sump and refugium question

[conejo]

I am trying to find a sump or just build one myself. I found one on Craigslist for $30. I was wondering if this was a good design? My tank is going to be a 75 gallon with an overflow built in. The sump here is 20 gallons.

 

[Niccobacci11]

looks like mine it is simple has refuge, return and place for the skimmer. I would recommend buying a sock filter to attach to the side got mine for about $10 off eBay.
this is on my 20 long sump.

 

[Brad M]

My advice would be to go as big as your stand and or wallet allow you to. You can never have to much water to keep the quality up. Measure your space in the stand and compare it ro a standard tank dimentions list to find the best sizes then wait till one of those tanks are being sold used and buy it n build it.

If you find a good sump for a good price its not a bad idea to use it for now just make sure you can get your money back on the resale if you decide to upgrade later. Use rubber hoses instead of pvc so you wont have to re plumb the whole thing and cost you even more time and money.

 

[conejo]

I picked it up. At this point I'm confident it will work until I upgrade it at a later time. Luckily my stand is a custom built oak stand and has a lot of room.

 

[Niccobacci11]

vacuum hoses work great because they are really cheap and they are supper flexibl

 

[conejo]

Awesome I'll definitely pick some up. I was thinking flexible tubing was the route I wanted to take.

 

[conejo]

Any idea on what type of return pump I need to go over 5ft

 

[Greenstreet.1]

I picked it up. At this point I'm confident it will work until I upgrade it at a later time. Luckily my stand is a custom built oak stand and has a lot of room.

I use to run a 20g sump/ref on my 75g the only problem I had with it was that there's not enough room in there not to many company's have skimmers with that small foot print a reef octopus sss1000 did fit in mine but it was tight but it did work did not add a lot of water volume also. You already have it so use it but if the chance comes around I would go bigger. My new sump/ref on the same 75 is now a 35g custom made one.

 

[conejo]

Well unfortunately I may have to put this build on hold for a bit longer. I will look into building my own 35 gallon sump but it won't be for a while. I appreciate these tips. Honestly I figured it would be too small but I picked it up anyways.

 

[Niccobacci11]

Okay well best of luck to you..

 

[Gibb72]

Watch at Petco they have dollar a gallon sales, picked up a 40 gallon for $40 and made my sump out of that

 

[conejo]

How much was it for the acrylic?

 

[Brad M]

Wow really! Thats like used tank price with hard water stains included. Lol

 

[Gibb72]

Glass tanks, can't go wrong on the price

 

[conejo]

Well I meant to separate the different compartments. Did you use glass or acrylic? How much for the materials?

 

[Gibb72]

Going from a 55 to a 90 this weekend so I build a sump, was cheaper then buying one

 

[Gibb72]

I used glass baffles, had them cut at a glass store for $9 per one. I'm in Ontario so I go to Michigan to get supplies, better prices on things

 

[Gibb72]

I buy a lot of stuff online from Gina's Aquarium supplies good prices

 

[conejo]

I'll definitely check it out. I wanted to build my own found this one and just went with it. But I'm thinking I may just find one on Craigslist for around 20 bucks and make my own sump

 

[Gibb72]

That's what I did, will be setting it all up this weekend