Layouts for a sump

[Pro Fish Keeper]

Hi, my name is Brandon. I'm 14 and have a 115 gallon reef tank. I have been in the fish keeping hobby for about 1 year and a half. I had fresh water for about a year. I just recently joined canreef. I run a Fluval 404, undergravel filter with 2 804 powerheads, 2 pc's combined with 1 actinic and a 10,000. I also have a very fine type of crushed coral. It's a little coarser then sand( I have a mush on the undergravel to keep the sand from getting sucked in). I hope to run a sump possibly with a wet/dry and a refugium. My sump would be a 25,33 or a custom 45 I could build to fit my stand. I hope to get 4-6 pc's and 2 actinics and or 2, 20,000 k bulbs I dont have money for MH at the moment, at 14 I need more allowence. i plan to keep SPS and some LPS. I have an open brain( not to light dependent) about 175-200 of figi/indo live rock. Some softies, 2 cleaner shrimp and a chromis. Yes A chromis. I work a LFS. So I get most of my supplies from there. I'm shooting for a mini reef self sustianing( for a period of time) tropical reef. I've done plenty of resarch plus I set up aquariums as part time job. So i've set up some sumps and wet dry's. I was just wondering what type of sump all of you run. Im building it custom so I can do whatever. I do know what type of filter compartment I can add to the wet dry if I decide to go that way. Or what type of pump im going to need in order to move the gph im goin to need to. My tank is not drilled so i'd use overflow boxes. Thank you.

[Dale D]

Don't use the undergravel filter or a wet dry filter compartment in the sump. The live rock will give you plenty of biological filtration. The 404 won't be needed either or it can be used for carbon or to add some water movement to the tank along with the 2 802's.

Use an empty sump to hold your heaters, protein skimmer (if you use one)and your return pump. The size of the return pump you will use will depend on the capacity (flow rate) of the overflow(s) you choose.

I'm a LFS geek too. Where do you work? I worked on 5 different customers tanks today and it was my "day off".