Dual overflow and sump design--input needed

[Kyle Rinker]

About 16 months ago I drilled out my 125 gallon tank, built a stand, and bought a used 55 gallon tank to create a sump. This tank was up and running quite well but I let maintenance get out of hand over the last 6 months or so. I also have a reef set up and running in my office and have spent most of my time and energy on it. This weekend, I planned on tearing down my 125 and selling it to someone in my area. As I removed all the live rock, I couldn't help myself. I can't' get rid of this tank. Not only did it make me sad, but it also made my 5 year old quite sad to think about not having it in the home anymore. So, the tank is staying, but I am doing some serious maintenance and am questioning whether a rerouting of the plumbing is necessary. I did a somewhat unusual sump design. I have a section where I house the skimmer, a refugium, and a return section, but the layout is (I think) somewhat unique. I installed 2 CPR overflows in the tank, each about 1 foot from either end of the display. Each overflow is a herbie design, each with a primary and emergency drain. What is unusual is that each overflow has plumbing draining straight down into the sump below. In this regard, there are two drain sections in the sump, one on each side. The return section is actually in the middle of the sump, with each side of the sump feeding it. there is a bubble trap between each drain section and the return section.
I have not experienced any problems with this setup so far. But, now that I am tearing down the entire thing anyway, I am questioning whether I should reroute the plumbing to a more traditional setup, with all drain lines running to the skimmer section and pushing the return section to the end of the sump? Would reworking all of the plumbing just cost me extra time and money that is not necessary? Also, I think when redoing this thing, I will create a manifold off of the return where I could install a couple reactors. Thoughts?

This was the first water test, but it gives you an idea of how water flows through the sump

 

[Cjud7982]

I don't really see anything wrong with your drain setup, as long as both primary drains work in unisen. The only reason I could see changing the drains is to accommodate a different sump layout. It looks to me to be a very simple sump design where you may be able to run the skimmer on the one side and a refugium on the other, which I think is pretty neat. It would give you direct control over the flow of the refugium. As for the return, I would certainly reconfigure it to have a manifold for reactors, remote refugium, or something else. Just make sure you return pump is up for that extra load. I've seen dual corner over flow tanks before but never really thought of how the drains and sumps are configured.