I am currently working on plumbing my aquarium. I have just dry fit all of the pieces and am ready to tear it apart and to glue it all up.
When I started, I wanted it to be beautiful, elegant, and very accessible. By the time I got done, I was happy to have everything connected and to have the theoretical water (because no water has seen my tank yet) going where it is supposed to go. I sure hope that it works the way that I intend it to.
I can take a couple pics if you would like to see it. I know it is not the best set-up ever, but I think that it will work.
In my set-up I have the drain (1" bulkhead & 1 in pipe to sump) from the overflow going to the skimmer section of my sump. Water flows through the sump and is returned to the tank via 3/4" pipe that is diverted with a T and goes back to the overflow and then out into the tank through the overflow using lock line. I used vinyl tubing from the 3/4" bulkheads to the lockline.
I used schedule 80 bulkheads and schedule 40 pvc pipe and fittings. Everyone that I talked with trusts the schedule 80 bulkheads over the sch 40.
I also have a closed loop that drains from the center bottom of the tank through a 3/4" bulkhead and is returned through two 3/4" bulkheads. I have a Oceans Motions 2way Squirt plumbed into the closed loop as well as a bypass to a chiller.
The hard part of pluming it all was making sure that I could get my skimmer in and out of the sump with all of the plumbing in. Making sure that other equipment is still accessible. Also, trying to get all of the pieces to bottom out in the fittings to make sure that the will fit exactly the same way when I glue them up. I am still concerned about this.
I have marked and numbered with a sharpie all of the connections and will be cleaning and preparing the pipe and fittings for glueing.
I put in ball valves in every line for any maintenance issues that arise. I used ball valve unions around each return pump and unions around the oceans motions squirt.
If you have any questions about my set-up please feel free to ask.