144 Oceanic Half Cylinder Build

[hizbaby]

Hey all! Still new here, but her's a bit of history, in March 2019, was given a 46 bowfront, all went well (relatively!)
Got a 75 in April / may, wasn't hunting the tank, but all the goodies that came with it, so bonus score! In June, bought a 90, did a bit of customizing to the stand and canopy, filled her up, all went / is going well. Decided to move the 46 to the master bedroom, and set up the 75 where it had previously been, living room (built a custom stand/ cabinet from a piece of antique furniture and a canopy). That would be a 75 & 90 in living room, 46 in bedroom, sweet!
THEN this happened! Offered a great deal on a 144 Oceanic Half Cylinder - was NOT looking for another tank! BUT... well u know...
All plans change! Decided to put the 144 in the living room, move the 90 to where the 75 was going, but, Alas, the 90 will not go on the custom stand for the 75 due to where the overflow is (corner on 90, off center in 75, for which the cabinet was custom made, and cannot be modified - LOVE the cabinet, so decided that the 90 will have to go, and the 75 will be where it was destined for in the first place.
Have also decided to let the 46 go, as taking care of too many tanks is a big job for The Man. So I am starting this build of the 144 here! ( I hope to go back and do the others a build at a later date! )
Here are the pics of when we first got the tank / stand/ canopy, and where we currently are.

 

[hizbaby]

the stand ( made of YUCK particle board! ) was badly damaged, the canopy was YUCK plastic ... so, The Man commenced to making the canopy, ( he has also done the same for the 46 bowfront, and the 75 /90. )
He also cleaned it all up and buffed out some minor scratches in the glass ( he still has some buffing to do, so He says, I think they are as good as they are gonna get, and are not awful bad /noticeable - we shall see!
He WAS going to build the stand himself, using the old pieces as templates, BUT! then we got a puppy! - Which we waited for over two years for! .. so has now given thought to having a freind who has a wood shop to build the stand part ( of which I am in full support as the curved glass doors may present a problem - keeping in mind that until 2019, The Man had not built anything ever, (wood-wise) he's a mechanic by trade. But has done a FANTASTIC job on everything I have thrown at him, especially the antique piece he turned into a stand for the 75, I'll put up some pics of it (later!)
I am going to try my hand at building the aquascape for BOTH the 75, and the 144. Heavily armed with Macro 400, lots of thick superglue, accelerator, fiberglass rods, dry sand, and A LOT of rock ( went thru a FB marketplace phase of buying it everytime I saw it for "just in case"! )
We also picked up some REALLY NICE coral rock, which I want to use in the 144 as this will be the show piece tank - obviously!
The goal is to have primarily all softies, which due to the already built in modifications to the 144 should NICELY accommodate, see in the pics the extra flow tubes and drilled bulkhead holes in both bottom corners! Sand, and relatively peaceful livestock - HUGE wrasse fan!
I want to do NSA scaping as much as possible, and will be needing A LOT of input from all ya' all!
Here are pics of what I want to use as the focal points of my scaping - and any input is greatly needed and appreciated!

 

[hizbaby]

these are the large pieces that I want to be the HIGHLIGHT pieces. Have no idea really what to do! We have a ton of rock, in all colors shapes and sizes, base with flat bottoms, shelf rock, branches ... some is in the existing tanks, some is dry, and some is in a cycling tank in the garage ... I can't know if I should dry the wet for creating the scape, or use rods as much as possible to keep it all live and thriving, and how long is too long out of water?
I do have enough of the white pukani to do the whole 144 in white and let it "age" on it's own, but some of that is wet, some dry, would be easy enough to let it dry before assembling I guess, can always use the "live" in the sump to get it all started, as well as some live as islands to get thru the uglies and such .. thoughts anyone?