Congratulations on the new, bigger tank! I'm quite happy with the quality of the Cadlight tank and stand. I did make a couple of improvements though.
I didn't just screw the front supports into the base. I drilled out bigger holes in the stand and added metal threaded fittings. I had concerns about how well it would hold together if I had to remove the braces for work on the sump (which I'm upgrading now). I was also thinking that if the wood got wet, the threads in the wood could get soft. So it was just a small concern and it was easy to rectify with threaded inserts. BTW, my sump was a very poor design IMHO, but it looks like your bigger sump has a much more usable design. I'd be turning that center section into a refugium or moving the skimmer to the center (if it fits) and doing the refugium at the skimmers old section.
And I can't emphasis enough how much the 'drip tray' has been a good thing! I have a remote collection cup for the skimmer and it's inside the stand, but outside of the sump. It's overflowed a couple of times and the drip tray saved a mess. BTW, I'd highly recommend an auto top off for your system if you plan to use the Cadlight skimmer. Mine is VERY fussy about water height. Just slightly low water level and virtually no skimming at all. Slightly high water level and the skimmer runs like a fire hose! That's why my remote collection cup overflowed.
I didn't use any of the Cadlight plumbing as it's metric and I had way more plumbing to do than a basic set up. I have the second tank (50g cube), a chiller (yes, the killer chiller), a reactor for carbon or GFO and an outlet for a hose to pump water out of the system when doing water changes. The Cadlight stuff looks like real good quality, but I needed a lot more and buying metric is just out of the question. I also took the time to order gate valves from Graingers rather than ball valves from Home Depot or Lowes. They are so much better at control and they don't 'freeze up' like ball valves seem to do over time in saltwater systems.
The one thing I let others talk me out of, that I now wish I had gone ahead and done. is drilling an extra drain to feed the skimmer directly. I used one of the existing holes for an emergency drain and now I can pump water into the tank way faster than I can drain water out (without using the emergency drain). I've feed skimmers this way in the past. Not only does the skimmer work well (with a gate valve to control flow), but it adds drainage from the tank so I could circulate more through the system.
If you run into any issues or have any questions at all, feel free to ask here or send me a PM. I'm always happy to share ideas.
BTW, the tank seems to be doing much better now. I just ordered 12 zoas, 2 palys and 2 rook flower anemones from Cultivated Reef while they are doing their Black Friday Sale. My hope is that in a year I'll have a tank with zoas, palys, and anemones everywhere and the 50g cube will be full of growing sps and lps survivors from the Killer Chiller Fiasco! :thumbsup:
What kind of clowns? A royal gramma, black cap purple basslet and two darwin clowns is what I started with. Now after my fluke epidemic I am down to the clowns but plan on getting an african midas blenny and a new royal gramma as soon as my qt tank finishes a cycle. I am also going to do the ttm. In the past I never quarantined thinking the lfs or dd was good enough. I don't think a quarantine would have helped me with the flukes since they did not show up for 2 1/2 months. They may have been on a frag, assuming that is possible.
