New 90gallon tank and 30 gallon sump. Need advice!

Picked up a 90g with overflows a couple weeks ago. They're megaflows. The tank is drilled. I also picked up an old 30g to use as a sump a couple of weeks ago.

...That's about all I know about setting up a marine tank.

I could use any advice anyone has to offer.

1. What kind of return pump do I need? Is there an appreciable difference between rio/mag/and eheim that justifies the price difference?

2. I am looking for a good in sump skimmer. What would you recommend?

3. Anybody have any good plans/advice for building a 30g sump?

4. What would you stock it with?

Any other bits of advice would be much appreciated.


Thanks

Tank:


soon to be sump:

TheCanuck;4432058; said:

Whats your budget? I can list all your products with prices/links if you want to stay within a certain margin.

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well...I'm not a wealthy man by any means, but my wife and I earn a pretty good living (lawyer + nurse). We've got expenses like everybody else. It'll probably take me a few months to get everything together and stocked. I'm really looking for the most frugal choices to get the job done right. I'd like to cut some corners where it makes sense, and invest in some important items where appropriate. Does that answer your question?

TheCanuck;4432075; said:

Sounds just like me

What about the type of tank you want to have? Community, predator, or reef?

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as far as stock, I got into salt to keep a trigger. That's really my only requirement. I've been interested in corals since I started reading about marine but they're more complicate/expensive and mutually exclusive from triggers. I was also thinking community but if I do one it'll probably be moderately aggressive with like a niger or blue jaw trigger and fish able to hang with the milder temperment triggers.

TheCanuck;4432092; said:

So a sump with a lot of bio space is going to be your best option. Are you going to be sectioning off the 30 gallon sump yourself? With glass? Whats the plans with that?

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well I was thinking plexi glass siliconed into place. The 30 gallon has about an 1.5" diameter hole drilled in the upper left hand corner. I need to patch that too. I was going to go to a glazier and get a piece cut for that and silicone it into place.

I'm really open to ideas for the sump. I found this site:
http://www.melevsreef.com/allmysumps.html

and it's got some fairly useful information. I was thinking about a skimmer chamber, followed by a bubble trap, followed by a fairly large fuge chamber with a dsb/macroalgae/LR rubble. Would that be effective? Then follow that with the return pump chamber. That's what I was thinking anyway.

at least 100lbs. I thought about going with all LR and I thought about going with 75lbs of marco rock and seeding it with about 25 pounds of some really choice live rock. I'm open to suggestions there too.

would the deep sand bed and live rock rubble in the sump along with macro algae help with the nitrogenous wastes?