Sump design

So this is how I am planning on building my sump. Will be using a 40 breeder and I can't decide where I will need the bubble trap(s) and input will be appreciated.

Oh red arrows indicate water coming into and out of the sump and green arrows are flow inside the sump.

 

With that design, you'd want at least 2 traps...both located at the "in" sides of the return. You might want to do a third after the skimmer into the frag area. That will reduce the micro bubbles into the DT and reduce turbulence to the frags.

 

Thats an interesting concept of sump design. I like the idea. Should work just fine I would think.

Why is it that everyone talks about bubble traps and how you have to have them to prevent microbubbles in the display? Is it something to do with certain drain designs? Because I built a bean animal, and during testing I had the sump running with no baffles, just a bare 20g tank with nothing in it at all, and there were zero microbubbles in the display OR the sump. I only threw a trap into my design just to slide media bags into, otherwise I would've skipped it entirely.

 

Are you using internal or external pumps?

 

It depends on many factors in my experience...depth and length of sump in relation to drain and intake of return pump; type of return pump, plumbing (hard vs. flex pvc or vinyl, and number of bends), and output of return (i.e. loc-line, flow accelerator, etc.). Most people use traps to ensure no micro bubbles.

 

Ill be using a mag 9.5 internal. I alway saw people not using a trap between fuge and return since flow is so low

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I really like the design also. I would think that you would be fine with a bubble trap between the skimmer/frag sections. I use a low flow fuge and have never seen any issues with micro-bubbles even with a drop off due to the fuge wall being higher then the return section. Unsure about the trap between the frag/return sections, I would think that It wouldn't be a problem due to the bubble trap placed at the skimmer section and the distance that It would travel to the return section.

 

It's not the drain bringing in bubbles that produce the micro bubbles but the skimmer. Even with the foam filter on the skimmer exit pipe, there are still plenty of micro bubbles that come out of it.

I would just place the baffles for the water flow coming out of the skimmer section. No need to place baffles on the fuge or frag section. It is an interesting design though. What type of light are you planning on placing above the frag section?

 

With doing a sump that way... you want your fuge overflowing to your frag tank.The pods will feed the frags. Sending skimmer water there will be sending too little food to things you want to grow a lot.

You won't have to worry about micro bubbles then either. You want enough flow throught he fuge and frag tank... but 70-100 gph should be fine. Just overflow the whole fuge to the frag tank, frag tank to the return.

More than likely you will need to have a small PH in the frag tank supplying additional flow.

The skimmer should have a 3 baffle bubble trap to the return. If your skimmer is not putting them out now, it is likely it will at some point.

 

Ok, that would make sense. I didnt think about a skimmer.