Upgrade overload !!

So after the wife gave me the go ahead to upgrade my 29 gallon Biocube to a 75 gallon tank. I immediately starting planning my 90 gallon reef tank

It's only been a week and my head is spinning, everyday I am thinking of something new or different, where do I start, the tank would help, I plan on ordering one soon, then there is:
-painting the back of the tank?
-building the tank stand?
-building the sump?, protein skimmer?, phosban reactor?, fuge? filter sock?
-type of sand bed? none? fine? reef grade?
-aquascaping? live rock off the sand bed? eggcrate?
-type of pumps?, power heads?, plumbing? water flow?
-lighting? and more and more and more..........

agghhhhhhh!!!!!

I plan on taking it slow over the next few months, but man my mind is racing with ideas, I am even dreaming something reef related every night. I love it

 

HAHA I'm doing that too for when I upgrade after the move. Not sure on the size, all I know its going to be 250+. =D

Have fun planning!!!! Its an exciting time

 

LOL, congrats on the excitement

 

Hahahaha! I'm right there with you dude! I just seriously upgraded from nothing to a 90 gallon, after a 15 year hiatus. I'm obsessing, yes, obsessing. I have nothing in the tank but some base rock and a few pieces of fresh LR, and I sit and stare at it, with a million thoughts running through my head.

So obsess awaay!!! it's good for the soul, as long as you don't act compulsively on the obsession....right?

 

OK,
for the tank itself take your time and get the right one the first time around. Make sure it's already drilled (reef ready) so you don't need to mess around with hang on back overflows.

Do not paint the back of the tank, it's a PIA to remove later if you ever decide to change the decor, spend the few dollars at the petstore for the double sided/laminated background blue/black and adhere it to the back of the tank with a little mineral oil, use a plastic squegee to get out all the air bubbles.

I'm a big fan of DIY projects, you can check out my stand build in my sig

I'm gonna combine the rest of this into what I would/did do just as a guide, it works for me but is by no means the only way to do it.
For my 90 I built a sump with a refugium out of a 40 gallon breeder tank by splitting it into 3 equal compartments - letf to right you have the tank discharge into the skimmer section which flows through a bubble trap into the return pump section. The middle section is for the return pump, I use a mag 12 and T off the return to feed the skimmer.
The 3rd section is the fuge which also drains into the center return area.
I dont use any filter socks etc..
The fuge has a DSB made of 4" of mud and a 1" layer of fine oolithic sand (leftover from my display tank) there are 4 mangroves and a huge ball of chateo/calurpa under a single cfl bulb in a home depot clip-on reflector

 

I am definitely ordering a new 90 g rr tank, the question is where to put the overflow, corner, or middle?

 

If you have a choice I would go with a corner overflow. Then you can run your drain directly to one side of your sump without having to use any elbow connectors. A corner overflow is also easier to work with as far as your rock scape IMO.

 

Thats kinda what I'm thinking, corner.

 

How much does 250+ weigh? Do you need to do something special to the floor?

 

I would guess around 2,500lbs give or take. That'd be like parking a car in your living room. ;D