DIY Sump

[Bmeasure]

well i bought mine from HD and after i made the sump i read it and it says "for marine use above the water line" so i filled the sump and put some danios in it for a couple days with a small filter on it and they diddnt die...so i assume its ok. Mine was just 100% silicone.

I've done a bit of Yacht repairs and I'd assume the reason it said that on the tube is because salt water is so corrosive and things below the water line get beat up so badly that it wouldn't last long under water. We always used fiberglass and epoxy resin to seal anything below the waterline. Silicone is fine for saltwater tanks, though, but they generally don't have the pressure and things like barnacles attaching themselves to it!

100% Silicone is fine. This SHOULD mean that it has nothing but silicone in it: no mildew resistant chemicals or other junk which could harm aquatic life. If it said 100% silicone on the label and my fish died from something in it....I'd SUE! 100% silicone means NOTHING BUT SILICONE!

 

[Seaman]

I figured it would be ok because some of the other 100% silicones said "not for use in aquarium" but this one diddnt say that.

 

[Matak]

Sounds pretty simple. I take it that the water line you are referring to is in the main tank, not the sump? Oh, and how small a hole? 1/16"?, 1/8"?

Seaman?

 

[Phycha]

Sounds pretty simple. I take it that the water line you are referring to is in the main tank, not the sump? Oh, and how small a hole? 1/16"?, 1/8"?

Drill the hole/s at the water level of the Tank. 1/8 would probibly be perfect it needs to be large enought that the waters surfice tention dosent plug the hole. I drilled 3 becuse 1 wasent letting enought air to quickly brake the syphin. When setting up a sump system test ever peice of it befor declaring it finished. Do meny test power outages at verying levels of sump water level to find the "Max" running level.

 

[Matak]

Thank you. Ahh the wisdom of experience.

 

[Phycha]

Thank you. Ahh the wisdom of experience.

Tinkering is my passion. Sumps are one of the best toys for a tinkerer in the hobbie of aquaria. I'm always on the watch for posts about sumps and if you dont feel like openly posting something feel free to PM me.

 

[Bmeasure]

Drill the hole/s at the water level of the Tank. 1/8 would probibly be perfect it needs to be large enought that the waters surfice tention dosent plug the hole. I drilled 3 becuse 1 wasent letting enought air to quickly brake the syphin. When setting up a sump system test ever peice of it befor declaring it finished. Do meny test power outages at verying levels of sump water level to find the "Max" running level.

Funny, Psycha...I drilled 3 holes in my return as well! Mine are about 1/8" as well. I would like to "second" every bit of info that he posted. I did the same and had to fiddle with the plumbing for a month or so to get it finely tuned to work the way I wanted. My setup is posted in my signature area below.

 

[Phycha]

Bmeasure, Nice setup. Went with the bucket-in-tub method. With your wood working skill i'm kinda suprised you dident do it in acrylic. Here is a link to my sump.

My Sump ignore the HOB i was playing with peat filtration.

 

[Bmeasure]

That's a great sump, Psycha, and I'm sure I could have gone that way. I decided against it, when looking at the simple method of making one out of a tub. The Bio-tower is the most sophisticated thing on it. I've seen your sump before and really liked the quality craftsmanship.....great job!

By the way, I hope everyone will revisit my pictures next weekend (today is 4/2/05) because I'll have updated pics with my canopy finally on it. Since talking to people so much on this forum about it, I got motivated to spend some "after hours" working on it every chance I've gotten. It's working out great. Hope you all enjoy it as much as I do!