DIY Polycarbonate Sump

[BIG-G]

I see your point on the fiber. So what do you suggest?

I would keep the socks, then add any biological that you wish to Center chambers followed by floss or sponge block for giving the water one final polish then heaters and return.
If you choose lava rock I would try to incorporate a box, like a milk crate or mesh bag to place the bio in.
That makes it very convenient to take out and rinse occasionally.
I see no reason for continuous UV sterilizer.
In my opinion UV has it’s uses and I do have one but I use mine with a power head and it’s portable so I can put it in use for any of my tanks.
Any problem that may occasionally come up that needs UV should only be temporary.

 

[karpomatic]

I've decided to go with the original design that I found online but, adjusting some measurements. I can't do bigger than 15" x 15" but it will be 48" long. This is what I was thinking.

 

[karpomatic]

Well, it took 6 weeks for me to get the correct polycarbonate. I had to reorder since I ordered the incorrect width. Anyway, it took about 13 hours from start to finish. We started with three sheets for 32" x 48" x 1/4" clear polycarbonate. We cut it with a table saw and hand sanded all the edges with multiple grits of fine sandpaper. I'm going to give it 24 hours to set up then it will sit with water in it for a week to check for leaks. I'll also be putting a pump in it to see how it will flow.

 

[karpomatic]

I let the weldon 4 and 16 cure for 24 hours then added water. I've got a few leaks but nothing too bad. I dried it out and will seal it again after the joints have a chance to dry out.

 

[Siddons11]

We use a lot of 1/4in polycarbonate at work for machine guarding and I often get to take home some scrap pieces before they get recycled. I have been tempted to build a sump out of it myself, but couldn't find any good information on bonding with weld on. I have used the weld on with PC to make aquarium lids and dividers but nothing that needed to be water-tight or stand up to any pressure.

Have you performed any strength testing with the polycarbonate and weld on and compared it to acrylic? I'm curious to see how well it bonds.

 

[karpomatic]

We use a lot of 1/4in polycarbonate at work for machine guarding and I often get to take home some scrap pieces before they get recycled. I have been tempted to build a sump out of it myself, but couldn't find any good information on bonding with weld on. I have used the weld on with PC to make aquarium lids and dividers but nothing that needed to be water-tight or stand up to any pressure.

Have you performed any strength testing with the polycarbonate and weld on and compared it to acrylic? I'm curious to see how well it bonds.

I can only go by what I've found online for the bonding. According to the company that makes Weldon, there's not much strength difference between using it on Acrylic and Polycarbonate. I used poly because its cheaper and stronger but it gets hazy after 1/4". Use Acrylic if you want clarity. Check the link below.

https://www.gogsg.com/ASSETS/DOCUMENTS/ITEMS/EN/ips4-04_spec.pdf

 

[karpomatic]

After fixing the leaks, I let it sit in my garage for the entire week with an 800 gph pump circulating water for a week. Friday night I finally installed it. The entire process took about 4 hours. I also replaced all the tubing. Here is a photo of it up and running.

I am currently using 2 200 micron socks but I think they're too fine. They clog up quickly and restrict water flow. I may switch to 300 micron and see how that does.