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.

 

[ReeferMac]

Wow! That's a lot of questions.

2 loops means 2 points for failure, but... gives you 2 circulation loops. Make sure you're scaling things appropriately... bigger tanks need bigger pipes. Rather than go w/ a whole bunch of 3/4" returns, you should be thinking about inch and inch-and-a-half.
I've got perimeter bracing on my tank and run SeaSwirls... drill holes in the bracing to pass the SS's through, it's better, and looks nicer too (plus, your SS's input doesn't hang 6-inches into the tank that way, either).
I run an Iwaki70 on my closed loop.. 100 was too much. YMMV. I run"4x 2" inputs, plumbed to 2x 1" SeaSwirls.

- Mac