Please Help me build my SUMP / how thk should it be...

[rikacarl]

OK. I am going to build my first acrylic box that will hopefully hold water. I have worked a bit with acrylic before. I have glued and cut it, but I have never tried to make a water tight box. So here are the approx. deminsions: 21x17x17" with a divider wall going across at 15" on the long side.

How thick should the material be? is 3/16" to thin ?

How should I arrange the joints, should I do butt joints on all sides and then make the bottom piece small enough to fit inside the walls... or should I set the walls on top of the bottom piece. Does that make any sense? :?

I was going to use the inside of my hood project (90* open book) to support the pieces while I glue the edges. Is there an easier / better way to glue it? I was going to use a hypo applicater and let the cement "suck" into the joints.

Thank you Thank you thank you in advance. I need support and I need to get this reef tank started soon. Wife is starting to wonder how long the house is going to be devoted to aquariums. (there is a 100 gallon holding tank across from this project until the corals can be transferred, which takes up the entire family room!)

-carl

 

[lemonyx]

hi there,

i think 3/16 is too thin amd maybe 3/8 would be better. you could go woth 1/4" and make sure that you put a piece around the entire top for a little more strength, your edges should be flat and smooth as possible.

the sides should lay on top of the bottom.

after you have all of the pieces cut, just assemble, dry and use masking tape to hold it together, check for wide gaps. some guys lay pins down inbetween the joints and pull them out after the area has softend up from the glue.
for the wide gaps, use #16, i use #4 cause i'm a little slow with the joints.

hth 8O 8O

 

[chance_11]

rikacarl,

I just built a sump/regufium combo. I used 3/8, and that's what I would recommend for you. It gives you more surface area to join. If you use the #3 I don't think it will have the same strength, and may come apart. I would have 1 big piece for the bottom.

I put together a webpage, and it details out how I built my sump. Take a look it will help you. I don't think HTML is on for me, so you may have to cut and past the url:

http://home1.gte.net/res0hn3n/

Sam

 

[chance_11]

rikacarl,

I just built a sump/regufium combo. I used 3/8, and that's what I would recommend for you. It gives you more surface area to join. If you use the #3 I don't think it will have the same strength, and may come apart. I would have 1 big piece for the bottom.

I put together a webpage, and it details out how I built my sump. Take a look it will help you. I don't think HTML is on for me, so you may have to cut and past the url:

http://home1.gte.net/res0hn3n/

Sam

 

[rikacarl]

Thanks Sam for making that cool website. Too bad I didn't see it until after I made my sump! I used 1/4 and I bet I should have used 3/8 ! I just finished it a few hours ago. Oh well... I guess I will use some reinforcement pieces around the top. I found it was a bit off square when I went to glue the bottom, but overall it went well. The long sides do bow just a bit with hand pressure. After I glue in some reinforcements, I will fill it up.

On the west coast we have TAP plastics. I had them cut the pieces for me. 21x17x17 box with two divider walls cost was $85. They also gave me a cool little book about working with Acrylite.

When I am done I will try to post some pics.

 

[chance_11]

Carl,

No problem. Reefcentral has an incredble topic on working with acrylic. Lots of information. Look under the DIY section for Acrylic. Here's a link:

http://reefcentral.com/vbulletin/showth ... adid=96763

One of the things Acrylicman says is to let the acrylic sit before adding water. He says you get less crazing (small cracks around joints) if the tank sits for a month or two before use. In your case you might want to wait a week or so before putting the sump into service.

Sorry it was too late, but maybe this will help others reading this. Let me know if anything on my DIY sump section didn't make sense. I would like to update it so it's useful. I hope everything works out for you.

Sam