Sump Design Question

[plutoniumJoe]

Hi There,

I am in the process of building my sump. I have a 50gallon 36X18X18. I got my sump a few weeks ago and it is much larger than I thought.


Two questions for debate: Do I need to separate an in sump skimmer from the larger compartment. My skimmer empties out the bottom of the tube so it wont spill out over a baffle just back into its own water. I thought that it might not be worth having a baffle in this situation. Also to save main compartment space how large do I need the compartment after the final bubble trap. My return pump is an external one, and I will have an auto top-off so is the size of the final compartment important?

Any ideas/help is appreciated.

Joe.