Sump options for a 60 gallon

I have just purchased a 60 gallon tank to be used as a FOWLR. My stand dimensions are
50" wide
14.25" deep
30" high

My tank is not reef ready, and to be honest I am useless as a DIYer. I've never had a sump/refugium before, so I am fairly ignorant on the subject. I would like to, of course, add to my water volume, but is also want to avoid keeping all the equipment in my main tank.

Can you give me some ideas on what I should do and maybe a ball park on how much it will cost?
Thank you

 

Looks like a 20G Long tank would fit under there. They are 30x12x12. Are you planning on running a skimmer? If you are, divide the 20G into 3 sections. You can get glass cut at Lowes or other hardware stores. If you are running a skimmer figure out what the water height is supposed to be. Most give a range of say 9-11 inches. I would get 3 pieces of glass cut two at 10" high the other at 11" or 11.5". If you are planning on running a fuge then have a forth piece cut at 11" or so. Again if you are running a fuge, then put the skimmer on one side followed by the 3 pieces of glass. The 1st 10" pices goes all the way to the bottom, make sure you use aquarium safe silicon. Then put in the 11" or 11.5" piece. Leave about an inch gap between the 10" piece and the 11.5" piece. Also leave an inch gap between the the bottom of the 11.5" piece and the bottom of the aquarium. Then put in the other 10" piece, another 1" gap between the 11.5" piece and the 2nd 10" piece. So what you will have is a section of water where your skimmer will sit, then the water will flow over the 10" piece of glass, under the 11.5" piece of glass, then over the 2nd 10" piece of glass. the center section will be your return section. You heater and return pump will go in this section. Make sure it's big enough for the heater. Remember the water will evaporate from this section, so you will see the water get lower here. Then again if you are doing a refugium you will put the other piece of glass in to make a section for that. This is how I set mine up, and it's working great. If you google refugium/sump you will see lots of pictures of them. Cost is pretty cheap. You can get a 20G tank from craigslist for no more than 20 bucks or when petco does the dollar/gallon sale you can get it there. The glass is going to cost about $ 20 bucks or so. Then the silicon is about 8 bucks.

You next thing would be how to get the water from the display tank to the sump/fuge. I personally had my main tank drilled, then installed a bulk head. I think it cost about $25 to have the tank drilled. There are other methods, but I have never explored them.

Finally your plumbing, this will cost about 30-60 bucks. Depends if you do the fuge. I did and bought a gate valve to control the flow into the fuge.

Like I said google it, there are tons of ways of doing it. This way is just what I use.

 

Wow! Thank you!that was way more detailed and well explained than I expected. I'm not even that intimidated! Lol

I am going to do exactly as you described. Thanks again!

 

Hi Robyn, and welcome!

You won't be sorry if you drill the display tank...honest. There are DIY overflows made from PVC pipes (they work fine, but are gawd-awful ugly), and HOB overflows are only slightly less so, and have their own issues, depending on the type you get.

For a 60 gal, consider a center trapezoidal internal overflow box. Our 60 gal FOWLR has 3 returns...one at each corner, alternated thru a SCWD, and a single return that is plumbed thru the upper front wall of the overflow box. You can do the corner returns over the back of the tank if you like with "directional u-tubes".

I recommend using black thickwall hose and threaded connections to plumb the tank with. It's more forgiving, and makes repairs or changes a lot easier than with rigid PVC.

 

Greg, thank you for all the advice you have offered in the past day, you have been great, including your advice on LL. I am so excited about the potential for my tank. I was initially disappointed that I wouldn't be able to get a larger tank, but you really have been a huge help.
All that said, I am slightly stupid about sumps...I have no idea what you just said:-[ what's SCWD? And can somebody else drill my tank? Are there places that do that? Because I fear for anything that I personally alter :-/

 

I was a newbie and I took the plunge and drilled my own tank, it is not that hard and to be honest there are hundreds of videos out there. I would take a look at Glass-Holes.com dope aquarium stuff they have some nice kits, videos and sell the glass cutting bits you will need. It really is easy, a local fish store may drill the tank for you but honestly they will charge too much for the job.

 

Robyn,

You're most welcome. Yes, there are places that will drill your tank. You do need to find out if the tank is tempered (sometimes it's just the bottom), as you can't drill a tempered tank. I dunno how close you are to him, but if you can hook up with Al (one of the mods on LL), he's really great at DIY, and might be able to help you a lot. I'm pretty good at DIY and tank design, but I consider Al a craftsman at it.

A SCWD = Switching Current and Water Direction, which is a flow-powered flow alternator. We use these on just about every tank system we've designed, and they really work nicely, as long as your pump has of flow rate of >500 gph. What they are is a reliable, quiet, inexpensive way to mitgate constant laminar flow patterns in your tank.

One thing that helps a lot of folks is this little animation by Mel Levine on how a sump works:

HOW A SUMP WORKS

 

I've just been through all this myself. I have NOBODY around me to help, and I just had to take advice from here and youtube. Todd Sails on here is the go to guy for DIY sumps. He helped me start to finish. Here is a link to his DIY sump

http://www.3reef.com/forums/i-made/my-diy-sump-thread-140525.html#.UoON0-Ln36M

If you are not that handy just by a sump and then all you have to worry about is drilling your tank. Here's a link to a pre made sump. I ended up using a 32gal tub and doing it all on my own though. It's not difficult, If I can do it I'm sure you could as well.

http://www.eshopps.com/?page=RS_75