Home Made Sumps

[uk-sub]

Hi..I’m very new to the Marine aquarium hobby and on a very steep learning curve! So please bear with me if I’m asking silly questions!!…
I’m in the fairly early stages of planning a FOWLR set up which I’m hopefully going to stock with some large fish (at the moment I’m thinking 2 Volitan Lion's, 2 Moray's (Snowfloke, Zebra), 2 trigger's (Picasso, Blue Jaw))…The tank will be about 180 / 200 gal. My question is, how wise is it for a total beginner (with reasonable DIY skills) to make his own sump that would be good enough to cope with the extra filtration needed for a tank stocked with these fish?
From some other posts here I've seen, the sump arrangement looks fairly simple to me, am I missing something, or would it be fairly simple to buy a tank myself and partition it off for the skimmer, heater, pump and bio compartments, or is it not that simple??
Can anyone suggest any good reference books for someone who is contemplating an aggressive set up such as the one I'm planning?
Thanks again for the advice..

 

[ca161406]

yeah its not too hard. id say use a tank instead of a rubbermaid but thats just personal preference. get a tank to fit. draw it out on graph paper,get glass cut, 100% clear silicone, some cd cases for spacing the glass off the bottom. then go to town on it

 

[deejeff442]

go to melvesreef.com
its a good start with lots of different size and shaped sump/fuge pics

 

[1990jpyj]

Originally Posted by deejeff442
http:///forum/post/2862940
go to melvesreef.com
its a good start with lots of different size and shaped sump/fuge pics
+1 they have all the dimensions and everything. i am building mine according to his specs. it is really easy, or so it looks anyway.

 

[gypsana]

I bought a 30 gal glass tank for my 100 gal DT. I cut the glass baffles and set them with aquarium silicone. I did not use cd's to hold up the baffles. I set the tank on the side for two that did not touch bottom. If you want a picture of what mine looks like let me know. It is working great! Since your tank is going to be fish only this should be pretty straight forward. I have seen some really complex sumps and I did not feel that I needed to go through that much trouble for mine. Also go to youtube and there is a guy (LimpitsReef) that has a two part video that also helps with design. Have fun.

 

[1990jpyj]

just watched those you tube videos and they were a great help. very informative for a beggining sump builder.

 

[jimmy40741]

As the others have said it's not hard to make your own sump. If you are going to make your baffles out of glass, instead of cutting your own do what I did and just buy your glass from Lowe's and they will cut them for you.

 

[gypsana]

Originally Posted by Jimmy40741
http:///forum/post/2863880
As the others have said it's not hard to make your own sump. If you are going to make your baffles out of glass, instead of cutting your own do what I did and just buy your glass from Lowe's and they will cut them for you.
I would bring the tank in to the place you are getting the glass cut so they can help measure. I worked at a glass shop for four years and it is not easy even for me to get a really accurate measurement on the inside. If you do not want to take the tank with you try to get the best tight measurement on the inside and deduct 1/8" to 3/16" so they fit. If there is a slight gap, the silicone will take care of that.