sump and pipes intsallation

Question
Dear sir/madom:

I have a 300 gallon main fish only tank in the ground floor and a 100
gallons (48'x24"x17") tank (intended to be modified as a sump tank )at
the basement underneath the main tank.) I use Sequence Hammerhead
external pump (@3000 gallons per hour at max head of 15-16 feet and the
waterflow are intended to be reduced by valve ball to 2000-2400 gallons per
hour from 3000G).  My questions are:

1/ how to design a sump for this to take this speed and velocity of
water flow and to avoid water splash out and to reduce waterflow noice in
pipe and enter into the Sump tank 15 feet down in the basement? Any
drawing possible for to refer to study? Do I need any other mechanical
filtration chamber before bio balls? Do I need another sealed bio balls
tank/glass box inside the sump to avoid water spillage etc? Do I need a
refugium or live rock filtration section in the sump?( I have 2'x2'
bioballs ; MRC2 external skimmer, Sequance Hammerhead external pump, Ro units,50 gallon RO plastic container etc

Ps kindly suggest ideas.

Thank you, indeed.

Big Al


Answer
I have to admit that this question is a bit out of me experience. I am not very good at the plumbing aspects of keeping a sump in your basement and most of the time when plumbing is involved I use good old fashioned trial and error. I do have a regular customer in the pet store where I work who has had great success with doing a tank this way however. I can answer a few of your questions though.
As far as needing any other mechanical filtration before the bio balls most use some sort of sponge or pad to collect the particulate matter at this stage. I can honestly say that from experience the more types of filtration you can add to your sump the better. A refugium is an excellent way of maintaining good water quality. You may want to also consider somehow adding a plenum style filtration unit in your refugium where the anaerobic bacteria can colonize and rid your tank of any excess nitrates. Sorry I could not be of more help but your tank set up is very unique and I am not sure exactly how to set this up properly.