Does this sound fair? Custom Sump from lfs

[R Baxley]

My lfs says they will make me a custom sump (@20g) for $100. I am setting up a 65g tank, and was going to make my own. After purchasing a 20g tank, or acrylic to make one, i don't know if it will be worth it! What do you all think?

Oh yeah, I saw one he was making and it looked pretty nice. Not a hack job or anything.

[cacplkings]

Sounds extremely fair if its a nicely built unit. My 30g EF-180 ran me $200. and the smaller 20g they were selling right next to it was $170.

Chris

[jefurse]

Buy a 20 gal. tank and some acrylic from a plastics store. Use silicone to glue in the acrylic and I know that you can build one for a lot cheaper. do a search for DIY sumps, there's lots of plans out there.

[gas4544]

If you want some holes drilled for bulkheads, then an acrylic sump is the way to go. You can also have them build it to your exact dimensions instead of buying a glass tank and making it work. That's not a bad price, by the way.

[Mako]

Not a bad price, but you could make it for less. Plastic shops always sell scrap acrylic by the pound and you could easily find the acrylic you need for this sump for less than $35 (glue included). Your choice. This stuff is pretty easy to work with and the shop you buy the acrylic from will make the cuts you need for next to nothing. I would DIY and save the change for something else. It's a sump so it doesn't have to be pretty and it will give you good experience for down the road.

[R Baxley]

^

[beach]

can somebody save me 10 trips to the hardware store and give me and others a simplified drawing of a below tank refugium.thanks beach

[Mr James]

I ordered a 33g glass tank from my LFS and used GE Silicone to place my own glass baffles in. Total cost was around $70.00. Do a search on the DIY page and look at all of the designs out there. My refugium turned out pretty good in my opinion!?!