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DIY sump redesign

G

Gonzapa

After not listening at the begining to anyone that told me I would regret it, I am now re- doing my sump due to the braces that the tank came with.
Note the left and right braces, It only allowed me access to 2 ft in the middle
 
G

Gonzapa

So here is how it went

I got up about 4 am last saturday Emptied the sump and took everything out of the tank
After that I proceded to clean the coraline out .
 
G

Gonzapa

It took about 3 hours to do the cleanup
At about 8 am I started dissasembling the tank
I removed the J channel by placing a "dentist pick" in between the side and the channel and running it all the way through.
 
G

Gonzapa

Once the J channel was removed I proceded to take the top out

I worked with a razor blade cutting the silicone arround the top. All along I thought there must be a better way to do it. This was the most difficult part of the whole process. It took me 3 hours to carefully go arround the tank and cut the top off.
 
G

Gonzapa

I proceded to clean the corners of the tank ( they couldnt be reached before)

And gave the tank a wash with vinegar.

My friend Psychographic Arrives arround 12 with the glass.

We mark where the pieces of glass will go and procede to clean out the glass with the steel wool

Once everything is ready Psyco decides that the seams at the corner needed to be replaced so we cut the silicone out of the corner and clean that out too

We taped the corners and applied a thick bead of silicone. Psyco runs his magic finger throug it removes the tape and presto. A perfect bead!
 
G

Gonzapa

Next the corner braces are taped and placed. We can only do 2 at a time as we only have 2 of the "special" holders required to do the job
 
G

Gonzapa

We decide that we should put the center piece of the bubble trap first as it needs to be lifted from the bottom. Tape each side of the seam put the glass in and let it set.
Same procedure for the other partition in the other side.
 
G

Gonzapa

As we need to let it set for at least an hour we go to get a slice of the best pizza arround here and then we do a quick visit to the LFS

Come back and we do the other 2 corner braces and the each side of the bubble trap.
 
G

Gonzapa

Comparing the beggining and end pictures I couldnt be any happier on how it turned out.


Sorry for all the posts I just couldnt figure out how to put those pics in between the text
 
Hawkeye

Hawkeye

Gonzapa said:
Comparing the beggining and end pictures I couldnt be any happier on how it turned out.


Sorry for all the posts I just couldnt figure out how to put those pics in between the text
Click to expand...

Thanks for sharing! You could use a 3rd party hosting sight like photobucket to store your pics and then post them in one single post. It's free and pretty easy to use...I just have to dig up the linke somewhere for you.
 
G

Gonzapa

ricwilli said:
If thats a sump, than I do not know what to call my 90 gallon display tank. ;D Nice job.
Click to expand...
Unfortunately due to space restrctions My display tank is only a 55. But the large sump in the basement makes up for It by giving me a large area to grow frags
 
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