Finally starting to set up my reef tank and have already hit a snag :) Need advice

[cryptics]

Finally finished redoing my office and it is time to concentrate on the tank. The first thing I was planning on doing was building my sump/refugium. The tank is going to be a 90g BTW. The sump I got was a 30g. I got the glass cut. I was planning on 3 sections. 1st- skimmer, intake and 2 phosban reactors 2ND return section 3rd refugium.
OK here is my problem. I had picked up an aquac Ev-180 as the skimmer a few months back. It is really big! It's footprint is basically the size of what I had planned for that section. That is without setting up the MAG7 to power it. My question is can I set this up outside the sump? I would set up PVC from the outtake and rise about 6 inches over the lift then down into the tank. Will this significantly reduce the effectiveness of the skimmer? The only other thing I can see to do is set it up outside the stand risen up to make it so I don't need the rise but my cats will enjoy that way to much or make the sump just intake and return and set up a separate refugium. I would prefer not to do this but it is not out of the question.
Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

 

[eric b 125]

mag drives cannot be run outside of the water, they need to be submerged. i'm not sure if you'll be able to keep the mag in the sump and use pvc to feed the water to the skimmer outside of the sump. maybe someone else will chime in on that. it would be interesting to see how it works.

 

[cryptics]

Sorry yeah the pump would be in the intake chamber but the physical skimmer would be outside. The best I can see is the intake pump controls the flow. I am just worried because the outtake from the skimmer will be extended and with a 6'' lift that it will restrict the outtake flow and affect how effictive the skimmer is

 

[cedarreef]

If you're talking about setting up your skimmer so that it's basically a HOB skimmer on your sump then that'd be fine... It really doesn't matter if it's HOB or in the actual sump if it's still a good skimmer. Also, the way I have my sump/fuge set up is the first chamber is the intake(tube from overflow) and skimmer. The second is the fuge with some chaeto and a cheap PC light, and the third is my return pump. This setup has been working very well for me.

 

[2quills]

Yep, you can do it that way. The 6" height will add a little bit of back pressure which shouldn't effect it's efficiency a whole lot. But, reviews that I've seen on running this skimmer with a mag 7 is that the mag 7 is a bit under powered. People who've upgraded to mag 9.5's seen better results. The mags can be run externally but they are not considered as great external pumps. If you plan on keeping the mag 7 then maybe you can set the skimmer on some type of stand to raise it up a bit to reduce the back preasure if you find it to be a problem.