sump

hopefully this is the right spot to post this.

I have a 80 gallon tank that came with what I am guessing size wise, 25-35 gallon plastic sump. I had a problem with the sump draining and my heater burnt a whole in the side of it. Anyways my question is i have a 55 gal tank that is just sitting around, I wouldnt be dumb to use it as my sump would I? Next question I am wanting to make a refuhium out of it, anyone have a diagram on where to put the glass deviders in at as far as for where my protieen skiimer and heater and sand and what not goes?

Thank you in advance!!!

There's nothing wrong with using a 55g tank, if you have the space for it. You always want the most water volume that you can get.

There are many people with smaller DIY Sumps that you could scale up to the 55gallon size. That size will also give you extra water space (which is actually a very positive thing).

Before you do any sort of actual building you should do sketch/mock-ups like lilreefgirl did here: DIY sump for newbies! :)

This will allow for others to creatively criticize your plan, and help you make it an optimal design for the space and size of container that you are using. Hope this helps!

A 55 gallon tank makes a perfect sump. Ideally, you will want to put plexiglass dividers in to make 3 sections -- the first section for equipment like skimmer and heaters, the second for the refugium, and the third for the return pump.

I did mine by watching this video on Youtube. Very helpful.

I use a 50g for a sump on my 90 and love it. My tank isn't drilled, I have an overflow box. I only run my 50g at about 35g capacity, so my display can overflow into my sump quite a bit. I don't have to worry about flooding, when I'm doing water changes I can pull alot of it right from the sump, and there's plenty of room for your equipment.

Wow, I'm honored! Ive been referenced!!
I have only been "officially" in the hobby for about a month, but I am 2 baffles from completing my sump! (the glass place cut my baffles too short)
I have updated my sump plan, so here it is (see attachment) - the only thing I need to add to the file is that I found out that I need 9" of water for the skimmer, so I will build an eggcrate stand in the intake section to make that height adjustment (I have room in the stand for it)
I warn you, the silicone is MESSY!!..and can be awkward - but really, the sump does not have to be pristine!

I also used that video that sunshine posted as my first point of reference, although my sump is not drilled.

Oh, and I am also planning on drilling my DT, using an internal overflow - my 29g sump has enough room above the highest baffle to accept quite a bit of overflow in case something goes wrong! (not sure exactly how much, but I think my overflow plans need about 3 or 4 gallons of room in the sump in case anything fails.)