10 gallon sump filter plans needed

[matfish]

any one know of a link on plans for a 10 gallon sump without drilling or a company that has a kit?

[billyr98]

just get some glass cut for some baffles... thats all you need...

like this

[deaclauderdale]

I used billy's idea and it worked great. You can find the glass at Homedepot.

[billyr98]

Karma for using my idea ~~~

[deaclauderdale]

Karma for the willingness to share!

[boardsk8]

so whats the deal with the baffles? is there a set distance apart they should be? a certain height? is there a magic number of them? what exactly is the purpose of them?

[rDr4g0n]

well i just used a single sheet of glass to form each of 3 compartments.





baffles on the other hand, use 3 sheets of glass instead of 1. their purpose is to force the water to go through a kinda maze. this way the bubbles stay up, while the water goes down. the result is that bubbles dont get from one side to the other. this also reduces the amount of 'heavy' debris (like sand) that can get across the baffles.

bubbles are formed by lots of water agitation (fast flowing water from your overflow or lots of water moving through a filter), or by protein skimmer bubbles getting into the sump. you wanna keep these out because once they hit your return pump, they get shredded into micro bubbles and get in your display tank and mess up your pretty, clear water.

i didnt put baffles in my sump to save money and time, but in retrospect, its a good idea to have them in there. about 1 inch spacing is what ive read everywhere.

as for your 10 gallon sump, lemme tell ya something i learned with mine. 10 gallons is small. try to get something bigger if you can. otherwise, dont try to fit a fuge in the sump too. divide it into 2 or 3 compartments, and be sure the return pump compartment is pretty big. this is where the water level for teh whole system will fluctuate based on water loss through evaporation. the bigger the compartment, the easy it is to handle the fluctuation.

in my tiny little return pump compartment, any little water fluctuation moves the water level inches at a time. its really hard and annoying to deal with that.

the easiest solution is to buy the sheets of glass at home depot, and let them cut it to the right size. also buy some aquarium silicone (get clear stuff, not white. white looks messy). you can use non "aquarium" silicone, but you gotta be sure to get stuff that doesnt include poisons that prevent mold and stuff from forming. i used "GE silicone I" for doors and windows. do NOT get the bathroom kind of silicone. glue in the baffles. youll need to find a way to hold the baffles in place while the glue dries. this particular part annoyed the crap outta me. thats why my glue looks like crap.

a trick ive read but havent tried, is to lay down strips of masking tape about .5in to an inch outside of where your glass will be glued. you can gob the glue on, smear it in place with your hands and let it dry. when its dry, peel that tape off and you have a perfect straight line with the glue!

let it dry for a day, and youre ready to go!

[BrothaWolf]

Cant really help you design a proper sump unless we know what you want it to do... fuge, skimmer, bioballs, reactors etc and what you will be keeping in the tank FOWLR, reef etc
More info please

[rDr4g0n]

oh ya sump design... the point of the thread!

[boardsk8]

well i am gonna do a reef, with a skimmer. thats about all i know. what recomendations are there for filter media? i am planing on making a sump then attaching it to a fuge through baffles, so two tanks. not 100% on the size yet. i am planing on trying out the weldon this weekend on some scrap acrylic. Isnt there different #s for it? wich is better? does anyone know what TSC hardware stores are? think they would have it? (i have a gift card) lastly is it not good to have the same water flow go through your fuge like the one in the pic? ^^^

[boardsk8]

oh sorry to rape your thread with questions matfish