sump baffles

[keish24]

i am about to build my sump/refuge tank, but i have a question about the baffles in it. should they all be the same height or different heights? i am building the tank out of a 20 gal long aquarium. dimensions are 30" long and 13" tall. suggestions on how demensions of baffles are greatly appreciated.

 

[turningtim]

It all depends on skimmer footprint size (if in sump), return pump size and the amount of water that will go to the sump in a power outage (to avoid a flood). Is the tank RR or H.O.T OF's? How big is the display tank?
Its all pretty simple math when you know all the variables.......
HTH
Tim

 

[keish24]

display tank is 90gal...48X18X24. i dont have the skimmer yet. i was kind of looking at getting an octopus skimmer but i am not sure which one to get yet. the return pump is a quiet one 3000 which is rated at 780 gph and measures about 4" x4". What do you mean by RR or HOT OF's?

 

[mx mr bean]

Hey there, im in the process of upgrading my sump for my 90 gallon tank and i made my baffles 10" tall. btw R.R. means reef ready. im not sure why he would ask that since your putting a sump in but is your tank predrilled with an over flow box or does it have a box filter hanging on the back? Heres a pic of my design.

 

[keish24]

the dt tank is predrilled with an overflow box.

 

[reeferrookie]

RR=reef ready
HOT OF's=hang on top over flows

 

[turningtim]

The reason I ask is b/c you need to calculate the amount of water that will drain from the DT to the sump when the power goes out. You will have some water siphon from the returns, OF box and pipes. Please don't depend on check valves.
If you don't then you are either wasting water volume (space) or going to have water overflowing your sump.

 

[turningtim]

Originally Posted by mx Mr Bean
http:///forum/post/2950237
Hey there, im in the process of upgrading my sump for my 90 gallon tank and i made my baffles 10" tall. btw R.R. means reef ready. im not sure why he would ask that since your putting a sump in but is your tank predrilled with an over flow box or does it have a box filter hanging on the back? Heres a pic of my design.
How are you feeding the fuge?

 

[mx mr bean]

ya check valves definitely go bad especially when coraline starts to grow in it plus they will reduce your head rate on your return pump making it less efficient. For our 90 gallons well lose approximately 5 gallons out of the DT which drains down into the sump so make sure you compensate for that amount in your design. Since your using a 20 gallon tank that has dimensions that you cannot alter I would just say make sure that your baffles are not exactly even with the top of the tank. In the event of a power outage youll need a good 5 gallons or so of extra volume (to be safe test yours out to get an exact amount). I'm making my sump out of acrylic and with the dimensions i chose (10" baffles), I have just over a 36 gallon capacity which will give me some more flexibility on the drainage situation.

 

[mx mr bean]

Originally Posted by TurningTim
http:///forum/post/2950392
How are you feeding the fuge?
At first I was planning on running some kind of split off of my drain line with a ball valve to control the flow but I decided to either run a small pump in the return section up into the fuge with some kind of flow attachment or splitting off a line from my return pump plumping by cutting the flow back a bit with a ball valve.

 

[wangotango]

Good design

It doesn't matter if the water the sump collects after the pump shuts off goes over the baffles. Figures out where you want the water level to be while the system is running, and have the higher baffles be a few inches higher than thatm making sure they're 1-2" off the bottom.
-Justin

 

[turningtim]

Example, tank is 48x18x24 so IF you lose 1" of water when your pump goes off you will lose
48"x18"x1"=864 inches cubed
divide by 231 (cubic inches in a gallon)
and you will lose 3.74 gallons of water when the power goes out. SO just run it backwards on you sump dimensions to find MAX baffle height.
L x W x D(y)=3.74gal x 231
Mr Bean has 13.5 gallon of room in the sump....

 

[mx mr bean]

Also, as tim mentioned, you'll need to make the baffle height decision based on your protein skimmers rated water level operation. I wanted my sump to hold more water than that number allowed to I'm going to build a small box to place the skimmer on which allows for higher baffles (more water) and my protein skimmer will still work as efficiently as it can.

 

[turningtim]

Originally Posted by mx Mr Bean
http:///forum/post/2950413
At first I was planning on running some kind of split off of my drain line with a ball valve to control the flow but I decided to either run a small pump in the return section up into the fuge with some kind of flow attachment or splitting off a line from my return pump plumping by cutting the flow back a bit with a ball valve.
I would split the drain and fed both skimmer and fuge raw tank water.

 

[keish24]

should the baffles all the the same height? i am planning on doing the over under over design between compartments.

 

[mx mr bean]

Originally Posted by TurningTim
http:///forum/post/2950440
Example, tank is 48x18x24 so IF you lose 1" of water when your pump goes off you will lose
48"x18"x1"=864 inches cubed
divide by 231 (cubic inches in a gallon)
and you will lose 3.74 gallons of water when the power goes out. SO just run it backwards on you sump dimensions to find MAX baffle height.
L x W x D(y)=3.74gal x 231
Mr Bean has 13.5 gallon of room in the sump....
It should be around 10 gallons of extra volume off of my calculations but I chose to build my fuge 15" tall (1" from the total height of the sump). I could of lowered the fuges height which would've allowed me to lower the extra volume number but i wanted to have more volume in the fuge and my stand height allowed for a taller sump.

 

[mx mr bean]

No, you'll want to make the middle baffle atleast an inch off the base of the sump to effectively reduce microbubbles.

 

[turningtim]

Originally Posted by mx Mr Bean
http:///forum/post/2950456
It should be around 10 gallons of extra volume off of my calculations but I chose to build my fuge 15" tall (1" from the total height of the sump). I could of lowered the fuges height which would've allowed me to lower the extra vollume number but i wanted to have more volume in the fuge and my stand height allowed for a taller sump.
You're right I counted that extra inch. Mr Bean How much flow are you putting through the sump. I would space the baffles at least 1.5" or you'll just carry the micros in the flow.

 

[turningtim]

Originally Posted by keish24
http:///forum/post/2950450
should the baffles all the the same height? i am planning on doing the over under over design between compartments.
The baffles will be the same size but offset at the bottom of the trap.

 

[mx mr bean]

I'm gonna use the Blue Line 40 HD-X (not sure if your familiar with the brand but there made by the former chief engineer of Iwaki pumps, so there basically iwakis just a bit cheaper and a different color) which is rated at 1270 GPH at 0'. My over flow box can handle between 600 and 800 GPH (it's the Megaflow design by all glass). After going through a few elbows, 5 feet to the top of my tank, a ball valve and a reduction piece (since it has a 1" return and my return bulkhead is 3/4") it should be within the overflows range.