DIY plywood sump ? will you guys tell me if this will work

[marinerules]

I have a 240 gallon Saltwater Tank that I would like to have a sump under

Problem a. , is is that there are doors every two feet down the front of the stand , with 4 upright 2x4 braces as well,

so getting a long tank in there for a sump is impossible, espeacially since I cannot access the ends of the stand because my tank and stand are between two walls.


This is what I have thought about doing and I am pretty much read to do it, but I want to see if you guys will think it will work or not first.

I thought about doing a plywood sump and buliding the frame actually under my stand piece by piece, I was thinking about the dimensions being 96 long x 18 wide x 12 tall , I dont know how many gallons that would be but.

I know I cant fit taht long of boards under my stand but I can piece it together and have a double overlapping pattern for the length of the frame of the plywood tank,

then get MDF , or plywood board, for the insides and get 2-3 really thick pool liners,


Would this idea work , or woudl I be having leaks in the long run

I wouldnt mind doing a plywood tank and actually sealing the wood with epoxy and such , but ive never done it and I'm afraid I wouldnt do a good job

please give your adivce or your opinons because I would really like to get my sump hooked up asap. ,

I was planning on having in the sump just foam for the drains to go through , th en haivng maybe one spot in the sump for macroalgae to grow

[marinerules]

15 views and no replies ,so Im taking that it wont work lol


I know I can do the plywood thing if I do epoxy and stuff , but ive yet to come across a site with vivid details on what products to get ect.

and I cant use the search function because im not a paid subscriber

but I though if the pool liner thing would work that I could save some money

[pugmommie]

but won't a pool liner be expensive?

[marinerules]

oh im not sure, Ive not checked into the prices on that lol , probably so

i wouldnt mind going with the epoxy idea,

if someone wouldu tell me what kind to get and where to get it

the only thing is is that since its gong to be so long and because of my doors, its pretty much going to be pieces 3-4 feet long , so there would be several seams

[pugmommie]

maybe you could put 2 or 3 small sumps under your tank and attach them with bulkheads. The wood thing just seems kinda funky to me!

[marinerules]

pugmommie , i thought out this to , but I haven't the smallest ideal on how to drill holes in a tank. and im wanting around 60 or 80 gallon sump

what size bulkheads would I need to make sure that it never overflows

[a1amap]

A good site to get information and plywood cuts is garf.org. They have everything listed for your project listed. However they list two brands of paint to use that is non toxic but I could not get either company to have it in a small qty.
AL

[pugmommie]

I not sure about sizing of bulkheads etc. I let my husband worry about that. When our 120 gal comes in we are going to put the sump/fuge in the garage and partition of a room for it so we can make it as big as we want. I think I'll even set up a QT tank in the sump room. I've never had one before, but if I'm upgrading from 30 to 120gal I might as well go all out!

[polcat_4u]

Three 20 gallon glass aquariums (23"x 12" x 16" H) might work well. You could use each as a chamber: skimmer, return,fuge...
connecting with bulkheads should work fine, maybe 1 1/2" . Possibly put the BH's close to the bottoms as water will seek the lowest level and won't overflow a particular chamber, well...all things being equal.

I think the plywood will be problematic for you. Trying to assemble it under the tank is gonna be a PIA. If you are gonna go through all that hassle you might as well build it out of acrylic under the stand. You could slide the cut pieces through the uprights and glue it in place, add some bracing and call it a day. The arcrylic will flex a little so I beleive it would fit through the openings provided the overall length of the sump is about two feet shorter than the stand???

Just trying to give you some other ideas.

[mulefan101]

Three 20 gallon glass aquariums (23"x 12" x 16" H) might work well. You could use each as a chamber: skimmer, return,fuge...
connecting with bulkheads should work fine, maybe 1 1/2" . Possibly put the BH's close to the bottoms as water will seek the lowest level and won't overflow a particular chamber, well...all things being equal.



you could use a wier overflow in stead of bulkheads no glass drilling !

[douggiestyle]

you have a good plan using a liner. my buddy did the same but it was 12'x12'. he was going to make it a shark tank but tore it down in the end. he used pond liner. so i dont see why you would have any problems. use pond liner. you should only need one thickness. btw my buddies used pond liner went to good use. i built a pond in the front yard. i bought his pond liner and his mag 7 for $50.

[otisbrown]

For epoxy you can use west systems. http://www.westsystem.com/
they have plenty of information to help you figure what kind of hardner to use as well as a store locator.

[dattack]

Can you just build the sump in the stand using acrylic? Although you might not to be to route the edges, it should still hold water.

[slandis3]

I dont think pool liner will hold up as well as pond liner. I beliove pond liner is more of a rubber material and pool liner is vinall (sp?) I know pool liners get hard and brittle over time. You might want to check into this

[marinerules]

I dont want to mess with acrylic, but I may go the 3 20 gallon tanks idea , or the pond liner, im not sure lol , Guess I will wait on it

[douggiestyle]

you can also use thin acrylic. you build a plywood tank. then have cheapo 1/8" acrylic cut to fit the inside of the plywwod tank. all you do is siliconbe them together. in other words your acrylic is the liner. cheap, easy and its been done before.

[rugar20]

You might look at those pond liners they are not that expensive look at the hardware stores i bought one last year that was 140 gallon liner and it came with a submerssible pump for around 60 dollars you could always build a wood box to hold one of these liners

[BrainBandAid]

If you do decide to go the plywood/epoxy route, here's the stuff I used. Watergard 300
Where to buy it
Everything I've read says to use an epoxy with 0% Volatile organic compounds (VOC). The West stuff has around .4 to .5 lbs per gallon, depending on the hardener. I know people have used it before with success, but I'm a little more paranoid. This is the type of epoxy they use to line potable water tanks and such.
And the construction is a lot more forgiving than some other methods. Believe me, it'd be hard to really mess it up... Can you paint?

After shipping it was about $100 for the 3 quart kit (makes about a gallon of finished epoxy) which is comparable to the West stuff.

I had a hard time finding this kind of stuff, too.

[A.T.DAWG]

ok im going to try to explain this as best i can, but i saw a guy on here,dont remember who or where and my search button never works,but he built like supports so he could take apart the front of his stand to put a sump down there, this was a 125 and i dont even know if you could do that on your 240, it could be something to look into though

HTH
Andrew

[kweidner1]

local glass shop would drill those holes for about 10 dollars each. my opinion is that it would be the most permanent less risky option. Three 20's at around 35 dollars and 40 dollars worth of holes.....that's as mush as you would have in a good 65 gallon easy. Three different areas would rock. If you consider the amout of cash you have in a 240, I wouldn't start skimping on a sump. Anything to make thousands of dollars worth of livestock more stable is worth it. I don't think you would be happy if you skimped in the long run. JMHO

[integrus]

instead of using a pool liner, you can use a tile shower liner. it is 40 mil pvc and comes in 5' wide by as long as you need it. it runs about 5-6 dollars a linear ft. and can be bought at home depot or lowes.
good luck

[BeanAnimal]

You do not want to mess with acrylic... but to be honest by the time you cut and finish or line the plywood, the cost and time involved will be about the same.

Even an acrylic newbie can do build an acrylic sump that will hold up. Why bothewr with the plywood and epoxy or trying to manage stuffing a liner in there and then sealing bulkheads into it...

Bean

[DrHank]

I've been using 3 - 10 gallon tanks linked together with 2" PVC "U" tubes behind my 110 and it works great. The 20's should work well for you if you choose to go that route. It also gives you a lot of options as far as configuration is concerned.

[JimW]

Have used pond liner before (double thickness), and wouldn't recommend it. Tube worms eventually grow on equipment in the sump and the first time you move something in the sump, you will have tiny pin holes in the liner.

FWIW,
Jim

[BeanAnimal]

With the u-tubes you always run the risk of a catastrophic failure due to siphon loss. I know people use them and do so with success... but if it can be avoided, then it should be.