New tank with questions.

[usefulidiot213]

I will post a build thread in the future when I get my poo together, but right now I am still in the early planning and buying stage. Of course I am on the budget (stupid wife...) So I want to make sure I don't waste money on something stupid. Therefore, I have many questions..
A little back ground. I have been in Salt water for about 5 years. My first tank was a 80 gallon Hex mixed reef.. <---- Total pain in the Tush. I had that a few years. I moved from CA to AZ about 2 years ago, and picked up a 100 gal that I moved everything into. I have never run a sump, and right now have 2 HOB Remora's for filtration. I am new to the plumbing/ Sump world.

I just purchased a 180gal 72x24x24 It came with a stand & a canopy. The plan is to turn my old 100gal 60x18x18 into a sump. With Melv's simple sump plan of Skimmer/return/fuge. With 10" baffles on the skimmer side to the middle for the return, then a 15" baffle on the fuge side.
The tank has an overflow on the left side. Here are my question.

1.) I am going to replace the ply wood on the bottom of the stand, due to water damage. Then I want to water proof it. What do I use to water proof the inside of the canopy, and where do I get it?

2.) Right now my 100 gal is 60" long & I have two Hamilton 14k 250W MH for lighting. I am assuming that I will have to buy a 3rd light for coverage?

3. Flow.... This is probably the question I have been rolling around with the most. Right now I have 2 K4s & a moded Maxi Jet on my 100gal. I know that's not going to be enough. I don't know if I should go with 4 of the new
K4s Ecos on an alternating timer to disrupt the flow? Or Tunze..? & if Tunze which Tunze power heads. Or would it better to get a MP40 for one side and then 2 k4 Ecos for the other? I would love to just get 2 MP40s, but I don't want to drop $1k on the flow. Maybe start with MP20's and then upgrade?

4.) I already have a ASM G3, with a mess mod on the pump. Is that antiquate for a 180 mixed reef with a heavy fish load?

5.) Is it better to T the drain line from the overflow to the skimmer & Fuge. Or to T from the return pump to the fuge?

6.) What is it that I don't know that I don't know? I have a fair amount of experience with a reef tank. My 100gal is rock solid right now, but I have no experience with sumps, plumbing, overflows or a tank this large. Am I missing something? Any pointers....? I would love some experience knowlegde from others with previous builds like this one. Anything you would not do, or anything you would make sure to do?

 

[ebonline]

Bryan,
I will try and answer some of your questions and others can chime in.

1 - Depending on what the inside of the stand looks like now if it is stained wood then you could stain and poly it or just use Kilz and then get a good latex gloss paint (I use white).

2 - On my 180 gal I am going to put three 400 watt 20K Radium bulbs. This depend on what you are trying to light as well you could also use some t5 in the middle if you wanted instead of a 3rd MH.

3 - I have no idea how much these flow I am running a closed loop so no help on this one.

4 - No help here either.

5 - Melv recommends after speaking with him last month to T the drain on the vertical run going to the main end of sump and put in a ball valve a few inches lower than the T. The ball valve will be your flow control for the fuge. You want according to Melv about 75% of water going through main part of sump and 25% going to fuge. You can just adjust ball valve to let water build up to T and travel across to fuge until you get close to correct amount.

6 - Just take your time do your research and ask questions is about the smartest thing you can do. This is the same size tank I am working on setting up also and I have always had sumps that I have built myself and on my current set up my sump will be in basement and will mostly all be DIY.

 

[usefulidiot213]

Thank you for your input. I am trying make I have everything thought out before I start putting it together. I know that's just about impossible, but I am going to give it my best shot.