If the sump fits your stand, and you generally like it, use it
The only couple things I'd do to mod it are;
1 - I'd make an
acrylic filter sock tray and put it where the black media box would sit. Now you have removable socks
I cut my tray with a jigsaw before removing the plastic film and it stopped the saw from gumming up with hot plastic
All I do is lift the socks out and put clean ones in
2 - I'd put a tall baffle before the short one (next to the sponge in the pic)
This will act as not only a bubble trap, but will allow for much more water volume. Then all you have to do is play around with your skimmer by adjusting it's height with a stand of sorts until it's happy
The water spilling over the new baffle will carry air with it once it gets a biofilm buildup. This will hit the bottom of the sump and be stopped by the short baffle and
shouldn't make it's way to your return pump
It's not an
ideal design, but will save you reconfiguring your sump completely
And I'd recommend you test the new baffle with some silicone. This way you can remove it if you need. Once you like it, cut it out and properly glue it with acrylic glue
And if you want an even better bubble trap, but lose another inch or so of skimmer area, a second baffle will work better. The first baffle is off the bottom by an inch, and the second one is on the bottom and is the same size as the first, so it's now an inch shorter top to bottom
Make sense ?
Of course, you want the added baffle to be shorter than the top of the sump by about a quarter inch or so, and you can have your 'power off' level lower than this - based on how much water flows back to your sump when all pumps are off etc
I played with my sump for weeks before I was happy with it
Re-plumbed/baffled/sock trayed it 3 times before I was happy
So you may want to test your's out for days before you decide it's going to work for you