more sump questions...

[bwaller76]

I want to start building my sump as I have all the glass and whatnot and just need to silicone but I need to know how deep to make the compartments...most importantly the section that will house my skimmer. I dont know the "optimal water depth" for my skimmer and hence am not sure what depth to make it...can anyone help me?

Here is a pic of my skimmer just to show what it is and maybe it will help? Skimmer body is the only thing pictured, its circumference is 18" and it is 17" tall.

my sump is a 40 gallon breeder 36" long x 15" deep x 17" tall also image below.

 

[ccCapt]

That skimmer has no optimal water depth because it's not made to sit in a sump. It just hangs on the side of the tank. The pump should only be in a few inches of water, so you make that adjustment with the piece of pipe the pump connects to. You can just stick the whole thing in the sump as long as the pump is only a few inches underwater. At least that way when it floods, it will just flood back into the sump.

You may want to look into a better skimmer. That CSS is junk.

 

[ltkenbo]

Yeah that's why I have mine in the sump, so I don't have to worry about it overflowing. Is that a coralife skimmer? If it is they do have directions for in sump placement, I would go look in the directions and find the minimum depth of water needed and then maybe use something an inch or two deeper. I have a coralife 65 skimmer in by 10 gallon sump and I have it in the sump but with mine you can rotate that bracket so I hang it on the inside of the tank. Just make sure that you're return pump compartment is not too big, but not too small that the water would evaporate in less than a day. I made that mistake with my current one and I have to be sure to top it off at some point in the day or the return pump will start sucking in air and blowing bubbles up in the tank. I think I made each of my compartments like 10" deep or something, but I have a 10 gallon sump, and next time I'll probably make changes. The thing that will set the overall water depth of your tank will be the highest section that the water flows to. So you can always start higher and move lower (flow direction wise I mean) or keep all the sections the same. It just depends on your design. You can always check Melevsreef.com - Welcome! for ideas.

 

[motorcyclereefer]

Hey the CSS skimmers are good in the 65 and the 125. I have had two of them and they have worked great.I have heard the 220 is not as good. You might have to adjust it every once in a while but they pull what needs to be pulled out.

 

[bwaller76]

It does have a hang on the tank bracket but it is an in sump skimmer. The good thing about the bracket is that you can hang it to keep it from moving around and keeping it upright. The glass I have for the baffles is 14" tall which seems a little tall to me, just too close to the top for my comfort but that's why the questions. I think I will cut the glass to 12" then next 11" with the exit to return section at a 9" or 10" height. Just want some room for error and to avoid flood. Any other pieces of feedback are welcomed and greatly appreciated.

 

[bwaller76]

how deep should my compartments be? Im thinking 12" 11" then 9"

 

[Rcpilot]

I did a bunch of reading about this exact same question. How much water in the skimmer compartment?

Based on everything that I read, I decided to make my first baffle 10" high. It works good for my AquaTraders PS-75 skimmer. Most of the articles and skimmer instructions I could find said that your water needed to be around 10" deep. Some said 9" and some said 10" and some said 11". I just averaged it and went with 10"

If it's too deep, you can always hang the skimmer up higher. But if it's too shallow there's not much you can do.

The biggest mistake I made was placing my baffles too close to each other. I only spaced them 1 VCR tape apart. The water moves through them too fast and I do get some bubbles passing through. Had I spaced the baffles about 1.5" apart, that would have made the water move slower through the baffles. Slow moving water won't trap bubbles like fast moving water does.

Think about it:

You can move 10g of water through this spot < ......... >

Or you can move that same 10g of water through this spot < .................................... >

Which one do you think will make the water move slower and thereby NOT trap air bubbles?

 

[bwaller76]

yeah the skimmer i have hangs on the sump side so the water depth just has to come to the pump and over...I have a 14" piece of glass which is what I was thinking for the first baffle and the others to go down from there. That leaves me about four to five inches from the top...which im starting to think that keeping the sump about half capacity will reduce the chances for flooding errors

 

[yote]

With that skimmer,then pump should be no deeper than 4 inches under the water surface.Any deeper and it wont pull the air needed to produce the bubbles.