Skimmer

[vikingdaddy1]

Hi people,
Im having a problem I bought a coralife super skimmer but it is to tall to fit my tank. Im building the tank inside of a bar in the basement so there is a little room up top but not enough for the skimmer. I can take it back but the only other one I can get is a Bakpak2. Is this a good enough skimmer to trade for or should I maybe look into a sump? It's the only other way to get it to fit but I dont even know what a sump is or does. Please help me go the right direction any help will be greatly appreciated.
Thanks
Brian

[goda]

a sump is anything that water goes into below the normal water level

like my sump is a 20 gallon tank with a pump pumping the water back to the tank... its as simple as that ^^

[whiteshark]

I also have a 20 gal sump in the stand of my tank. There is an overflow from the tank that goes down into the sump. The water flows through the overflow, into the sump, then is pumped back into the tank. The sump is sectioned off into three parts. The first part has some cheato algae. The next part has the skimmer (ASM G-2). The water then flows into the return pump section and is returned to the tank.

[bertoni]

[welcome]

This animation might help:

http://www.melevsreef.com/what_sump.html

[kraze3]

If you have the room I would say a sump would be a good idea. You say your tank is going to be built into the bar. With a sump your skimmer, thermometer, heater, etc can all go into the sump so you dont see it in the tank. Without all that equipment in the back of the tank the focus will go right to your fish, corals, LR, and whatever else you ahve in there