40gal long sump build

so i had taken apart a 55gal tank that a friend found on the side of the road. i used one of the front panels for a glass piece on my plywood bearded dragon cage, and i had the other sheets there stacked up. i decided to take a stab at cutting my own glass. the 12"x18" side panels would do perfect for my 16" tall baffle i needed for the refugium section. rather than wait for the glass place to get back to me i decided to google search on how to cut glass. i found this great article which lead me to the proper tools i needed. thankfully my family has a long history of carpenters so i have a plethora of tools. my grandfathers tool chest yielded a small cutting tool for glass. this link helped me get the pliers and such together: How to cut glass

i then scored the glass, and put pressure on the side i wanted to break off. nearly 90% of the piece cracked perfect straight down the scored line. only a few fragments remained which i chiped away with another pair of pliers. all in all a success!

i now have my baffle which i will silicone in when im done cleansing this 40gal tank. (been busy with some school related things)

i also found enough plexi leftover to make my 9"x12" baffles for the skimmer/sump section. ill post pictures tomorrow of my endeavor. im quite tired now, and going to sleep.

 

My LFS told me to avoid Silicone II as it is not for marine use.
They recommended Silicone I instead - also 100% silicone but
it is free of algaecide/fungicide so it will not poison your tank.

 

Seriously? Hrmm... well here are the pics of the sump build...

of course i had company from my cat. always wondering what im up to

 

tested for leaks.. none. ran a pump in circulation on there and its fine. used a 18" T8 lamp (24" hooded fixture that spans the whole right chamber) for the refugium chamber. works well. has a 6500K Full Spectrum bulb in it at the moment.

the fuge will be 20gal

im waiting on a call back from a local glass shop to get the hole drilled in the return chamber section for the 1" bulkhead for the return pump.

 

well its all working fine, the baffles that is. got a call back from my local glass shop (LGS? ) and im going there as soon as i figure out if its tempered glass. I dont want to make an appointment, show up, have them drill it and shatter the thing.

So im trying to figure out if this thing is drillable. If its not I am going to be unhappy heh

 

So the only resivoir room you have is your skimmer section since the fuge is to the top. That can still be enough, buy you are going to have to make sure that is enough room for when your return pump is off. You will have to minimize what drains back.

Looks really good. Bet you are stoked. I was.

Next off.... how are you going to have your drain entering the fuge? The Herbie has no air, so that is good. You can just dump it in, or make a spray bar to scoot it across the surface to tumbble the cheato. I actually have a little corner chamber and the water flows out at the bottom. Not saying that is cool,it's just what came with it. Point is you don't want the sand bed stirred up.

I run my return section to the top of the skimmer baffle. So it just enters the return section from the skimmer section, it does not fall and cause any bubble. Set your ATO to that level so it keeps as much water as possible and minimizes the fall from the fuge.

 

yeah i determined that i have 7.5gal of volume available. the return nozzles will be within the top inch and a half of water which equated to 7.48gal so i will be alright i believe.

i do intend on using a herbie setup. and i was working on figuring out how to get the chaeto tumbling.

will do thanks for the input

 

OK.... cutting it a little close!;D

I have thought about changing mine, but it isn't really pressing. What I have seem most do that want to tumbble the cheato is to put a lip or pane of glass across the top of the fuge. So your line would come downput it through a spray bar or something directed at the pane, and it will redirect it across the top of the fuge.

My cheato actually sits on the sand. I turn it over everynow and then and don't let diatoms grow over it and fill it with bubbles. So mine does not even float.

Sure thing.

 

went to home depot and picked up some plumbers putty. they were out of anything less than 5lbs sadly. i received a drill bit from a fellow 3 reef member and took a crack, no pun intended, at drilling a piece of glass i had from the 55gal i tore apart. success!

i used 5w-30 synthetic motor oil for lube. at no time did the bit get hot. took me ~6 minutes to cut through 1/4" pane. i was so scared of cracking the glass.

then came the actual tank drilling which took me 30 minutes because i went so SLOW. perfect cut, drill bit not warm, cleaned up the motor oil, and installed the bulkhead.

threw on some plumbing temporarily to seal off the bulkhead as i dont have my return pump yet.

 

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