The Tunze is a good skimmer?? Havn't read anything about them yet.

I have read they are good.
I bought one, will be in the sump when I get my 120 finished.
But don't count on that to be happening soon.

I have also heard good thing about them. I've never owned one but I know a couple people who have and they claim to work really well.

Maybe if the (external) skimmer didn't fit in the stand you could build a box for it so it would look like a plant stand or something?

I had a similar dilemma. I made my stand short (28"). I made the floor of the stand lower than yours instead of making it raised the bottom is just plywood, so the skimmer and the sump sit only a 1/2" off the carpet (on the plywood bottom). Then I used a 15g for a sump which is only 12" tall. This gives me lots of room to get in there, and is just barely big enough for backflow from the pipes. I can fully remove my EuroReef RS-180 from the sump if I want to without tearing the whole thing apart.

how many inches are you looking to gain?

Not to sure. I think I may just have to get a shallower sump one day.

if its just a couple of inches then cut down the cup.

Well, I am going to need a better skimmer. This Red Sea berlin skimmer just isn't very good I'm afraid. And don't want to cut down a new skimmer LOL. I have cut this one allready, the base.

What I really was searching for, I guess, was a skimmer that had it's outlet pumped, not gravity drain to the sump. So I could pump the skimmer outlet over the sump edge. But I guess that's a far fetched dream

Well, not sure this is better, but it is a skimmer driven by a pump, not gravity fed, run external to my tank. I don't have a sump... yet, but when I do, it will be a similar DIY el cheapo, counter current, air stone skimmer. It is 'outside' the tank (sump in your case) so it may be as tall as you wish to make it. Only downside I can see is there's more potential for flooding if it overflows, but that risk can be mitigated in a number of ways. So far not a problem in my case. Aquaclear 301 powerhead, 8 watts, Stellar W-60 air pump, 3.2 watts. No doubt there are much more professional & efficient rigs out there, but this works fine for me and can be run on back up power for quite a while with such low power consumption.

http://hlj1yw.blu.livefilestore.com/.../P1010815c.JPG

http://hlj1yw.blu.livefilestore.com/.../P1010815d.jpg