Calabdiver's 50 gal. build

[calabdiver]

Hello all I'm in the planning process of a 50 gal. mixed reef build.

 

Equipment:

 

50gal. Acrylic Aquarium w/ overflow. Drilled w/ bulkheads.

Stand & Canopy

Red Sea Berlin Skimmer classic w/ Rio 1700 pump.

20 gal. L sump/refugium w/ Mag 7 return pump.

Possible closed loop system drilled through the bottom of tank still in the works.

 

The tank was purchased used from craigslist, however I think it was poorly planned. There is one overflow box inside the tank with a return coming through the middle of it. To the left of that about 3" from the bottom is a drain, To the right another drain at the opposite end of the tank. Also another return 1/3 of the way up from the bottom mid way from the overflow and the drain that's on the left hand side of the tank. Pictures to follow.

 

Blue circles = Returns Yellow circles = Drains

 

I'd love some advice on how I should plumb this considering it had two drains toward the bottom of the tank if the power goes out my sump will overflow and my entire water volume will be on the ground. I've considered building overflow boxes around them but should I have 3 overflow boxes in such a small tank? or will it not matter more water to be skimmed from the surface. Any input on this would be awesome.

 

As for the sump I've run into a small issue with the skimmer and the pump not fitting in a section of the tank. My thought is to get some fittings and place the pump 90 degrees above the skimmer inlet not sure if there will be an issue with restriction or not. The other idea which I seen someone do on this site is to place a smaller tank like 5.5 gal. inside the 20L and use that portion as the refugium have it overflow into the 20L where I will have my skimmer and return. Pictures to follow (Example not my setup)

 

[Veng]

Run a piece of PVC pipe on the inside of the tank straight up to the level you want your minimum water height to be when your power goes out. If you do that, then since it can't get into the pipe, it can't drain into the sump.

[calabdiver]

I was going to make a Durso standpipe for the overflow I guess I'll make three and just put overflows around the other two. I agree that an elbow with pvc coming up is easy but it's not pretty lol. I just remembered the person I bought this from was running two fluval canister filters on it which is why the lower drains wouldn't have been an issue during a power outage.

[calabdiver]

Here's my idea for my Refugium. 20 gal. L with 5.5 gal. tank inside.