Ideas for sump

[coachd]

I am trying to put a sump under my 55 gal tank. My problem is that I want to put the sump in my stand, but the floor of my stand is only about 10 inches in width. The Door to the cabinet is 21 in high and 15 in wide. I would really rather not empty my tank to but something in from the top.
My local lfs says that I need a 29 long tank for the sump, but it is too wide. What size do you recommend?
I have read some people on this forum uses a rubbermaid tub to make a sump. Is that something people would recommend. If so, do you have to have dividers in the sump like I have seen in ready made sumps ?
Sorry for all of the questions. One of the main reasons that I want to do a sump is to get my skimmer, filter, and such off the back of the tank to give it a cleaner look.
I have seen an some websites about the Eheim 2227, which is suppose to be an all-in-one wet/dry filtration. Does anyone have any experience with this model. Can it replace my hang on the back filter and my skimmer?
Any help would be appreciated.
CoachD
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[trainfever]

Just put a smaller container inside a larger container to make a sump. The walls of the smaller container become the baffles. Purchase some rubble rock to place inside the smaller container to keep it from floating around. Your tank should drain into the smaller container which will overflow into the larger container and then get pumped back to your tank.

 

[wattsupdoc]

I use a rubbermaid with no dividers, just have evrything placed in the right location I suppose to prevent bubbles from being sucked up by my return pump. Dont have a problem with it anyways. I did have problems at first but i relocted my overflow from my DT to the opposing corner from my return pump and increased the volume of water in my rubbermaid to its max when the DT dumps down and now its all good.
I do like the idea of a smaller container though I might do that to make my fuge.