Acrylic question.

Does anyone locally do or know someone who does custom acrylic work? I am looking to possibly have a custom sump/fuge built to fit under my hex 35 tank. My only other option is to build a custom stand and use my old 10gal as the sump/fuge unless I can find a cheap/free 2ogal+ tank. The stand I can do myself but I have no experience working with acrylic.

 

Not that I know of.
I would suggest looking at craigslist, or just buying a tank. What kind of space you have to work with?

 

Not much room to work with. The stand is only about 18 inches from one of the walls to the other. A premade tank will not fit. Either way I will have to slightly tear down the tank and set it back up. My design for the stand is way over engineered, and contains more than enough room for a 30-50gal sump/fuge setup. I just would like to know how much the custom tank would cost before I decide which way to go.

 

I have only looked into it once, but I would expect at least a couple hundred bucks to have custom work done, and since it probably can't be done locally, add shipping to that.
I would honestly make a stand. Even if you get something custom done, those dimensions seriously limit your size, so it really wouldn't be all that worthwhile anyways IMHO. Or, set up the sump alongside the tank.

 

I would love to but my 4 year old would use it to climb. I have priced out the stand materials at about 30 bucks and I can get a used tank for under 100 if I work it right. Or buy a setup from CPR for about 200. So It might be worth doing. Thanks.

 

Make a sump/fuge. You can get a 20 gallon long tank for about 30-40 bucks brand new

 

$31 at petsmart

 

Yep, thats where I got mine

 

Ok decided to build my stand and custom alter a tank. what is a good general design for a sump/fuge? Recommendations on pumps. Going to buy a CPR HOT overflow. Total height of the tank is going to be about 4ft with at least 3-4 90's.

 

If it's not too late, I would go with an Eshopps overflow box. I know psiclone here just ditched his CPR for an Eshopps, and they are much better units. We cut power to the system at least 3 times, and it never flooded or lost siphon.
The speed of the overflow will determine the pump. You probably will go with the lowest rated overflow for that sized tank, too fast of water movement and the fuge will never be able to do it's job. You want the pump to be rated higher than the overflow, then you can throttle down the pump to match flow rates. A mag series pump would work well for a return pump. I would also highly suggest getting a PVC gate valve instead of a ball valve, as they are a lot more accurate and easier to dial in than the ball valves. But, they are not available locally and would need to be ordered.