Baffled about Baffles

[Swim74]

I have seen the pics from a thread a while ago with the different baffles people have set up in their sump/fuge.

in the past, I ran no baffles as I had a hang on skimmer. now I have an "in sump one" so I siliconed in my first baffle last night. that is some messy stuff!

so my question-what is the point of the baffle that is a bit elevated off the floor of the sump?? it seems to be sandwiched between two that are flush to the floor. is that a flow restrictor? my supplies are limited so I think I am just going to have a skimmer section, flowing into a fuge section, flowing into a external pump hole section...

 

[One Eye]

It's to force air bubbles out of the water before getting to your return pump and causing micro bubbles in you tank.

 

[Swim74]

thanks one eye-

thats bad news for me, I'm gonna have some bubbles for a little while!!

 

[NateHanson]

It's a maze for the bubbles, to reduce the number that get into the display tank. They should be arranged with an elevated baffle first and last for the best efficiency. That way water is drawn from the bottom of the skimmer section (where there are presumably fewer bubbles than at the top). Then the water goes over the next baffle, and hopefully bubbles pop at the surface and are given another chance to rise to the top as the water is directed downwards under another elevated baffle. If water flow is too fast through all this the bubbles will just get swept through, so make sure the baffles are as far apart as practical (1.5-2 inches maybe) so that flow is nice and lazy through the bubble trap.