Anyone make their own sump?

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#1
I am just not happy with sump options for my waterbox 220.6 so I am considering making my own. I was thinking of using the PVC board and adding in some acrylic windows to view skimmer level and return pump chamber. I like the PVC board option as it seems easier to keep clean and it has shown to stand up to salt water. It also is much less of a cost then acrylic, and I think it looks cooler. I have access to the tools, but I have never made a sump before. ; but it doesn't look to tough.

Have any of you guys tried it? Any advice?

My reason for wanting to DIY it is really to add a larger refugium section with a light that won't spill onto other equipment, and well what is the point of having all the tools if you don't play with them.
 

SBreef

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Oct 16, 2014
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#2
I used a baffle kit from Fiji Cube. You can make the chambers however big you want.

If I had to do over I would pick buy a different kit. I had nothing but problems with Fiji Cube (multiple broken pieces, multiple times) and their customer service sucks.

There is someone off eBay that has good kits. They look nicer than the Fiji Cube kits and the same price.
 
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#3
Acrylic dies not bond well to PVC. Even the pros have trouble with it sometimes. For your first build I would stick to one or the other. You can get acrylic that is assorted colors or even paint it for light control.
 

Hutch

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#4
I am doing a sump mod and I think it’s pretty straight forward. If your local to southern OC I have some sheets of used PC 1/4” that I have built ATO tanks out of I could rip to size. It cuts pretty well with a plastic saw blade but that was 70 bucks for the cheap one off Amazon if you wanted to cut it yourself. So you could pick up a used glass aquarium for the price of the blade. I glued the PC together with the acrylic glue and then just ran a bead of aquarium safe RTV and they seem to be pretty damn tough. If you compare PMMA to PC the spec sheets tend to tell the story of toughness. For the internal baffles I am cutting the pieces out of PMMA and a laser cutter at work. I wanted my own design and my glass tank happed to be a random 36 gallon tank that I have no idea who made… either way if you have a dream and can sketch I could cut your baffles for you.. I will post some pics of my latest design.



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