Sump for 20g

[Kasakato]

I now have an extra 5.5g tank. I dont want to put it to wast in the closet where it will collect dust. So I want to trun it into a sump. Is this possible? Can I use my FilStar XP1 with this system? I cant get a overflow for a good proce here in Toronto, so what else can I do?

 

[scuba_steve]

you can drill a bulkhead in that tank using a dremmel real easy

 

[Kasakato]

How would that be?

 

[scuba_steve]

do a search here i know someone posted a pic of doing this in the diy forum ! but ya need to buy 2 dremmel glass bits ! just did a 10 gallon tank! it took about a hour but worked great! one bits for making the hole and the other for making the large hole ! as long as you keep the bit wet

 

[czcz]

(I'm only in the process of building my first sump/fw fuge.)

Here are instructions that helped me: [link]http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=445481[/link]. I encourage you to read the entire thread, as a lot of people think this is a bad idea. I only used a 7134 bit when drilling mine. If you do not want to drill, there are many diy overflow designs in the archive.

Unless you only want to hide your equipment, consider using a sump larger than 5.5g, since you'll probably only add ~3-4g of usable water volume to your 20g tank. How about a rebermaid container sump (ie: 20g or 33g trashcan, 12g rubermaid container) into the 5g as a LR/algae/plant fuge? You could use your current canister anywhere you want (main tank, sump, fuge) since its all the same water. Or you could use the cannister as a redundant filter to the main tank - you pull the return pump's power, instant qt tank in the 5g and the main tank only loses sump's water volume. Just a thought.

 

[Kasakato]

Well the space under my stand is tight. All I can fit in there is a 5.5g tank. How could I do the rubermade thing? I was looking into a PVC pipe overflow, has anyone ever head of it?

P.S. My tank is fresh water.

 

[PatM]

I built a sump out of a 20 gal. glass tank and had the hardware store cut the glass for the seperate compatments. I also built my own overflow out of two Lees speciman cups, some pvc plumbing parts and I purchased u-tubes cheap from Drs. Foster and Smith. Pics of the sump are in my gallery though I have since added the bio balls in campartment one and the second compartment will eventually hold a DIY skimmer I'm still working on. The whole thing works great but it takes a lot of fine tuning if you build your own overflow.

 

[czcz]

Kasakato, there's a TON of info in the archives. "Rubermaid sump" ,"overflow" , "fuge" Most information is contributed by SW owners (fishfreek, BillyZ, sumphead...), but of course the same principles apply to FW.

PatM - wow, nice tank and sump!