65g Reservoir

I plumbed a 65g barrel into my system to help cut down on the bio load. It should also create an anoxic area for natural nitrate reduction with the 12" sandbed in the bottom of it.
It has been running for about a week now with no problems. So now I will completely cover it with insulation since it is out in the garage. This way the chiller does not have to work overtime keeping up. It will also be completely sealed from the light.
I plumbed with 1" PVC and use a Mag24 pump. As you can see in the pics, I put 3 unions in place. One to disconnect the pump for cleaning and two to disconnect the barrel. I also installed a valve on the front of the barrel for water changes. I can isolate the barrel from the system with valves also. The plumbing into the barrel and out of the barrel are located high up so if power goes out it will only dump about 2 gallons into the sump.
I used high grade stainless screws for the top to seal down the plexi-glass cutout. As you can see in the last pic, it looks like the moons surface down below the water.
The pump and the return are located in the same area of the sump. That way it replaces the same amount of water it pumps out continuously and does not increase the water flow across the sump area.

I'm already looking into one of the 300g plastic square tanks for sale where I got this one. It would be real easy now just to swap them out.