Building my sump

[captexas]

I have been accumulating equipment and working on my 75g tank, stand, and canopy for some time now hoping to transfer the residents of my 58g over to it sometime in the near future. The one thing I was lacking was the sump and I had been working on different designs for awhile now. After some frustration, I realized I couldn't put a decent sized sump under the tank in the stand so I decided to go with a remote sump with a built in refugium.
After playing with different ideas, I decided to go with a 36in. long by 24in. wide by 20in. tall acrylic sump that would house the refugium and my skimmer. I have never done any acrylic work, but have done some research on RC about it and wanted to give it a try. I could have paid someone else to make it for me, but I really couldn't afford it after already spending too much and my tanks as it is!
Today I finally went to get some prices over at Allied Plastic Supply, aka Plastic Depot, off of IH35 just north of Rittiman Rd. After getting a quick estimate I decided to go for it. They were able to cut the pieces I needed while I waited which was nice. Total of twelve 1/4in. acrylic pieces, Weldon 4, and applicator came to $117.96. The pieces included top, bottom, 4 sides, 3 partitions, and 3 over/under pieces. Plus I snagged a piece of scrap from the dumpster to practice with and use for adding a float switch for top off.
I first tried the "pins" method, but found that to be difficult with the 1/4in. material. Probably work better with 3/8in. or thicker. While not the prefered method, I ended up just leaning the pieces while applying the WO 4 and then leaning the piece back after waiting a few seconds. It was so hot out today, it didn't take long to take hold. I used four corner braces to hold the pieces in place. While they are $8 each at Home Depot, these braces have been great for building my two canopies and this sump. I was able to get everything put together this afternoon! Have to give it a few days to cure before water testing it. Some say to wait a few weeks as the Weldon bond can acutally take awhile to fully cure. I'll try to post a few pics if I can.

Chris :grin:

[Creative210]

Cool Chris. Good luck, and I hope everything works out in the end.

[matt]

Chris;

If it's extruded acrylic, you probably got enough solvent in there without the pins. Look for bubbles on the seams, especially between the bottom and sides/back/front; if there are none, you got a good joint. If it does end up leaking in spots, you can fix it with weldon #40. Hopefully you won't need to, but if so, I'll talk you through it. Don't bother trying to use weldon #16 to fix anything; that stuff is basically useless for watertight seams.

Matt

[matt]

#16 is just the same solvent as #3 and #4, but with acrylic resin mixed in to thicken it. You could take acrylic shavings from a saw or router cut, dissolve them in #3, and I think you'd have basically the same thing. Because of this, it doesn't really bond well, dries too fast, and there are always bubbles in it. (It fills in gaps okay, but isn't as strong)#40 is a 2 part polimerizing cement which is much stronger and flows better into gaps. It's thick like #16, but has much better (slower) drying/evaporation properties. My new sump idea involves routing a groove in the bottom and seating the sides/front/back in a bead of #40. Since I have to pull my sump out soon to plumb for the skimmer and auto top-off, I'm really considering just building a new one and selling the one that's in there now. That way I can try out the new idea on myself, just like that guy in "the fly"

[captexas]

Matt - Thanks for the input on your experiences with the different Weldons. I did use extruded as I figured it would be fine for a sump. I am eager to water test it, but I know I should wait awhile to give it more time to cure.

I took a pic or two while I was building it, but the pics are too large to post on here! So I just snapped two using the lowest quality setting on my camera. Hopefully they look alright. :roll:

[MikeP]

That looks great Chris! The only thing keeping me from fiddling with acrylic more is lacking a way to cut it properly, maybe I'll do the same thing and have the plastics place cut it for me.

[matt]

Chris;

Looks good; I don't have a clear idea of how the flow goes, maybe you can explain it with a diagram when you have time. As far as using extruded, I built a sump out of extruded and it worked fine for the several months I used it, but did bow quite a bit. The issue is longevity; a well made cast sump will probably never leak or fail, where as an extruded one might start to leak after some time. If yours does, just build another one out of cast. Lots of commercial places use extruded, so I don't think it's like, one drop too much of water and you get a flood.

Matt

[captexas]

Here's a pic of some plumbing work I did today. Everything is just dry fitted for now. I need to order a couple of fittings before I will glue everything together.

[captexas]

Matt -
The front and back walls do flex alittle now, but I think that is because they are 1/4in, not because it is extruded acrylic. I think once I get the top for it cut out and attached, I think it will be fine. Especially with the two front to back partitions.

As far as the water flow goes, there is a 2in. drain line that will come from the tank and connect to the white handled ball valve in the pic above. The water then passed through a Y with one end reduced to 1/2in. The 2in. output goes to the drain section of the sump and the 1/2in. output goes through another ball valve to regulate flow and then through the side of the sump and into the refugium area. The pipe in the fuge is drilled to serve as a spray bar to circulate water all the way through that section.
Water that dumps into the main drain area (first section on right) will then pass through an underwater opening into the skimmer section. This was done to allow the air bubbles from the drain line to rise to the surface without going through the rest of the sump. The skimmer return line will dump back into the first section so some water will be reskimmed. From the skimmer section, water overflows a 6in. wide section of wall and then travels through the over/under partitions to the water return area. I am probably going to have to 3/4in. bulkheads with strainers going from the fuge draining into this section so fuge water is not skimmed. I'm going to have a 1 1/2in. bulkhead for water to go to a Dolphin Ampmaster 2100 return pump.

Rough measurements are:
Drain area - 6" x 24"
Skimmer area - 10" x 24"
Refugium area - 19" x 18"
Overall sump - 24"wide x 36"long x 20"tall

Hope everyone can follow that, if I could figure a way to draw a diagram I would. I have a nice drawing on an old CADD program that I use, but it doesn't interface with anyother software due to it's age!

[captexas]

Well I finally got in the last few bulkheads I needed to install for the return pump connection and the drainage from the fuge to the sump return. I routered all the corners last week and it looks pretty good.

This evening I finally took the sump outside and did a water test on it. I have a few leaks which I guess was to be expected as this is my first acrylic project.

Matt - I am going to see if I can find some Weldon #40 to help fix those joints. Does it need to be applied just as the #4 or is there anything special that needs to be done to make sure it works correctly?

Thanks!
Chris

[captexas]

I just used a regular router with a round-over bit in it. Nothing fancy. I used some real aluminum duct tape to protect the acrylic where the router would be moving across. I just took my time and went over the joints atleast two or three times with the routher to make them smooth. I'm sure Matt can probably give a better method with what he has learned through the MACO classes.

[A-22]

What stores sell WO #40?

[captexas]

A-22 -
I ordered mine from craftics.com. They are much cheaper. I got my acrylic at Allied Plastic Supply off of IH35 and Rittiman, but they only carry Weld-On #4 and #3.