120 gallon upgrade

[Jd120988]

So it's happening and I'm pretty excited. I'm upgrading from my current 65 gallon rimless to a 120 gallon 48x24x24 oceanic tech tank with starphire glass. It's an older tank but the seals look perfect and the glass and stand look to be in great shape. She's currently residing in the garage waiting to be cleaned, plumbed and leak tested. Ordered a trigger sapphire 39 sump and some bulkheads today from brs, got a good deal on an A grade open box so hopefully it's in tiptop shape. May order some blue pvc to match the sump. The tank is eurobraced so I will have to figure out a screen cover solution so any ideas will be appreciated. As for lighting, my 65 is running 3 ai primes which I like but can't be mounted directly to the new tank because of the eurobrace. I'm tossing around the idea of a 48" t5 hybrid with 2 or 3 of the primes. What do you guys think? Is anybody running primes with t5? Would love to see some examples, if I could see it in person that would be even better but also probably pretty farfetched lol. My biggest obstacle is going to be the transfer. I will set the 120 up in a different location but in the same room so that should make it one step easier but I am worried about having enough time in the day when it's time to do the transfer to get everything changed over. Any advice in regards to the tank transfer will be greatly appreciated. This may take me a few weeks or months to get up and running with the holidays but hopefully sooner than later. Here's a few pics of the new addition.

And a pic of my current 65

 

[blaxsun]

 

[Lost in the Sauce]

Great looking tank. Congrats!

 

[Jd120988]

Great looking tank. Congrats!

Thanks!

 

[Jd120988]

Ordered a 200 gallon bucket of tropic marin salt hopefully that's enough to do the transfer. Thinking of using a yoga mat and cutting it to size to put the sump on, anybody else went this route or any other alternative ideas? Also looking for suggestions on a magnetic glass cleaner for the starphire glass. This is my first tank with the low iron glass and I want to know my best options for keeping it scratch free.

 

[Jd120988]

My sump got delivered today and it fits perfectly with enough room for my dosing equipment and such. I also ordered the adjustable overflow kits for the tank but may swap all the bulkheads out as the kits come with barbed ends rather than slip. Also ordered all new rodi cartridges, 200 gallon bucket of tropic marin salt and about 80lbs of special grade sand. Not sure if this will be enough sand but I want a very thin layer so I think it'll be fine. Now to figure out the return pump. I have a jebao dc one now and I honestly really like it. May order another one but not sure what size to go with. When ordering a return pump do I try to match my overflow gph? It's DC so if it's too much I can always turn it down. I'm thinking overpowered because I'm leaning towards plumbing in a manifold and I can always turn it up later if I need more flow. In my head which could very well be wrong I feel I'd rather have too much and not need it than not enough and need it. Am I right or wrong lol? Overflow is rated 1200gph and pump is rated 1450 gph for reference.