Neptune Aquatics

New project advice needed

Hmm as I was looking at lowes and home depot, 3/32 or 1/8 thickness is the only sheet of glass I could find that they sell. They don't seem to sell 1/4 " unless I some how missed them... Did some research and a lot of people are claiming that the glass eventually bows or is pretty fragile where they have accidently bumped them and they shattered... Has anyone else had this type of issue using the thinner glasses? Do I just shell out the extra $$ for 1/4" from a glass shop? Or should I just buy a premade sump... ? Shelling out 250+ for a premade sump seems kind of hefty though, granted it has everything necessary built in.
Well first off let me handle the last bit, this hobby is not cheap, in the grand scheme of things 250+ isn't all that horrible when you consider that unlike something like a pump or other electrical piece of equipment the sumpent will last the life of the tank and then some unless you do something to destroy it. Lets say you're only in the hobby 5 years, $50 a year isn't horrible, your PG&E bill probably will increase more per month than that. Find out how much your cut glass would cost you at a shop, you might think 250 is a bargain, and you don't have to actually do anything except slide it into position.

That said, many things in this hobby can be DIY approached, but it requires two very important things to make it cheaper first and foremost you need some skill set to do said DIY project, case in point my father is horrible at building things but he does it anyways and ends up spending more than it would cost to buy something new... and it looks like a piece of crap afterwards on top of that, there is a "picnic table" in their backyard that my child is not allowed to sit at... just saying. Second, your time has to be worth less to you than the savings you are creating, if you lose a couple months worth of weekends to save $2000 on something, then that probably is worth it, if you lose that time to save $200, it may not be worth it, really depends on the person, some people find the DIY stuff therapeutic.

First I would not go with thinner glass, unless you want to laminate two sheets together which can be done... if you know what you're doing EVA film isn't that expensive, and if you really want to go ghetto you could just use silicone between the panes, trowel it out as flat as you can then just smoosh them together, don't use much force because yeah they will break easily. That said I would probably go with acrylic baffles since it's quite a bit easier to handle and cut to the size you want. Someone mentioned chopping up another 20g tank ... that's an option too, cutting glass isn't that hard when it's relatively thin. Look for a used setup, the frequency to which people sell things is the big wild card, but someone just posted a moving sale, and one of the setups was like $50, but I believe it came with a sump, so you could have definitely just used the sump and maybe give away the other stuff, it's sold now but the point is you need to keep your eyes open.
 
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case in point my father is horrible at building things but he does it anyways and ends up spending more than it would cost to buy something new... and it looks like a piece of crap afterwards on top of that.

This made me laugh out loud at work and every one is now staring at me... I laugh only because this is me. I really need to just buy the thing and chalk it up as an investment. Your absolutely right. Buying the tools to build the stand ended up costing me more than just buying a stand... and the stand I built well.. its level.. and it'll hold a tank lets just leave it at that... I guess when reading online about all the DIY people do and how "cheap" it was for them to make it was cheap for them because they either had the materials already and the tools to do it. I had planned to buy another 20g long to chop up but when I was reading online the thickness of the glass was pretty much too thin as well. I found someone on the forum that was selling a used one for a great price just waiting on a response! Thanks again.
 
Would something like that help?
https://www.ebay.com/itm/Triton-Ref...438524?hash=item25f7b22a3c:g:UxgAAOSwNA1bCyuT

Seems to be a good layout, a bit of DYI minus the cutting part so still fun and you can customize it to your skimmer/desired size. I'm looking at something similar for a 29G sump so I emailed the seller and he told me he can make the intake with 2 holes so it will accommodate a bean animal.

I saw something like this as well and was debating about it but I heard siliconing acrilyc to glass doesn't hold well. I think I've just decided to see if I can find a used professionally built one.
 
+1 on what Mike said.

I do a lot of DIY, but that is because I really enjoy building things, plus woodworking is another
big hobby of mine, so I already have all the tools and some decent experience.
 
I have to admit that I'm always confused as to why anyone would make their own sump at this point instead of grabbing one of dozens of used ones available in the area at any one time. Between members here selling, trading or giving hem away to the ones often available on CL or one of the Facebook groups it's much easier to find a good used one.

Cause it's fun and you get to make your sump to your needs.
 
Hmm as I was looking at lowes and home depot, 3/32 or 1/8 thickness is the only sheet of glass I could find that they sell. They don't seem to sell 1/4 " unless I some how missed them... Did some research and a lot of people are claiming that the glass eventually bows or is pretty fragile where they have accidently bumped them and they shattered... Has anyone else had this type of issue using the thinner glasses? Do I just shell out the extra $$ for 1/4" from a glass shop? Or should I just buy a premade sump... ? Shelling out 250+ for a premade sump seems kind of hefty though, granted it has everything necessary built in.

I have a small sump currently running using that thin plate glass from home depot's. Don't do it. Way too thin, it'll hold for small volumes (less than say, 3 gallons) of water and won't bend, but I'm definitely really careful doing work in the sump because I think I'll break it just brushing up against it.

Where are you located? If you're close to Castro Valley you can come take aook at what I've done for some ideas (of what not to do mostly ;)) if you go the DIY route.
 
I saw something like this as well and was debating about it but I heard siliconing acrilyc to glass doesn't hold well. I think I've just decided to see if I can find a used professionally built one.

I’ve done it, it holds up well as long as you don’t touch the baffles or put something against it, mine has been holding up for many years.


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With CNC machines being more affordable, these types of sellers seem to be sprouting up all over the place. Definitely does have an interesting price point, as it does make you think. $108 for the kit, $44 for the tank (whoops no $1 sale time), $8 for a tube of silicone at $160 you're only about a hundred off from a similar sized sump without too many bells and whistles. Trigger Crystal 30 for $250, Eshopps and Skimz have white acrylic sumps in the $240-250 range, even Somatic makes a tiny sump that comes with a skimmer for about $270.

However if you already have the tank, then $116 to spend a weekend taping and siliconing baffles in isn't horrible.
 
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