Home made sump?

[TheSaltySpitoon]

im Getting a 150 gallon tank and i want a sump canister but ones online are to expensive for my taste. So Someone suggested i could build my owned so How would i build my own sump? can someone explain how i would build my own sump. And also with a home made sump do i need a skimmer? Can someone link me a website that i could buy one online... i dont know where i would buy one so anyone help please.

 

[Varga]

of course you should build your own!!! you should build your own skimmer too.
just google DIY sump or DIY skimmer:tongue:

 

[tbittner]

It's pretty easy actually. Lots of folks use a 10 or 20 or 30 gallon or larger aquarium, silicon in some glass baffles, add an overflow to get the water from the tank to the sump and plumb in a pump to get the water back to the tank.

It really isn't that hard.

 

[framerguy]

Marc has a great site for DIY: melevsreef
You don't have to build one from scratch though. If you have an old smallish (20-40g) aquarium you can use that for a sump. It's just a place to house ugly equipment, add water volume, and such. You can add baffles easily but use the same material the tank is made of (acrylic with acrylic, glass with glass). You can also build your own skimmer but unless you are really good at DIY I would suggest buying a ASM G2 or G3 skimmer. Look at the sponsors page for vendors.

 

[boozeman]

You can find a lot of DIY sumpbuilding instructional videos on youtube

 

[CyberJester]

I am actually currently building my own sump/fuge. I decided to build mine out of acrylic because I can cut/bond to my specifications more easily then I could with glass. The following site I found had the best info for working with the acrylic.

DIY Acrylic Refugium - Saltwater Aquariums Guides' Extra

As to the design of the sump that is entirely up to you. Do you want a fuge on it? Do you want a compartment for a skimmer? What are the diminisions/volumn that you desire for your sump?

Look at the following links for design ideas. You may also want to go to sites that sell sumps or fuges and look at their designs then make the mods you want on yours and go build it.

Melevsreef.com | A simple sump project
OZ REEF - Sump
55 Gallon In Sump Refugium

Just a note. Do not be intimidated by any of this. This stuff is not hard to do. Bout the hardest thing I have found so far in this process is finding the Acrylic solvent cement and making my mind up on the final design.