PackLeader's 200 gallon Reef

Well, I have been bantering with myself (and even some of you guys) about making an upgrade. I decided enough is enough, I need to go bigger. So I went a lot BIGGER, and tonight I bought a 200 gallon "long". It measures 84" long, 24" wide, and 24" tall.
I will be logging the entire build along with my ideas, and probably some more classic off topic banter, here. It will be a longer build, but I hope to have the system running no later than sometime this summer.
Here are the plans so far:
Lighting will most likely be 3 250MH's with 4 54W T5's. I am getting the system from the same person that built the lighting for my 40, as I have been very pleased with it. I am going to run separate tanks for both the fuge and sump. The fuge will most likely be my 20 long I have laying around, but that is not set in stone yet. But, the fuge will be built into the stand in a way that it is displayed under the DT. I want to do this as I have plans/hopes to eventually house some dwarf seahorses in there, and have a variety of nice macro for natural hitching.
The sump will most likely be a 75 gallon. Right now for the skimmer I am planning on a Octopus Pro Extreme 300 (500 gallon rating). I know I want to run an AquaController III as well. Then there will be all the misc items like powerheads, pumps, etc.
Any and all comments/suggestions would be greatly welcomed and appreciated
To say I am excited right now would be a huge understatement. I am worse than a 7 year old boy the night before Christmas.
I just have one bad pic of the tank now, but will put it up so Luna stays off my case. I am actually picking the tank up tomorrow, as it was just me and the guy selling it and we had no hopes of getting it into my truck. So I will take more pics and have them up this weekend, after I get up there with some hired muscle

 

So you gonna build a stand yourself?
How much did the tank set you back, if you don't mind my asking?
Also, are you going to drill it?

 

Yep, building it myself. I'm pretty handy, and have a good friend that is a licensed carpenter for guidance, so it shouldn't be too much of an issue there.
Picked up the tank for $200 on craigslist. It was a display tank in a local LFS that closed down. Which is actually cool, because I know the history of it. Mainly it not having leaks or being polluted with copper.
I will drill it. Well, not myself, but am going to take it into the glass shop probably next week at some point.

 

hey man, awesome news!!! Congrats on the new tank bro!!

 

I got a 180 Packleader. Wanna race?

 

Very nice dude!!!!! YOU DID IT!!!! Truly psyched I am. Good job man.....And I have an Odyssea PC light fixture that I will sell you along with my old Jebo 182 skimmer that would be PERFECT for that set up.....Not.

 

Thanks man! I am seriously psyched as well. Terribly excited. I have so many ideas on everything swirling through my head right now. This is even more exciting than my first tank when that was getting up and going. I have a much wider range of choices now.

That would be nice. They combined would probably be less than the shipping of my lights and skimmer I had picked out... But I will pass. Or maybe, hey, I will trade you some green star polyps and kenya for it!

 

Sure, but I will sorely lose. Right now all I have is the tank, and that is in a need of a serious scrubbing Check back with me this time next year ;D

 

good luck man looks like an awesome project!

 

Thanks dude! I can't wait to get this thing home and start cleaning it. Which is weird, I hate cleaning :