Installing baffels in sump

smallblock

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Hey guys I made it up to imagine ocean yesterday and got a great deal on a 20 gallon long to make a sump that goes under my 72 gallon bowfront. I need some help to determine what size and where to put baffles in this thing. Also i have an old wet dry acrlic sump that leaks, I was thinking of cutting it up to make my baffels. I want an in sump skimmer space for a fuge and a return section. Will acrylic work in a glass sump and what type of silicone must I use? And how do i detrmine how high they need to be?
 
Ok, well assuming this isn't going to house a fuge, baffle height will be determined by your skimmer height requirements.

How tall is your skimmer? How much room in the stand? Reason I ask is because most skimmers have a recommended water height. You'll want to be near this. What you can do is make the baffles 10-11" high, then put the skimmer on a platform if the recommended level is like 8.5". Better to err on the side of too tall than too short. Also, if your skimmer is very tall, you may not have the room needed to put it on a platform to raise it 1-2 inches.

For baffles, acrylic will "work" but silicone won't bond it to the glass and over time they may break free. Glass is pretty cheap, and I'm sure a sponsor could cut you some baffles to fit no problem. You'll want at least 1" between each baffle to allow water to flow, but be slow enough that bubbles rise.

Don't suppose you made it to the March meeting? Had a great speaker on sump design. He recommends a "bubble tower" when the water enters the sump. One way to accomplish this is to make a glass tower around the the pipe where water enters the sump, put some holes at the bottom of the tower, and fill it up with live rock.

First thing you will want to do, though, is determine what equipment will be in the sump? Heater? Skimmer or skimmer pump?
 
Geez, Thanks for the info guess i gotta prepare the pockets for the skimmer
 
What is your skimmer's footprint? You may be able to fit a fuge in there, but it may make the return pump chamber very small, in which case you will need an auto-top-off.
 
I dont have one yet any suggestions on a small foot print model? Its gonna be a 72 gallon bowfront, also i need to keep enough room to avoid flooding from power outage. This is my first reef ready tank I've had a 55 gallon for a few years that has a fluval filter so i dont know what i'm doing with the whole sump thing yet, Thanks for your time and info guys
 
What's your budget? You can get a "small footprint" model as some skimmers now have the pump inside them in the bottom. Off the top of my head I'm thinking that a Bubble Magus NAC6 would be fairly compact and allow you some room for baffles and a refugium. It does prefer deeper water (9.5"-11") so you'd cut baffles at maybe 10", then another at 9" and one that is 2" shorter than the height of the sump. This last one would be the divider between the 10" and 9" baffles, and you put it so that it's 1" above the bottom and 1" below the top rim.

The important thing is to get all the equipment before you go start installing baffles, don't want to get the sump built only to find that something doesn't fit.


Is the 72 reef ready? Which side of the tank is the drain on? For the fuge, are you wanting a deep sand bed, or just a place for chaeto and a light? For the fuge, I would get the glass cut to be 2" less than the top rim of the tank, then use a strip of eggcrate to fill the top 2", this will act as a strainer to keep the chaeto in that section. You could of course get slots cut in the glass, but IMO, the eggcrate is easier.

You'll probably want the fuge on one side of the sump, and the skimmer section on the other side, with the return pump chamber in the middle. Get a return pump a little bigger than you need, and you can T off of that to feed the fuge and throttle it back to get the overflow rate you want. I'd figure somewhere around a Mag 7 would be good for you.
 
I don't know what pumps I have they came with the setup. I cant read the label but heres a pic . It was running the return then another one of the same was running a pos skimmer all that was set up with a wet dry sump
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Well that's a Mag pump, but I don't know the size. You could use one for the return to the tank, and the other to feed the refugium and skimmer (if you go external on the skimmer). That's another option, run an external skimmer (should be able to find a used Octopus DNW-110 for under $150 or so) have the chamber where the water enters be the refugium and have the return chamber be the other and just run 2 chambers for the sump.
 
Great thread as i'm building a new sump for the first time also.
O'yeah, I was told to use type 2 silicone for glass on glass bonding, T/F???
 
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