Sump baffles

[Jah's reef]

(I really hope I can word this so that this experts can understand)

Good morning everyone, I'm trying to build my sump it's a 20 gallon tall, the pic above is the baffle leading into the refugium. I'm wondering if I could glue it in just like what you see there in the pic so that I'll water entering the bottom and then overflowing over the top ( that way to have some sort of flow in the middle of the refugium) will glowing the top section be ok or do I have to support it( as in cut a few piece of glass and glue it to the back and front)

I hope that made some kind of sense, sorry I'm new and just want to try and learn.

I've seen some diy sump where reeefers using acrylic and they have holes in the middle, but while doing my research I saw where acrylic does not bond to glass and while cause the walls of the sump to crack

 

[foxt]

If I understand you correctly, you want to mount to two plates so that there is a gap between the two of them? The water level will be set by that gap, and you will have water flowing over the top of the lower plate. The top plate will not be doing anything, the water level will never rise above that gap.

 

[Jah's reef]

If I understand you correctly, you want to mount to two plates so that there is a gap between the two of them? The water level will be set by that gap, and you will have water flowing over the top of the lower plate. The top plate will not be doing anything, the water level will never rise above that gap.

yeah exactly what I'm trying to say lol, ok back to the drawing board I guess

 

[foxt]

Since this is only a baffle, and it is in a 20g sump, you can use acrylic and bond it to the glass of the tank with silicone. You just need to be careful.

The issues you mentioned with acrylic and silicone are valid, but are usually more of a risk in situations where you will have more force on the acrylic. People have successfully attached acrylic baffles to glass tanks to build sumps with no issue.

If you want to stick with the glass, you could try putting the two pieces together the way that you suggested, and then use a piece of acrylic that you place on the upstream side of the baffle, with some small holes in it to let water flow through. The pressure differential will hold the acrylic in place, or you could stick it in place with a few dabs of silicone on the glass panes.

The trick would be in making the holes small enough, and the flow through the sump high enough, that the water level in this section rises above the top plate - is that making sense?

I guess my real question is: why do you feel that you need some mid-level flow through the fuge?

 

[Jah's reef]

If I understand you correctly, you want to mount to two plates so that there is a gap between the two of them? The water level will be set by that gap, and you will have water flowing over the top of the lower plate. The top plate will not be doing anything, the water level will never rise above that gap.

So even if at the other end

Since this is only a baffle, and it is in a 20g sump, you can use acrylic and bond it to the glass of the tank with silicone. You just need to be careful.

The issues you mentioned with acrylic and silicone are valid, but are usually more of a risk in situations where you will have more force on the acrylic. People have successfully attached acrylic baffles to glass tanks to build sumps with no issue.

If you want to stick with the glass, you could try putting the two pieces together the way that you suggested, and then use a piece of acrylic that you place on the upstream side of the baffle, with some small holes in it to let water flow through. The pressure differential will hold the acrylic in place, or you could stick it in place with a few dabs of silicone on the glass panes.

The trick would be in making the holes small enough, and the flow through the sump high enough, that the water level in this section rises above the top plate - is that making sense?

I guess my real question is: why do you feel that you need some mid-level flow through the fuge?

Yeah makes perfect sense, I was doing some research on baffles a.d saw the acrylic ones had hole in them but I cant get holes on the glass so I was thinking out of the box and was wondering about the idea of gaps between the glass

 

[Jah's reef]

If I understand you correctly, you want to mount to two plates so that there is a gap between the two of them? The water level will be set by that gap, and you will have water flowing over the top of the lower plate. The top plate will not be doing anything, the water level will never rise above that gap.

So even if at the other end

something like that

 

[foxt]

Ok. In that sump, the drain enters the sump on the left. Let's say that is a skimmer or fuge section in the middle. The middle water level is set by the height of the second black baffle on the right (looks like maybe a weir in the clear plastic section of that baffle). And the return pump sits on the far right.

Water enters the left, rises until those slots, and then starts filling the middle. once the middle reaches the level of those slots on the left, then both the left and the middle keep rising until the water reaches the level of the weir on the second baffle. The water should never flow over the top of that first baffle, because it reaches the level of the second baffle before then and flows over that instead.

It then flows over the weir, and starts to fill the right most chamber. Your return pump and total water volume will set the level in this section.

If you are trying to recreate the slots in the first baffle by installing those glass plates with a gap in between, then that WILL work. I thought that you had said that you wanted the water to also flow over the top of the top plate of glass - that won't work.

Make sense?

 

[Jah's reef]

Ok. In that sump, the drain enters the sump on the left. Let's say that is a skimmer or fuge section in the middle. The middle water level is set by the height of the second black baffle on the right (looks like maybe a weir in the clear plastic section of that baffle). And the return pump sits on the far right.

Water enters the left, rises until those slots, and then starts filling the middle. once the middle reaches the level of those slots on the left, then both the left and the middle keep rising until the water reaches the level of the weir on the second baffle. The water should never flow over the top of that first baffle, because it reaches the level of the second baffle before then and flows over that instead.

It then flows over the weir, and starts to fill the right most chamber. Your return pump and total water volume will set the level in this section.

If you are trying to recreate the slots in the first baffle by installing those glass plates with a gap in between, then that WILL work. I thought that you had said that you wanted the water to also flow over the top of the top plate of glass - that won't work.

Make sense?

Yeah sure does, I kinda figured my wording wasn't right in the post but couldn't edit it after posting so correct me if I'm wrong, will the gap thing I had planned will it work?

 

[foxt]

Yes, if you put the two glass baffles the way you showed, with a gap, and they are first, AND you place a second baffle where the second black baffle is in your picture, with the height set to something lower than the height of the first baffle collection, that will flow like the sump in your picture. The weir in the second baffle in your picture is there to prevent any algae, etc you may have growing in your fuge to make its way into the return section. If you are using a glass baffle instead, you will want to think of a way to accomplish this.

To complete the similarity, you will then also have to decide if you want a third baffle prior to the return pump, set above the bottom of the tank. This third baffle produces a bubble trap. The flow over the second baffle can produce microbubbles. The idea with the third baffle is that it forces flow in the lower part of that section, giving the bubbles a chance to rise to the top of that section and not flow in to the return section. Most sumps do something like this at the return section to keep bubbles out of the flow back to the DT.

The other thing that third baffle does is it forces the water to flow through those sponges or whatever they are - that is also a way to keep material out of your return.

You can do all of these with glass.

Are you thinking about setting something up to hold filter socks in that first section as well?

 

[Jah's reef]

Yes, if you put the two glass baffles the way you showed, with a gap, and they are first, AND you place a second baffle where the second black baffle is in your picture, with the height set to something lower than the height of the first baffle collection, that will flow like the sump in your picture. The weir in the second baffle in your picture is there to prevent any algae, etc you may have growing in your fuge to make its way into the return section. If you are using a glass baffle instead, you will want to think of a way to accomplish this.

To complete the similarity, you will then also have to decide if you want a third baffle prior to the return pump, set above the bottom of the tank. This third baffle produces a bubble trap. The flow over the second baffle can produce microbubbles. The idea with the third baffle is that it forces flow in the lower part of that section, giving the bubbles a chance to rise to the top of that section and not flow in to the return section. Most sumps do something like this at the return section to keep bubbles out of the flow back to the DT.

The other thing that third baffle does is it forces the water to flow through those sponges or whatever they are - that is also a way to keep material out of your return.

You can do all of these with glass.

Are you thinking about setting something up to hold filter socks in that first section as well?

Yeah I'll be getting a filter cup thanks for the info appreciate it alot