yes you can change over once the tank has been running, which is what i did, but i recommend you do it now, its much easier before you have livestock and have to worry about getting things running again in a hurry.
i have run plain old stand pipe (very noisy), durso (acceptable noise), and now herbie (quiet). there is no comparison. another benefit for me was with the herbie that there was a backup drain pipe. i had my durso get plugged twice with snails, and what i mess it makes on my berber carpet when the tank overflows. now i have snails thoughout my overflow box with no worries, and its quiet. i can actually sleep in the basement now when the wife kicks me out of the bedroom.
btw. my setup is very similar to yours with the overflow in the middle back of the tank. now i just run my returns up the back of the tank, and it looks like you have lots of room to do that.
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If it is alive, I can most certainly kill it
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