Sorry for the slow progress but washing all that sand, filling it up and starting the pumps took awhile. The pumps weren't in as good of shape as I hoped. They are running but will need replacing or new impellers (4 of them). Anyways the tank now has almost a full bucket of pond matrix and full bottle of stability to start cycling. The tank is clearing up but I need a good acrylic safe scraper to clean the dust/bubbles from the inside. Picture is on the 6ft "side" of the tank and shows the racetrack effect. Next up liverock to go around the center overflow.
I've been following your progress on this and it looks great so far. What do you have planned with filtration? I didn't see mention of that, but could have missed it.