Are you bold enough to take this Challenge?

[enzo]

Hi,

Are you bold enough to take this challeng? If you are not I would reccommend you to not read this because this ia a challenge.

 

 

I need a sump. I need it to be 10inches by 10inches. Height is up to 2 feet. I need it to be cheap, but strong enough to filter a 29 gallon. I was thinking I could make a tower with a paint can or plastic tub or can. Then make a drip late and a compartment for bioballs. My main problem is what to make the sump it. It also needs to be quiet and be stable in water height enough for a counter current protein skimmer. Are you up to it?

 

John

[supernip]

hey man, use acrylic! you can get a 24x48 inch sheet of 1/4 inch acrylic form home depot for 30 bucks. but if u want the good stuff, use lexon, which is like 3x more expensive but 100x better:blush:

[barebottoms]

Why do you say Polycarbonates is better?

 

Its softer, not as clear, scratches easier, flexes more...

 

http://www.acrylic-designs.com/plastic_FAQ's.htm

 

100x better at all the reasons you don't want it for a water containter application.

[supernip]

lol actually, lexan is just another name as poly. poly is definitely better but most high end aquariums are just plexiglass (acrylic). A friend of mine does manufacturing and I'm actually gonna build a new 6.61 aquarium with built in skimmer and wet/dry filtration tomorrow out of poly. the stuff is expensive though. although is is a lot better, you won't need it as much. also there's two kinds of poly, synthetic and natural. natural is of course safe but not as clear whereas sythetic might have a lot of chemicals depending on the type. acrylic would be the cheapest if you ask me and most practical. email me and i'll give you a very helpful site on materials. i'll also put up [ictures of my design if you guys want:D

[supernip]

lol seems as if I read your question wrong but to correctly answer your questyion. poly is actually better. you're forgetting the thickness of the material. .25 poly is a lot stronger than .25 acrylic if you want to compare apples to apples. and flexibility requires a lot of pressure. your small tank would be nowhere close to enough to flex it. thats actually another advantage of poly though. it's not brittle and wont have cracks like acrylic plus the one i have is almost impossible to stratch. no to mention the stuff is actually used to make windows in replacement of glass so it does have an excellent clarity to it.

[barebottoms]

 Acrylic is the clearest of plastics, about 8 times clearer than glass.  It has good strength but is breakable

 

Acrylic is fairly rigid, as plastics go but will flex much more than glass.  Polycarbonate is even more flexible

 

With regards to polycarbonates:

It's main drawback is, it scratches more easily than acrylic.  

 

Polycarb is less clear than acrylic but clearer than glass

[supernip]

well barebottom says it best so the the final verdict is yours. if I were you, I'd go with acrylic simple because it's the cheapest. with that said and done any of you guys from the bay area wanna trade or sell me something? or know how to get a good price on christmas tree worms? help a newbie out!

[lizbeth]

A cat litter bucket. It's 9.5"x9.5"x13.5" , 4 gallons (28 lb size). Sometimes they are a bit taller, 15" , 4.25 gallons(40 lb size).

 

So what prize do I win?

[BCOrchidGuy]

Im with Lizbeth on this, get a food grade garbage can or something, they can be cut down if it is too tall. Walmart has them, doesn't matter what material does it if it is just a sump. You can use a DSB in there etc.

[Twins Guy]

FOWLR tank or true reef-in which case you really don't want or need the bioballs. if this is the case then yeah any cat litter bucket or the like will work. pop the skimmer right in there (might be crowded with a return pump, heater, etc). keeping the water level constant is up to your topping off or installing an auto top off switch-cameron (physh1) sells a nice one. if you're more interested in keeping fish maybe you want a wet/dry type thing. i've made jolly fine wet/drys with a bucket and two fitting lids (cut one down to size and drill holes-for use as a drip plate). add bioballs-just search for DIY wetdrys at about.com's saltwater page, or wherever. you'll have to be creative with the skimmer though, in this setup. HTH!

[mxpro32]

another drawback of lexan is that it is harder to form if you plan on doing any bending. you have to get it much hotter.