Help with sump baffles

[RWD]

I'm re-doing the sump on my 300 gal reef. I now have a 30 gal Sterlite container with no baffles and lots of bubbles getting back into the tank. My new sump is a 40 gal breeder (36" long x 18" wide) that is drilled for 2 bulkheads. One is for the external return pump (Little Giant 4 mdqx-sc about 1000 gph @5') and the other connects to my 20 gal refugium. I will have a DAS BX-2 skimmer and 2 heaters in the sump. The skimmer and the 2 overflows dump water into the far right side of the sump. I plan on having a 24" x 18" section for the skimmer area. The skimmer needs 8" of water to operate.

My question is how should I lay out the baffles? I'm thinking that 4 should be enough to control bubbles. Looking at the sump with the skimmer on the far right and the bulkheads on the far left, Should the first baffle ( right to left)have water go over it or under it? I'm thinking under because the highly oxygenated water from the skimmer/overflows will have a lot of bubbles near the top of the water. Drawing water from the bottom of the skimmer section seem like it would have less bubbles. Is this correct? Am I on the right track here?

My plan is to have a 1" gap under every other baffle with a 1" space between each vertical baffle. Any comments?
Bob

[Snailman]

My wife's 200 gallon reef tank is on the first floor and the sump and all of the equipment is in the basement. I had huge trouble with bubbles from the drain getting sent back up to the tank. I tried baffles but they only helped so much. The problem is that the air is down in the water and you need to get it to the surface to get rid of it. The way I found to do this was to contain the air completely. I put a plastic bucket in the sump with the top of the bucket even with the surface of the sump water. I had to put a couple of pieces of LR in the bucket so that it would not float away. I put the 1 1/4" drain line in the bucket. All of the air that is in the water must raise to the surface to get out of the bucket. Once on the surface of the sump it dissapears right away. :) Even if it doesn't it is far above the pump intakes and we have an Iwaki RLT100 and an LG 4 both intaking water from the sump.

[shadetree]

Bob,

Unfortunately I am not able to help too much but check out Lifereefs custom page http://www.lifereef.com/custom.html It has a couple of excellent pictures and great ideas, I personally think that Q is a wonderful idea with the two sumps simply plumbed together with the 2" bulkheads. HTH

Scott

[RWD]

Snailman,
Thanks for suggesting the bucket. I have an old 5 gal aquarium that I can put in there and do the same thing. By adding another compartment this would force the bubbles up to the surface. I will give it a try.
Scott,
Thanks for the link. The Lifereef stuff looks awesome. Makes my sump look like a 5 th grade science project ;). Thanks