Page 1 of 1

Acrylic Sump

Posted: Wed Jan 20, 2010 4:52 am
by strout
I am in need of a new sump for my tank. I want, just a guess here, around a 60g sump. Anybody know of anyone who works with acrylic in our area. I am wanting an all in one sump if I can find one at a decent price.

Re: Acrylic Sump

Posted: Sat Jan 23, 2010 2:45 am
by rkelley_10
A friend of a friend here owns an acrylic shop. He's offered to do some work for me In the cheapish range. I'll take a generic sump design to him and get a rough estimate if you'd like.

Re: Acrylic Sump

Posted: Sat Jan 23, 2010 3:04 am
by strout
What I want is a tank about 4 ft long, I am going to guess on the width here, say 15 inches wide, I would have to measure that before ordering and I am not real sure on the height yet also. I want a skimmer section on the left side then a baffle set up that goes into the return section and a refugium section on the right side. I want it made out of 3/8 inch closed cell acrylic, I read on line you have to use closed cell acrylic, lol. Anyway, if your friend dosn't want to mess with it, ask him if I gave him the sizes would he cut the pieces for me so that I could make it myself, I would rather him make it for me though, lol. Ask him if he could make me a 25x25x22 cube tank also, lol. :D

Re: Acrylic Sump

Posted: Sat Jan 23, 2010 5:46 am
by strout
Let me get you to ask your friend one other thing: I told you I wanted a 48 inch sump, what I really want is a 54 inch long sump, he may not do a 54 inch but see what he says when you ask him that. I will take a 48 inch though. I know it wont be cheap, but ifs its made good, I don't mind paying. 8)

Re: Acrylic Sump

Posted: Mon Jan 25, 2010 7:34 pm
by strout
Well, I was off today and got on the phone and fould someone that is willing to make the sump for me, and they are located in Mobile :D . The name of the company is AFM Plastics 933 Lakeside Dr. Anyone heard of this company?
Anyway this is what I want to have made, your thoughts on this would help

Will be made of 3/8" closed cell acrylic , he is just waiting for me to fax him the plans so that he can get me a quote on the price. LOL I need help with the plans. What I need is the height the divider panels in the sump need to be and the size of each chamber in the sump and your thoughts on how this sump will work and if I need to do something differant. I am planning on buying this skimmer

Octopus Extreme 350 Protein Skimmer - English

Foot print is 13"x 17" and needs to set in 8 to 10"s of water

The sump will have four chambers: left to right, skimmer section, return section, live rock chamber, refugium chamber. I was planning on putting a baffle chamber set up between the skimmer section and the return section. I have the room for a 52" long sump and I was thinking about making the sump around 22" tall. The man making the sump told me I could save a good amount of money if I just went with a 48" long sump as I could most likely get the sump made with one sheet of acrylic. Anyway, I don't know how tall to make the chamber walls for either the bubble trap or the chamber walls for the LR and refugium chambers. Anyway, I need some input and your thoughts on this plan.

Re: Acrylic Sump

Posted: Mon Jan 25, 2010 9:44 pm
by Amphiprion
Options are pretty wide open. My suggestion is to get a little design program (google makes a good free one) and start charting it out conceptually. You already know you want ~8" in the skimmer chamber, so make the baffle around the same height. In any case, go ahead and make up some plans and we can go from there. It'll be good to submit a print of the final plan (via a program) to the acrylic manufacturers.

Re: Acrylic Sump

Posted: Sat Jan 30, 2010 8:55 pm
by strout
Just an update, I down loaded Goggle Sketch Up 7 , and have the plans finished, I couldn't figure out how to get the size measurements onto the drawings, I also couldn't figure out how I could get the drawings posted here or to even get them to print on my printer. I will try and get over to Office Depot next week and see if they have some software that might work. If anyone knows how to get these drawings to print on my printer, I would really like to know, lol. It seems like after you have the drawings saved into your puter, when you go to look at them again, you have to go thru Goggle Sketch up to bring them up again. Anyway it was fun playing with the program, I also drew the plans for my new stand and tank .

Re: Acrylic Sump

Posted: Sat Jan 30, 2010 9:38 pm
by Scott
If you have a computer running Linux or a flash drive that you can run Linux from there are several CAD programs that you could use. I know Ubuntu has a couple as any Debian based distro should have.