New Refugium Plumbing Help

[djbetterly]

So I recently moved and sadly lost almost all of my SPS coral, not really sure what happened but I'm moving on.

Anyway, for the move I purchased a 29 gallon tank from Petco ($1/gal sale) that was prepped and ready for all the livestock to be put into immediately. Now that the 29 gallon is no longer in use, I'm thinking I want to make that tank one massive refugium. The question I have is, what is the proper way to plumb an external refugium, and does it have to work on gravity? The only reason I'm considering this is because my mechanical room is on the flip side of the aquarium. Its a small mechanical room so I can't take up too much space or the wife won't be happy with me taking up her precious storage.

 

[djbetterly]

Bueller....

 

[MaiReef]

My brother put his at the same level as his tank using U-tubes and suction to pump, but gravity still plays a huge part. It does take less pump though to get it back to the far side of the tank as his is 8 ft. long. I would still put a few baffles for concentrated flow to avoid a massive flow into a sand bed or miracle mud.