fishlips12
Aquarium Advice Activist
Hopefully a simple question. I am in the process of making a sump out of a 10 gal aquarium for my 55 gal reef aquarium. The tank has an overflow built in to it. The sump will be divided in to three compartments. Compartment one will contain the protein skimmer and receive the return water. The second compartment will be the “main sump area” that I can later make in to a refugium. The last and final compartment will house the return pump. I need to locate the two baffles within the cavity of the sump and wanted some opinions/criticisms of my idea. I have two components for the sump; my Sea Clone 100 Protein skimmer and my Mag Drive 7 return pump. Now remember here I am a newbie.
I realize that I must allow for two major scenarios. One, the overflow or return getting clogged , which to me means that I must isolate the return pump with a baffle/separator so that the volume of this compartment will not overflow the main tank. The second scenario is if power shuts off or pump fails the volume in the return line must not overflow the sump.
Now the first compartment will receive the “dirty” water from the main tank but the protein skimmer output flow is of course less than the return from the tank so if I simply place the return line in this compartment there will be remixing of “clean” and “dirty” water (clean from the simmer and dirty from the tank). Not really efficient. Additionally there will be an excess of water that will spill over to the second compartment. Is this normal and expected. So in all this confusion I guess my “simple” question is how should I place the baffles in height relative to one another ? Should there be some holes drilled in the first baffle to allow for the excess flow? Am I missing something?
TIA
I realize that I must allow for two major scenarios. One, the overflow or return getting clogged , which to me means that I must isolate the return pump with a baffle/separator so that the volume of this compartment will not overflow the main tank. The second scenario is if power shuts off or pump fails the volume in the return line must not overflow the sump.
Now the first compartment will receive the “dirty” water from the main tank but the protein skimmer output flow is of course less than the return from the tank so if I simply place the return line in this compartment there will be remixing of “clean” and “dirty” water (clean from the simmer and dirty from the tank). Not really efficient. Additionally there will be an excess of water that will spill over to the second compartment. Is this normal and expected. So in all this confusion I guess my “simple” question is how should I place the baffles in height relative to one another ? Should there be some holes drilled in the first baffle to allow for the excess flow? Am I missing something?
TIA
