Where to buy acrylic for sump baffles?

[Steve G]

Anybody have advice on where I should get acrylic? I have an acrylic 100g tank I'm converting to a sump and want to make some baffles. I assume acrylic to acrylic is better than glass and that I can figure out how to cut it and work with weldon.

 

What thickness is good for a sump baffle? The dimensions will be 21" across by 10" or 11" high

[Zaphodent]

Look up Jax racks on eBay and he can customize to your specifications. I removed all my glass baffles and just updated mine with adjustable water height


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[Zaphodent]

Sorry didn’t fully read your message, 100 gallon sump, yikes, DIY like you said would be better


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[flooddc]

hd or lowes has 1/4" acrylic sheet. A bit pricey though.

[Steve G]

1 hour ago, flooddc said:

hd or lowes has 1/4" acrylic sheet. A bit pricey though.

 

Sorry I should have prefaced with, "I went on the Home Depot website and started wondering if there are cheaper alternatives". I assume I don't need anything fancy,  just rigid. I can probably go thinner than 1/4" but I was surprised at the cost.

[flooddc]

27 minutes ago, Steve G said:

 

Sorry I should have prefaced with, "I went on the Home Depot website and started wondering if there are cheaper alternatives". I assume I don't need anything fancy,  just rigid. I can probably go thinner than 1/4" but I was surprised at the cost.

I see!

I've seen tank divider with thinner acrylic. Not sure how well thin acrylic work for sump baffles. perhaps looking into pvc sheet or a used and cheap acrylic aquarium that you can cut out and repurposed the panels.

[Jon Lazar]

Steve, I used 0.25" acrylic to make my baffles and would do it the same way if I had to do over.  I'd feel ok with 3/16", but I wouldn't go any thinner.  A paper-thin baffle will function the same as inch-thick material, but I'd be sure to accidentally break the thin stuff at some point later, when repair is most difficult.

 

I've worked some with material from HD.  It worked ok, but I had too much edge chipping from both my table saw and router table.  But it could be it was polycarbonate and I just forgot.

 

I buy my acrylic stock from usplastics and pay the required extra arm for shipping.  But it's good material and easy to work with.

 

I've read online in DIY groups where people go to acrylic fab shops and buy scrap acrylic dirt cheap.  Never tried this myself.  If this works, a sump would be the perfect application for slightly used acrylic.  I also recycled some of the original acrylic partitions in my sump when I rebuilt it.

 

 

[Steve G]

Thanks, @Jon Lazar good advice. I'll go quarter inch and I guess just pay what HD or Lowes charge. I was assuming I could just score the acrylic and snap it off.

 

[Steve G]

In case anyone reading this wants to know I ended up going to ABAC. it’s a guy with a small acrylic shop in north Rockville. He cut then pieces to size while I waited. Slightly cheaper than Home Depot and a lot easier.