Advice needed for closed loop on 225 g reef

[Virginia Reef]

I am going to set up a 225 g acrylic reef tank. I have never had a closed loop system. I'm looking for suggestions about the the whole shooting match. I'm thinking about 2 separate loops with a Sea Swirl on each as well as other, fixed returns. Would I be better of with a single loop instead? This will be an in-wall system with a maintenance room behind the tank so external plumbing is not a problem.

The tank will have an acrylic lip around the perimeter. Is the lip a good location for return lines? The Sea Swirls need to sit on top but the other returns can be either on the lip or directly into the sides of the tank.

How about the location of the intake holes? I'm going with a deep sand bed and plenty of live rock.

Any general guidelines about the number and diameter of both intake and return lines for a given flow rate?

All thoughts are welcome.

 

[NeuroLarry]

When setting up my in wall 240 I agonized over the location of the closed loops and finally decided to go with 2 Tunze 6100's and Tunze wave box which has worked well and gives me great flow. My tank is starphire so the decision had to be made prior to construction. With acrylic you can experiment and add as many holes as you want. (Preferably before you stock it of course) I looked at a lot of ideas and liked weatherson's set up for CL www.weatherson.com

 

[jacob30]

For my 350 gal inwall I decided to go with two closed loops for redundancy run by two sequence darts. I have one 2 in intake for each closed loop drilled into the back wall about 2/3 down. The returns will be also drilled into the back wall and also on the top bracing. I decided to not drill the sides at all due to the possibility of making the tank not inwall if I move in the future.

I am considering sea swirls or wavy sea devices for the returns on the bracing.