Want opinions

[redstang]

Crewdawg1981;758964 wrote: I wonder... have all the people suggesting he build a custom acrylic... ever built one themselves? You mess up anywhere along the way and its a disaster waiting to happen.

LOL! I was kind of wondering the same thing.

I'm confident that I could do it though. Just not sure that it would make financial sense. Seems I could buy a 40gal and 75-90gal on here used for probably around 100-150 total. Not sure I could come close to that water volume and price building the sump the way I should. I love DIY projects though which is partly why that appeals to me so much. But looking at acrylic prices it's more expensive than I thought it would be. I could easily spend 350-500 on acrylic and not gain much. Heck, that's practically an MP40.

How about this. How many have built a custom sump, or know someone who did, and ended up regretting it?

 

[rdnelson]

Crewdawg1981;758964 wrote: I wonder... have all the people suggesting he build a custom acrylic... ever built one themselves? You mess up anywhere along the way and its a disaster waiting to happen.

Almost posted the same question. LOL

Edit:

RedStang;758969 wrote: LOL! I was kind of wondering the same thing.

I'm confident that I could do it though. Just not sure that it would make financial sense. Seems I could buy a 40gal and 75-90gal on here used for probably around 100-150 total. Not sure I could come close to that water volume and price building the sump the way I should. I love DIY projects though which is partly why that appeals to me so much. But looking at acrylic prices it's more expensive than I thought it would be. I could easily spend 350-500 on acrylic and not gain much. Heck, that's practically an MP40.

How about this. How many have built a custom sump, or know someone who did, and ended up regretting it?

There is a guy on Craig's List who is selling sheets of acylic cheap if you don't mind that they are milk white and not clear. But still, as much as I love DIY I don't know if I want to trust 50+ gallons of water to my skills at something I have only dabbled with.

 

[crewdawg1981]

RedStang;758969 wrote: How about this. How many have built a custom sump, or know someone who did, and ended up regretting it?

Google this... results I saw werent promising.

 

[redstang]

Crewdawg1981;758992 wrote: Google this... results I saw werent promising.

Buzz killer.






:up: It's all good. Pretty much decided on either going with a single large or a couple smaller used tanks that I can turn into a sump and fuge.

 

[ripped tide]

Ive built some custom small tanks and filters. Nothing over 30g. There is a certain learning curve that you should plan for. Buy twice as much stuff as you need!!!

 

[dine]

while stock tanks do have their evap issues those can be overcome by covering a large portion of the tank. they are sturdy, pre drilled/threaded in the bottom center, hold large volumes of water and give you plenty of space to work in/ clean when you remove the partial cover.

 

[grouper therapy]

I've built numerous acrylic sumps all the way to 150 gallons and never had issues But I use rubbermaid stock tanks for my sumps now, by far the cheapest.

 

[ripped tide]

The Rubbermaid also doesn't require assembly.

 

[dine]

Also more sturdy. Hard to crack a Rubbermaid stock tank when live Rock shifts. Things fall. Etc