I think I've lost my mind. I've been thinking about totally redoing my jbj 28 GAL for a while now and adding a sump. I've seen other people who have drilled them in the top and done a DIy that looks ok. I am thinking something much more ambitious, and frankly it just plain may not work. Her is the description though.
I am going to drill teh bottom of the tank, I am going to completely remove the rear plastic chamber, which basically constitutes teh back 1/8 of the tank. This is already proving difficult as JBJ really siliconed it in there. I am going to use pieces from the removed plastic rear chamber to create a custom overflow that will take only a small amount of space. I am also creating a sump that will fit in the stand. This could get really interesting and i hope it works. I will keep updating with pics. If anyone has any last minute "don't do it I've tried and its a bust" please say so now =-).
I am going to drill teh bottom of the tank, I am going to completely remove the rear plastic chamber, which basically constitutes teh back 1/8 of the tank. This is already proving difficult as JBJ really siliconed it in there. I am going to use pieces from the removed plastic rear chamber to create a custom overflow that will take only a small amount of space. I am also creating a sump that will fit in the stand. This could get really interesting and i hope it works. I will keep updating with pics. If anyone has any last minute "don't do it I've tried and its a bust" please say so now =-).
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a pic is worth a thousand words. Here they are. I am very happy with the sump I created. I think that it will really help this system. I'm still waiting on the pump I ordered but so far everything seems great. Also another thing to bring up is why I decided to do this in the first place. This tank has been having problems since march. I've had coral that just doesn't grow no matter what I do . After working with a few reef behemoths we came to the conclusion that my sand bed had gotten too old. The agrocrete I used had absorbed nitrates and toxic organics over the years and was now leaching them back into the water at a rate in which the system could no longer handle. All my parameters always checked out but remember there are many things we cannot test for. 