Cheryl's 165 Gallon upgrade

[daplatapus]

Ahhh,I think I get it now. The pics helped a lot. So let me see if I get this correctly:
You have 2 pipes in your display. The one on the left comes up to the level of you maximum water level and you have a strainer on it. This would be considered your safety drain in a herbie set up.
You have a second, or primary drain, on the right. It seems to me you have a 3/4" or so running inside of 2" or 3". Then on the back side of that "sleeve pipe", at you water surface level, the 3/4" 90's out and then 90's down again with a strainer on it.
Like you said, with this arrangement you have no surface skimming. And because of the height of the tub your skimmer sits in and where it ties into the sump with the bulkhead, you cannot use much of the water storage capacity because the tub would overflow.
Is that a correct rough summary?

A couple questions:
1: What is that sleeve pipe on the right with the little grooves cut off the top that the drain runs out the back of?
2: Are you looking to have a full siphon system (herbie)? These do tend to be the quietest because there is no air entering the pipes to make any noise.