The tank is in the living room, which is on the first floor of the house, but all filtration and circulation is located in the basement. This has allowed for me to have a bigger sump and has taken the mess associated with testing and water changes out of the living room.
Until recently, I used one Danner Magnetic-DriveT utility pump (specifically a PM24 Model 02740-more commonly referred to as a MAG-24) for the circulation between the tank and the sump. Normally these pumps circulate 2400 GPH, but since I have a lot of head loss between the basement and the display, I felt I could use more circulation. Therefore, to increase circulation, I just added a second MAG-24. The difference is amazing and well worth the additional expense.
Originally I used solid PVC on all of the plumbing. However after redoing the sump and struggling to get things to fit exactly how I wanted, I found that I could use flexible PVC in the basement and that made adjustments or changes a lot easier.
The tank came pre-drilled for two ¾" bulkheads and two 1" bulkheads. I originally followed the plumbing recommendations that came with the tank, but if I could do it all over again, I would use the ¾" tubing for the overflows and the 1" tubing for the return flow back into the tank. I think the ¾" piping is restricting the flow too much which resulted in the need for the second pump.
The typical output is a return on each end of the tank. Because my goal is to avoid future powerhead use in the tank, I used modular pipe on the outputs. On the left output, I have a Switching Current Water Director or SCWD (pronounced squid) with modular piping coming off each side. On the right output, I pulled off the SCWD and used a basic T adapter. This also increased flow in the tank. Eventually, I would like to get rid of the remaining SCWD, but because I have one of the outputs going behind the rock, I have not set a timeframe for doing so.