DIY Acrylic Sump

[sendo]

Hey Guys,

I am thinking about making a custom sump for my 45 cube. The dims will be

22" x 14" x 16"

It is going to be a simple sump with one are for the return and one large are for a skimmer. I also want to add holders for my ph probe and float switches.

I am probably going to use 1/4" thickness. Would I need a top brace on something this small? Any tips on building or sump design would be much appreciated as well.

 

[fishez4alivin]

I made mine out of 3/8" and no bowing it's been up for over a year. It's 24" tall, the baffles help brace the tank. I wish I went with either left to right, or right to left design, but I wanted more fuge volume, so I made the left side the fuge, and made the baffle tall, this was because how my existing plumbing was run on that tank. Center return kind of sucks, get micro bubbles sometimes from the skimmer output, even with three baffles in there. I'm sure that 1/4" with 1/4" baffles will be bulletproof...

 

[LordHelmet]

you wont need a center brace, i made a sump when i first started and had no center brace. the thing was solid for 4 years.

 

[sfsuphysics]

Great thing about sumps is any sort of baffles you put in them to make separate water chambers essentially become braces across the tank.

 

[konkers]

Sendo,
I'm also building a small sump. I've found http://www.melevsreef.com/allmysumps.html an invaluable resource. Here's my current design. It's only 12" tall. I'm probably going to bump that up to 14. Hanging on the side is a Aqua Force skimmer:

 

[houser]

Hey Sendo did you end up making one? I don't remember you mentioning it when we crossed paths that day. I've got all the tools in the shop in Martinez if you want to give it a go. Owe you one for those frags...