[Canadian]

Adam, without using your shortest lengths of partitioning (is that a word? [img]smile.gif[/img] ) as a means to control bubbles then you're likely to end up with bubbles getting back into your main tank. i.e. filling the sump up past the lowest baffles will not help with a bubble situation.

Furthermore, by not controlling the depth of the water with baffles you're going to have fluctuating water levels feeding your skimmer pump. This will result in varying water pressures and varying ouput by your skimmer. For this reason, I suggest that whenever a sump is built that the water level where the skimmer feed pump is housed remain as constant as possible.

*Warning - I've been doing homework for 8-10 hours a day every day (on top of going to school) for the last week so it's entirely possible that something I've written above could be totally incoherent and/or inaccurate.