alright so i watched that movie about 7 times and would recommend the following.
if you want the 5000 pump i would do the sideways external mount like you said to increase the reaction area within the skimmer body. Also make note that the skimmers in the video look VERY wide - the vertex is a big skimmer and that diy one looks just as big (look at the size of the pump vs. the size of the skimmer base for reference) You may want to do some math to figure out the volume of the vertex skimmer chamber vs. yours vs. the reef octupus line that uses that pump. If your volume is significantly smaller you may want to reconsider.
I would contact Coralvue and ask what depth their stock skimmers (that use that pump) run at. Its important to know for the water pressure at different depths heavily affects skimmer performance.
I have considered a similar upgrade for my swc 150 bmk skimmer with uses the crappy atman 2500 pump. Right now my skimmer is doing quite well (seems to have found its sweet spot) but i was thinking about either using the new sicce psk 1000 pump or an eheim compact pump (built by Eden out of Italy - same pump that is used on the Skimz skimmers so i quickly crossed that one off the list)
keep us in the loop - i am very interested as to how this turns out.
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