Post from Sep 16, 2017:
Well, 6 months later and only a small amount of progress. I opted to use the Red Sea sump kit.
Not surprisingly, it's very well built with a foam pad on the bottom to help dampen vibration.
After draining the back chamber, I removed the plugs in the bottom glass and installed the stand pipes from the included plumbing kit. Everything seemed to ratchet click tightly into place and seal nicely.
Once everything was plumbed it was time for the leak test. (Can you spot the problem?)
Yes, a slow drip from the return line coupling. I tried resealing it with gobs of plumbers tape and putty, but the dang thing still leaked. I wrapped the return coupling with towels and let it run for a few more hours to make sure nothing else leaked. Both primary and emergency overflow of the herbie worked as expected. Everything was solid except that dang return line.
Luckily, Red Sea has great customer service. A quick email with pictures and a week later I had a replacement in my hand. Everything installed and leak tested again, no drips.
One lesson learned from my time under the cabinet, I need more light. I found a set of 3 LED light strips at Ikea. They are meant to daisy chain together, male to female end to end, but the cabinet dimensions would not allow proper installation.
After removing them from their plastic casing, I was able to de-solder the male connector and add lead wires in it's place.
A little solder and heat shrink tubing later I had a much more flexible configuration.
Since the outer ends would have been left wide open, I 3D printed caps to close things off. I know this solution is not 100% water tight, but it's mostly splash resistant.
Since my 11 year old daughter is working on her geometry, I decided to take advantage and asked her to make me a mounting template.
After a quick dry fit:
I double sided taped everything and removed the template:
Let there be light!
Since I rushed to get everything in place for use with the sump, I opted to use an old Eheim 1260 pump for my return. It was almost a perfect fit for the return chamber, but caused significant "hum" in the cabinet. Following a tip from one of the many BRS videos, I found a silicon mat at Target. After cutting to shape, I zip tied it to the pump and it greatly reduced the vibration hum.
While my legacy equipment pump and skimmer will work, I would love suggestions for more contemporary alternatives. I'm also struggling with what to do for rock work. I'm thinking of buys a box of dry rock and trying my hand and glued/puttied structures. Does anyone have a suggestion as to how many LBs of dry rock I would need to start?
