90 Gallon Build - Here We Go!

find a cheap acrylic aquarium and you can mod it super easy, what I did was cheaper than buying a sump and got to pick exactly how I wanted it laid out

 

Wow, I watched a youtube clip about the MP40 and it is reeeeally nice! Kinda expensive, but it does seem worth it.

 

You get what you pay for When I get the motivation I'm capping the closed loop on my 75 and switching to one mp40. I've seen them in person, and 2 on a 180 can send a small wave across the top when synced, lol

 

A sump is nothing complicated. All you have to do is silocone some baffles in a tank. I mean it's a peice of cake. Seems most sumps are fancy for nothing and cost a fortune. Used crappy tank, 4 peices of glass from a glass shop, and a tube of silicone. There is really nothing to it. Under a $100. Put the money towards something that will bgive you more benefit than a box that holds water. Like a MP40. You could have one of those for what you pay for a sump/fuge thingy.

 

+2

Sumps are expensive to buy. I think I paid like $40 for my sump total. Buying one would be several hundred bucks. Waste of money. You can get your glass cut, baffles installed and let the silicon cure for 24 hours. During that time, take the extra money and order your MP40 online. I think TB Aquatics has them for very good prices. John at Fish and Other Icthy Stuff can also get very, very good prices.

 

Yeah, I get the tank part, the baffles, the silicone, etc. Seems very easy. The thing I'm not sure about is the plumbing.

 

There's really no plumbing involved.

You drain and return. Drain into one side of the sump from the tank, and plop a pump into the other side of the sump past the baffles / skimmer / etc. The baffles are mainly there for bubble traps and to help set skimmer water levels. I recently purchased a filter sock holder for my tank to drain into, but prior to that, I just stuck the drain line into one end of the sump. The pump is connected to the return on the other side. Nothing to it.

Check out http://www.melevsreef.com/ - he has some good guides / suggestions, as do many folks on here.

 

Ya, you have to do plumbing anyway. PVC or tubing. You can buy overflow setups. You just don't need to buy a sump. Hard piping with PVC is the best way regardless what you get. Tubing is too restrictive, but easy. Set it up right from the start, means a lot less money an hassle later.

 

Thank you. That was pretty easy for me to understand. So do I only need one pump then? Just the one pump in the sump?

 

By overflow setup, do you mean an overflow box?