to sump or not to sump

[Troy F]

I set up my first tank without a sump and will never do it again. For one, you are limited to the type of skimmer you can run. Also, you increase your water volume, have a place to hide heaters etc. and can have little refugium down there too.

I looked into using a reverse lit sump or refugium to stabalize pH and found that unless you can run a huge sump/refugium (ie close to the same volume as your main tank) it will not have an effect on pH.