Sump design, why so many chambers?

[kien]

I have a two chamber sump with a bubble trap separating the two chambers.

1. The bubble trap is a life saver with my skimmer because my skimmer likes to occasional spit out bubbles. The B-Trap eliminates said bubbles.

2. I like to float stuff in my sump and it's nice to do that in the non-return chamber so that something doesn't accidentally plug up the return.

3. I find that I get a lot of settling in my non-return chamber vs my return chamber. My return chamber is fairly small so I suspect everything in that chamber gets sucked up and spat back into the tank. In the non-return chamber there's time for stuff to settle at the bottom of the chamber which I can then suck out during water changes.

[jorjef]

Two chamber it is. Not big on filter socks for me it would be simpler to give the majority on the sump to the non return side and let crap settle and clean out when needed. The gas exchange is a good point I never thought about.

[kien]

Originally Posted by jorjef

Not big on filter socks for me

I'm with you there. I rarely run my filter socks. I'll only throw a sock on after I've done an aggressive cleaning of my rocks with a turkey baster/brush. Aside from that I'm sockless. IMO socks are one step back from K.I.S.S :-)

[jorjef]

Originally Posted by kien

I'm with you there. I rarely run my filter socks. I'll only throw a sock on after I've done an aggressive cleaning of my rocks with a turkey baster/brush. Aside from that I'm sockless. IMO socks are one step back from K.I.S.S :-)

Exactly, I need to keep in mind that my 20 year old son will be the tank sitter when we are on holidays and the fact he has zero interest in the tank it needs to as simple as possible.

[Myka]

I'm not a big believer in refugiums in sumps, so my sumps are very simple. One side is the skimmer chamber, then 4 baffles for microbubble elimination, then a return chamber. Done.

[jorjef]

Sump design, complete...New tank is going to be 48"W x 24"H X 30"D Still waiting for the "okay" on one of two locations for the tank. Wanted an external overflow on one of the ends with it being off set towards the back of the tank and the return on the same end.