New aquarium help

[mlucier]

Hi, after watching a diy video for a homemade filter for my 10 gallon goldfish tank I got extremely interested in in designing and building my own aquarium stand and sump and starting a saltwater tank.
After alot of reading and video watching I came up with a 36"x24"x18.5" acrylic tank. Im taking 4" and doing a coast to coast overflow from 1" below the top of the tank all the way to tje bottom. It gives me 3" for plumbimg. I think im going with 1" piping. Bit dont know where to place it or to go with one or two drains.Going with 1/2" acrylic for the main tank and either 1/4 or 3/8 for the sump. Just dont know how big to make the sump yet. Any advice would be great.

[1troy7]

I would go with 3/4 inch acrylic. Are you going to have a top brace? Rimless?

The sump depends on what you plan to have in it. What size skimmer? Are you going to a refugium in it? What size pump? Filter socks, etc.

Aquarium thickness calculator: http://diyfishkeepers.com/AcrylicThicknessCalculator.htm

[tufkab]

It's always great to see someone else coming into the hobby, but I have to tell you: be prepared; there is A LOT to learn and it gets REALLY expensive. It gets even more expensive when you do something wrong and have to do it over to fix it.

Coming from a 10 gallon goldfish tank, you may as well have never had an aquarium before. So don't take this the wrong way, but you have days and days and days worth of reading in the "New to the Hobby", "Reef Discussion", "Reef Chemistry" and "Do It Yourself" Sub-Forums.

Most people around here are extremely friendly and more than happy to help.

You'll have a hard time finding two people that will give two matching answers on exact sump dimensions, but the general consensus among most is make it the largest you can possibly fit inside your stand.

There are two methods of building drains commonly used, one being "herbie" and the other being "beananimal" and although I prefer the herbie setup myself, the beananimal system does have it's advantages; I'd be more willing to recommend beananimal for someone just getting into it and setting up their first tank. One inch drains are damn near useless, go with 1.5".

As far as the coast to coast goes, either I mis-read your description or you're confused as to what a coast to coast is. If you have the room, a coast to coast external overflow is AWESOME.

One more note on cost. You need a tank, sump, stand, lighting, heaters, skimmer, pump, powerheads, live rock, sand, Reverse Osmosis filter, salt mix, test kits, plumbing and a whole bunch of other small things that you end up needing to buy as you go along. All this is just to bring you to the point where you can start cycling the tank. Then you actually have to start buying fish to stock the tank.

You could EASILY blow $4000-$5000 setting this tank up, or you might be able to do it for as cheap as $1000. It all depends on how handy you are at doing things yourself, if you have to go with the best of the best equipment, if you are the type that has to buy everything brand new or you buy EVERYTHING used.

Just remember, NOTHING GOOD HAPPENS FAST in the hobby.

[rocking]

mlucier to tell you the truth here buy your sump ! get your start on dyi stuf on something a little easyer

[jimmyj7090]

Also beware of DIY acrylic youtube videos. There may be some good ones, but there are also some that give really bad advice very confidently.

This link shows how to do it right. http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=390652

[skeeter_usaf]

Not sure how you got to this point from a ten gallon goldfish tank but ok. Everyone is hear to help you but you have to be willing to help your self (by reading all the stickies) or you are going to be back to that goldfish bowl, definately less expensive. I have $7000 invested in mine and I could easily spend more. This hobby isn't very forgiving but if your willing to put in the effort, it can be real rewarding. Welcome to RC.