DIY Aquarium Setup

[Bear]

Hi all
I'm planning on building my own aquarium and have a few design ideas I'd love some feedback on (I'd rather not build the thing and have none of it work properly).
I have a bit of a constraint on horizontal size but would like a relatively large volume of water to make maintenence easier. I'm going to be building a cabinet/stand to hold the main tank. Is it feasable to add a secondary tank underneath (housed in the cabinet) and pump water between the two? The main benefit is a much larger volume of water, the downside is complexity of design.
The questions I have are:
- Would a Rubbermaid tub be okay to hold the water, or would the plastic break down and contaminate the water over time?
- Could I run the filter/heating/CO2 through the resevoir (keeps excess equipment out of the "show" tank)

Thanks!

[OrionGirl]

You're talking about a sump. Very possible, widely used in SW, and in larger FW tanks.

Rubbermaid tubs are fine, but you'll be happier if you get one designed for holding water. They make a black tub for agricultural use that is perfect, about $70 last time I priced them. The rubbermaid tubs used for storage often times are not structurally sound to hold liquids--they tend to bow out and tear.

I am not sure how you would configure the return so that you didn't lose most of the CO2 in agitition. All other elements are fine in the sump, but you'll want to run some tests and confer with people who have a better understanding on CO2 before running it in the sump. Post in the Plant Forum, I'm betting plantbrain will be able to let you know.

[Bear]

Thanks!
I'm not committed to any of the setup yet - sounds like I'll probably save myself some time and headache by running the CO2 into the main tank.
:cool:

[Luca Brazzi]

Ive got a sump setup as well, that I built from scratch out of Acrylic, and Id have to say its the way to go as far as a design but you have to be careful in that it can be difficult to get things JUST right. You dont want to end up with a flooded room.

I built the stand as well, out of 2x4's and my main concerns there were strength and easy access to the plumbing underneath...