Filtration Set Up Question

Question for the Community...

I decided to go with a sump room for my new tank set up... the sump room is directly behind the display tank wall.

Typically, I have arranged my tank in the past such that all the overflow from the display drains into the refugium... all of that flow drains into the skimmer compartment and then finally all of that flow drains into the return pump section to complete the flow. 100% of the flow goes through the refugium and skimmer compartments.

What I did not like about that set up was having to crawl down low under the tank to clean the refugium and skimmer sections.

Thus, this time I am considering the following....

1) Display tank draining into a return pump aquarium (40 gallons) through filter socks (with ATO feed)
2) Having the return pump feed a manifold with multiple outlets... each outlet with a ball valve to control flow.

a) Left Display Tank Supply line
b) Right Display Tank Supply Line
c) Cooler, the cooler water will return into the return pump tank
d) GFO/Carbon Reactor will return into the Skimmer tank
e) Spare​

3) GFO/Carbon water drains into the skimmer tank... skimmer tank drains into the refugium.... refugium drains back into the return pump tank.

Fundamentally two things change here...
1) The order of filtration... WAS: Filter Socks, Refugium, Skimmer, Return... IS: Filter Socks, Skimmer, Refugium, Return... Does the change in order matter????
2) Volume of water per cycle... in the old flow 100% of return pump water went through the refugium and skimmer sections... Now, only 25% of the flow does on each cycle.... Does that matter???

My logic says that as long as the pump flow rate is high enough... it should not matter... but I want to hear some opinions....

This solves my previous problem in that the Skimmer and Refugium Tanks are now on the Counter Top above my return pump so that they are easily accessible. Just use the Return Pump to create flow to them...

Thoughts please???

Thanks
Mark

 

Mark I always thought that having the skimmer be first always made more sense to me so I like your new arrangement. Being able to control the flow to the that and the refugium is ideal too. I like where you are going with this myself.