65 Gallon Tank new setup - What sump and skimmer will work?

[Mario1403]

Hello all,

I am about to setup a brand new 65 Gallon saltwater tank and I do have a stand for it.
Now I wanted to put my existing 20 gallon tank in it as a sump, just to find out that there is not enough space. The tank is 17" high and I have 18" to work with. One inch is simply too little. Would a 10 gallon tank as a sump be OK? I read somewhere that 20% are sufficient, so it ideally should be 13 gallon. Now I was wondering if 3 gallon less really make a difference?

Furthermore, the skimmer I wanted to get is 22" high. So this is also not an option. Do you have any suggestion on a low profile, affordable skimmer that would work with 65 gallon?
I could use a HOB skimmer, but would like to avoid that, as I want to hide everything in the stand...

Thanks!
-M

 

[tidefanjam]

Can we see a pic of your setup? Sounds like a similar problem to the one I had, if so, a 20 gallon long would fit.