why do baffles have teeth?

Scientific (or not) answers welcome

 

I think its to help break up the water that overflows to the return side of things so it doesnt sound so loud when the water does cascade over the side.. along with that sometimes help's with invert clean up crew from taking a plunge on the wrong side of your tank...

Just my salty 2 cents...


BEst of luck...

 

To prevent fish from going over the top.

 

Ah! so that's it ... I always had that idea that the teeth cleans the water (even more) with that waterfall effect

 

dunno but on some overflows they restrict to much water, I know with my dsa tank I lose about 100gph of flow due to them so I'm cutting them out and replacing it with a really coarse mesh, like a plastic gutter guard

 

It deters larger waterborne items, and livestock from making it into the overflow chamber and sump. Snails, fish, chaeto, are all examples of things we usually want to stay in the DT.

 

All of the above plus they provide better oxygenation than a straight baffle wall. They also create a sort of vacuuming effect since the velocity of the water changes as it passes through the smaller opening causing it to suck the suface scum with it.