Mechanical sump options

[Parzifal]

Good morning!

 

i’m debating between two sump designs and would greatly appreciate the forum’s opinions and experience.

a few notes about the system:

-150 gal display upstairs plumbed to basement fish room frag tank

-130 gallon frag tank plumbed to refugium

-185 gallon refugium plumbed to mechanical filtration sump.

-110 gallon mechanical sump.

 

The debate is over which of these two designs will work best (fewest bubbles)

1) baffles at the very end of the sump.  This  may limit the size protein skimmer I can build, but allows for slower flow into the return.

2) baffles at the beginning of the sump.  This opens up for the size protein skimmer I really want to build and creates a 50 gallon “return” chamber.  

Have any of you seen issues with putting the baffles this far away from the return?

what would your concerns be with the second layout?

 

[wanareef]

# 1

[xmas_one]

I would not be concerned about bubbles.

[parvo99]

1. Sump water volume: remember, the max water height as shown is 9”. So your actual volume is about 50gal

2. I’m assuming you use an ato? The smaller the return chamber is, the less that needs to evaporate to activate the ato. Although, with the total volume of your system it probably doesn’t make a huge difference. 

3.  I prefer a separate chamber for the skimmer so that the water level never changes. I like to turn off my return pump when feeding so none of the food goes into the overflows. When I had my skimmer in the return chamber, it kept overflowing when I turned off my return pump.