twinston

i know i probably need one. my question is whether to buy or build one. what will i need if i decide to build. need alll the help i can get.

Tumbleweed

You need to decided what you want in the sump first off. Do you just want a place for extra water volume and to hide equipment? A place for a skimmer, a refugium? I personaly use a rubber made tub for a sump and a rubbermade made tub for a refugium. This is because of space and openings in the stand

twinston

i want both the extra water volume and a refugium. i have 2 extra 10 gallon tanks. i was going to use one as a quarrentine tank and the other for a refugium, but then i thought instead of just a refugium, i could combine both sump and refugium so i could get some of my equipment out of the way. i'm new at the sump thing since it wasn't one of the things i did detailed research of. i will appreciate any info i can get to build one since that will probably be cheaper than buying.

Tumbleweed

Here is a link to a site that has all the info you should need to get a pretty decent idea on sumps and refugiums.
http://www.melevsreef.com/allmysumps.html