Here it is

[strout]

Feel free to pick this apart, I would rather have your advice BEFORE its made It will be made out of 3/8s inch acrylic. The foot print of the skimmer will be 13x17 inches. from left to right: Skimmer section, return section, refugium section, and the top off water section.

[strout]

I couldn't get the drawing to show that the green baffle wall needs to be raised off of the bottom of the sump floor. I am also thinking that the brown 13 inch baffle wall needs to be raised a bit, the wall on the other side of the chamber is 17 inches high and that would mean that the water would have to fall 4 inches to the 13 inch level, might be to much noise.By doing this, I might have to raise the first baffle in the skimmer chamber.

[Scott]

Why so many baffles?

[strout]

I agree with you, I think I could do away with one baffle wall. I was going to do away with one of them but figured I would post it with the three baffle walls and see if anyone said anything about them. I was thinkin that the first one inch section from left to right, I would make that section about three or four inches wide and place live rock pieces in the space. That way I could let the water flow over the first baffle wall out of the skimmer section thru the live rock pieces and that would bust up any micro bubbles before the water enters the return section? That would also leave me room in the skimmer section to set up a filter sock.

[Scott]

If I am looking at it right, the water level in the first part (to the left) will stay at the 14" level. Water will flow over, under and over the first three baffles. Then there are two baffles that are 17" and 18" tall. I think that the water level is going to rise to 18" so the 17" baffle will be unneeded. If that is the level that you are looking for you will also have to make the 16" baffle taller.

The first few baffles are different but see how the water level in the main chamber stays level with the height of the baffles.

[Amphiprion]

Looks like the first large baffle is actually 16" (from left). Is that right? If so, just reverse the positions of all the larger baffles--i.e. have the size decrease from left to right, ending with your top off chamber. That should work out just fine for what you want. Everything else looks ok to me.

[strout]

Going from right to left. The 18 inch baffle is to keep the water in the top off section at 18 inches, the next baffle at 17 inches is to keep the water in the refugieum section at at 17 inches, the next baffle at 13 inches, I think I need to make this baffle taller because the water in the return section will stay at 13 inches and that would mean that I have water coming over the refugium baffle at 17 inches dropping down to the 13 inch level and that is a difference of 4 inches and that may make to much noise. I think I need to raise the 13 inch baffle to 14 inches, I would like to make it 15 inches but their might be a problem with that. The problem, is the 14 inch baffle in the skimmer section, does this baffle need to be taller that the 13 inch baffle, the one I want to make 15 inches? Let me ask one more question, I don't know how this works. A friend asked me how I was going to get the water from my water top off section to the return section. I told him that what I want to do is run the water from the top off section thru a Kalkwasser Stirrer and using a float valve of some sort in the return section. I am sure a pump of some sort will be needed in this set up, where would the pump be located at?

[strout]

I made some changes, and I will be sending the plans off to the Acrylic Shop today.
There are two more drawing one showing where to place the probe holders and the other a top view of the sump. Anyway, I will let you know what the man says.

[Amphiprion]

okay, you are going from the right, not the left. So, I'm now assuming that you are doing a dual overflow/bulkhead drain? That's what was throwing me off, since it wouldn't work otherwise, at least with the equipment positioned as you plan to have it.

[strout]

The chamber on the left, is the skimmer section, the next one going from left to right is the return section, the next one is the refugium section and the one on the right is the top off water section. The new tank will have two over flows as you have guessed, but I am just curious why you say it wouldn't work any other way. I was thinking you could run the plumbing anywhere you wanted, to make it work. The new tank will most likely have two corner over flows.

[Amphiprion]

I had to think about it for a moment. This is an example, say, going from right to left: If you only have one drain, it would go and fill the first chamber, overflow into the refugium, and finally that middle return compartment. If you position it there with only one drain on one side to fill the sump, the return pump will drain the sump at an equal rate that it is filled. This would result in the "end of the line" being at that middle chamber, since the water would have to rise and overflow to actually reach the skimmer chamber. It would never rise unless you over-filled the sump above that last set of baffles. Even then, the flow through in that section would be tiny and it would kill skimmer performance almost completely. The only reason I know this is because I've seen it done before. I had never even thought of that until I saw it in action--somebody's skimmer sitting there without a drop of water since the return was moving all the water out of an "upstream" section . So, wherever the water feed is coming from, the return has to be the final point of water movement or else it won't work if you have various baffles and chambers.

[strout]

What I am planning is to have both overflow pipes with ball valves coming together to drain into the skimmer section. There will also be another pipe coming off of the drains from the overflows with a ball valve connected that will drain into the refugium section, there won't be much flow into the refugium, just enough to keep water movement. The overflow from the refugium section will drain over the wall into the return section and the skimmer section will flow thru the baffles into the return section. Do you think this set up will work this way?? I can't wait to see what kind of a price the man at the acrylic shop comes back with, lol. I figure the acrylic alone will be some where around $500 I am thinking on raising the blue baffle wall to 9 inches, the skimmer I will be ordering needs 6 to 10 inches of water. I am slow I just now figured out your example, I think you are right.

[Amphiprion]

What I am planning is to have both overflow pipes with ball valves coming together to drain into the skimmer section. There will also be another pipe coming off of the drains from the overflows with a ball valve connected that will drain into the refugium section, there won't be much flow into the refugium, just enough to keep water movement. The overflow from the refugium section will drain over the wall into the return section and the skimmer section will flow thru the baffles into the return section. Do you think this set up will work this way?? I can't wait to see what kind of a price the man at the acrylic shop comes back with, lol. I figure the acrylic alone will be some where around $500 I am thinking on raising the blue baffle wall to 9 inches, the skimmer I will be ordering needs 6 to 10 inches of water. I am slow I just now figured out your example, I think you are right.

As long as you have flow coming from the other direction, even if it is slow, then that's fine. Just don't expect it to fill up on its own, unless there is no baffle (or a very short one) in the way.

[strout]

I mailed the plans to the builder Monday and called them Tuesday to see if they got them, no, and I didn't here from them yesterday, so I don't know if they got them yesterday or not. I am kinda concerned, I work for the Post Office and I had the plans set to go out on the first truck Monday, from Biloxi to Mobile should be next day delivery. I think I will take the plans to work today and fax them, which is what I should have done anyway.

[opiy]

What is the name of the busniess you are working with? Have you talked to them on the phone yet? Do they usually answer emails quickly?

I ask this just incase I decide I might want to use a local shop for something I will know if I should look somewhere else.