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A little while back I brought home with me a baby bamboo shark and put him in a 200g tank I'd set up for him. Well, Mr Bamboo didn't last so long and has recently died. I did my best, but never promised his owner much in way of live animal when he came back.

Now I am considering putting a sump under the tank and restocking it with a million fish. Well, maybe not a million, perhaps only a couple hundred. Ha.

Anyhow, I know jack-diddly about setting up a sump. I know the basics about WHY I should probably get one, but not how to make it work. I thought perhaps I could be crafty and make one, but the more I look into it, the more I realize I'd be totally over my head. I dont even own a blowtorch and have no idea how to fabricate things in plastic.

SO!

I was looking on EBay and found a pre-made, ready to go sump. So why am I here, you ask? Well, I was have a few quesations.

As I said, the main tank is 200 gallons -- so how big should the sump be for effectivness?

Is $300 a good price for a made-to-order sump?
http://tinyurl.com/cn4xg
That is, assuming I can get a 75 gallon sump under the tank without taking out the bracing.

Speaking of bracing, is there any way I CAN take it out to make one large chamber below? This seems dangerous because of the tank size and weight. I obviously dont want to come home to a cracked bottom and water an inch deep.

P.S -- if you live near San Jose, CA and have fabricated your own sump and wouldnt mind making another, let me know!

A couple questions for you Jellyfish...

I'm assuming since you dont have a sump already, that your tank is not predrilled. This means it isn't reef ready, and you're going to have to do some major plumbing to fit a sump in.

I have a sump/refugium on my tank, but it's reef ready so it was easy to set up.

I think that the sump is supposed to be at least a third of the main display tank, but you can actually have it whatever size you want.

My dad knocked the bracing out of my stand so I could fit my sump underneath it. It was a little tricky, but we redid the stand to add support anyway so it didn't matter.

I'll put pictures up later.

-Formerly known as the Ferretfish

Yeah, its not pre-drilled at all, which is mostly why I havent bothered with a sump yet. As for the bracing idea, any info would help. My stand has three comartments and they dont really leave room for more then.. oh.. a 20g under there.

How did you get rid of the bracing exactly, and then later, how did'ja reenforce it?

personally i would just knock up a new stand rather than modify one, so much easier and safer.