Custom sump build for Cooper aka justkeepswimming
Printed From: Utah Reefs
Category: Specialized Discussion
Forum Name: DIY
Forum Description: Do it Yourself
URL: http://www.utahreefs.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=72506
Printed Date: September 11 2025 at 9:58am
Software Version: Web Wiz Forums 12.03 - http://www.webwizforums.com
Topic: Custom sump build for Cooper aka justkeepswimming
Posted By: backwards32
Subject: Custom sump build for Cooper aka justkeepswimming
Date Posted: August 11 2014 at 12:56pm
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I have been practicing with cutting and making things out of glass. my next project is to make a glass sump. I could just build it to whatever specs I want but I don't really need a sump right now I just want to practice with glass. I already have the glass (recycled windows). so if someone needs a sump built I can do it for next to nothing. I just want some practice. I am in no wise an expert but I will make sure it doesn't leak. so let me know if you would like a custom built sump Julio texted me and I am going to make a sump for his new cube tank. so I decided to turn this thread into a tank build. Now that Julios sump is done I can move onto the next project. Now this thread will be Dennis' sump build ------------- Fish Food Direct Great Food for half the price 801-721-0671 call or text me anytime |
Replies:
Posted By: mOnster
Date Posted: August 11 2014 at 12:58pm
| I do need a sump text me 801 898 6426 |
Posted By: Reefer4Ever
Date Posted: August 11 2014 at 4:37pm
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I am in need of a custom sump as well. Text or call 4three5 890 six 626 ------------- 90 gal reef w/refugium 24 gal softie tank 11 gal nano anemone tank 5 gal fresh water |
Posted By: backwards32
Date Posted: August 11 2014 at 10:51pm
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thanks reefer. I just got done at monsters house and I am going to be building one for him this week. let me see how much glass I have when I am done. ------------- Fish Food Direct Great Food for half the price 801-721-0671 call or text me anytime |
Posted By: backwards32
Date Posted: August 12 2014 at 9:06pm
so I got a few very large windows out of my brothers house that I am going to use for the glass. It is 1/4 inch thick glass and has a little bit of a tint to it. but that shouldn't matter I went over to his house the other day to get a design. here is his tank and the area we will be working with.   so I cut the glass and cleaned it up. here is the bottom of the tank  I got all the pieces cut and here it is all siliconed into place. tomorrows project is to put the baffles in.  ------------- Fish Food Direct Great Food for half the price 801-721-0671 call or text me anytime |
Posted By: mOnster
Date Posted: August 12 2014 at 9:10pm
| Oh man it's looking sweet !! I can't wait , thanks again for coming by n help me out , appreciate it. |
Posted By: Reefer4Ever
Date Posted: August 13 2014 at 6:13am
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That looks fantastic. Great job. ------------- 90 gal reef w/refugium 24 gal softie tank 11 gal nano anemone tank 5 gal fresh water |
Posted By: badfinger
Date Posted: August 13 2014 at 6:45am
| What kind of silicone are you using? |
Posted By: backwards32
Date Posted: August 13 2014 at 9:16pm
so I got the baffles in today. on the left is the intake for filter socks and protein skimmer. The front right is the refugium and in the back corner is for the return pump. after doing the calculations the total water volume is 31 gallons everything is looking really good. now we just have to wait 24 hours for the silicon to cure before we do a water test. The silicone I am using is GE silicone 1 door and window clear silicone. from what I read online and others have said this is the best stuff to use and its fish safe. ------------- Fish Food Direct Great Food for half the price 801-721-0671 call or text me anytime |
Posted By: mOnster
Date Posted: August 13 2014 at 9:20pm
| It's looking great Mitch ! thanks for posting the progress . |
Posted By: Mike Savage
Date Posted: August 13 2014 at 9:21pm
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That IS looking good! -------------  |
Posted By: backwards32
Date Posted: August 13 2014 at 9:44pm
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Thanks guys it has been a fun project ------------- Fish Food Direct Great Food for half the price 801-721-0671 call or text me anytime |
Posted By: backwards32
Date Posted: August 14 2014 at 9:32pm
did a water test today. IT HOLDS WATER!!! YAY haha its looking really good and should be ready to be picked up tomorrow. ------------- Fish Food Direct Great Food for half the price 801-721-0671 call or text me anytime |
Posted By: Reefer4Ever
Date Posted: August 14 2014 at 9:51pm
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Fantastic looks great ------------- 90 gal reef w/refugium 24 gal softie tank 11 gal nano anemone tank 5 gal fresh water |
Posted By: Mike Savage
Date Posted: August 14 2014 at 9:52pm
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It sure does! ------------- |
Posted By: mOnster
Date Posted: August 14 2014 at 9:59pm
| Looking so cOol! I'm so exited nOw haha . |
Posted By: backwards32
Date Posted: August 15 2014 at 10:03pm
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Thanks for coming by and picking up your new sump. Hope you enjoy it. post some pictures once you get it all set up ------------- Fish Food Direct Great Food for half the price 801-721-0671 call or text me anytime |
Posted By: mOnster
Date Posted: August 15 2014 at 10:25pm
| Thank you again Mitch appreciate it . |
Posted By: backwards32
Date Posted: August 19 2014 at 10:48pm
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OK so now that Julio's sump is done I can move onto the next project. I just met with reefer4ever Aka Dennis, to get a design for his sump. it will be 36 x 16 x 16. the sump if totally full of water would be 40 gallons I am excited to get working on this. in fact first cuts will start tomorrow morning. ------------- Fish Food Direct Great Food for half the price 801-721-0671 call or text me anytime |
Posted By: Reefer4Ever
Date Posted: August 20 2014 at 6:18am
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It was great to meet you last night Mitch and I thank you for coming over. We are all excited about the build. Thank we are looking forward to pictures and updates. ------------- 90 gal reef w/refugium 24 gal softie tank 11 gal nano anemone tank 5 gal fresh water |
Posted By: backwards32
Date Posted: August 21 2014 at 10:04pm
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well I got a bunch done on the build. yesterday I got all the glass cut to size. I have some issues with this piece of glass for some reason. I had one big piece split and break. so I could use it for the end pieces like I wanted to but I will be able to still use it for some baffles. Today I got the perimeter of the tank all put together. here is the base with tape on the bottom ready to go  Here is the tank after all the sides have been put together  tomorrow I hope to get the baffles cut and maybe a few installed. overall I think the tank is coming together nicely. ------------- Fish Food Direct Great Food for half the price 801-721-0671 call or text me anytime |
Posted By: Reefer4Ever
Date Posted: August 21 2014 at 10:09pm
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Man that looks good. ------------- 90 gal reef w/refugium 24 gal softie tank 11 gal nano anemone tank 5 gal fresh water |
Posted By: backwards32
Date Posted: August 22 2014 at 9:57am
so I have most of the baffles in. there are two left that I need to do but I need whats in there now to dry first. there are a few custom features that Dennis wanted in this sump. one of them is that the glass surrounding the refugium is all tinted glass. the other is that the baffle leading into the refugium is tilted to slow the flow slightly. so you will see that in the picture. ------------- Fish Food Direct Great Food for half the price 801-721-0671 call or text me anytime |
Posted By: Reefer4Ever
Date Posted: August 22 2014 at 1:18pm
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Thats great I see you figured a way to get the angle as to not make the sand bed become water borne. Thank you sir. ------------- 90 gal reef w/refugium 24 gal softie tank 11 gal nano anemone tank 5 gal fresh water |
Posted By: backwards32
Date Posted: August 23 2014 at 10:22pm
so the sump is all finished. all the baffles are installed ready to go. It needs to cure for 24 hours so tomorrow I can give it a water test. ------------- Fish Food Direct Great Food for half the price 801-721-0671 call or text me anytime |
Posted By: Reefer4Ever
Date Posted: August 24 2014 at 7:00am
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Excitement over here, it looks fantastic. ------------- 90 gal reef w/refugium 24 gal softie tank 11 gal nano anemone tank 5 gal fresh water |
Posted By: backwards32
Date Posted: August 24 2014 at 10:05am
It Holds water YAY!! haha that's always a good feeling to know something I made works. haha well so far so good. no leaks I want to let it sits for a few days with water just to make sure we have no leaks and then it will be ready for pick up unfortunately I am out of "free" glass but I would still like to make more sumps. I quite enjoy it. so if anyone else needs a custom sump I would like to make it for you. it wont be as cheap as the first two. but I will price out the glass and still try to make it as cheap as possible ------------- Fish Food Direct Great Food for half the price 801-721-0671 call or text me anytime |
Posted By: Reefer4Ever
Date Posted: August 24 2014 at 11:35am
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With the water test today when are you thinking it will be ready to pick up? Were not excited at all over here lol. ------------- 90 gal reef w/refugium 24 gal softie tank 11 gal nano anemone tank 5 gal fresh water |
Posted By: backwards32
Date Posted: August 24 2014 at 12:01pm
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The beginning of the week is pretty busy. How about Wednesday night? Text me and let me know if that works ------------- Fish Food Direct Great Food for half the price 801-721-0671 call or text me anytime |
Posted By: backwards32
Date Posted: September 10 2014 at 12:52pm
Dennis sent me a few photos of the sump all installed and running. The sump only ended up costing $50   I am excited that it runs well and fulfilled all of things he wanted in his new custom sump. I am ready for another project if anyone else needs a custom glass sump. I am out of free glass but I can price it out for new glass. still should be pretty cheap. Let me know if you are interested ------------- Fish Food Direct Great Food for half the price 801-721-0671 call or text me anytime |
Posted By: backwards32
Date Posted: October 15 2014 at 8:13pm
So I have moved on to another project. this custom sump is for Cooper aka Justkeepswimming. it will be similar to denis' sump. it will be 36 x 15 x 14. this is about 33 gallons. we are using some old storm windows that they had in their basement.  so this project should be pretty inexpensive for them. I got all the pieces cut to size and will start assembling them tomorrow. ------------- Fish Food Direct Great Food for half the price 801-721-0671 call or text me anytime |
Posted By: justkeepswimming
Date Posted: October 15 2014 at 9:12pm
| Can't wait to see the progress. Thanks Mitch!! |
Posted By: backwards32
Date Posted: October 16 2014 at 8:53pm
OK got some more work done on the sump today. a 1/2 inch hole was wanted in the side panel for an auto top off.  here is the bottom piece tapped up and ready to go  got all the sides put up and silicone into place   So it needs a day of drying before I want to start messing with baffles or anything. but this sump is coming along nicely. ------------- Fish Food Direct Great Food for half the price 801-721-0671 call or text me anytime |
Posted By: justkeepswimming
Date Posted: October 16 2014 at 9:02pm
| Sweet! |
Posted By: rbtron
Date Posted: October 17 2014 at 1:29pm
| How do you clean up the sharp edges of the glass? I am trying to cut some pieces for my baffles too. Thanks |
Posted By: backwards32
Date Posted: October 17 2014 at 8:14pm
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Just take some sand paper and sand down the edges so they aren't sharp. ------------- Fish Food Direct Great Food for half the price 801-721-0671 call or text me anytime |
Posted By: backwards32
Date Posted: October 21 2014 at 9:43pm
almost finished with this build. cooper wanted and slanted piece of glass going into the refugium.  only a one more baffle to install and this tank will be ready for a water test.  ------------- Fish Food Direct Great Food for half the price 801-721-0671 call or text me anytime |
Posted By: justkeepswimming
Date Posted: October 22 2014 at 10:36am
| Can't wait to see it finished!! |
Posted By: Krazie4Acans
Date Posted: October 22 2014 at 11:50am
make sure that you sand across the edge of the glass and not along the edge so you don't cut through the sandpaper and cut your hand. I use my dremel with the sanding wheel, or grinder bit on it and just make sure I don't stop in one spot. Krazie  ------------- My ocean. 90g (yup, won it!), 40g, 28g, & 10g Systems PADI Advanced Open Water http://utahreefs.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=63568&title=krazies-nano-paradise" rel="nofollow - Tank Thread: |
backwards32 wrote:Posted By: Krazie4Acans
Date Posted: October 22 2014 at 11:53am
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Can you explain the sloped glass part? Is the water intended to go over the top of the glass and then run down the slope? How does it do that the way the baffles are setup? What is the direction of water flow in your pictures? Krazie ------------- My ocean. 90g (yup, won it!), 40g, 28g, & 10g Systems PADI Advanced Open Water http://utahreefs.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=63568&title=krazies-nano-paradise" rel="nofollow - Tank Thread: |
Posted By: justkeepswimming
Date Posted: October 22 2014 at 2:53pm
| The baffle leading into the refugium is tilted to slow the flow slightly. |
Posted By: Krazie4Acans
Date Posted: October 22 2014 at 3:10pm
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So the water will go over the baffle to the left of that and then the slanted baffle will force it to go under the bottom edge to slow it down? Is that the idea? ------------- My ocean. 90g (yup, won it!), 40g, 28g, & 10g Systems PADI Advanced Open Water http://utahreefs.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=63568&title=krazies-nano-paradise" rel="nofollow - Tank Thread: |
Posted By: DMower
Date Posted: October 22 2014 at 3:16pm
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I don't get the slant either. Making the baffle vertical at the same distance as the bottom of the slant would have the same function. ------------- 150 gal reef with 50 gal sump. Reef Octopus DCS-200 Skimmer. AI Sol Blues. |
Posted By: Krazie4Acans
Date Posted: October 22 2014 at 3:27pm
Would you stop jumping ahead of me Darren? I was trying to understand the idea before I dropped the bomb. Sheesh!  Krazie ------------- My ocean. 90g (yup, won it!), 40g, 28g, & 10g Systems PADI Advanced Open Water http://utahreefs.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=63568&title=krazies-nano-paradise" rel="nofollow - Tank Thread: |
Posted By: justkeepswimming
Date Posted: October 22 2014 at 3:43pm
| Talk to Reefer4Ever. He has more detail as to why this was done on his sump. |
Posted By: backwards32
Date Posted: October 22 2014 at 5:42pm
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ya you can ask him for more detail. so the water flows under the slanted glass and the way he explained it to me was he wanted a way for more of the water to flow through his macro algae rather then just skimming across the top. so the idea of the slanted glass is that it pushes the water lower into the refugium so it flows through the macro algae. the reason for the slant is to slow the flow slightly so it doesn't drift the algae out the other end of the refugium. I hope that makes sense. he might chime in as well. I thought it was an interesting idea ------------- Fish Food Direct Great Food for half the price 801-721-0671 call or text me anytime |
Posted By: backwards32
Date Posted: October 22 2014 at 5:43pm
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plus it looks cool. come on guys haha ------------- Fish Food Direct Great Food for half the price 801-721-0671 call or text me anytime |
Posted By: Reefer4Ever
Date Posted: October 22 2014 at 7:16pm
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Other than the obvious it looks good and everybody asks why is that piece of glass at an angle. It slows the water flow from my overflow through my fuge by the two pieces of glass getting further apart as it spills over. This also gives the water more contact time with me algae that I grow as well as does not push my sand over to the other side of that section. Hope that helps. I will upload some pics of my fuge shortly. ------------- 90 gal reef w/refugium 24 gal softie tank 11 gal nano anemone tank 5 gal fresh water |
Posted By: Reefer4Ever
Date Posted: October 22 2014 at 7:24pm
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If you put the slanted piece in straight just further over it would have a tendency to make a dead area of surface water. By the top of it being 1" keeps that water moving and never getting stagnant when the bottom angles out to just over 2". To each his own as that's a great part of this hobby. "There is more than one way to skin a cat" this works fantastically for me and my set up. ------------- 90 gal reef w/refugium 24 gal softie tank 11 gal nano anemone tank 5 gal fresh water |
Posted By: backwards32
Date Posted: October 29 2014 at 3:26pm
well the project is all finished. Here it is all full of water and ready to go unfortunately when I went to check on the tank after being filled for a while I discovered a crack in the bottom corner and I was leaking. after a few attempts to try and repair the crack it still leaked. so the sump did not work out but I learned a lot from this project and it will be very helpful to future builds. ------------- Fish Food Direct Great Food for half the price 801-721-0671 call or text me anytime |
Posted By: CHAOS
Date Posted: March 11 2015 at 8:17am
| Are you still doing refugiums? |
Posted By: backwards32
Date Posted: March 11 2015 at 8:55am
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Yes I am. As a matter of fact I am just finishing one for Marcos's frag tank ------------- Fish Food Direct Great Food for half the price 801-721-0671 call or text me anytime |