Sump Advice Please

I think most Lowes and Home Depot stores will cut glass to size for you.

 

Fantastic Site and love the content!!

jbraslins, I have both a wet/dry and a fuge. I have the overflow split between the two with the return pump in the sump end of the wet/dry. The water from the fuge is passed to the sump through 6-feet of 2-inch PVC. I have two ball-valves on the pass-through, as well as the overflow splits to control the flow (I should have used gate valves!!!). Just before the water passes into the 2-inch pipe, I have my skimmer. I keep the flow lower in the fuge then in the sump and my pods pass through into the tank without problems. They have even taken up residence in the foam block between the wet/dry and the sump and I have seen them on the wet/dry side as well.

I have discarded the use of the filter socks and extended the pipe below the water level to reduce the splashing. I have one bubble I tent to over-engineer but the added water volume with the two-inch pipe is an advantage. I have one bubble trap between the fuge and the overflow inlet. I may discard this as well, since the return pump is far enough away that all the bubbles are disbursed before they get to the return. It just depends on what you want in the fuge. I will be adding warm water mussels to the fuge eventually, (maybe even the sump, since they act as great (natural) water filters. I'm still looking into that though.

As for the glass and silicone, I use GE #1 window and door sealant. It's tank safe, and inexpensive. The best place I have found to get glass is from a used aquarium that you can pickup on craigslist, good will, pawn shops, and the news paper. I tried buying just the glass from a retailer and it's expensive! You find yourself a 20/30gal tank with a crack for NOTHING and use the glass from it. Make sure its not tempered though! Standard pane/float glass is very easy to cut yourself: A no frills glass cutter might cost you $3.00. Use it with a strait edge to score the glass then either put the cutter or something small to raise the scored area up and press down on both sides of the pane. You can also snap it off over the edge of a work bench or table, as long as it has a strait unbeveled edge.

Much, much cheaper to do it yourself if you enjoy it and have the time.

Hope this helps.

Merle.