Scott's 270g aka Project Mayhem

[Scythanith]

I am still missing the lower sump pump so I can't really get things running in a balanced fashion. That's the frustrating part haahaa! Right now I want to get that sorted out so I can get her salted and ready to throw some fish into

[reefermadness]

I just went over this thread again and I have to say Scott.....this is one of the nicest builds I've seen. Amazing job. The planning is incredible....and that fish room, wow.

[sphelps]

Did you get that baffle issue sorted yet?

[Scythanith]

Nope, ACL reconstruction was today. Tank will have to wait for a bit now. I have to add some risers in the overflow box to keep the tank from draining down to the bottom of the weir teeth. That overloads the sumps. Way too much water goes down the emergency drain. I think raising the overflow box level should fix that. What do you think Steve?

As for the baffle situation, I am hoping that the lower sump return pump adds enough volume to the pump chamber to reduce the distance the water drops from the frag section to the pump chamber. Maybe that will alleviate the bubbles, yes no? If not I tried holding some fluval foam just under the water level in the pump chamber and it dissipated the bubbles before they entered the chamber. If that's the way to go I need to make some sort of a foam holder that hangs on to the baffle edge.

I really won't know until I get my other pump running and see if the increase in pump chamber water height solves the bubbles.

What do you guys/gals think?

[Scythanith]

Originally Posted by reefermadness

I just went over this thread again and I have to say Scott.....this is one of the nicest builds I've seen. Amazing job. The planning is incredible....and that fish room, wow.

I appreciate it Darryll! Your system is one of the beauties I am modelling my tank on

[sphelps]

A couple kinks to still work out there for sure. Sounds like that pump sure pushes a lot of water, I know when I ran the two wavelines I had to cut out the weir teeth to handle the flow properly, but at the time concept was cutting pretty narrow teeth. You can add risers in the overflow but they shouldn't prevent the the tank from draining to overflow weir height, only prevent the overflow box from draining and control the overflow box water level to prevent trickling noise. If the teeth is holding back that much water they may be too restrictive. Basically you should try and limit the tank to 1" water level drop during shut down. Usually 2" is actually my go by number but with large tanks and small sumps that's not usually possible. With 1" you need space for 3456 cubic inches in the sump which means if the sump is 48" x 16" you need 4.5" of extra space above running water level. Now if you're seeing a 2" that's 9.5" in the sump needed which isn't going to happen.

I don't see a check valve on the return, that's potentially a way of reducing some back flow if it's draining lower than weir height, if not then not worth while.

The problem with the baffle is it really shouldn't be a baffle to be honest, one of those things that got lost in translation, not shown on drawing. I'm use to building these myself out of acrylic so most of the time all the details aren't shown. The baffle should be more of a screen, just to protect the pump, like mine:

[sphelps]

So going forward my suggestion is fix the baffle first, you could lower it or raise the overflow height but it's not ideal. The baffle should be replaced with some form of screen. I can help you out here, build you a replacement and send it your way.

If you're unable to reduce the water drop from the display to something your sump can handle as is then I suggest you ditch the built in refugium and remove it's divider, use that space to extend the return pump section which should add quite a bit of empty running volume.

[Scythanith]

Originally Posted by sphelps

So going forward my suggestion is fix the baffle first, you could lower it or raise the overflow height but it's not ideal. The baffle should be replaced with some form of screen. I can help you out here, build you a replacement and send it your way.

If you're unable to reduce the water drop from the display to something your sump can handle as is then I suggest you ditch the built in refugium and remove it's divider, use that space to extend the return pump section which should add quite a bit of empty running volume.

I'd really appreciate it Steve! Could you design something to replace the baffle? I could cut out the one that is there right now easily enough.

When I get mobile I will go and check the total drainage when the power goes out. I don't think it drained anything below the teeth so I don't think a check valve is the answer.

Thanks for the help!

[sphelps]

Yeah no problem, can you send me the current baffle dimensions?

[Scythanith]

11.5" wide x 10" tall. And I'd like to be able to flow ~2000-2500 GPH through it