External skimmer? Loud? No sump space

6eteeth · May 13, 2014

So I purchased an entire setup a month ago, 210 gallon including an acrylic sump. The sump is 48" long but has 3 baffles spaced evenly apart (please see fancy drawing). It was previously a wet/dry sump with bioballs in the first 3 chambers. I know have both overflows from the tank draining into the first chamber and was hoping to use the 2nd for a skimmer and 3rd a refugium until I realized the space in the chambers is only 9"x11". All the insump skimmers for this size tank have a much larger footprint than that so I was thinking about doing an external skimmer. As you can see in the drawing the last chamber has 2 outputs. He was using an external pump and there is another for a skimmer. The tank is in my family room so reduced noise is every important.

What do you guys think?

booth2010 · May 13, 2014

Could you take the middle baffle out?

stunreefer · May 13, 2014

Two great options for that size tank with footprint under 9"x11":

ReefOctopus 150SSS

ReefOctopus Regal 170SSS

I avoid external equipment by all means possible. Any external fitting is an avoidable potential leak, and of course skimmers can overflow.

You could also cut one of the baffles out for more internal skimmer options.

6eteeth · May 13, 2014

Wow, those are awesome. Thank you! I was only looking on Marine Depot and Bulk Reef so I guess I need to branch out more. So, I tried cutting out some of the acrylic in the last chamber. It looks like it used to have multiple compartments and somebody took a hammer to it and broke them out. So I tried using a dremel with the 561 bit, a multipurpose bit that I saw on some other forums. That thing sucked. I was trying to clean up some of the last chamber so the new internal pump could sit flat on the bottom of the sump. The bit sucked and I gave up after 5 minutes or so. Suggestions on what to use to cut out the baffle?