Sump Baffles

[totalpackage181]

looks great , am i wrong in thinking that another baffle should be used ..either that or they are in opposite order? The way that it is now makes it so the water must pass over the final baffle ..thus going into a lower water level region. When it comes over wont it make microbubbles?

[Johnny Reefer]

Hey TP 181,

Sorry for the delay. I've been outa town.

The water level in the second chamber is even with the bottom of the float valve bobber, (when the bobber is up, thus closing the valve). This is also close to even with the top of the baffle, (water level is about a 1/8" lower than baffle top).
So the water just kinda flows over from one water "body" into the next, without actually cascading, like a waterfall, down the baffle side. Thus, no micro bubbles.

Cheers,

[Skimmerking]

i take it that your skimmer will be going on the right on the picture right. isnt is a little high for the main baffle. Its a 33 gal and how much back flow will you get when the skimmer and the return pump stop...


or mah be i'm reading it the wrong way..

[Johnny Reefer]

I left the skimmer on the main tank. It's a HOB Prizm Pro Deluxe.

And, ya, I shoulda made the baffles shorter. There is enough room to hold a power failure back flow, but... in all honesty...I shut my sump down and went back to running two canisters, for now. Here's why...

Started reefing in Feb. with two canisters.
Tank overheated in May to 86/87F. (Hot day/Glass top).
Removed glass top and changed lighting setup.
Then increased evaporation, due to no glass top, had to be dealt with.
Set up a 45g auto top-off and the sump, to receive the top-off water.
Went with 2 external overflows cuz I didn't get the tank drilled, in Feb., when I started (mistake).
One U-Tube to each overflow.
So I do a test to see what would happen if one overflow stopped.
The other overflow was not enough to keep up and the main tank water level began to rise.
So to help prevent this I increase to 4 U-Tubes. (2 in each overflow).
So I'm dusting (housework ), one day, and I noticed salt creep at some of my overflow plumbing connections, even though I used PVC primer and cement.
So I shut it down and monitored the backflow for a few minutes. No problem.
Began working on silicone sealing the plumbing connections and, later, noticed the sump water level had continued to rise and was like a 1/4" from spilling over. What up with this!!!!
After a bit of headscratching I realized that the water was siphoning through the airline tubing that was set up in the overflow U-Tubes. (You know. The tubing that removes air from the U-Tubes by way of a powerhead sucking it out).
This is not good.
So to solve this I connected one way valves to the airline tubing.
Then, a few days later, it hit me.
I was about to go away to work, (I go for 4 weeks), and decided that relying on this external overflow crap was nuts and that there was way too much potential for something to go wrong.
So, I shut the sump and auto top-off system down, went back to two canisters, and had some one come in to top off the evaporation once a week, while I was away.
The plan now is to get the tank drilled, one day, and I plan to coincide that with a move to a concrete building.
The 45 top-off tank wasn't enough to last 4 weeks, (I ran a test), so I plan to set up a 90g for that and then I'll use the 45g for the sump.
I'll make the baffles in the 45g sump a little shorter this time.

Cheers,