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"Unless you have a specific reason to have the refugium level be low, I would make the third baffle just an inch or two below the top of the sump (17-18" high). I would love to keep the level that high, but as Chip stated that leaves little room for errors if I'm using an ATO - i'm not worried too much about reverse siphon, as I have a water check valve attached to my return pump. I really want to avoid the potential of an overflow flood in my living room.

"Also, keeping the water height in the return pump area at about the same height as the last baffle will help, BUTT will severely reduce your flow back capacity in cases of power or pump off situations. I find water over flows on the floor absolutely sucks. " Yes water over flows are horrible! I'm planning on keeping the water height in the return to be at 13 1/4" Just above the 2 baffles on each side of the return (which I was planning on setting at 13"). I wouldn't want it to fall too much lower than 13" - that would create more bubbles as water cascades down, and would eventually put alot of preasure on the last 2 baffles as the preasure would be different on each side. I see how the first baffle doesn't do much if the skimmer is flowing over it - what if i extend that baffle higher and then angle it - and route the water underneath the first one? The skimmer water and intake would have some room to flow down the angled baffle, causing some of the bubbles to dissipate. I'll post an updated diagram soon.

I will add an ATO once i get it built and tweaked. Coral (Dave) had concerns that having the return in the middle between the intake / skimmer and the fuge would lead to microbubbles. Besides having an effective sump - my 2 main goals are to have virtually no microbubbles and to keep it quiet.

The design I'm planning on using is below. I decided to put the return in the middle so as not to have too much flow through the fuge (it will get 1/2 the flow). Do you think that 6 inches of empty space at the top is good - i.e. filling the tank up ~ 13 inches? or would you raise the first baffle a few inches higher? I also need to reduce noise as much as possible. The intake flowing into the skimmer area will have a filter sock on it, flowing on top of some sponges or rocks to reduce noise. The output of the skimmer dropping past the first baffle may create too much noise - any ideas to get it quieter are very welcome. I also had problems with micro bubbles in the past - this is an AquaC ev120 skimmer. It's pretty big, so do to space constraints the best position is to have the output of the skimmer right on top of the first baffle. Do you think the 3 baffles will take care of the bubbles before they hit the return? Any other suggestions are appreciated.

Voted! Very nice pics - yours is very good - but most of them are excellent. Good luck.

Thanks ill be looking for materials this week. Coral I appreciate the offer of help on cutting the glass. .

Thanks for the input on the glass - The 30 gallon i bought is glass, so I guess it does make sense to use glass with silicone. You guys think the hardware store would be better than Lowes to get the glass and get it cut? I didn't know about nipping off the corners either, but that also makes alot of sense. Feel free to give me any more suggestions you may have, as this is my first attempt at building a sump. I'll try to post a preliminary diagram of the design. As far as the fuge, I was planning on doing a dsb as long as the measurements work out i.e. I have enough space. I think I would put the dsb - maybe mix some miracle mud in it, and add some LR and perhaps mangrove or just cheato. Thanks for the input!

I might check Lowes. Last time I went to home depot and looked at acrylic prices they were actually very expensive for just a small sheet.

I have a 30 gallon tank that I'm going to convert into a sump. I'm going to need some acrylic to build in baffles, compartment, and a stand for the skimmer. The tanks width is 12 1/2" so if you have any left over acrylic pieces for free or cheap please let me know. Also - before I start I wanted to get opinions on where to put a small refuge - I see some sumps with it in the middle and everything flows one direction - water in, then to refuge, to skimmer and water return. I see others where they have the refuge on one side and the return in the middle - i guess this method keeps the water flow at a much lighter level through the refuge. What are your ideas on this? Thanks!

Good info to know - it makes sense though, because my 6line was the last fish I have added to the tank. Sorry for a temp hijack of the thread, but I'm thinking of adding 3 Bartlett's Anthias in the future - do you think that would be a problem with the 6line?

I have a nice 6line that gets along great with my clownfish and tangs - those are not very timid fish though. Not sure how the 6 line would be with more timid fish.

Amazing story Dave - I wouldn't have thought that you could resusitate a fish like that.. Sounds like you gave him a great chance at recovery. I always wanted a trigger, but am afraid it would kill my corals. How is the pink tail with corals?

Sorry to hear about all the losses you had - that really sux! If all you have left is the goby, due to the metal conatamination from the heater, you may want to completely empty your tank to remove all traces of it. Sometimes it's better to go through a little more pain and effort now than to continue to fight and loose more animals over time. Good luck

I had the same problem about 2 months back. I have no idea what happened - it's like the goby had a deathwish. 2 times he got sucked through the overflow and ended up in the wet/dry. I put him back, he would stay down for awhile, then start swimming against the current at the top again. I even put him in the refugium for a week so he could take it easy, and heal if he was injured from going into the filer. After the last time I put him back in the d/t he has disapeared - haven't seen him 2 months, so I'm assuming he died. At least the last time he didn't end up in the filter. Very strange behavior though. If anyone figures it out, or has any other insights, let me know. I want to get another one, but I am hesitant.

Sounds like some substance got into the d/t - sometimes it is very difficult to figure out what that could be. I would start using carbon asap - this will help clarify the water. You should also remove any dead animals as they decay it will continue to foul up your d/t water.

Haven't added anything to the tank. Update: The LTA is still doing ok The green star looks like it will make a full recovery, about 80% of the polyps coming out now. The blue clove - looks completely wiped out :( Very strange how this coral just degraded like that. I really liked the look of the blue clove - I know they can grow like crazy, so if anyone has some extra blue clove that they trimmed down and want to get rid of, let me know.

update on the tank. Looks like the LTA is good - looking nice, didn't move. Frogspawn, hammer, all ok. The green star polyp is still not looking so hot, but it does look like it's starting to recover - almost like it was burned - right now about 1/3 of the polyps are out. What baffles me is the blue clove polyp - that guy looks like it is totally gone, no polyps out at all, alot have flaked away off the rock. I'll leave it in for awhile to see if any regeneration or recovery of even a small amount. So anyone have any good ideas on what would affect the green star and blue clove polyps so badly? Those 2 were very resilient until now.

Very interesting thread Dave - would love to see the whole project when it's completed. Keep posting the pics so we can follow your progress. One thing I didn't see addressed yet - how are you going to clean all that surface area? Are you planning on letting coralline algae grow on any of the panels or are you going to try to keep all the viewing areas completely clean? - just asking cause I always am looking for easier ways / and solutions for less frequent cleanings on my 76 gallon tank. Cheers, Brian

I didn't "bake" the baking soda. I read an article that indicated you didn't need to if your ph was already at a decent level. Though I'm not sure of the process you go through to "bake" it, and what actually happens chemically and would it make a difference on such a small amount?

I have no idea what got into the water - 3 days ago i added a very small amount of baking soda, less than a 1/2 teaspoon, to raise the dKH - i have done this before and there were not any adverse reactions. I don't really dose - I add garlic guard a few times a week to their food. I'll have to ask my wife if there was any cleaning nearby with any type of aerosol. Thanks for the offer Steve - I probably can't stop by tonight, though if things don't get better I will probably take you up on the offer. I'll post an update tonight. I do use one of the plastic salinity testers, but mine has always been pretty spot on. I compared my results with Dave (coralhind) awhile back, and the readings were identical. Thanks GW - I will add my location to my profile

It's good to know that you don't think it's the peppermint. My water params are good - ph 8.3, salinity 1.023, temp 79, am = 0, Nitrite = 0, Nitrate = 15, dKH = 8. I would have also guessed that something somehow got into the tank - but i was watching the peppermint hanging around and walking on the anemone and when that was happening the the LTA would close more - looking like a cylinder. When i shooed the shrimp away - the LTA would start expanding out again and opening up more. I guess I should assume that something got into the tank, and do another water change tonight. Who knows maybe a bug flew in or something - that top of the tank is open. But i have never had problem like this. The green star polyp was also looking pretty bad this morning - from almost always seeing the the polyps wide open and moving to now most are closed where thats all it looks like is a purple rock. And the blue clove still looks bad - i hope they recover. " LanglandJoshua I second the contamination theory, but I had a LTA and hated it. From what I have seen they like to just roll around the tank without staying in place. Which can sting coral. What are your chem levels?(PH, salinity, and the rest)" FYI - my LTA stays put, it found a nice place in the sand with rocks overhead - the foot is attached in the sand, and the rocks give cover to the body. It's almost always expanded very nice. Any other advice or theories - the clove and star polyps were doing so nice for quite some time - i would hate to lose them.

I have a really nice long tentacle anemone for around a month now - he settled in a nice area, and has been looking very healthy, staying put, and opened up really nice. I come home from work today, and my corals don't look so hot - frog spawn, ricordias, hammer coral, star polyp, and the worst looking one a rock covered with blue clove polyp. All these corals were very healthy, and the blue clove has never had a problem, and now it looks almost dead - we will see if the polyps open up tomorrow. The anemone didn't look so hot either - like it moved a little bit, a little more closed, and not really settled. I see this Peppermint shrimp that I have moving around on the anemone - and it doesn't really look like it's hurting it, but the anemone doesn't look happy when it is on it. Since something obviously happened or changed, I did a water changed, and replaced my carbon - the old carbon did have a "chemical / ammonia" type smell - i did do an ammonia test, and it is at 0. Anyone have any insights on what is going on? My theory is that there could be chemical warefare going on caused by the peppermint shrimp irritating the LTA - with the blue clove polyp being the biggest victom. FYI - none of the corals are very close to each other - they have plenty of space, and have been healthy for quite some time.

I liked both pics, but the second set of pics seemed had more clarity to them and less of that intense "bluish" feel. BTW - the LTA is doing fine. Took several weeks to really settle in, but she seems pretty happy now - this creature is big, named it "Gorda"