DIY sump

big t · 11-18-2003, 09:02 PM

Well, a few weeks ago Jeff (Stang69 version) asked me to come up to help him haul a big tank home. I agreed and went up there, but once we arrived to the tank Jeff was less than impressed. It was a funny shaped 6 sided tank that was cracked and the top had been cut off. The good part was it was made out of 1/2 inch acrylic. So I decided that I would take it home and do some experimenting w/ it. After a lot of wasting plastic figuring out what I could do w/ it w/ the limited tools that I have I came up with this. It is 30"x16"x17" tall. I had planned to get my skimmer in the first compartment on the left, but it didn't fit unfortunately. I am planning on lighting up the sump w/ 2 x 32w pc's and using whatever area that I can to grow out frags. I built this with slightly unconventional methods. It is very critical to get a very strait edge to make bubble free joints w/ this acrylic. What I did was ruff cut it w/ my pathetic table saw (tiny delta) then used a square clamped down to the material as a guide to route against. This method is pretty affective for small stuff. I then used weldon 4 and the pin method. 3 of the 4 joints came out terrible so I used a square piece and glued it in as a fillet w/ weldon 16. I have since made a water top off container and the joints came out a lot better on that one. I am planning on a few more small projects like this and then making my own tank soon which will be around a 100 gallon tank, I am thinking 48"x20"x24"tall. I am going to have to make a nice flat surface to glue on and a router table first. Well anyway here are the pics

big t · 11-18-2003, 09:03 PM

here is a pic of the water test

big t · 11-18-2003, 09:04 PM

one more

Stang69 · 11-18-2003, 09:27 PM

Wohoooooooooooo Looks alot better than the last time I seen the tank errrr sump as it is now hehehhe

Great work Tom

Jeff

Geoff · 11-18-2003, 10:04 PM

Looks great!!!

i like working with acrylic. weldon 16 is your friend. i am thinking about getting an even higher number also (i can not cut a straight line to save my life). all i have is a jig saw.

i like the white acrylic, i need to get some of that, it has got to be cheaper than that starboard stuff Spanky has.

G~

big t · 11-18-2003, 10:14 PM

Thanks! Well the white stuff sure was cheap in my case. That was what the bottom was made from on the doner tank. I am pretty much out of it now. I used it for the sides on my top off container. I will have to do a little write up on that tomorrow.
This acrylic is definatly fun to work with.