Well, I looked in many online retailers for sumps and refugiums. I knew that these were essential in my overall plan for the "Natural" method of keeping the aquarium. The available sumps were quite expensive, and all seemed rather small for the price. One of the underlying principals I spoke about under my planning is that the larger the total water volume, the more stable the water parameters will be. I had ordered a stand made to my measurements, so I knew how much room I would have in the stand. I wanted the largest sump and refugium I could put in there and still have room for the plumbing and supplies.
My stands measurements will be 54" wide by 30" deep by 30" tall. After my online readings and research at the e-tailers, I determined that it would be in my best interest to make my own. I found a very useful website called Geothermal Aquaculture Research Foundation, Inc.(GARF) which has a very nice DIY section. The section I found to be of particular use was the "Tank Building" section which allows you to input a height, width and length of a proposed tank, and it will give you the measurements you need to make that tank out of acrylic. This webpage is here. Using this tool, I was able to find the thickness of the acrylic sheet I would need to make my sump, and the basic size of the pieces required. It also estimates the gallons in the tank from the measurements.
Being the obsessive-compulsive type person I am, I also found a wonderful little Computer Aided Design (CAD) program that is absolutely free on Sourceforge.net. For those of you not familiar with Sourceforge, it is a website that is a wonderful resource in the open-source movement. Basically, that just means that the projects on there are made by people like you and me, and are usually free and not for profit. Anyway, the program is called QCad, and can be found here. This program allowed me to make exact scale drawings of the stand interior, and to design my sump to fit. The beauty of using a CAD program is that I was able to get the exact dimensions of the acrylic pieces I would need. I HIGHLY recommend anyone serious about planning a DIY project to take the time to use this free and simple tool. It sure saved me some headaches.
After using the CAD I was able to design a sump and refugium which could be cut from a single sheet of 3/8" acrylic. The standard sheet size is 4'x8'. I ended up with a 30x16x16 Sump (33 gallons) and a 24x10x16 Refugium (17 gallons). Here is the diagram for the cuts on a single sheet of 3/8" acrylic. (The diagram was also made with QCad)
I found a local glass shop that could get me the acrylic for $150, and would charge $70 for the cutting. It is 30 seperate cuts, and I don't have a tablesaw, so the $70 to cut was cheaper than I could do it myself, and I would be assured of square cuts. This is VERY important when putting the acrylic together.
I ordered the acrylic, dropped off the above diagram (it looks fine printed at 8.5x11)and after a few days, it was ready. Interestingly, the glass shop called me when they started cutting the sheet, and asked if there would be a "border" around the acrylic. I told them no, it was for an aquarium, and why did they ask? He told me that the acrylic was chipping when he cut it!!! I informed him that this was UNACCEPTABLE! I also told him that he needed to get a new sawblade and make sure it is for acrylic! Heh, well, after that nice surprise all went smoothly. The glassshop got the new blade, and I got my pieces with nice flat square edges. After picking up the acrylic, I noticed that they had kindly labled each piece with the corresponding letter from my diagram. Well, I remeasured each piece and labled it myself..they actually were correct with each piece. Oh, and before I forget, note that in my diagram there is a good portion of "waste" acrylic in the middle...I also asked that this be returned to me. They put all the waste in a seperate bundle, and I am sure I can find some uses for it as I go along. Here is some of the pieces with my lettering on them. Notice that they all still have the protective paper on both sides. This is important to ask your glass shop to keep the paper on all pieces.
