Acrylic fun...

[inkto]

So I'm taking the week off and what better to do than play in the shop... right? Today and tomorrow will be sump building days with a sheet of 3/8" acrylic I picked up a while ago.

Total dims will be a little smaller than 23x19x23 and it comes in just under 40 gallons. It's a goofy size for a sump but I only wanted to use half the cabinet and have half left for equipment.

The first project of the day was a pico tank 7.5" cube out of scrap so I could get the hang of the process and make all my mistakes for the day And.. uh, I did. Enough said. :)

http://mysite.verizon.net/bjmartin14/sump/100_1716e.jpg

So I took the lessons learned and tackled the sump:

http://mysite.verizon.net/bjmartin14/sump/100_1714e.jpg


Pretty basic setup that you've probably seen before. I roughed out all the pieces on the table saw and trimmed to size on the router table. I used Weld-on 4 and the pins I'm using are out of .015 spring steel as it was the only thing I could find today. It's a little on the large side and makes for a somewhat sloppy joint. .008-.010 would have been nice.

http://mysite.verizon.net/bjmartin14/sump/100_1715e.jpg


I'll post more as it comes together. I have to machine the top and attach the top and bottom tomorrow.

Thanks to James for all the info he's posted in the past... I used a lot of it.

Ben

[R-3]

Looks good so far. Yeah I got a ton of acrylic scraps at the meeting from James that are gonna be put to use soon. I need to build another sump for my 75. I dont like my first design i made. Keep up the good work. Nice Pico. Later Ryan

[inkto]

I finished up the sump finally this weekend... I knew it would be a strange size for a sump but it really hit home when I got it assembled. Since I only want to use half the cabinet for the sump I have to utilize the height available to add volume. Total volume ~38gal.

The drain line will split into the back left drain zone and the slow flow fuge in the back right... flow goes through a bubble trap with extra wide spacing to slow flow (since it's only 6" wide) and through a 3/4" bulkhead out of the fuge into the return zone. The return zone is designed to hold about 7 gallons to make a quick 5 gal water change easy by diverting the return pump to a drain or bucket. A 10% water change will be possible by draining the return zone and the drain zone. All in all there should be about 10 gal. of empty space to easily handle any power failure situations. Lets hope it works :)

All in all it was a fun project but I definitely need to work on my acrylic skills... half the joints look good but I'm not showing pics of the other half DOH!

All I can say is... you're the man James... (icon)

http://mysite.verizon.net/bjmartin14/sump/100_1719.jpg

[nu2reef-n]

Very nice.
Looks like a professional job from where I'm sitting.

[inkto]

That's because of the strategic camera angle. :) But thanks.

[nu2reef-n]

I'm going to need some help with an overflow on a 150 gal.
Would you be interested in lending a hand?
I don't have a lot of money(because I own a reef tank),but I'm sure we could come to some kind of agreement.(Corals,Cash or Gas):P

[inkto]

I'm sure we can work somthing out.

[H20cooled]

Ben,
Looks good!

[Nyles]

nice design

[Barelycuda]

That is a very nice looking sump. Nothing better than saying you built it yourself.:D

Cuda

[inkto]

Thanks! But the best part is it fits where I need it to and does what I want it to. :) It was a good primer on working with acrylic, too. I'd like to do some more in the future.

[Chief]

Nice job. I have some acrylic in the garage right now that I am trying to decide what to do with it. I am thinking about a frag tank or a QT tank right now. Or I could do a second chamber to my calcium reactor. It will be fun when I can get around to it.

Jay

[acrylics]

All looks *very* familiar, glad it helped :)

James