Glass Sump

[tjampm]

I'm looking for some advice.

I'm attempting to make a sump out of a 30 gallon glass aquarium. I found a place that may be able to cut glass baffles for me. The only problem is, it's been tough to get a very accurate measurement for how wide the baffles should be. Has anyone done this before? and if so, would you be able to tell me if it is better to err on the side of too small or too big?

[tygger]

Try to get it exact, but if anything, I'd say try to err on too small. Too large and the baffles won't even fit. Atleast if it were 1-2mm too small, you can fill it with silicone.

[fsn77]

If you are putting in baffles that are the entire front to back width/depth of the tank, the width of the baffles should be approximately equal to the width of the end of your tank, minus the thickness of the glass for the front and back of the tank. If you're looking at your tank from the end, you can see the seams where the front and back meet the side panel of the tank -- take the measurement without including the glass that is the front and back panels.

I say approximately equal because if they are the same size, it will be difficult to position them in the tank, unless the top trim / lip is removed. It would be better to err on the side of ever so slightly small than too big. If they are too big, you'll never get them in straight and attempting to force them in could stress the seal on tank itself or cause the baffle to break, either way causing more headaches than you want from this project. With the baffles being just a tiny bit small, you can make up that very small difference with the silicone used to hold them in place.

[doox00]

my aga 30 gallon was 11 11/16" wide if I remember correctly, I used acrylic baffles though.

[comatose]

Here is a method my father taught me for exact measurments of hard to reach places.
1. if you have a carpenters measuring tape( the wooden ones that fold) on the end they have a slide metal piece for this very kind of measurement.
2. and this one is a great one thanks to my father, if you have two paint sticks or any other kind of two flat wooden sticks, put them in the tank on top of one another slide them apart until each stick touches each side, get a pencil and put a line or two thru both sticks somewhere where both stick overlap, now take the sticks out and lay them on the table and match up the pencil lines again and then measure with a regular tape measure to get the exact inside distance. this works everytime and is very very accurate.
i use this method alot myself.