DIY Sump questions

[Taari]

As far as I know, all sumps are DIY, but anyway...

I want to make a refugium/sump out of a standard 5.5 gallon tank. The first half will be the refugium, then I'll have a piece of glass siliconed in to split it, then have space for filtration media with a submersible pump sending the water back up to the show tank.

My question is how do I divide the sump to ensure that the water flows through it the way I want it to, and what's the best way to divide up the filter part of the sump into compartments for different kinds of media, while ensuring that the water is able to pass through easily? I plan to use kitchen scrubbie pads, floss/poly fiberfill, and ceramic cylinders for bio media.

 

[mellowvision]

you want the water to go down then up then down. so, you probably want 3 compartments, one for refugium, with a spill over into the bio media and then it goes under the second wall into the pump area. I mean, ideally you'd go down up down, I would think, but having the refugium first would probably keep you from having a lower water way, making the spillover a better option.