sump design part one, opinions please

[nitrofish]

heres what I got so far, and heres my concerns:

will the flow thru the "rock divider" be too restrited?

does the 2" gap on the bottom of the baffles sound ok? I was thinking of spacing the baffles 2" apart, is that ok?

 

[nitrofish]

acual pic

 

[NateHanson]

How big are those holes? 3/4"? Add up the cross-sectional area of the holes to see if they're greater than the size of your drain plumbing. (They need to be a good bit bigger than the plumbing because the plumbing has the advantage of a lot of gravity speeding it up.)

A=(3/8)^2*PI=0.44 sq. inches x 24=10.5 sq. inches
Do the same for your plumbing diameter, and compare the two areas.

Also, I'd lower those "holy baffles" below the rim of the tank, so if they get blocked up the water will flow over them without flowing over the sides of the sump.

Nate

 

[RichConley]

Why 4 baffles? In your bublle trap, if the level gets low, and the last baffle is an "over" you're going to get bubbles from it overflowing. You may want to go with 3 or 5 baffles.

Mine has the last one as an over, and I can tell how low the sump is by looking at the microbubbles in teh display.

 

[NateHanson]

Yes, an over baffle at the end doesn't do any good. Any bubbles left in the water will just flow over the last baffle (and possibly create new bubbles as they crash into the return section).

 

[nitrofish]

ok, ill get rid of one of the baffles. the holes are made with a 22 mm hole saw, can anyone figure out what that means for flow?

 

[nitrofish]

just found my tape measure, it looks like the holes are 3/4"

my drains are x6 3/4.

will this work?

 

[NateHanson]

If you have six 3/4" drains from the tank, and twenty-four 3/4" holes in each baffle, then you shouldn't have any problem. There's four times as much area in the baffle holes as there is in the drains.

I'd still cut down the height a bit so a clogged baffle doesn't flood your room.

 

[nitrofish]

I decided to eliminate the sheet with the holes for eggcrate instead.

 

[nitrofish]

I'd still cut down the height a bit so a clogged baffle doesn't flood your room.

think 1" wil be enough below the surface?

 

[NateHanson]

I think that's plenty.

 

[nitrofish]

Well I have the eggcrate in place. its split int 3 chambers now, the skimmer and overflow outputs, to the live rock, then to the pumps and heater

 

[nitrofish]

heres my first baffle,the water will flow under this one . theres a 2" gap under the baffle and a 1" emergency gap on the top incase the bottom fails.

the acrylic is foggy because it was all scratched up, so I sanded it with fine sand paper, which left it smooth, but foggy.it accually looks better when its wet. but its only a baffle, they all look the same from the side.

next I will cut the shorter "over baffle" . I just got to find some good scrap acrylic from work.

 

[nitrofish]

got the second baffle in, water flows over this one.

 

[nitrofish]

the second baffle detenrmines the hight of the water in the main part of the sump, water will be kind of high at 14", but that still gives me a lot of overflow room.

 

[nitrofish]

3rd baffle in place

 

[nitrofish]

next I need to make some sort of skimmer stand in the front of the sump.

anyway heres how I think the water will flow, enjoy my artwork

 

[nitrofish]

needed to raise up the skimmer, so heres my platform to space the skimmer up 2 1/2"

 

[nitrofish]

next step is buying a external pump and drilling the tank.

 

[Reef55]

I wouldn't use eggcrate for the riser box for your skimmer. It is now a place for deterious (sp?) to build up. I'd just put a solid piece on top instead of the eggcrate.