Hey Anthony! Any chance you have a pic...I can visualize it better that way.

AND...I think I may be leaning to a refugium as El Guappo suggested. It could be a very interesting place for kids and grownups alike to view crabs etc as suggested....

I just finished (well almost finished) an unfortunately sized sump. It was to have as much of it viewable as possible so I wanted to have most of the front of the tank as a fuge.

The sump is 48"W X 16"D X 24.5" High. NOT an ideal sump size. (height and depth aren't great) - 75-80 gallonish.

I'll try and post some pictures later but it is basically like Melev's large sump.
(http://www.melevsreef.com/acrylics/s.../80g_sump.html) - his 80 gallon sump.

So in the first pic you'll see the drain section and on the right you have the fuge. The return section is in the back. The only thing different on mine is that the water flows from the fuge back into the bubble trap between the drain/skimmer section and the fuge.

This allows me to have a really really tall fuge section (full height of the tank) and then have it fall into the 12" high skimmer/ return section. I couldn't make the skimmer/drain section too high because of the operational high for skimmers and that I have a height limitation in my stand (as we all do). I'll have to use a stand for my skimmer.

Once again. so water volumes for me are roughly:
40 gallon fuge section
6 gallon return section
11 gallon skimmer/drain section

This is for a 90 gallon tank.

I used my old 230g reef display for a sump when I upsized to a 320g display.
I keep the sump water level at a height so that when I turn off the pumps the overflow goes down the drain from the 230 sump and makes water changing simpler. In the past I have separated the various pumps from the rest of the sump by an eggcrate wall, but I only have a couple of large fish, LR and a DSB in there now so I have no eggcrate.
It has fairly slow flow in there so it could be great for macroalgae and LPS.
Water from the main tank enters at one end and returns to the main display at the other.

Mitch

hope this gives you a better idea of what i mean..


well i just spent some time rearranging my sump to try and do what i mentioned earlier... i had to take apart my skimmer and put it back together in the sump but i made it fit. some piccs of what i got... i have a glass door on my stand so it works out pretty nice..

http://i442.photobucket.com/albums/q...8/P7301220.jpg

Left side..

http://i442.photobucket.com/albums/q...8/P7301224.jpg

Right side

http://i442.photobucket.com/albums/q...8/P7301225.jpg

Refuge... as you can see i have had to add weird baffes to keep the bubbles down... its due to the lack of a baffle and a hole in its place(see left side pic) so the flow is to fierce in one spot... i still have to add sand and i have some nice small pieces of LR that i just started to cycle so in a couple of monthes i hope to have a nice little refuge.

http://i442.photobucket.com/albums/q...8/P7301223.jpg

I have a pic. of my friend's 300g sump. The skimmer is external and it's beside the sump, however I didn't manage to get a pic. of the skimmer with the sump. His sump is in the basement and his tank is above it in the living room.

http://i261.photobucket.com/albums/i...r/P3240242.jpg

http://i261.photobucket.com/albums/i...r/P3240244.jpg