Bubble Trap HELP URGENT PLZZZ

DIY Baffles. Need lots of help

I am currently setting up my first ever saltwater aquarium. Everything is set up although I am having trouble with the baffles in the sump. My first baffle design failed and i was so disappointed that it had to be ripped out and done again.
It would be great if anyone can give me any advice to help me build my baffles and so i can get a better understanding on how they actually work (ie pictures websites, videos or just giving me a healthy lecture ;D). Its so hard to find a good reliable site to get info from so the best way is to talk to those who have experience and can help me with my problem.

 

what in Gods name is a bubble trap?

 

He means a baffle in the sump to prevent microbubbles moving through the different sections of the sump.

Check out the video I made. Its on the very first summary post. You can see at about the 9-10 min mark I start talking about the sump and you can easily see my baffles "bubble traps" to stop microbubbles moving through.

http://www.3reef.com/forums/show-of...-ds-55g-reef-tank-layout-question-135662.html

 

THIS is a good primer to get an idea how a sump works, which will help you in designing your baffle scheme. Remember, water runs downhill, so your baffles need to go from higher on the input side to lower on the return side, depending on your design.

What's your goal with the sump (fuge, equipment hiding, extra water volume, etc)? You may be making your job harder than it really is.

 

Baffles are pretty simple really, when I first started in this hobby I got a lot of my information from this website called melevs reef.

I found a good pic that shows how the baffles work, you would want to do something like he did in this sump.

Melev's Reef - Sump Model A

 

can you show a pic of your current setup?

 

What sixe sump and how much flow are you running through it?

 

My flow is all fine and I cant put a picture on because I had to remove the baffles to make a new one. The website is good thanks

 

Now it all depends, what size sump are you planning on having? What size is your tank? Are you going to have a Refugium? What equipment are you going to be running in your sump. A lot of factors come into play when setting it up. I pulled some pics of others plans for a sump and sump/ Refugium.
View attachment 57027
This plan say light diffuser but I myself use something called gutter guard and that can be picked up at Home Depot real cheap.
Another one.
View attachment 57028

This is a good website for a DIY sump. Melev's Reef.
http://www.melevsreef.com/29g/sump/design.html

Also you can google "sump/ Refugium design and scroll through all the pictures. There are a lot of them.

My sump is set up with the return section in the middle. My skimmer section on one side and my Refugium on the other. I made mine out of a 40g tank.
View attachment 57029
This is a pic of mine as of right now. I need to make some minor modifications because I am not happy with the way it looks and functionality of where equipment is placed. But you can kind of get an idea. My overflow has 2 drains. 1 drain is t'd off and goes to the filter sock in the skimmer section and the other has a ball valve to control flow to the Refugium. Never put a ball valve to control flow to the main drain. My other drain just goes straight to the skimmer section. The reason I have my Refugium on one side is so that it gets non skimmed and non filtered water from the tank. I have my return in the middle and both the skimmer section and Refugium drain right in the middle for the main pump to go back to the DT.

I hope this helps out a bit. There are many ways of doing a sump and this was just what I came up with. I'm sure other will chime in and help you out as well

Good luck.

 

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