Advantages to an external sump

[Skidge]

Hi all,

I currently have 12 or so gallon cube acrylic nano tank. There's a built in sump into which my skimmer fits. The sump's pretty small (maybe 3x15x15 inches), and it's kind of a pain to do anything with my skimmer. So, I'm going to be moving across the country in a few months and will be taking down my tank and probably setting it up again. I'm thinking about drilling my tank and plumbing it to an external standard 10 gal tank as a sump, mainly to make it easier for maintenance/water changes/etc.

My question is: is it worth it? Maintenance now isn't all that bad. It seems kind of silly to have a sump as big as the main tank, but I guess effectively doubling the water capacity would be a good thing. Also, I could use part of the sump as a refugium.

Ok, so maybe I answered my own question. But any comments/suggestions on this would be appreciated.

[smatter]

Lights, rock, and flow are all you need. I would keep it simple unless you really want to challenge your miniaturization skills. I have made a couple of elaborate small systems over the years which performed no better than my simple nanos. There is something to be said about simplicity.