I'm baffled...or not?

I'm curious what the exact reason behind everyone putting baffles in their sumps is. I am running a 20g tall for a sump right now with a HOB skimmer on it. I top off once per/day and don't have any problems with skimmer settings due to the water level changing. I'm under the assumption the water level in the skimmer compartment is the main reason for baffles. Maybe my skimmer is just not that sensitive to water level changes. I am running a Coralife 125.

 

I don't have a sump but from what I understand, the baffles help to reduce micro bubbles.

 

to divide for seperate components, but when theres two close together its to trap bubbles.

 

I use baffles between my skimmer and return sections. This allows the micro bubbles to float up and pop in the skimmer section and only water flows down and back up and over into the return section.

 

Its to trap micro bubbles. and to keep water levels at desired height.

 

Micro bubbles were my other thought. Guess I'm just lucky and don't have micro bubble problems.

 

One big reason for me is to keep the water level for my skimmer consistent. Don't know if anyone is familiar with the Alpha cone skimmers, but when they came out there was almost a frenzy on RC about how to maximize the output for them. They figured out that you wanted the thing at exactly 10 inches of water with some other stuff to make it hum. So my baffles are set up in part to make sure that the water level around my skimmer stays exactly at 10". It's also very nice to keep the heaters submersed. They don't like being out of water much.

Other reasons people use baffles are to force the water through a series of compartments for various reasons. The main one I see is to combine sump and fuge and control which the water goes through first.