Seperate sump and refugium questions

[gone postal]

I have a 55 right now that is on a custom made fully enclosed wood stand. It currently is setup w/ a wet/dry and I want to get rid of that and run a sump / refugium combo. Since the stand is custom, I really only have room for a 10 gallon tank under it - even then, I can't run it lengthwise (supports in the way) - it'd have to be a front/back orientation and part of it would be sticking out of the back of the stand - I'd cutout part of the wood. I really could run two 10 gallons, but would rather leave the other half of the stand for storage. So, if I use the 10 gallon as a sump, my only refugium option is a HOB. I'm actually leaning more towards that anyway, b/c I heard that it'd be better for gravity flow back into the DT rather than pumping the water b/c copepods, etc won't get chopped up by the impeller. Will this setup work fine? Also, can the sump be just a basic 10 gallon tank or does it have to have any dividers? I was going to have it come in from the DT, filter through a sock to catch large particles, and then get skimmed, heated, etc in the sump before it's returned. Sound good? I'm new to this, but want to go from fish only to a full reef setup and want to do it right.

[DAHansen]

I think the dividers are pretty useful when set up for bubble traps and for keeping the water level constant in the Skimmer section, which helps keeping the skimming at a constant/predictable level.

I too like the idea of gravity return refugiums.