show me your sumps made out of a glass tank...

jennmac415 · 12-31-2006, 01:33 PM

STILL trying to decide on a sump for the 180 inwall I am SLOWLY working on...

thinking about just buying a glass tank and making one myself....don't need anything fancy...

Please show me pics or describe (in easy to understand terms of course, LOL) how those of you that have done this went about it.

Also, anyone chime in and give me any benefits or disadvantages to doing this kind of sump...

What size would I get for a tank this big...40 breeder? 20 long???

Thanks as always for putting up with my questions...

Weatherman · 12-31-2006, 02:42 PM

Here's my 31 gallon (18" tall, 18" wide and 24" long), all glass, custom built sump, sitting below my 120g tank.

The one thing I specifically asked for in this design is that section with the bioballs. I can place filter pads or carbon bags on top of the bioballs and the water is forced to go through rather than around (especially valuable with carbon). The section is easy to get to for the removal/replacement/cleaning of the filter pads and carbon bags. I can also give the bio-balls a good stir to make sure they keep clean.

jennmac415 · 12-31-2006, 03:24 PM

Thanks, Weatherman... did you make this yourself? Can you have glass cut at lowes or HD for the baffles and use silicone to attach them?

come on everyone out there with a glass tank for a sump... help me out.

Weatherman · 12-31-2006, 03:32 PM

I don't have the tools or the expertise to do a good job.

I'm fortunate to have someone at a LFS down in Miami who specializes in custom-made glass sumps. I just provided the specs and he built it for me.

Ronjunior · 12-31-2006, 03:40 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jennmac415

Thanks, Weatherman... did you make this yourself? Can you have glass cut at lowes or HD for the baffles and use silicone to attach them?

come on everyone out there with a glass tank for a sump... help me out.

Short pieces of glass are easy to cut. Buy a $2 glass cutter/roller, use a good straight edge to score, lay score just over a hump (like a piece of rebar), add pressure and snap! Just don't try it with tempered glass, you'll learn fast that it's impossible; I know I did

Personally, I'm afraid of getting a straight cut on a 4' piece of glass to shorten an old 55g tank. Will use 2x4 with rubber footed clamps to hold in place when I get around to building my sump.
You might find some darned cheap to free tanks on Craigslist to use for pieces like baffles, I know I did. Glass shop prices are quite high for DiY little projects depending on how many pieces you pay to have cut.

dobejazz · 12-31-2006, 04:14 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jennmac415

Thanks, Weatherman... did you make this yourself? Can you have glass cut at lowes or HD for the baffles and use silicone to attach them?

come on everyone out there with a glass tank for a sump... help me out.

Sorry Jenni I have a 45g acrylic sump on my 95

Sprayin70 · 12-31-2006, 04:33 PM

Here is mine. I have 6 baffels in it. It is a 30L

phiberop840 · 12-31-2006, 08:43 PM

Here are a few shots of what i did in a 20 long. 4 baffles over under over under design and it worked well for me when i had my 72 bow.

Mike

AB3 · 01-01-2007, 12:44 AM

can one build one with plexi glass?? Are they hard to make??

Big D · 01-01-2007, 08:41 AM

Here's a diagram and a few pics of mine made out of a 55gal using 13" acrylic baffles siliconed in... One of the key things to remember is spacing on the baffles... Anything under 2" can cause the water to speed up which may cause it to carry micro bubbles to the return section which would result in them in the display tank... I have 2 overflows on the display tank, so I directed one drain into the skimmer section of the sump on the right and one drain into the fuge section on the left and the return section is in the center... I put true union ball valves inline on the plumbing to allow me to control the amount of flow through each area... It's been working out great... Another thing to remember is have enough unused area above the normal operating water line to allow for the overflows to drain when the pumps are shut off and when you pull the stand pipes out of the overflows... HTH

Diagram

Sump under my 180Gal

Another shot with it in use

One more angle with it up and running

Big D

reefermike1 · 01-01-2007, 11:22 AM

heres my compact design out of a 15gal tank to fit in my hexagon stand, i just siliconed acrylic into the glass tank. had a sketch but its the wrong type file to upload.

Loverotties · 01-01-2007, 11:31 AM

Nice sumps!

Timmy77 · 01-01-2007, 12:50 PM

I still get micro bubbles sometime.

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jennmac415 · 01-01-2007, 02:31 PM

Big D,

That is exactly what I am looking for....my tank is a 180 gallon AGA with the dual overflows so I am wanting the drains to drain to each end of the sump too... I have a very similiar skimmer, mine is a MRC MR-1...I was thinking to run it externally, but I see with your design it works just fine IN the sump....how high does it sit up and why is it necessary to raise it? I also like the return pump in the middle section so that it is equal distance to each return. Do you have a place to put carbon... and how high up did you glue the under baffles? What pump are you using for your return pump? I am thinking of using my mag 12 for my return... would this work? what pump is on your skimmer?

Is it possible to give me a few more pics...I want to copy your plumbing exactly and can't see all of the connections. on one I noticed some eggcrate... what is this for and how did you secure it...also, how hard was it to silicone the acrylic to the glass?

Sorry for so many questions, but I am so excited to see something that I may be able to use!

Thanks for any more info you can give me...

Big D · 01-01-2007, 03:09 PM

This is on a 180gal AGA also... As far as the skimmer, the only reason I raised it was to allow a little more room for my skimmer pump... I'm running an Ocean Runner 6500 on my skimmer (against some recommendations, but I had to try it, it's producing a great nasty dark dry foam) and an Ocean Runner 2500 for my return pump. Alot of folks may not agree with me on my return pump since it's only rated at ~700gph, but I wanted the flow through my sump to be slooowwww for many reasons... It allows the water to be in the fuge and skimmer sections alot longer and it also keeps my overflows very, very quiet

... All of my tank circulation comes from 4 SEIO's ( 2 x 1500's & 2 x 1100's for a total of 5200gph)...

As far as carbon, I've still got to come up with something for that, I was thinkink a stand made out of eggcrate that would go in the first baffle from the skimmer section... All of the spacing on my baffles is 2", the under is 2" from the bottom of the tank as well, seems to be working great as I get no micro bubbles at all into the return pump chamber. The direction I have the skimmer outlet pointed may be helping eliminate them also... Your mag 12 should work fine for a return pump, mag's are a little loud for my taste and they are wattage hogs compared to Ocean Runners which is why I went with OR's... Less wattage means less heat and my goal was to make this setup as efficient as possible without spending the big $$$ for LED's... I don't want to have to run a chiller if at all possible, we'll know in about 3 or 4 months.. I did mount a fan above the sump which is controlled by my ReefKeeperII just incase the temp gets over 78.2, it's only kicked on a few times and cools everything back down within a minute or 2... HTH

Big D