So far, this is what I have. I broke down the 75g cichlid tank yesterday and donated 200$ worth of fish back to my LFS (b&b), unfortunately they do not give store credits so i was bummed about that.
Here's my tank, pre-drilled. I'm going to contact a glass specialist and see about having it drilled for an overflow.
This is my current inventory:
I am waiting for my 2x 1600 sure flow mod kits and magnets to come in for the maxi-jet 1200s. You can see my mag7, new protein skimmer with pump, 2x maxi-jet 1200s, marine land visi-stealth 250w heater (considering if i should get another or not), and my beer (number one inventory priority). Also seen in picture is my 24" 2x24watt 10000k actinic fixture from my 30gallon holding tank (cichlids) that i considered using to supply light to the sump/fuge but the ballast has gone bad and it would be easier to just replace than to fix hence the fact that its an internal ballast with no way to access it.
Like stated in my previous post, based on todays weather; i would start constructing my 20g sump. I am here to tell you, the weather sucked! That's quite alright because I'm pretty stubborn and worked on it anyways.
These are the tools not necessarily (excluding the aquarium safe silicone) needed but I used them anyways : Measuring tape, Aquarium safe silicone, speed square, painters tape (for easy removal), notepad, and more beer :D
added note: i also used a miter saw to trim the acrylic panels
this is the general idea:
green = mag and return
blue = protein skimmer
red = heater
tan = live rock
yellow = overflow from DT (bulkhead will be drilled on side)
As for construction, I used acrylic plexi-glass to construct the baffles. You can purchase this at any hardware store. I purchased mine at Lowes for a little more than $16. They will even cut it for you if you have the measurements, just keep in mind that the cuts aren't exact and wont fit precisely which is why I used a miter saw to trim the edges till they did. The bubble trap was the trickiest part of the project for me. I found that an old VHS tape made it easy to measure the 1" gaps in the trap as shown in the picture.
So far, the above picture is all I've constructed. I called it quits for tonight so that the silicone can cure. This decision was easy after discovering my beer turned into slush. This will also ensure me to not knock over any other baffles i installed earlier. I found that out the hard way and had to redo one after clean up :(. Will continue work tomorrow and keep you posted. I'm learning all of this by trial and error so feel free to point out any mistake I've made or in the process of making.
Thanks for the knowledge and help so far LivingReefs! :^:
