What is the current consensus for flow?

[monotreme_man]

i am about to take possession of a new 6x3x2 tank. all i need to do is
decide what to do about flow (and therefore what drilling to do).

my current plan on sump flow is to do about 500gph through a 80-100g sump
and an interior overflow box using a bean animal overflow down to the sump
using 1in plumbing.

for circulation, i had thought to go with a CL system, using 1.5in plumbing
running up through the overflow (so no holes in bottom of tank). but in reading
through many threads here, there seems to be a lot of "i would never do that again"
from folks who did so. while i would prefer the "no powerhead" look, its better
than dealing with a jammed CL system.

in my last 200g tank, i did fine with 3 maxi jets maintaining a constant gyre,
but i want to being to have more (and variable) circulation flow this time.

i realize that this has been traditionally one of the perienally open questions,
but was hoping for advice about what choices to look at more closely.

 

[smb2415]

I have a 7'x3'x42" tall tank. I opted for (2) MP60's, one on each end. A hammerhead is the return pump. 2" from sump to hammerhead and then back to top of tank where it splits into 1.5" pipe. One for each side of the tank where I put (3) 3/4" locline returns.

The overflow is a beananimal with coast to coast internal overflow with 2" overflow pipes.

I would say just use 1.5" all the way except where the return splits... I would reduce it to 1" and still have the (3) 3/4" loc-lines.

 

[smb2415]

If I chose to do it over again I would also consider using Tunze over Ecotech.