building sump this week. design help

[mrsixstrings12]

I've been working on cleaning up the look of my display tank. I recently got some mp10s and my overflow box will be here sometime this week. I got a 20g long for my sump but want some opinions on the design. I'm deciding between 3 options.

Option 1. Water enters the sump going through a filter sock, enters protein skimmer chamber, then enters return chamber to be pumped back up.

Option 2. Water enters protein skimmer chamber, then enters a refugium area, then to the return pump area.

Option 3. Water enters protein skimmer chamber, then enters area with sand and more live rock, then return pump chamber.

What's everyone's opinion? I feel the refugium would be too small to make an impact and with currently only 2 osc. Clowns and a yellowtail damsel, does my bio load really warrant more live rock?? I plan on maybe getting 1 or 2 more fish at the most.

Some brief tank info: 38g tank, approx 1 inch sand bed, 55 lbs of live rock, leather coral, zoas, star polyps, goniopora, xenia, brain favites, brain trach., featherduster, torch coral

 

[ArmanS]

Option 1. I have a large sump, over 100gallons, for a 300g system. I have it like this.

Water drains into first chamber, overflows into 5 filters socks, then skimmer section, then reactor section, then return.

 

[Fallling]

Since you're planning on a low - medium bioload, I'd do option 1 with a decent protein skimmer. If you want to have a ball of cheato, you could do option 2, but back to the low/ med bioload, I'd stick with option 1. A 20L gallon doesn't have a lot of room either, so again, option 1 is probably the best bet. If you ever get the hankering for a fuge, I'd look into doing either a separate, inline tank for just the fuge or making a display fuge that connects into the system.