DIY Sump question

You may want to just buy a custom tank from glasscages or a similar place. That way, you can get the most volume possible in your stand. Cube spaces can be hard to work with efficiently with standard sized tanks.

I had to do that in order to get 12g of refugium space under my tank:

 

i have heard the the diffrent "thermal expansion" rates between glass and aycrilic can cause stuff to blow out or leak.

 

Vuala! I didn't need to expand the stand any more. Though you could if you wanted to..

 

Seano, so that is a 40g tall tank under it? Great job! Thank you so much for figuring that out for me!!!!

 

No problem-o, Lee.

That is a 40g(I drew it 3" too short, but you get the idea) with a 20g tall, beneath, as a sump/fuge, on a 36" stand.

 

Awesome. I will be out tomorrow to pick one up!!!! Then I can use that aqrylic as the baffles in the sump, so no money lost! Thanks again, your awesome.

 

Hold it right there! I would recommend you use glass with glass sump or acrylic with an acrylic sump. They don't adhere well to each other, & over time, will become a week joint. Just letting you know.

 

Ok. I will have to find an application for the acrylic.

 

I don't know what FS will sell acrylic tanks, but you may be able to order it from your LFS & have them ship it to the store so you can pick it up.

 

You can use acrylic as baffles in a glass aquarium. They don't need to be absolutely watertight to begin with, but the silicone will form a wedge and adhere to the glass. You just need to use a more silicone than a normal silicone on glass job.

The real problems with acrylic-on-glass bonding comes when you're talking about something that is load bearing, like one of the sides of an aquarium or the bottom. That would be bad news, but baffles are no problem.