The height of the upper baffles isnt as critical as the one attached to the bottom of the tank. If you build them about half way up and figure the water level in the first chamber will be about a half inch higher you should be pretty safe from backflow floods.
How many GPH does your return pump push after head loss?
1/2" is pretty small for space between baffles. In most cases I think you will find 1.5"-2" between baffles. You may be better of with just building a sump for equipment and leave the refugium out. It isnt necessary for successful reefing. Also, the smaller the return pump chamber is the more often top off water will be needed. My return chamber is about 5" and It will run dry within 12 hours if I accidently leave my ATO system off.
okay then ill leave the fuge out, my skimmer is 3.5 wide and 8.5 long, the return is an ocean runner 2500 so the gph is 1500 at 1.5 m so do u think the flow will be more like 1000gph??? i can always have a seperate fuge in the future if i really needed one
so will i just have 2 chambers yes with a bubble trap just before the return
i could always put live rock in there too couldnt i
is this okay, theres a bubble trap to stop the return catching any air, what height should the baffles be at on the tops, is 1 1/2" big enough of a a gap between the baffles and the right height off the sump floor
The lower baffles in my sump on the 120 are just over the half way mark from the top. I have two overflows and a remote fuge feeding into the sump, during power outages and it fills to the rim. If you take a look at this DIY sump shown here. http://www.reefs.org/phpBB2/viewtopic.p ... 8&start=20 This person has his baffles only half way up to.Since this guy is one of the site admins here I bet it isnt the first sump he has built. It is better to have three inches left in the sump during a power failure than to be pushing the limits like I do. I had to lower the water level in the return chamber by two inches to accomodate my system. It was a prefabricated sump and I had no choice but to use it after spending too much to throw it out. I did however modify the heck out of it.
Amazingly good point. Come to think of it, my water is 8" and I built a 2" tall stand for my skimmer to sit on so is is in six inches of water. Thanks Wazzel. I didnt have my measureing tape (my four year old had it somewhere today :? ) so I just gave it a quick look.
mine is just the same only the baffles are closer together, it should be fine, if i need to bring the middle partion higher all ill have to do is add another peice of glass to the top of the existing one, rather than take it out and start over