20101201 - First thing after doing some research was to go out and find some acrylic sheet in order for me to fabricate my own custom overflow box. Finally located some black acrylic and also got my hands on some black silicon so that the overflow would not be so noticeable when seen from the display side of the tank.
20101205 - After doing lots of measuring I proceeded to make a cardboard mock up of what my over flow box would look like and the dimensions of the box I would need. After doing this I proceeded to cut the inner panel of the Fluval Edge rear tower which normally houses the filtration. Here is a quick pic after doing a couple table saw cuts to the dimensions needed for my custom over flow.
20101209 After getting that done I did a quick layout of where on the back of the Edge tank that the overflow box would sit and also constructed the overflow box. This required using some methylene chloride to acrylic weld the parts together. The resulting box was made and then used to dry fit onto the back of the tank. Now knowing the limits of where the box was going to be situated I proceeded to use a 1/4" drill bit to drill holes into the acrylic rim of the Fluval edge and dry fit the overflow box onto the back.
Side shot of overflow box - notice the slight jog of about 1/8" on the sides of the overflow box where it goes from glass to the plastic rim... fun cutting that on the table saw....
Here it is after applying the silicon. Instead of drawing on the tank with marker I used scotch tape on inside of the tank to mark where the silicon lines were going to be.
close up of inner edge between Fluval edge and the over flow. 1/4" drilled holes for the overflow and black silicon application between the overflow holes and inside lip of the overflow box.
20101213 - A quick pic of my sump build. This was made in a 5G tank. Total water volume increase over the display tank would be approximately 4 Gallons. In case of power outage the amount of siphoned water from the display tank would not over flow my sump.
20101214 - To make sure my acrylic weld would hold I reattached the bulkheads and did a quick test of the sump.
