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When you use the first piece as a template, the second cut is always a slight bit larger than original. If you use the second piece to mark the third piece, the third will be slightly larger than second and noticeably larger than the original. So when cutting multible of anything , always use the first piece to measure all of them and your pieces will be more consistent.

"you were right and I was wrong.. uhh that hurts..". Love it! Way to keep it real. Great build!

You should change that wooden shim, I did something similar in my reef tank and when it got wet it expanded and cracked my sump. Love your videos even though I’m a salty👍

So far it looks like I could make a sump- jury is out 'til the plumbing video💕👍

Awesome vlog this week! I have been looking forward to the sump build for months! Thank you John for sharing!

This is awesome! It’s actually simpler than I thought, probably because of how you wanted it done.

When you was talking about putting the 75 gallon in the bottom I was thinking sure just slide it in the back.... Then you said that it has a solid back..... Well let's see what you did lol. Ps really awesome that you admit when something goes wrong. It shows you are human and make mistakes like the rest of us. Bug thanks for that.

From snowy England loving your guys contents gets better each time. Keep it up guys learning so much

John! Your a Magician with your Hands! Seriously man, that’s one of the coolest looking DIY sumps on KZfaq, I think it’s absolutely Brilliant! You Handled that Dremel tool like a pro. You kept the video on point, easy to understand and follow, while interesting at the same time, I have a brand new trigger systems sump, I don’t need a sump and still found this video interesting. Thanks John!

We all learn so much from sharing our mistakes or misconceptions!! And that you tend to share your lessons learned makes this channel so boss and relatable and entertaining.

Kgtropicals, I can't tell you how much I have learned in a short time watching your videos!! Im a manager at a pet store and my knowledge of fish and aquariums was kind of lacking. Thanks to you guys I have a new found confidence and will be able to help so many more customers now!! Great content all the time. Ive been binge watching your videos for about 3 days now!! Thanks again!! Hope all is well with you guys!!

Simplicity at its best! Great video. Looking forward to seeing the follow up

Oh oh. 😱😱😱 Somebody forgot to add the links of what he used. 🤔

Can't wait to see this tank in action! The yellow labs, and the black background is going to look awesome!

Yes, you can wash the filter socks, I do add Clorox they come out like new. But I do rinse them before putting them in the washer.

Just got back in the hobby and already have plans for a 125 gallon mbuna tank in the future. This is so helpful and shows how much I can save on filtration. Thanks for the vid! Always impressed 😁

So excited to order from you guys later today! 😁 I cant wait to see the end result of your project!!

Neat idea, I went the baffles route a couple years ago when I built mine. Will try this for the next one. For your sock holder, you could use the egg crate again. You can silicone small strips in place on the 3 tank walls to act as a shelf. Then cut another piece to hold the socks(hope that makes sense without a photo). You can wash the socks in the machine, I have 4 too and just swap them every 3 days.

That is so cool! I never understood what a sump did. I can’t wait to see how it works.

Wonderful video! Great information! Looking forward to part 2! :)

I love the diy, only thing I would have done differently is I would have the water pass through all my mechanical filtration before it hit my bio media. Just so the bio media has less gunk hitting it and it doesn't clog up as quickly and I'd use a plastic shim instead of wood. I'm going to diy my next tank set up. Thanks for the idea.

Can't wait for the next one. I just did a 55g sump on my 125g discus tank. Keep up the good work! 🤙

Don't forget to mention how to calculate the size of your sump system and how powerful your pumps need to be.

Wow nice can’t wait until next week to see the rest of the pluming and how it works always wanted to do one

Love your videos and I learn alot from you guys so thank you and keep up the great work

Instead of asking you "are you sure?" A good company should have told you why they were asking.

I made above tank sumps for my 60 and 50g aquariums. My old back hates bending over. Really easy. A tub on top with two 2 qt. bottles filled with lava rock,quilt batting. Hose connector keeps hose in bottle cap. SO easy to rinse and keep my goldfish tanks clean. 2 marineland 1200 power heads in each tank. Easy Peasy, PS-thanks for always teaching, I appreciate it

Nice setup, But I spotted a possible failure point, that could be a big one. Having two bifurcated sumps if a pump cuts out on one sump, the second sump will continue to fill up the tank thus draining into both sumps until the water level is to low in the sump with the running pump, and there is a possibility that the non running sump would overflow and get the floor wet. The standard fix for this is to bridge the two sumps with a passthrough, i.e. drill a hole low on each sump and slap in some bulkheads and a pipe to allow for a shared water level across the two independent sumps.

You and the sump are looking good, congrats!

I think the reason for the use of baffles and mazes for the water to flow through is to maximise exposure to each different type of media in order to maximise the nitrification process

I've always been ehhhhhhhhh I don't know about trying a sump but this looks like something even I could do. Thanks for sharing. what an awesome vid

I just got my order from your store. Gouda the Betta loves his new food.

Looking forward to part two!!

Hi guys once again great video I'm in the process of fitting a sump under my 6 x 2 x 2 aqaurium. Keep up the great work. It'll be housing my Oscars and a few other lovely fish. Rich uk

Awesome! Not at the point of needing a sump yet on my 75G! But this will help me down the road! 😎 Much Appreciated

Hmm, I think I’m going to make my own sump can’t wait to see it working on your next steam Tank‘s for the lesson 😊

Really nice and easy... Thanks for sharing...

Looking forward to the next part!

Door on the side is great! Diy stand is the best.. double 2x6 front header.. allows a full open front.

great video thanks so much ...love the channel !!

great simple build. if your like me you have lots of suction cups from old heaters and what not you could use those to reinforce the egg crate sponge wall

NICE DIY setup.

What I did was remove the DT from the stand and then remove the cross bracing on the top of the stand and then put the sump in from the top of the stand and then put the cross brace back in place. That's how I got a 30 gallon Aqueon aquarium into my stand for my 75 gallon.

Another great video awesome tutorial!!!

I'd recommend buying that large sponge from Swiss Tropicals. They have a huge selection of size, thickness, PPI, and color. I just got one for a DIY hamburg matten filter.

Nice bit of diy, which I do enjoy myself but not had much experience with sumps. But I have space to do something similar. Sound like good project for me.

Awesome. I am putting together a sump right now for a 90 gal. However, i already had the glass cut for the baffles and picked up from the store.

He’s a rambler, but I like him. 😂😂😂 thanks for the help 😊

Can I throw in my two cents. I have a 120g sump on aro tank. That biomedio stacked up will hold to much detritus. Put some here and there and dont lay flat. You'll find your sump stays cleaner. Also build a egg crate stand put floss on top. Cut those dang socks flat and put under floss. Run reef 500g with 120 sump also. Unless your running return pipe under water which you should, only then dead silent. Hope it helps guys.

my dude this was an awesome DIY thank you !

Love this video. Thanks so much.

Water will choose the easiest way. That doesn't necessarily means that it will flow through the filter blocks. Thanks for the video

I might try to make a diy sump for a nano tank, it will be a fun project. Thanks for the info!

Looking forward to part 2.

watching the sponge process and had a thought; if you want extra security that the sponge won't move, I’m sure you could put suction cups on either side to keep it from falling over. use the little nubs as a brace so it cant move

I adore sumps. yes, they can be low cost. yes, drilling a hole in glass can be intimidating (or you can order tanks pre-drilled). That said, the sheer volume and versatility of a sump is second to none. They can be extremely simple, or they can house any and all of your accessories: heaters, bubblers, probes, reactors, media filter, filter socks, and you can light them as a refugium. Fresh or salt, nothing rivals their versatility. Great video topic. *also, bulkheads between sumps (for multiple sump tanks) do function just like a baffle depending on how high or low you cut them, if you wanted to run a single pump. And you can machine wash most filter socks, while pre-washing in a sink first helps keep a significant other in your life happy

Awesome Video! I've always wanted to know how to make a simple sump but all the videos I've seen were with 55 gallons

I like your DIY vids the best!

I had the same problem with my 280 stand. Quick fix cut a new door out the side to slide my sump in. Baffle are great for a protein skimmer.

Dual sumps! That's really cool!

This is a great video for us newbies would you guys do a video with the differences between canister filters and sumps?

love you and love your all videos u are a great teacher for me love from india

Nice keep up the good work. I recently made a similar system using a 5 gal bucket. Would love to see how you plumb everything in and what size pump you used. Can't wait till next week.

If you want the sump quiet, I strongly recommend using filter jars rather than socks.

Great video.

Nice simple design.. I wanted to make a sump also but cutting & siliconing glass baffles seemed like a lot of work 👍

best sump video evar!

I really love ur vids because these are smart things for fish or bettas to be happy. I have a fish, his name is Coret, I just made it up. He come to me everyday or night when I check on him, sometime when I come he wakes up to come, sometimes when I go check on him he sleeps. I really love ur vids

Wow that does look easy. I think I would put some potted plants in the section with the pump. Help absorb some nitrates. A lot of space in there. Maybe some bags of bio media?

But John what happens if the sump pump fails and the sump overflows? Very concerned.

John, next time, to save time and protect the glass from scratches.... you can cut a couple of foam strips and use them as ends to capture the plastic grid divider, that way you don’t have to be exact to cut it.

Great brother👍

Great video. Not seeing link for the pump you used. I'm interested in looking for my (very) small pond. This gave me idea on how to filter that. Thanks for all your vids love you and Lisa have learned alot and going to amp up my fish game.

Love it

I dont understand why people would dislike these fish videos

Good video.. i think if you connect both sumps to have the same water level etc... it will save you from future problems.

Great informative video! I did something similar to make a sump for my 75 gallon reef tank. I also used a 29 gallon tank but in hindsight I should've used a 40 gallon breeder. I realize you probably couldn't get it to fit but if possible, it would be the tank to use. It's wider and slightly longer but 2" shorter for easier access to perform maintenance once in the stand. Also be aware that when the sump starts to fill, the glass will start to bow out a bit so those once tight fitting pieces of egg crate might end up being not so tight. I would also recommend a bigger filter sock, especially for that size of a tank. With big fish making a big mess, you'll be having to clean those smaller socks every 3 days or so.....and using wood to shim the sock bracket?.....I'm not so sure about that.

I built a 20 gallon "show" (12x12x24) tank and anyway I had some pumice rock in my yard from the previous owner. I was looking at how the rock looked like a sponge, so I picked some up and boiled them and smelled them to make sure there wasn't any sulfur in them and there wasn't any so I put some of the big ones about 4 inches by 2 in the back behind where I planned on putting my Live rock and filled my hang on the back filter I made from some discarded Lexan pieces from a woodshop. It was almost as long as the tank. To make a long story short after my tank had gone through its cycles I had things in there I had no idea where it came from. My nitrates were zero and stayed zero because anaerobic bacteria was living deep in that pumice. I only changed the water about 5 gallons a month.

Diagonal cutters. Lol. Thanks I'm about to make a 29 gallon sump for my 55.

My brain is ready for this knowledge

You can wash filter socks in the washing machine with no detergent of any kind, I let mine air dry afterward for obvious reasons. Why baffles? Well, for one thing, filth is inevitably going to get past that sock eventually in my experience, especially if you use a sponge layer instead of a sock as the first line of filtration. The "filth" is going to get into in the sump itself at some point, in your bio-media, and into that sponge you got there. When you lift the media out it will be free-floating in the tank itself and then the same when you remove the sponge wall at some point leaving that tank full of tiny stuff floating around, whereas if you had a downward then upward baffle in the front it would be isolated to that section. Is that a big deal? Not really, you can simply leave the sponge out and run it through the filter sock for a while and it will cycle all that stuff back through the tank and into the sock. What baffles are really important for is controlling water, especially if you run a big sump and a tank that couldn't easily accommodate all the extra water in your sump without over flowing. Or if you just want to control the level of water in the sump itself. I have a baffle right before my return so if ANYTHING happened to my drain, my pump couldn't flood my tank with the entire contents of my sump, it will just drain the return section and shut off as I bought a pump that shuts off automatically if there's no water as a failsafe to protect the pump. I'd recommend anyone building a DIY sump to at least do that. If "waterfall noise" is a concern you can put a piece of less dense foam (as to not restrict flow) down in between the baffles to eliminate that. You also wanna drill a small hole in your return that's in the tank just below the waterline (if there isn't one already) to allow the siphon to break in the event of a power outage, so your tank can't flood your sump with backflow. Sumps are the best filtration systems out there as long as you take the precautions needed to avoid a mishap (flood lol). That's really the most important reason for a baffle in a sump, hope this helps someone looking for ideas on how to build a sump.

Thank you

egg crate is also fantastic as a coral frag rack or even as a tank divider

Baffles are for reducing micro bubbles in your water, which makes it clearer. I use a 20g long on my 50g lowboy. The drain dumps into 4inch pvc filled with polyfil. Which then exits through a chamber of dish scrubbers and then runs through the middle filled with 25lbs of lava rock and then exits via the return pump chamber where the auto top off is. The pump is a adjustable dc pump 10v-24v. The heater is a titanium 300w controlled by a inkbird controller.

Super sweet !!! I had a thought about this type of filter. I think about it. Maybe in the room with the water " absorber ( not sure about the term) one can have extra floating plants ?

Great video John. My next project thanks! Is that a 4 inch filter sock with holder? Also, mechanical should come before biological. Less maintenance for you. Thanks again.

14:45 made my day 😆 🤣

This felt like watching Bob Ross making a sump

Please do upload from where you left off. I would really love to see the full process, I might do something similar.

You could "sandwich" the plastic defuser on both sides with that heavy media to guarantee stabilization as foam gets dirty. Just more bio media.

Great video again!! Do you need to have a heater in both sumps? Same amps?

That sump is great! I am going to build one for myself. I have always been a little confused about knowing what size return pump to use and what to use as an overflow system to get the water to the sump. I have a few 75 gallon tanks, and a 120 that I may want to use this type of sump on. Could I use a 20 gallon sump on a 120 gallon tank.

HI!! im your huge fan here at the Philippines!!! :)

You never added the links to the stuff you used in building the sump. Also what size is that tank that you used to make the sump?

Have you tried putting perspex panels on the doors of the stand? I love being able to always see my sump

2 sumps don’t work unless they are connected to allow the water level to equalize between them. Inevitably one pump will outperform the other and/or 1 overflow will outperform the other and one sump will overfill or run dry.

Did you ever look at the Rollermat product for sumps? It seems like you could greatly extend the frequency of water changes.

You are giving me ideas ....

Could you double up the filter sock for better particulate clean up?