata.

[GeorgeW]

Originally Posted by thekid55

i did hear that glass to plastic is a bad idea.

I'm curious to hear the reasons behind glass to plastic being a bad idea. As I see it, using plastic you gain the benefit of DIY baffles that you can easily modify and/or replace as necessary (though be careful scoring and snapping. it can leave nasty cuts).

The only thing I see glass having over plastic is that scratched plastic might eventually start growing something you might not want if you had an in-sump refugium or something.

Either way, your bonding material won't be a chemical bond, so there's no bond strength advantage to either.

If you're worried about holding against the water, I saw a nice design a while ago that used 2/3 circle sections (as in cut 120 degrees of the pipe off for the whole length) as bracing between the baffles. I suppose you could also use solid PVC rods as well. I've never heard of straight silicone being a problem, though.