Oh ok good to know, thanks. In that picture the sump hasn't filled yet but under normal circumstances I'll have the water level straight across so the intake is a good 8" submerged. An elbow is an easy fix - worst case scenario and if I don't have enough space for an elbow I could make take a length of pipe and drill holes into it and thus spread out the intake over the width of that whole section.
Right now there is still a massive amount of air bubbles drawn into the Herbie overflow so I have to retool that a bit. Was thinking of shortening the main drain so it sits much lower down, and then raising the emergency overflow as much as I can because right now there is a 4" level drop into the overflow and it's quite the waterfall. That should both create fewer bubbles and those that do still get created have to travel further down so hopefully that will do it. There are no microbubbles in FW but that of course could all change once it's SW. Also it would be nicer to further reduce the sloshing sounds. At least with the tank room door closed the sound is contained but seems to me a Herbie is supposed to be quiet as well as bubble free.