40 Gallon Breeder sump design

[dmazz63]

After much reading and research, I've sketched my sump design for advice and critique.


The main drain goes to the skimmer section and the fuge with a ball valve to control flow to the fuge. The return has a Tee'd off section to be able to throttle back the flow to the DT if necessary. There will be an ATO in the return section so I could make it as small as it is. My main concern is the height of the baffles. I want to maximize the volume of water in the sump but I'm not sure what effects this will have in the return area. The DT only drops 3.12 gallons when the power is turned off. The sumps not enclosed so I can sit the skimmer up as high as I need to. The only thing I can think of is bubble going into the return section from the 7" drop over the baffles on each side.
Any help/suggestions/critique will be oppreciated.

 

[pfan151]

The water going into the return section is going to be very loud and cause bubbles unless you raise the water level in that section so it’s almost level with the sections dumping into it. I usually have a 1/2”-1” drop going into the return section at most. You should be able to just raise the ATO up in that chamber though to let the water level rise as long as that won’t cause an overflow during power failure.

 

[dmazz63]

I just read in another post that if you tilt the baffles on either side of the return section, the water slides down the glass instead of waterfalling and splashing. I could also throttle the return pump down to reduce the flow through the skimmer and fuge sections. It's not really part of my water movement plans anyway.

 

[dmazz63]

Can I get some comments on this please?

 

[mchammer]

40 gallon breeder sump

40 gallon breeder sump

My sump is setup using a 40 gallon breeder tank with the same configuration you want. The only difference is I have a valve on both side of the sump. I have no problems with bubbles from the refugium.