Custom Acrylic Sump

HooliganGunner · Feb 13, 2026

so for part of my 580(ish) gallon aquarium build, I wanted to do a custom sump for it. I plan on running 2 reefmat 1200s and nothing off the shelf would fit those. I kinda mocked everything up in tinkercad to make quoting out the cutting easier and plan out how its going to look. Sump is going to be 3/8 cast acrylic, 24" wide, 72" long, and 15" tall. Did some quick maffs and figure to comfortably fit 2 reefmat 1200s next to eachother I need 36" of length so I have that for chamber 1, chamber 2 is going to be for a skimmer, made that 11.5" wide as most skimmers that large seem to be 11" or under, next space is also about 11" for a small refugium or maybe just extra live rock... never had a refugium before but in case I decide I want to try one with this build figured I pre plan it, then I have my over under baffles before my 12" return pump section. Also thinking I might be able to fit the skimmer behind the reefmats as they should have about 12" to spare behind them, in which case I can combine the skimmer and fuge sections together. The baffle between reefmats and skimmer section will be the full 14.25" from top to bottom with a lower drain into skimmer section and emergency top cutout into that section as well. If I have a baffle between the skimmer and fuge section it was 10" from bottom with slits for water to flow through. First bubble trap baffle is 9", next one is about an inch away and is also 9" but a 1" gap between it and the bottom so it is also 10" from bottom.

Any ideas, suggestions, tweaks, things im overlooking? I will also have a 1" perimiter eurobrace for the top with a 1" going across as well to be safe.

I'd love to add some spots for bulkheads in and out and put some lids on it but I am not there with tinkercad software and I'm not 100% where they'd all be poking out anyways

mann1139 · Feb 14, 2026

That sump looks very shallow. If power cuts off, then is there enough space available to handle the overflow water from the display?

Also, you will be much more likely to complain a chamber is too small than too big.

HooliganGunner · Feb 14, 2026

mann1139 said:
That sump looks very shallow. If power cuts off, then is there enough space available to handle the overflow water from the display?

Also, you will be much more likely to complain a chamber is too small than too big.

It's 15" tall which seems to be the standard on all the sumps I looked at but wouldnt take much to go taller with it