Drilling/Plumbing Advice

[fkshiu]

Four viewable sides is always. What I think you should do is drill two 3/4" holes on the middle of the bottom and attach two standpipes which go up to where your water level is. Build a four-sided overflow around the two stanpipes in the middle. Surround the overflow with your live rock structure.

Drilling the bottom pane shouldn't be a big deal with a custom tank if you use the proper thickness of glass. In fact, this setup is essentially the same as an AGA Megaflow except in the middle of the tank instead of a corner.

If you want more return points, you could always drill a few other bulkheads but I'm not sure at which point you'd start to compromise the strength of the bottom pane.

Sounds like it could be a beautiful setup especially if you use Starphire or another low-iron glass.

[albert_dao]

I'd use larger holes. 3/4" are t3h suk.

1" will give you better flow and produce less head pressure on any pump you plan to use.

A neat idea is to drill your rockwork so you can slip the return and drain though holes and completely hide the plumbing. PIMP.

[michika]

I agree with Fkshiu's idea on how you may want to consider your overflow. Albert's idea about the returns is really cool too!