Skimmer Placement - Order of Operations

[hollback]

I am wanting to downgrade to a "holding system" for the next 3-5 years. I am going with a 80 gallon frag tank, a 20 gallon (small tank), and a 50 gallon sump. Water would drain from the frag tank into the small tank, then into the sump. I would like to keep rock out of the frag tank and originally was going to fill the small tank with rock and put the skimmer in the sump. I'm now thinking I want to put the sump under the frag tank to save space but am worried about accessing the skimmer. Would it make more sense to put the skimmer in the small tank and the rock in the sump? I figure most of the detritus will settle in the small tank and accessing the skimmer would be much easier here. Thoughts?

 

[\m/reefsnmetal\m/]

If you're not running a refugium with the intent to provide live food to the other tanks then it doesn't matter where the skimmer goes and how you order the tanks.

 

[hollback]

My thought is that the detritus would settle out in the small tank and would be easier siphon out than getting trapped in a bunch of rock.

 

[\m/reefsnmetal\m/]

My thought is that the detritus would settle out in the small tank and would be easier siphon out than getting trapped in a bunch of rock.

That would all depend on flow really. You're likely to have detritus trapped in certain areas of each tank over time eventually. You could put the skimmer in the small tank and filter socks in the sump. That may prevent some buildup among the rocks, but I would still build the setup with the assumption that you'd eventually have to vacuum the tanks at some point in time. If it were my setup, I would do some measuring to see if the skimmer could still fit in the sump regardless for aesthetic reasons. If the small tank is for filtration purposes in addition to the sump, it may be easier to just use a bigger sump and leave out the middle tank.