Sump Improvement advice?

[myersb33]

Hey everyone so I purchased my aquarium from a friends dad who personally built the sump, I had some assistance with someone who had a crash course from an expert in setting it up but I am just becoming not happy enough with the function and look of my sump. I’d like to add a fuge so I could house some copepods and keep some different corals and inverts? Just wondering what some of your guys advice would be about organization and addition to my sump here’s a pic thanks!

 

[Suohhen]

That is a pretty low water level for a sump although a nyos quantum skimmer like you have can handle a low water level but your going to have to rearrange the baffles if you want to have any space for a refugium. The alternative thing to do would be to buy and plumb a separate 10 or 20g tank to serve as your refugium which has the added benefit of keeping light spill out of your sump and possibly being more accessible and easier to maintenance but drilling glass is not for the novice and 10g are so thin it is even more likely to shatter.
The other thing you can do is bust the baffles out and make higher baffles. Usually baffles can be broken free pretty easily if it was a diy project but not always. I would personally make the return section smaller. It doesn't need to be much larger than the pump and the larger it is the more volume of water will need to evap before the top off kicks on. You could also plumb the return externally and make the return section a tiny corner of the sump.
Ideally you would want to have the inlet share a chamber with the refugium, just take up a bit of the corner to box in an area and then reduce the water level for the next section to house your skimmer but if there is vertical room you can put the skimmer on a stand if needed so really there are 1000 ways to do it.
edit: oh and importantly it is possible that the builder set the water level so low to accommodate for backflow from the tank when the pumps are off. There are many ways to incorporate a siphon break so that much less water can siphon back into the sump but be sure to account for this.