drain / return line placment

[Jrodinnola]

Trying to figure out the best plumbing layout in a mr aqua 12g long so I don't have to use powerheads (my wife saw scorched's 12 long and will only let me have another tank if its a bookshelf). I'll be using locline screwed directly into a bulkhead(s) for the returns, and a bulkhead(s) with a screen for the drain lines.. sketched some layouts for flow / return placement.. any ideas on improving this? I like the one on the bottom since I can make it a herbie style overflow by adding a rear overflow box, but I'm not sure if the placement of the screen in only the middle will be as effective as I'd like it to be.. feedback please!

[Benny314]

These are amazing tanks if done well. The battle you have is because they're shallow you can never get an overflow situation using bulkheads that gives you full syphon draining, so not only can the overflows end up noisy, but they don't shift anywhere near as much water as you might expect restricting how much water you can pump back into the tank to use as flow alleviating the need for powerheads.

Ocean life and Xaqua make surface bulkhead style overflow and return units that can be mounted next to each other or separately that look really neat. Think the drain diameter is 50mm to allow for a reasonable return rate. But I'm not sure you'll have enough space on an end to accommodate that size of bulkhead.

[Jrodinnola]

I think I'm going to have to go with the bottom design to keep it sleek and quiet. The sexiness of this tank must be maintained at all costs, and a full siphon is pretty much 100% neccesary to do that. Thank you for confirming what I was thinking.