I don't like the refugium in the sump idea, but if you mean a DSB calupera farm sure you can keep that in your sump. A refugium in my opinion is where you put critters to keep them isolated from other critters, it's a great place for shrimp etc to spawn. It's not a place for sick fish, but if a fish is being a bully or being bullied it's a good place for that.
A sump in my mind is somewhere you put your filtration equipment, skimmer, heater etc.. btw, before you start to glue things in, make sure your heater will fit in.. my first sump I was soooooo proud of was great it had this that and the other thing.. then when I went to put my heater in... it didn't fit, I had to start all over again...
I've used 20 gallon glass aquariums with out any trouble for a sump, right now I'm using a 15, I use acrylic panels and simply silicone them in, I've never had any trouble with that. The third pic is kind of cool and is not much different than what I use but, I don't think it's entirely clear what goes on in there... See the egg crate sections.. that's where the water comes in, there is a filter pad there, great idea, that second one below should be where you can put charcoal etc if you're going to use it. That means the top one has to be removable... then the water goes into that holding area where it flows over the top of the next piece of glass and out UNDER the last piece of glass, That's were you'd insert some foam filter media. I build my sumps to use aquaclear 500 foams.. I like the size of them and they are cheap.. $5.99 The last section is where you're heater and return pump goes. You could put a sand bed in the section before the foams if you wanted, keep that on a light cycle that goes opposite your tank light cycle and that should help stabilize your pH etc in your tank.
Doug
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