I guess it would be determined by your design. My sump has to baffled areas and they work for me.

Benefits as others stated:
- fewer to no bubbles in DT
- if leak happens, it may limit damage to outside of tank by compartmentalization (Wow big word, probably spelled wrong)

If the above doesn't come into play for you, then I think you could free up space for other things, like all those nifty gadgets we all want.

Id put one baffle in the sump and have a valve on it so you can control the water level in one compartment for the skimmer. I think this works better then building a stand for your skimmer.

In hindsite, that would have been a good idea for my current sump, as I had to lift the skimmer about 6 inches. The new setup should work with the skimmer sitting flat in the sump, as I need to keep height down.

I have baffles in simply to allow for different water levels within the sump - it was the only way I was going to have 10"+ of water for my skimmer to sit in, but still retain enough empty volume in the sump to allow for the drainage from the DT when power goes out or the return pump requires maintenance. There's no bubble traps though, as with a modified herbie and BK skimmer, I don't expect to have any bubbles going on in the sump anyways.

Also, it allows me to have a little frag area in a small 25g sump.

You can use baffles to keep a steady level for your skimmer to operate at its best efficency and also to keep its bubbles out of the display. I would consider using reversed baffles like I do (see my build thread). It will keep the floaty scum from the DT in the skimmer chamber rather than skimming it off and sending it back to the tank, and because it takes water from the bottom of the chamber it filters out micro bubbles better. You can also get away with only having 2 baffles thus saving space.

you need at least one baffle, especialy since you refuse to use anything larger than 5 gal for top off. if you have the whole thing baffleless when your float valve opens it will drain your top off container. so you need to baffel a level control area for your top off, also you need to make the water level where your skimmer is constant, so a baffle to keep the water the right high there. so you need two compartments at least. putting a single baffle in the last 1/3 of the sump will keep the water the right hight in the first 2/3rds of the tank for the skimmer and the last 1/3 will fluxuate with your evaporation.

Steve

No baffles on my 70gallon sump. The skimmer is at the opposite end to the return which works great but I have to throttle my return pump back to slowdown the incoming water (which is located "mid-sump) in order to avoid microbubbles. To solve this I just run a filter sock that gets changed weekly and no problemo. I don't worry about the level in the sump as its controlled by my autotopoff and controller

No baffles either. I make sure my drain pipe is completely submerged on both ends and let my ato take care of the level. I only run my sumps as refugiums.

Ya, I plan on plumbing my RO in full time for ATO, so level is taken care of there. Just the skimmer bubbles left to think about

Ok, so I am setting up a pool, $2.00 to enter. Pick the date Brad's sump overflows :mrgreen:

Steve