help with tank setup and ideas

[scuglass]

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i am contimplating wheater or not to get an acrylic or a glass tank at this moment. the dementions i am think is either 48 long x 24 wide x 19 high
or 48 long x 19 wide x 19 high.

what thisckness of glass will i need with these dimentions, will glass be ok to drill 6 holes into ?

my closed loops will lead to an internal manifold in order to reduce the amount of holes which need to be drilled. i plan on having 2 pumps running on timers rather than buying a motorized ball valve because it will be cheaper and if one pump fails one will still be working.

what type of pump should i be using on the closed loop?
how many outputs on each manifold?
should i just build a manifold using pvc and different heads of pvc and loclines?
what size piping should i use?
what size bulkheads?.

will this external over flow box fill up with water to the same level as in the coast to coast shown in the picture?

any help u can give or your own experiances, pics ect will be appreaceated thanks in advance.