Sump Design for 215

[REEFKEEPA]

Please check out this sump design and let me know what you think. The skimmer will be outside of the sump. The sump will measure 36x18x18. I plan on adding automatic top off but cannot decide what the water level will be so I will wait for the wet test with the pump hooked up in a closed loop type scenario.

 

[emilese]

I really like your sump design. Nice job.

A couple of thoughts and questions though:

If you wanted more space, it seems like you could eliminate 2 of the baffles between the tank drain section and the skimmer section. Keep the baffle that has the teeth and I think that would be enough to eliminate bubbles.

Why do you have a bulkhead in the tank drain section?
What will be the distance between the baffles?
What will be the width of the return section? The larger the section the less evaporation swing.
In the 4th pic, you may want to shorten the height of the baffle (in green) leading into the refugium area. This will help water to flow better through the refugium area.

Lastly, what software did you use to create your drawings?

Miles

 

[REEFKEEPA]

Miles, The bulkhead in the drain section will connect to the skimmer pump intake. The bulkhead on the other side of the drain baffles is for skimmer return. I am maintaining a 1" gap between baffles in this initial design, but that could be easily changed by comments on this thread. The width of the return section as shown is about 5" this should allow me to screw a screen into the return bulkhead. Evaporation is not an issue because I will install an auto top off system.
The drawings are to scale and were done in Autocad.

 

[BeanAnimal]

Why bother with the second set of baffles at all?

You need to make the baffles farther apart (2"-3"). The top of your "over" baffles will be the running height of the sump. If you run the water lower than that (by more than 1/2" or so) then you will have a loud waterfall. Determine the "over" height of the baffles so that the sump will hold al lthe backflow water during a power outage.

Bean

Bean

 

[REEFKEEPA]

The Green baffles represent a flush with bottom baffle.
The one you can see in that last pic is actually spilling into a void between the next two baffles.

 

[REEFKEEPA]

Hey Bean,
I have been reading a lot of your posts.
I will space out the baffles to a 2" margin.
If you look at the Top view you can see all the baffles.
My intention was to keep as many micro bubbles out of the refugium as possible. Is this not a good idea?
I am not concerned about the small cost increase of the additional baffles.
I am trying to calculate flow rate now.
Any advice?

 

[REEFKEEPA]

Wider Baffles

Wider Baffles

Here is the updated spacing.

 

[BeanAnimal]

Do you plan on having LR in your sumps largest area or is it just for extra water volume?

Yes the min I would go with the baffles is 2".... If I were to do my sump again I would go with 3".

IF for some reason your TOP-OFF fails, your return compartment does not have very much volume. Just a small amount of evaporation will cause the return pump to suck air.

Looking at the bottom drawing... that is your return area to the left isn't it?

Where is your refuge going and how is the water getting pumped into it? Where does the wter from the refuge go?

Where did you get the primitives for the bulkheads in Acad?

 

[REEFKEEPA]

You are correct on all accounts Bean.
The empty space is the fuge area which will house the sand and rock.I will install a float switch for emergency cut off of the return pump if the auto top off fails.There will be a closed loop powered by a seperate pump on this tank so all would not be lost.
As far as the bulkhead blocks are concerned.
I pasted an image in the workspace, scaled it and meticulously drew it out.
Not bad for a casual user Huh?

 

[REEFKEEPA]

If you would like I will e-mail you the block
Art

 

[REEFKEEPA]

By the way,congrats to the Steelers and their fans WHAT A RUN!

 

[BeanAnimal]

Bah... I am a Cowboys fan.

I have a single OVER baffle to protect my return pump. It is only about 5" high. The water level in the sump however is about 14" high. In other words the main compartment is the "return compartment" I have a few hunks of rock in there, but otherwise it is a BB. This is where most of the detritus settles.

What version of ACAD are you using... I fiddle with it but am very slow...

 

[REEFKEEPA]

ACAD2000

 

[REEFKEEPA]

I learned a few tricks from a friend of mine that save tons of time.
The more you do it the faster you get.

 

[REEFKEEPA]

Anyone else care to critique?