@saltyfilmfolks
The pump section is about 5" wide by 11.5" front to back and 17.75" inches deep over all with the current media tray. The three recommended pumps should have no problem with this pump chamber. I could eliminate the tray and just have a wall due to no water drop at the recommended water depth of 11.75". Same on the skimmer chamber after the filter sock. If no filter cup or sock is used I would use an over under wall. The intake to the skimmer is primarily surface water on the Tunze 9004 skimmer and should not be a problem with some bubbles unless they are drawn into the pump. There should only be about 1/4" drop from the skimmer chamber to the refugium in an effort to prevent lots of splash and water noise. In my experience the more weir designs you use the harder it is to clean the various areas of the sump. The ability to clean is something I like to maintain for most users when making a design. So I tend to use less walls as it shrinks the hand space. My old wet/dry filters had a removable wall that held a foam sponge as a final filter before the shared skimmer and pump chamber. This allowed customers to clean under the dry area without taking the filter apart.
In this design I attempted to combine the refugium and pump chamber as one common area for drain down from the tank in the event of a power outage. As such I figured at least 4 gallons drain down and left more in case the return line from the pump is deeper underwater on the display tank. One of the things about new style sumps is the small pump chambers that allow a pump to run dry unless you have an ATO. In the old days the Wet/Dry sumps were shared along the entire foot print and the pumps had much more water capacity to draw on for evaporation from the display tank. A lot of the new sumps have these small pump chambers and must have a functional ATO just to make it to noon on a warm day.
Sometimes less is more when you are trying to give the maximum refugium for Katrina 71 sump monsters. The design is not set in stone and I am learning through this experience what some of you would want in a sump design in case I feel the need to jump back into the aquarium industry. I prefer the skimmer before the refugium due to the desire to prevent algae from getting into the skimmer as well as pods and other micro fauna.
