Suggestions on baffle locations

[Tony S]

So stand is near complete and I'm ready to cut glass for baffles, and below is what I think will work.... going right to left the skimmer will be on a stand and then over the 1st baffle to the refugium, then over #2 and under #3, in this area will likely be egg crate and some type of floss to prevent any cheeto from getting into the return area and into the main tank. Lastly over #4 and pumped back into the main tank.
Does anything about this scream that I'm doing something way off base.

 

[DLHDesign]

Will your drains dump straight into the skimmer section? Will you be using filter socks or any other form of mechanical filtration, if so?

You usually see the refugium before the skimmer. That way, the macro algae has a chance to pull whatever nutrients it needs out of the water before it is removed. Having the fuge off to one side also reduces the amount of light "bleed" that you get into other areas of the sump (you can black out the first baffle to help with this as well). That also allows you to have the first baffle be higher than the second - keeping more water in the fuge area (for more growth space), but then lowering the second to the optimal height for your skimmer.

I would also recommend that the #3 baffle not go all the way to the top. If the lower section should clog for any reason, you want the water to be able to flow over the top of that baffle and into your return section (rather than over the edge of the sump).
You could likely shorten the height of the #4 baffle, though this is likely not critical.

 

[Tony S]

Will your drains dump straight into the skimmer section? Will you be using filter socks or any other form of mechanical filtration, if so?

You usually see the refugium before the skimmer. That way, the macro algae has a chance to pull whatever nutrients it needs out of the water before it is removed. Having the fuge off to one side also reduces the amount of light "bleed" that you get into other areas of the sump (you can black out the first baffle to help with this as well). That also allows you to have the first baffle be higher than the second - keeping more water in the fuge area (for more growth space), but then lowering the second to the optimal height for your skimmer.

I would also recommend that the #3 baffle not go all the way to the top. If the lower section should clog for any reason, you want the water to be able to flow over the top of that baffle and into your return section (rather than over the edge of the sump).
You could likely shorten the height of the #4 baffle, though this is likely not critical.

I did plan on having 75%/25% of the drain dumping into the skimmer section and refugium respectively, and yes I have two 4" filter socks that would have both in the skimmer section.
okay I can swap the locations and put the skimmer in the return pump section, and the refugium in the 1st, having them on opposite ends.... and to prevent light bleed I was planning on spray painting with Krylon Fusion (this is aquarium safe correct?)
not having baffle #3 going all the way to the top makes sense I'll shorten that one to mitigate any floods as much as possible....
if you don't mind being my brain trust I'll update the sketch and upload that later today, as I only have chance to cut the baffles.

 

[Super Fly]

baffles should be progressively shorter height (they cant all be same height as per drawing) than the 1st in order for water to flow properly from drain section to return. Here's a good link re. sump design http://gmacreef.com/reef-aquarium-sump-tank-design/

Also, u can use this formula to calculate chamber gallons to figure out chamber size to avoid flooding. (LxWxH)/231=ttl gals

 

[Idoc]

I have the exact layout...except I skipped your #4 baffle. You won't need this one...the others are sufficient to stop any microbubbles from getting to the return pump.
I also agree with @DLHDesign above... If I could re-do my design, I would put the refugium on one of the ends and the return pump in the middle! The middle refugium light bleed over into the other sections causes a lot of algae growth in the other areas! I currently took my refugium offline and this was partially due to this problem.

Also, baffle 3 shouldn't go all the way to the top of your sump...you need this to allow water to overflow to the other areas in case of a flood.

 

[TaylorPilot]

Like others have said, put the fuge first, that way you can raise it to the level you want. The issue I have run into while building baffles is that there isn't much you can do to quiet down the water flowing over the baffle into the skimmer section, so it typically needs to be right at the same height as the refugium chamber. Otherwise the water comes crashing over like a waterfall. I fixed the problem by putting an adjustable gate under the water level where most of the water in the fuge flows to the skimmer section under the water line, and only a little bit actually flows over the top. I am not sure how well it can be done on a glass baffle, but it may be something to research. It really makes a big difference on noise levels. As far as the bubble traps, allot of manufacturers have starting running them the way Triton suggests. They put them so that the water flows under the first baffle. What this does is trap all the proteins on the surface of the water inside the skimmer section. The way a traditional system is setup, each chamber skims from the top, removing the bulk of the proteins until they reach the return pump sections. They then sit on top of the water in there. Finally, I don't know what size skimmer you are using, but you should be able to turn it sideways in a 18" wide tank, giving more room for your fuge. That looks to be a 75 gallon aquarium. I just spend all day the other day remaking the design for our 75 gallon kit. I don't know how much of it you can implement with glass baffles, but they are working really well. I have guys flowing almost 2000 GPH through them and they are completely silent.

The first two pictures are of a 4 chamber design with filter socks. The last two are a pure triton style system, which is more along the lines with what you have designed above.

My final suggest, would be to work from the outside in, when figuring out your chamber sizes. Get your return pump, and measure how much room it will need and work backwards from there. Then on the other side lay your skimmer, heater, etc in that chamber, and measure out that baffle. The goal is to optimize the size of the refugium section so that it is as large as possible. I know not all of this can be implemented with glass baffles, but I would try to get as much of it as you can.

 

[theMeat]

So stand is near complete and I'm ready to cut glass for baffles, and below is what I think will work.... going right to left the skimmer will be on a stand and then over the 1st baffle to the refugium, then over #2 and under #3, in this area will likely be egg crate and some type of floss to prevent any cheeto from getting into the return area and into the main tank. Lastly over #4 and pumped back into the main tank.
Does anything about this scream that I'm doing something way off base.

this is perfect. Skimmer in first section to get first chance at dirtiest water. Area for filter socks if need be.
Then fuge to rid any possible micro bubbles from skimmer, and pods don’t have to pass skimmer to get to display. Then bubble trap, then return. Excellent!
The only adjustment I would make is make panel 1 at least a half inch higher than panel 2

 

[Huff747]

Just thought I'd throw this out there, I have one tank's sump set up like that and one tank with the Refugium separate from the sump and I really like the refugium separate. With the refugium in the the center like that the light is going to bleed over and grow algae in between that bubble trap area and inside the skimmer body and most other areas especially with glass baffles and I end up with pieces of Chaeto and other algae that break off and stick to the screen on the return pump. With the separate Fuge I wrapped it in black contact paper to reduce the light that bleeds over. The rest of the sump is darn near algae free (the top of the skimmer body is high enough it gets some light but that algae is minimal) and any future tank I make will have the Fuge separate.

 

[theMeat]

Agreed. If you have the room fuge separate, and the bigger the better

 

[cracker]

Make the return section as small as possible for the biggest refugium You can.

 

[Tony S]

working on the updates now, thank you all for the input, don't stop now :D

 

[Conor_K]

Minor detail but i would flip the baffle setup before return section.

If you go under/over/under instead of what you have, you have the ability to clean the area between baffles
If needed.

The over/under/over setup you have now will work the same, but it will be a nightmare trying deal with anything that settles or gets stuck in between the baffles.

My 2 pennies...

 

[TaylorPilot]

Ditch the 3 baffle bubble trap. Get two. Glue two 1" strips of glass about 2" off the bottom. Once you glue them in, you can drop a plate in there and fill it with foam, rock rubble, ceramic media, whatever. It stops the bubbles really well, and only takes up 2" instead of 4".

 

[TaylorPilot]

Minor detail but i would flip the baffle setup before return section.

If you go under/over/under instead of what you have, you have the ability to clean the area between baffles
If needed.

The over/under/over setup you have now will work the same, but it will be a nightmare trying deal with anything that settles or gets stuck in between the baffles.

My 2 pennies...

Hadn't ever thought of that...plus like was said above, going under, over under traps all the proteins on the top of the water in the skimmer or fuge section.

 

[Tony S]

so how does this look, put the refugium opposite of the skimmer and cut the return section size down considerably to increase the size of the refugium...........
so question to reduce micro bubbles, will I need the bubble trap on both sides coming into the return chamber? and 2ndly would you recommend some type of mechanical filtration to prevent anything from going into the return area and getting pumped into the display tank?
also ignore the piping that is still a work in progress.

 

[theMeat]

so how does this look, put the refugium opposite of the skimmer and cut the return section size down considerably to increase the size of the refugium...........
so question to reduce micro bubbles, will I need the bubble trap on both sides coming into the return chamber? and 2ndly would you recommend some type of mechanical filtration to prevent anything from going into the return area and getting pumped into the display tank?
also ignore the piping that is still a work in progress.

That’s some pretty impressive internet’s skills! Your first sketch is a better design.
Dirtiest water into sump through sock or not. Then skimmer, then fuge, then bubble trap, then return. That is better at processing all the water that goes through sump, through all the stages.

A 2 pane bubble trap, instead of 3 pane, is adequate. And spacing it so a foam pad can be placed in between is a good idea. Think 2” instead of 1” for that foam is a good idea

 

[DLHDesign]

I'm not a fan of the split design - especially if you are running filter socks. As it is in your new design, only some of the water will pass through the socks; only some of the water will pass through the fuge; only some of the water will pass through the skimmer chamber. This can work (obviously; others use it), but I don't really see it as optimized. It also involves more plumbing - which may be fine, but I've found that less plumbing in the cabinet, the easier things are to maintain.

 

[Tony S]

so this is hopefully my finally sketch..... I did decide to keep the fuge on the opposite end of the tank. coming from the 2 drains 25% will drain into the fuge and the other 75% will go into the skimmer chamber..... on the right side from the fuge there will be a 3-4" partition with egg crate and some type of course filter to prevent chaeto from overflowing and find its way into the return pump section, and on the left side coming from the skimmer section there is a bubble trap and a section where I'll place marine pur blocks and will likely place sponges in the return chamber for quarantine tanks if needed.