What Is A Sump?
- Thread starter agent 14
- Start date
big slick
Member
don't know if this picture is the right size to post or not...If it does then you can see where I have a small tank (40 gallons) below my actual tank....water flows in from the main tank, flows over some dead coral skeletons, through a blue filter pad, over some sea weed(calurpa) and miracle mud, and then into a chamber with a pump that sends it back up to the actual tank.....basically, it is one huge filter that takes care of the three major filter components: Mechanical, biological, and chemical
big slick
Member
the one you see there is a 40 gallon tank....buy it new, so as not to worry about what the guy before you was using it for. measure the dimensions of the ********, and take them down to lowes or home depot so they can cut you some plexiglass "walls for you to glue into place. these walls will create the series of chambers you'll need to house the various items I discussed earlier. Look back at the picture, and start from right to left: the first wall starts at the top of the tank and leaves about two inches at the bottom free so the water has to flow down through the dead coral and back up throgh the blue pad. Build another wall here, but this one can be a full wall that the water must trael over to get to the next chamber. here is where you see the sea weed and mud. move about 14 inches or so down and buiold another plexiglass wall the same way you did the other ( a full wall the water will have to travel over to get to the final chamber. here is where you'll put your submersable return pump. All of the walls have to fit pretty snug in your tank, and have to be glued down with silicone gel used on fish tanks. I had a problem with one of my walls springing a leak, so as a hint, you may want to cut small pieces to uses as braces to help hold the walls up. This will keep chambers from mixing with each other at the wrong time.....i.e. you don't want mudd getting into your return pump area. If you want more pictures, I can send much closer up ones to help you. Let em know :yes:
big slick
Member
I didn't post any link to any competitor???? And if you are referring to my mention of Home Depot, or Lowes to have Plexiglass cut....then you can take that remark and stick it, because I have yet to find any LFS who has a plexiglass cutting tool in the back that customers can come in and cut, or have cut, their own fuge walls. I am just trying to help this guy further his tank, and I thought that is what this whole site is based on....help and discussion. I didn't try to sell anything, and I don't work for Lowes or Home Depot.....so from now on, I will refer to it as "LHS" (LOCAL HARDWARE STORE) I guess.
Peace.
Peace.
viper_930
Active Member
Originally posted by Big Slick
I didn't post any link to any competitor???? And if you are referring to my mention of Home Depot, or Lowes to have Plexiglass cut....then you can take that remark and stick it, because I have yet to find any LFS who has a plexiglass cutting tool in the back that customers can come in and cut, or have cut, their own fuge walls. I am just trying to help this guy further his tank, and I thought that is what this whole site is based on....help and discussion. I didn't try to sell anything, and I don't work for Lowes or Home Depot.....so from now on, I will refer to it as "LHS" (LOCAL HARDWARE STORE) I guess.
Peace.
He was talking to cheeto, not you, you didn't do anything wrong.
mmcheeto
Member
Yea I did. My post had a direct link to a competior. I didnt stop to think that I was posting a competitor and then rbmount showed me the error of my ways. :scared: . Anyways I haved worked with acrylic many times to build sumps and have used many configurations to do this. The best one I have used to date is with bubble trap walls and instead of using silicone we used a spacific acrylic glue that provides a cohesive bond instead of an adheasive. This creates a seamless desing. Like you find on some countertops foe the kitchen. The only catch is you must be skilled at making a clean cut on the acrylic. There is no more that 1/16 of an inch for error. Anyways . I could make a long post about alll this but I wont. cause this post is thred is done. Sorry again for posting a bad link.
