^^ Dave, Ill be bracing it some how. The most practical and best way Ive come up with so far is just replace the whole top piece of plastic. This way it will be AGA engineered, and not the other type

Stephen says he can get me the piece for <$50, so if I can remove the one thats one there, this is the way to go. a little time and the dremel should remove the current one no problem
My problem with the drain is that it will have to be on the back wall. Im not comfortable drilling the bottom. I may be able to elbow it and still put on the durso muffler, but I may just do the gate mod with an emergency drain. In the long run it may be easier and smaller in the tank.
^ Derek, thanks for the info. Ill have the skimmer behind doors, as well as the pumps. It will all be in a differnt room from the TV, so that wont help. Hopefully I can get it all dampened though, but perfect silence is not a neccesity either. If things are as quiet as you say, silence may not be out of reach
Ill probably end up running something like a 300gph powerhead for the return, which should net me around 100gph or so through the sump. This should be easy to keep quiet no matter the drain style.
Also, I think Ive come up with a way for Sarah and I both to happy and get access from the garage. She is concerned about having to patch a hole in the sheetrock and repaint, as am I. Im thinking I could go with some elbows and 1" PVC and get everything at floor level. This way I would only have to replace one piece of base molding which is even in my carpentry range
Im trying to think of everything Id want/need to put out there so I can make sure I plan/put enough pipes through. Help me out on this one guys.
The things Id possibly want are:
1) future chiller if neccesary, but Im trying to avoid that at all costs and dont think it will be neccesary.
2) a place to add water to the tank for top off (could be 1/4" though).
3) place to add water for water changes.
4) If it works out, possibly the 5' skimmer I had before

5) at least two extras for unforseen applications.
The chiller and skimmer would each need two places, so they could have in and out flow, so Im at 8 pipes by my count.
Is ther anything else I could store out there? How big are the dosing reserviors? Do y'all think 1" would be big enough for all these applications? Would there be any problems running the flow (on any of these applications) down to the floor then back up again?