My moving/upgrading 210 buildup progress

[god910]

Any help from anyone on any topic would be great, I've finally gotten the tank settled and going better than fantastic and now I've developed a salt creep up the lower edge of the tank. (75 g)

So I've decided to rid my 210 of all that "Non-Salty" craziness and start up my in-wall (Bedroom EEEEEkkkkkk!) tank buildup. I'm not even sure the tank really is leaking, but hey, we all make up good reasons to buy more stuff don't we?

So here's the down low...

Currently 75g display, with ~70# LR in the display tank w/ a 4" DSB, 29g sump w/ 6" mixed gravel/LS bed and another ~10# LR.

Hardware: Tek Light 48" T5-HO hood (2-Actinic, 2-60/40)
2-400w SE MH's sitting in the basement (was going to build a new setup for them with a purchased spider reflector, but my tank is very happy as is, so I never messed with it.)

EuroReef 5-2 skimmer, CAP-1800 return pump (650 GPH), Maxi-Jet 600 & 900, and ~4 other low ~100-150 GPH, powerheads. The tank is drilled, but the 210 is NOT. And to be honest, I don't have the money to buy another if it cracks. I've sourced one used (You sure can't tell though) HOB overflow for $50, and figured on fabbing up another to match it. The skimmer will be another DIY project but I need more R&D time (and some input obviously) on that. I'm looking into what return pump will be good for this system and I'm custom making my sump/refugium.

There's alot more to let you in on, but it's beddy bye time. I'll post up again tomorrow. Thanks for looking!

 

[god910]

Okay, round 2...

The sump will be a custom acrylic built by yours truely and I want to maximize volume so I'm even thinking of making the stand larger than need be for the added space, and my cat Ming LOVES to stand up there and look at the fish. The stand for the tank will be a custom Stainless setup again, by me. The tank will be a dual display tank (Display from 2 rooms rather than the "traditional" one) and thus ALOT of planning and ideas from you folks will be very helpful.

It's going to sit "in" my bedroom wall and protrude into the sunroom behind the bedroom. I'm currently working on selling all the fish out of it (I have a mated pair of Protomelas taeniolatus (Red Empress) and a mated pair of Pseudotropheus sp. "Acei" (White Fin Acei) that are very active sexually.) Then once it's done I'll brace everything up and get to work on the support needed (The wall used to be an exterior wall IE load bearing) But the wall will not hold up any more than it did before, I'm taking extra care to make sure the tank is supported by the stand alone.

After the wall is done I'm planning on trimming the tank, canopy, and stand into the wall w/ the original tounge and groove knotty pine that's in there now. So it'll look like it was built that way.

The other side will have pocket doors because, well, it's my bedroom, and I don't want people looking at me in my room through the fish tank if the need arises. I even think I'm going to go with a non standard custom setup and as such have the doors close and meet with the inside edges at a 45* angle, then work the "crack" from the doors (Which will be power by the way, I can't make it easy now can I?) into a design in it's self complementing the angle.

I guess my first question is this: (Bout dang time huh?)

After it's all setup and running and I finally add salt, should I seed the bed with all my sand at once, and if so, should I worry about disturbing my bed. I have 3 fish that DEMAND a healthy sand bed and I love them and don't want to harm/kill them. (Diamond Sleeper Goby, Mandarin Dragonet, and Scooter Blenny)

Or should I just, say, take the sand out of the sump and seed with it (Not much) and let it culture it's self.

To help with the culturing I was going to start running my Charcoal canister (Magnum 350) on the 75g and get it started then switch it to the 210 to run for awhile, does this not work in Saltwater like it does in FW? I was also going to do weekly water changes and take 10-20% out of the 210 and the 75 and add the 75's water to the 210 or will this do nothing but put different salt water in my tank? Okay, time for bed again.

Thanks for letting me talk aloud (in my head) so I can straighten this out in words instead of thoughts.