20g tall refugium baffle heights help?

Hi 3reef friends,

It's been two months since I started back into this hobby after a decade, and it's going wicked good! It's time to get my refugium going so I can allow myself to get this fowlr I to a reef! Need help determining my baffle heights with a taller tank to use.

My display tank is a 29g tall. I purchased a 20g tall aquarium for the sump/refugium build and will pick up my CPR overflow,smallest one 300gph, and also my return pump, an Eheim 1250 hobby, on Sunday from my LFS. I was limited by space on the bottom of my stand but I dig the dimensions: 24"w X 16"h X 13"d

My plan for baffles is to use 1/4" thick acrylic. For spacing I'm going with three chambers read left to right:

Water intake side with soon to be purchased reef octopus skimmer 8 1/2"w

3 piece bubble trap 1" apart (I know 1.5" is better for slow flow but the tank is 13" deep and I'm only using a 300gph CPR overflow box so not much flow with 1" spacing, over first panel, under second, over third). Total space with 3 1/4" thick acrylic baffles=2 3/4"w

Return sump for 1250 Eheim return pump 1/2" return line 300gph, which will allow me to run full out with no ball valve just a check valve for reverse siphon security, figure 3' head height reduces gph to 200-225 good match for overflow. Total space=6"

Which leaves my refugium space on the end, going to do a 4" DSB, a slotted overflow panel (I'm handy with a router) and I'll use a power head in the intake chamber to bring pre-skimmered water into the refugium with slow flow, allowing it to overflow into the return chamber. Total space left= 6"w X 12.5" d

So, after all that, I'm comfy with my spacings for the three chambers and bubble trap. Now I'm just trying to determine good heights for each baffle. I want to utilize the 20g tall tanks advantage of having depth to add more overall water to my system, but still allow for some forgiveness in case of a power outage before the water level in the DT gets below the overflow intake. I realize I'm also limited by the depth to keep the protein skimmer in the proper depth in the first chamber as well. But the refugium could be deeper, overflowing into the return chamber. But are their advantages to having depth to the refugium? Do the pods and chaeto (spelling?) algae have any advantages if the water is deeper, or will it be harder for pods to get up to the overflow slots?

Thanks in advance to anyone who made it this far. Long post. Loving the tank right now, my paired semi Picasso clowns are doing fantastic, as are everyone else in the tank and I know this refugium build is going to get me that much closer to adding some corals to get my reef going. Keeping it slow has been smart, no rush. I have all day Sunday off and after I visit Unique Aquaria to pick up my new parts I'm going to begin cutting my acrylic baffles and starting the build so I have the rest of the week to refine my plans if I get some convincing help.

Werd.

 

You can use up to a 14" baffle on the refuge side. I would use baffles no higher than 1/2" less than the maximum operation depth of the skimmer on the other side.