Sump recommendations or stay as-is

[stevil]

I'm getting ready to get my first saltwater tank fired up.
I have a 90 gallon aquarium plumbed with a twin-flow corner overflow, beneath the tank is a 20 gallon sump tank with a protein skimmer, thermometer and return pump. I've done a wet-run with freshwater and everything runs ok. I plan to use 90-140 lbs of live rock.
One concern I have is that because of the design of my cabinet, once I get everything set up I'll never be able to remove the 20 gallon tank if for some reason I want to (or at least not easily). Some reasons I can think of sould be adding a refugium or wet dry filter, but I'm not sure I'd ever want/need to. I still have space in the cabinet next to the 20 gallon sump.
[list type=decimal][*]Any insight into reasons to swap out the 20 gallon now?
[*]What would some alternatives be? Rubbermaid? Taller narrower tank that will slide out?
Is there a specific main tank to sump gallon ratio that I should have? ie. would a 10 gallon tank work as a sump for now?
Any other words of wisdom or specific equipment recommendations?
[/list type=decimal]
Thanks!

 

[jjlittle]

I would recommend as large as you can you also need to keep in mind if you down size that if you have a power outage that the smaller sump may over flow. I am surprized the 20 gal doesn't. For when power cut off the over flows still flow some water into the sump and in some cases its 10 gal or more so make sure you do a power failure test run.

 

[acekjd83]

check out the do-it-yourself section of the boards... there are MANY threads about this very issue. especially check out threads by "squidd". he's quite informative.

 

[salty tank]

I have a 65 gallon tank with a 20 gallon sump. I suggest getting around a 30-35 gallon sump or even bigger. The bigger the better. Also if the sump wont fit in through the doors of your stand (mine didnt) take out the middle brase on the stand put the sump in through the top and screw the brase back in. I had to do that. Only a 10 gallon sump would have fit through my doors

 

[salty tank]

well if your electrity were to go out, water will flow into the sump and it wont be sent back to the tank. So therefore the sump will fill up and if you dont have a big enough sump it could overflow all over the ground. The best way to find out is to full all the plugs and observe what happens.