Acrylic Boxes

I want to build a new sump for my tank. I was thinking about buying a 30 gallon glass tank for the sump. What are the chances that some place like Lowes has an acrylic box (that is about the same size) pre made that is really a window box or a johnson rod holder (ha ha) but would still serve my purpose????

Not at the lowes I go to. Might try a feed store. The have various size water bins but they will be plastic.

Acrylic is more expensive than glass. It would be cheaper to ship as it is lighter than glass of the same thickness, but it would still likely be very thin extruded acrylic plastic in order to be cheaper than a glass tank. Most glass tanks are sold at prices near cost both by LFS's and National chain pet stores like Petco. Some times they are even sold at a loss with the freight costs be absorbed by the rest of the shipment that the tanks came in with.

I think it's easiest just to buy a tank for the sump. It doesn't need to be pretty, and you can usually find used tanks for pretty cheap that would work well for a sump. Sometimes the chain stores like Petco and Petsmart have sales on tanks, like $1 per gallon, so you could pick up a decent sized sump for really cheap (like a 55 gallon tank for $55).

If you want to make your own out of acrylic, you can go to www.melevsreef.com. That website has great instructions for building your own sump, but like Fatman said, acrylic is expensive and it's usually cheaper just to buy a glass tank.