Overflow/sump For Dummies?

[eduller]

So, I scored this awesome acrylic tank from Craigslist over the weekend. It's a former store display tank. It's 8 feet long by 1 foot high by 1 foot deep, divided into 7 sections for a total of just under 60 gallons. Six of the sections have 8.5 gallons each, and then the center section is divided in half with the front section of ~4 gallons and the back section is an overflow with the drain hole in the bottom. Pictures below, although they are crappy and taken at midnight in my basement because it was a LONG drive to go pick this thing up.
 
I haven't decided quite what I'm going to do with it yet or what to stock in it, though it will be freshwater. I don't have a stand for it and was planning on making a custom one (which will take a while, busy life), so I have a lot of time to figure out stocking and equipment, etc. I may even remove the dividers or drill large holes in one half to have a larger space for some schooling fish.
 
When I was originally thinking of buying this, I was going to just go with what I know, plug up the overflow hole, and use individual filters for each compartment. But that's boring. I've given myself a crash course in sumps, but I thought I'd come to the experts for advice. This is my understanding, and please correct me if I'm wrong.

• Gravity will drain from the overflow into the sump, which I plan on making myself.
• The sump contains the filtration, heater, and pump to take the water back into the main tank.
• As long as there is enough water in the whole system so that the water returning from the sump causes spillover into the overflow, everything is peachy and it's as simple as that.

Questions:
 

1. What size tank do I need for the sump? I have two empty 10 gallon tanks which I could connect...somehow, or I could pick up another 20g tank at the next Petco $/1g sale - would that be large enough?
2. As for returning the water into the main tank - I was thinking of doing kind of a spraybar idea where I have the water coming up a main tube at the midpoint of the tank that branches to either side of the tank so there is water flow into each section. How do I ensure all the water doesn't just spray out the first holes? Make them smaller and increasingly larger as they reach the ends of the tank?
3. Does anyone have a good link/reference guide/primer on how to set this whole thing up? I will watch the youtube videos on DIY sumps, etc., but is there one in particular anyone would recommend?

I'm pretty handy, and once I see directions on how to do something, I can do it. I just want to be sure I know everything I'll need to know to do this properly. Thanks for reading!
 
Bad picture of the whole thing. It was late and I was really tired...

 
Drain tubing - haven't checked these for leaks yet, but I figure it's not that hard to replace these.

 
Center section with overflow box in back half.

 

[AeonMapa]

Well for the size of the sump a 10 gallon would already be as good as a canister filter in terms of filtration, and will have enough space for all the equipment. Of course however bigger is better and usually sumps are about a third to half of the tanks size.
 
For the spraybar it depends on water pressure. It has to be strong enough to get it all the way to the end. Changing hole sizes won't help too much.
 
Oscar fish lover.com has a grear article on DIY sumps, very detailed texts and diagrams as well as a method that will create a nitrate consuming sump
 
If I had that tank I would stock each section with a breeding pair of dwarf cichlids

 

[DrRob]

Looks a lot like a plant display tank. I can think of many things you could do with this. Including putting species together that normally can't. The marine principle of running refugiums would lend themselves to this set up, so you could keep plants in one section with a digging or plant eating species in another, or fill a section entirely with substrate and grow emmersed plants for nitrate removal. Shrimp also spring to mind, the young would escape into other sections but a good enough colony may well maintain and provide live food for a small predatory species that we normally can't keep due to it being picky about food types.
 
Personally I'd use 2 small pumps for that sort of tank and return the water to each end, allowing it to return from the middle. Playing with the spraybar could work, but may also fail as soon as the holes start to clog unevenly with algae.

 

[eduller]

Thanks very much for the ideas! I am looking at that article on DIY sumps right now, and it's just what I needed. I can definitely do this. I'm a little unclear on how the standpipe works, but I will see if I can find some videos for a visual, and it will probably click for me. I'm really happy about how customizable this will be.
 
I also love the idea of a section of emmersed plants. I'm throwing around ideas in my head. Shrimp is one of them. I already have a small colony of red cherry shrimp which I'm sure will populate quickly.  I'd love to do a different "theme" in each section.
 
Now I just have to figure out what to use for a stand...and where to put this in my house. I had a dream, since this is so narrow, of putting it on a long, narrow table behind my couch, but the wife poo-pooed that

 

[DrRob]

There are many ways standpipes work. The basic principle is to set the level at which water exits the system, so that pump failure (or of course power failure) doesn't empty the whole tank into the sump. The problem is that they tend to be noisy (like a plughole gurgling) as they suck in both air and water, so you see a lot of modifications to try to make them quiet. I have one running in my living room that you can't hear at all (well, not over the pump noise, which isn't much), but it requires 2 holes to work.