Help with beginning a conversion to a reef!

Talk to Tangster, i believe he's experienced in drilling tanks, and I know Otty drilled his own, would probably be another good resource.
Taking out the silicone and redoing it would be good if your still worried about copper. I don't know of anyone who has done it, but heard it could be done. Someone on here can steer you in the right direction!
As far as your savings plan, you could put lights a little further down the list, if you turn them on during the cycle they will fuel algae. I didn't turn mine on until week 11 of my cycle! So they could wait a little longer than other items on your list.
One more, I know to "nuke" my rock I soak it in 50/50 bleach for 3 days, fresh water for 3 days, then about 2 lbs. baking soda for every 10 gallon of RO/DI water for 3 days. The baking soda is supposed to help suck up the bleach. Then let it completely air dry. Just a though, should work even better for a tank I would assume.
All just my 2 pennies on the topic, hope at least 1 will help!

 

plumbing for the sump is easy I would drill one hole in the back either one corner or the center for a 1" bulkhead and put a 1" stand pipe in that goes to the hight you want your water at (this can be adjusted later if need be by simply cutting the pipe ) do not glue inside the tank so you can remove the stand pipe if nessicary

for the return I would only do about 300 gph through the sump and the stand pipe simply acts as a surface drain so it will drain the same as your pump puts in the display tank

for the closed loop I would drill for a 2" or 2.5" drain center bottom or middle and 2 1" returns at the top then use another 2 returns droping down in the front to give flow from front to back and back to front covering all 4 corners and the use of a squid or some other mechanical wave maker to rotate between the returns will give you random flow with little to no need for ugly powerheads

 

The standpipes at the top to remove the organics and provide a safety in case the power quits, and the circulation drains at the bottom or middle so that im not circulating organics but clean water, correct?

Couldnt I use a large pump from the sump and put that back into the tank via the circulation method? It would cut down on the number of pipes needed. Is that simply too many gph for a filter/skimmer to handle?

 

the large pump on the sump would actualy cause to much flow in the sump fuge you want slow flow here for the natural bio filtration of the macro algae and whatnot to be able to catch the nutrients to work

the closed loop will be closed to all outside imputs it is for flow and nuthing else I would say around the 2500 to 3000 gph range at least for a pump for this

how I have mine setup even though I didn't drill for the sump is very simple one pipe down one pipe back up on the oppisite side of the tank I wish I had a drilled system now but here is how I would have it drilled


click on pic to enlarge

 

rember that the closed loop is actualy optional you can opt no to use this system but it would require the use of large ugly powerheads to give proper flow rates

 

Gotcha, makes sense. Im going to call a friend tomorrow who owns a glass shop and see if he can do the drilling for me.

 

I really appreciate all your help. But Im really really confused. The more research I do the more confused I get.

Lets take a step or two backwards here. I need help with the timing of the planning if that makes sense. To this end it seems the very first step is to determine what Id like to do (even if its too grandiose a scheme for a beginner) because that will determine the rest of the system.

Ive decided that an Indonesian/pacific biotope tank running in the Berlin style (is it even called this anymore?) is the way Id like to go because I like the relative simplicity and reliability of this system (and the part I play into it). Specifically, and probably staying within cliche, Id like to house an anemone/clownfishes as the focal point of the aquarium because anemonefishes are absolutely fascinating to me. In a 75 gallon this seems reasonable. Id like other species as well to fill out the little piece of the biotope; clams etc etc and eventually sps's down the road. I want it to be like a small bit of that reef is in the tank so no mixing of species from other parts of the world.

Ok. Where the heck do I go from here? I know the basics of what I need: live rock, sand bed, lighting, skimmer, pumps, sump, circulation, heat/cooling, r/o system.

How do I plan this? Where to start? How do I determine the best circulation for gph? Then how do I determine the gph of the filtration system? How do I choose the pumps, which are the best? I know Ill need MH lighting for the stock Id like to keep. Ill build my own hood for this, and Id like to couple that with actinic/PC or something for sunrise/sunset effects and moonlighting too. Do I get the lights first? Last? When do I get the live rock and sand? Do I run the skimmer with the live rock? What about the lights? Can I get the rcok sand in first and worry about lights after its cycled? Should I build it with a deep sand bed or a plenum system? Should I build the sump first? What about a refugium? Is that going to help me be successful? What size sump? AAAAA! See where Im going? Ive got info overload and I dont know where to start, what should I do first. Maybe the plumbing is the best place to start but I just dont know. I need help figuring out what to worry about and start on first.

 

circulation depends on type of corals you want sps lps or softies or a mix of the 2 or three

sps requires wirl pool like circulation the more the better to the point where it starts to blow stuff over say 4000 to 6000 gph in your tank

lps and softies lower flow say 2000gph range in your tank these can be translated into tank turn over tank size multiplied so many times about 20x turnover for lps and softies

about 40x to 80x for sps

for a sump a 30 to 40g tank turned sump would be perfect

for lighting I would recomend dual 175w or 250w mh with 4x t5ho for the actinic

and yes you can do your rock and cycle without lights actualy this is recomended to prevent early nuicence algae bloom

first pieces of equipment I would by would be ro or rodi filter and testing supplies

then I would worrie about getting the tank drilled and plumbed to run and get your canopy built

then after that I would make shure I had a good skimmer the best I could buy

after that I would add live rock and salt water and start your cycle then get your lights and install

 

yowzas.

Now some other non-aquarium related questions arise.
A) Will my floor support the weight of the 75 full (est 1000lbs) and the sump (est 300lbs), and the hood with lights (est 100lbs). Ill have to look into this. I think floors are designed for 40 lbs/sq foot and this will be closer to 250-300lbs/sq ft.

B) Ill probably see if I can get a dedicated circuit put in to handle all this electricity. You figure lights alone will draw a hell of a lot of amperage, then you have 1 pump getting water from the sump back into the tank then 2 more pumps providing the necessary water flow and you are looking at a small fortress worth of electricity. Im not even sure Id be able to run anything else with that sort of draw.

 

dedicated circuit would be a good idea then you could wire several outlets into it for each item also if you do run a new circuit for it then make it all gfci outlets to prevent electricution as saltwater conducts electricity a lot easier than fw

as always rember drip loops and actualy all this equipment realy dosn't pull that much electricity oh yea dont forget about a good heater I personaly use a visatherm stealth 250w heater in my system

as for the floor hard to answer this without knowing more about its location if this tank is going to be over a main suport beam or against an outside load bearing wall then you will be fine other wise you may want to consider some reinforcements