Update.
So first I must ask you please excuse the murky water as what I thought was a good sand rinse job was quite obviously p*ss poor. Anyways. I ran into a problem. When I got this tank it already had 2 holes in the back upper corners so I pretty much decided on an internal "calfo" coast to coast with a bean animal overflow. Well. Drilled the one extra hole, got the bulkheads and elbows in, measured for the internal box. Nope. 18" wide tank with a 6" internal box. Nope. So ugly elbows it is. I figure I will leave them turned up and will get at least some surface skimming. Well problem #1. As you can see I have one elbow on the syphon line that has been cut off at the top of the bulkhead, basically as low as I can get it. The second line is there as the balance.
So everyone knows you need a certain amount of head pressure above the fitting to maintain a syphon so you dont get the whirl pool sucking air problem. Well due to the small size of my sump and the amount of water needed to maintain the syphon I was either left with not enough water in my sump or the fitting sucking air. Solutions. Well I cant add any water to the system as when everything is unplugged the tank drains to the lowest elbow and I have about 1" of room left in the sump. So lower the tank water level, sump level is good but then it sucks air in the syphon. Hmm. Cant turn the elbow upside down, works good for not sucking air but then the tank wants to drain to the lower edge of the bulkhead and there just isnt enough room in the sump for the extra water. This problem plus the added noise of the water running into the socks and through the sump was just unacceptable. So instead of trying to keep tweeking things I figured Id better nip it in the bud now. I didnt really want to pay for a large pump to pump the water up from the basement but I think its the proper thing to do in this case. This----
Now looks like this----
And this---
Please excuse the paneling. Havent renovated the laundry room yet. Oh well. The plumbing on the overflows runs about 11 horizontal feet and about 12 vertical feet. Im not too worried though, guys are running 1 1/2" overflows on other systems running larger pumps so even with the extra elbows I think I will be ok.
Im not too worried about the pump getting enough flow to the tank either. Its only a 90 gallon and if the barracuda isnt strong enough I can throw the hammerhead impeller in and watch that meter fly. Ah whatever right. I apologize for the crappy photos. Another one of those thought I did ok and well you know the rest. (maybe a new camera will go on this years xmas list) Up next will be giving the sump a good scrub. Figuring out a catch box and filter sock for the syphon and balance line, (going to leave emergency out of the socks ) and then when the return pump arrives I will be plumbing in the suction and return for that, trying to decide if I should run a spears check valve on the return as thats a lot of air in the return line to be pushed out at the tank, makes for a lot of splash. However check valves can be bad too. Not sure there. Then get the Apex wired up and programmed as I wont run this tank now without it. Too much water downstairs that could all end up upstairs. I dont care about downstairs, its sloped heavily to a drain 6' away. No biggie. Still trying to decide on a skimmer. I know the old beckett style skimmers are power hogs but there proven and you can find some used for a good deal. The new cone skimmers are looking nice but I wonder about the quality on some of the lower models. I have had good luck in the past with bubble magus but I see theres a recall on some of there pumps. I dont really want to spend $1000 plus on an Alpha. The omega looks promising but might be a bit small now for the total water volume I will have now. Im guessing closer to 200Gal now. Oh well. It does solve my noise and water syphon issues completely though so thats nice.