Other materials for deviders in a sump?

Howdy reefers!

In my research I noticed that a lot of people are using an acrylic divider in there
Sump to create a Fuge or something else. Is this a hard fast rule? Could I use another material?

Say I took a 40 gallon tank and installed a divider to build a fuge. Could I cut pieces of plasic, say from a rubber made container instead of using acrylic?

Can anyone comment on why this is a good/bad idea?

Thanks for the help everyone!

 

Be careful. I know some plastics are porous. Acrylic is not.

 

It has to be pretty rigid, I doubt the Rubbermaid container pieces would be and you would have trouble fastening them in place. 1/4" glass or acrylic stays put with silicone.

 

I was thinking avbout a swheet if pvc from usplastics.com. Anyone done this before?

 

A small sheet of acrylic from Lowe's/HD will be cheaper than usplastics.com Plus, Lowe's/HD will cut the pieces to you specs for you...for free!

 

Agreed - I have gotten all of my sump pieces cut at lowes and never had a problem.

Acrylic is cheap and easy to work with.

I would not bother with the thin/flimsy rubbermaid plastic - especially in a 40 gallon sump.

The thick rubbermaid containers would be more expensive and more difficult to work with than having Lowes cut it for you.

 

But, make sure that you have EXACT dimensions for your cuts, and check them after the cuts...sometimes you run into people at Lowe's that hate their job, and don't really care about your project, so the cuts are a 1/4" off of what you specified, and you didn't think to check, because the 1-armed man that was behind the saw (ironic, I know) seemed capable...and you paid for the sheet, went home to discover the mis-cuts, and the "NO RETURN" policy for cut anything. Just a cautionary tale.

 

Acrylic is easy to cut, just score it using a straight edge and knife or scratch awl and it snaps clean. You can also use a router or table saw. I buy it in larger pieces and cut my own.

 

I feel like iv e been living in the dark ages! I didn't know lowes or HD would cut it for you! That helps a lot! Thanks for the info reefers!