Yeah, being silent is one of the main reasons for this setup since it'll be in my bedroom. The main overflow will be valved herbie style, while the center section will be wide open and intentionally splashy to alert me there's a problem. The last and widest section is the return. I made it the largest so the water flow would be slow. Since there's no nozzle I don't want the water flying up out of the tank.
The filter's flow will be very low, I'm using a tunze silence .008 return pump, so we're not talking a lot of flow. My Jebao RW-4 will handle flow inside the tank.
This overflow design also allows me to get the tank right up to the wall, and doesn't take up visual space inside the tank like a traditional "reef ready" overflow. It probably takes the same volume as other styles, but like a coast to coast it doesn't look like it.