40B with 20 long sump questions

[shanesauce]

Hello, reefcentral!

I currently have a 40 breeder cycling and I have a 20 long sitting in my closet waiting to be used as a sump.
I plan on using a lifereef single overflow into my 20 long with a filter sock in the first chamber and a Reef Octopus NWM-110 and heater in the middle chamber and back into the display tank with a mag drive or something similar.

I am shooting for a return rate of about 200gph giving my sump a 5x turn over rate and giving my skimmer enough water to effectively clean.
I am going for about 10x-20x turnover rate IN the tank.

My question is what size baffles do I need to keep this sump as simple as possible? I don't want to do a 3 baffle bubble trap like everyone else, I would prefer to just cut 2 pieces of acrylic and have it separating the 3 chambers. I feel like without a ton of flow going through the tank bubbles won't be a huge issue. I would prefer the sump only hold 5-10 gallons while running and at the max 15-19 gallons after draining the display in a power outage.

If the skimmer needs to operate in 8 inches of water do I just make the 2 baffles 8 inches tall? I just don't fully understand where the water is going to sit while the pump is returning water and the overflow is draining.

[shanesauce]

Bump, I was trying to get this sump started sometime today any input is appreciated.

[Todd100]

Yes, you could cut 2 eight inch baffles for the skimmer chamber (or just one if it's the first chamber which is what I'd do). The Reef Octopus from what I've seen does a good job of keeping bubbles in the skimmer body. You should be very happy with your choice of skimmer. Everyone sets up their tank differently and it's a continual learning process. I try to take general ideas from other successful aquarists and adapt it to my own. I can't find it at the moment but there was an awesome thread that just had pics of peoples sumps...sorry

[codyreef29]

I'm building a 20L for a 55 soon and this is what I'm gonna do.

Designing your sump Can be done alot of diffrent ways. one section of the sump will be your water level chamber this is for autotop-off if your gonna use one. the other section can be for fuge skimmer heaters etc. I would do the first chamber for your skimmer check the water level needed and suit its needs meaning make a chamber that deep that's big enough for your skimmer. I would then do a fuge section for the center. at about 6 inches high and leaving enough room for a return pump chamber with autotop off switch devices. Here's a picture of my sump 5.5. I only put one baffle for my dsp then a skimmer heater return ato in the other chamber.

l l
l l
l loooooooooooooooooooooool l l l
l loooooooooooooooooooooooool l
looooooool sand fuge l skimmer l
l return ato l l
l________l_________________________l_______________________l