Sump without baffles?

[mark freshwater]

Hi , i was going to spend a heap of money for a premade sump for my 4ft , 70 gal tank.
Then i remembered i have a 2' x 20"x 20" in the garage empty.
So i was going to try to put some baffles in myself.
This is what i was thinking without the freshwater reservoir .

My questions are :
Do i set the height of the left baffle higher than the next one in order or the same?
Which of the two, do i set to how i high i want the water level of the skimmer?
With the right baffle how far off the bottom of the tank is the gap?
Hope this makes sence , i would like to do it as it would cost me $50 instead of $250

 

[sa6hir]

Ok to the question about height of the baffle for the skimmer that will be the right hand side if ur looking at the tank ( based on the return pipe from the tank on the left side). The baffle on the left side I would keep that about 1-1.5 cm from the bottom but the u will need another baffle about a cm away if u know what I mean... that baffle will need to be touching the bottom

 

[mark freshwater]

Ok thanks , is this what you mean without the sock holders (just the baffles) , i will use a hang on one.

 

[mcarroll]

So i was going to try to put some baffles in myself.

Why not try it without baffles? Keeps things roomy and flexible. I ran mine for about a decade like that and it worked out great.

All I had was a bubble trap on the sump-intakes, a skimmer, a heater, a flow pump and a return pump.....and room for anything else I wanted to do along the way. My ATO sensor and feed-line were anchored to the bubble trap, BTW.

 

[mark freshwater]

Mcarroll ,
in regards to your bubble trap do you mean i would put the bubble trap like on the right hand side of the above "next reef " pic and move it over to the left and leave the rest bare ? Or does the bubble trap always go just before the return pump? so leave it on the right?
I like the idea of the ATO sensors on the bubble trap.
I have a skimmer that both hangs on and can go in sump , an ATO and a reactor all hanging on and its annoying me,
I am mainly looking for somewhere to put all this aswell as adding a a bit more water and making everything a bit easier appealing , so what you suggest sounds great.

heres a pic of what i mean of the hang on stuff everywhere .

 

[ca1ore]

As a general rule, if you use baffles, they decline in height as you move from drains to return. The only exception will be the 'under' baffle for the bubble trap which is higher but has the gap underneath.

 

[mark freshwater]

Ok so from drain it would go higher piece , under baffle, then lower piece the height i want my skimmer level , if only having the bubble trap?

 

[hart24601]

I run an open sump without baffles, decided to try it just to see how it would work and now I don't think I ever needed baffles!

 

[Elegance Coral]

With low micron filter socks, well designed and adjusted skimmer, and ATO, you really don't need baffles or bubble traps.
Baffles were much more important back in the day with poor mechanical filtration, horrible skimmers, and no ATO. Now baffles just tend to get in the way more than anything else.
JMHO
Peace
EC

 

[KJAG]

Recently built a new simple three chamber sump. Fuge>Skimmer>Return, with an under over under bubble trap. If you do go with no baffles, what are your measures to prevent a skimmer from overflowing in the event of power loss?

 

[mcarroll]

With low micron filter socks, well designed and adjusted skimmer, and ATO, you really don't need baffles or bubble traps.
Baffles were much more important back in the day with poor mechanical filtration, horrible skimmers, and no ATO. Now baffles just tend to get in the way more than anything else.
JMHO
Peace
EC

Good points!!

I relied on the extra circulation pump to keep detritus up in the display - getting caught by the skimmer was the only other option.

Corals were/are my only mechanical filtration. This is only possible/practical with an open sump.

The bubble trap was nice vs filter socks since it was build-and-forget. (Though it did take a few very different iterations to arrive at the "best" design.)

I certainly could not have done it without an ATO based on a magnetic reed switch (or better).
(http://www.chicagosensor.com/HowFloatSwitchesWork.html)

Even giving that sensor (part of an o-o-old Ultralife ATO) such a large surface area to monitor (vs the typical return chamber), I don't think my water level varied noticeably at all. The ATO would only turn on for a several seconds at a time in most cases. (260gph pump feeding through 1/4" air tubing, so it's a "strong trickle" with each run.)

 

[hart24601]

The skimmer question is a good one as I have run them in all my baffless systems. I generally have the return so there isn't all that much water that flows into the sump in a powerloss and the return pump gets the water level back to normal before the skimmer is really impacted as I skim pretty dry. With no baffles the entire sump raises and lowers at the same time so for my systems it hasn't been an issue.

My newest project, a 34g deep blue tank I use a baffle less 10g tank, tunze skimmer and no filter socks along with chaeto. I have some egg crate between the return pump and chaeto but there have been no micro bubbles or any issues. I very much like having no baffles for more room. I do have smart micro ato and it's sensitive enough that it is only on a second or two so there are not salinity changes.

 

[steveaus10]

no baffles here

 

[Sonor]

If you do baffle and use an ATO, just remember that your chamber with the fastest water level change will be your return pump area , so your ato sensor should be in that chamber. The smaller the volume of this chamber the less fluctuation you will see in salinity.

 

[dmolavi]

This has been an awesome thread. I've been running my tank for a couple years with baffles between my skimmer and return area, and notice that the top of the water in the return area tends to get stagnant. I was pondering re-doing the baffles to encourage more flow in the return area, but that might be more trouble than it's worth.

Background - DT is 40B, sump is 20L that I added baffles to. Sump is divided into 2 areas via baffles - drain from the DT via a BeanAnimal system which shares the space with redundant heaters and a carbon reactor, and the return area (with the ATO sensor). I suppose I could always extend the return line from the carbon reactor to the return area, and let that stir up the water a bit, but i'm also OK with pulling the baffles all together.

If I remove the baffles, is there anything i need to be aware of?

 

[thabizness]

I don't have baffles in my sump on my 180/30 displays. The sump is just a 40B.

 

[WVNed]

I use 1 baffle at least to set the depth of water the skimmer runs in. One side is skimmer and drains in and other side is return pump section where make up water goes. That way the water level changes never nerf the skimmer.
I use an old tank and a piece of salvage glass siliconed in.

 

[dmolavi]

I use 1 baffle at least to set the depth of water the skimmer runs in. One side is skimmer and drains in and other side is return pump section where make up water goes. That way the water level changes never nerf the skimmer.
I use an old tank and a piece of salvage glass siliconed in.

Is this baffle flush with the bottom of the sump or up off the bottom?

 

[WVNed]

To the bottom. How high it is sets how much water your skimmer runs in. Use 1 more piece of glass and you have a bubble trap. Second piece doesn't go to the bottom.

 

[member 99594]

I only have the bubble trap and that is just before the return pump. I so far have no issues and I have lots of room to add reactors and other equipment.