Sump Design Questions

[PaulKreider]

So Im about to build my sump and I'm wondering which "design" works best. Hoping some people can chime in on the benefits/downsides of these designs I've roughly drawn up.

Imagine the first section (with the down arrow) houses the filter socks and skimmer.
While the Last section (with the up arrow) houses the return pump.

Which design do you think is best, and why?

sumps by paulkreider60, on Flickr

 

[redfishbluefish]

None of them.


I would do "A" but with only the first two baffles in the bubble trap. Three baffle bubble traps aren't necessary in my mind. FYI, my current sump has no bubble traps.

 

[Patto005]

So Im about to build my sump and I'm wondering which "design" works best. Hoping some people can chime in on the benefits/downsides of these designs I've roughly drawn up.

Imagine the first section (with the down arrow) houses the filter socks and skimmer.
While the Last section (with the up arrow) houses the return pump.

Which design do you think is best, and why?

sumps by paulkreider60, on Flickr

I'm pretty new to all of this, but from your drawings, it appears that "C" would give you the most residence time to dissipate the largest amount of microbubbles. But I don't have any experience with it to give you any definite answers. Hth

 

[PaulKreider]

None of them.


I would do "A" but with only the first two baffles in the bubble trap. Three baffle bubble traps aren't necessary in my mind. FYI, my current sump has no bubble traps.

Interesting, you don't get any microbubbles? What skimmer is that?

 

[redfishbluefish]

Skimmer is SWC 160. And just to clarify, I have two drains coming into the sump, one each in the back corners of the sump. On the left, that drain goes into a 7 inch sock and then the skimmer. On the right, that drain goes directly into the refugium. The center section has the biopellet reactor that feeds back to the skimmer and a small pump for the GFO/Carbon reactor, and finally, the MAG 9.5 for return to the 90 gallon DT.

 

[jayhawk]

I just built a sump like "A", except my drain has one baffle and the return has the three. In hindsight, I would add one more baffle like "C". It will help with micro-bubbles. I put a piece of porous sponge between my baffles and this helps with mirco-bubbles but if I didn't, my configuration would have bubbles. the extra baffle, IMO, will prevent that.

 

[Longnose Hawkfish]

I like c

 

[PaulKreider]

Are there any benefits of having the water go under the first baffle as opposed to over?

 

[redfishbluefish]

Are there any benefits of having the water go under the first baffle as opposed to over?

Here's my reasoning for a two baffle bubble trap......If you have aerated water being driven deep into the first chamber (as example from a drain from the DT), I believe it's best to have the water first flow over the first baffle with the second one raised off the floor of the sump. The reasoning is that if it was the other way around, the bubbles driven down could exit through the baffles bringing those bubbles along. By having to flow over the first baffle, if there were bubbles there, they no longer have the engery to travel back down again. Hope that makes sense.

 

[PaulKreider]

Makes sense, I was figuring the flow under the first baffle after the socks would help water flow through the socks rather than water building up and overflowing the socks.

 

[bpauley]

I like to design my sumps so that I have very few "dead" spots. With design A, the two bottom corners and bottom of your center chamber have pretty much no flow. Same as in design D, you have no real flow at the top of the center chamber. B and C have the least amount of dead spots, and B being the simpler of the two, I would go with B.

 

[Gopi]

I just built A using a 29 gallon, I had a 1 baffle 10 gal sump before without microbubble issues.

 

[Reefer4Ever]

Just my opinion but in my experience I would say none of them. You want the first 2 chambers to always spill over from the top or you will end up with scum floating on top of the water because there is no flow. Over on the first chamber and bubble trap from 2nd chamber to 3rd just start with spill over then under then finally over leading into the last chamber being return.

 

[Reefer4Ever]

 

[VicD81]

I say A but reverse the arrows. You bubble trap should be at the end right before the return pump. With B,C or D you will not be able to put any sand in the fuge.

 

[Rjramos]

I'd say it depends on what you want to do with the middle chamber. Are you gonna put sand, mud, grow macro algaes, liverock, etc. I like to bring water into the center chamber mid- water level. And exit on the surface on the out end. That way, you get good circulation throughout and surface skimming which is very important IMO. I place a sponge block with a floss pad on top of it I clean regularly. This keeps bubbles down on the pump side and the Refugium runs with less maintenance.