[dinor2]

Well, I am going to build a sump for my birthday, happy birthday to me!

I have NO IDEA what I'm doing! I would love any suggestions/layouts/ideas. I have a 55gallon tank with overflow built in already which has a mj900 returning water from overflow back into the dt. Is this something I can just direct to the sump instead of the dt? If I have anything stronger pulling water from the overflow than the mj900, it takes water out too fast from the overflow....

Another question, I know what baffles are but, have NO IDEA where and how many I should have in a sump! Right now, I'm planning on using a 10gallon sump but, will measure the 20 gallon tanks to see if that will fit under my dt.

I also have a berlin turbo protein skimmer which is gargantuan in size, both the unit itself and the pump for it (another reason I want a sump, get that huge thing OUT of my DT!). And I'm not sure how that will go in the sump but I'm sure my manual for it will show me how.

I would also like to have a refugium area in it with a dsb and mangroves and cheato, is that overkill? I plan on stocking 5 or 6 small fish and lots of corals and have quite a few inverts for cuc so not too heavy a bioload but I want to add a mandarin in a year or so and I'd love to have a nice big flourishing group of pods available for all the fish. I also have lr rubble and cheato in my overflow as well.

Anyways, please help me on this guys!