Scott's first reef - 55 gallon build

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Hi all, my name is Scott. I have wanted a reef aquarium for as long as I can remember. About 5 years ago, I bought a nano aquarium and spend months building a custom stand and canopy for it. Then realized that I didnt have the time for it that it required, so I ended up getting rid of it before water ever touched it.

Fast forward 5-6 years and here I am again... Wanted something a little larger than a nano aquarium, but nothing super big either. My biggest thing is finding a stand/canopy that matches the rest of our furniture in our house. I was planning to build another one myself and my wife surprised me at Christmas with a tank/stand/canopy that she had found from a guy in Tyler.

Right now, Im still spending hours and hours reading up on every website, book and magazine I can get my hands on. Im trying to be very patient and not jump ahead of myself. Im still currently in the planning stage and finishing up gathering up my equipment. In the meantime, I have decided to do a few modifications to the stand and canopy. Im not quite finished yet, but you can see my progress.

Because my plan is to have a reef tank and not really a fish tank, I have what I think is a pretty good light setup. It has 4 T5 40w bulbs (2 purple, 2 white) and a 250 watt MH in the center with the moonlight LEDs and a fan.

My next steps are obviously finishing out the wood work and then finish building my sump (just want to add the baffles and drain bag) I plan to have a little refugium in the sump too. The only equipment thats in my near future is a skimmer (leaning towards Remora Pro and placing it in the sump) and an auto top of setup. Hopefully after I get the sump all plumbed and setup, Ill be ready for rock/water!

I know I have a lot to learn and a long way to go, but im very excited and anxious. Im always open to listening and getting ideas, so feel free to throw in your 2 cents! Thanks!
 
the way the stand is made, the bottom section has a divider down the center, so I am limited on space with the sump. I plan to have my sump/fuge on the left and the water containers and auto top of on the right.
 
and here is what I am currently workin on right now. Doing a little woodwork and changing it up a bit to "frame" it in.
 
Looking good, Scott. Have you thought about drilling your tank, rather than dealing with an overflow box and having to worry about it losing suction in case of a power outage?
 
Picked up my skimmer last night, its an Octopus 125 recirculating skimmer. Hoping this will work well for me. Plan to build my sump/fuge this weekend and hopefully get it all plumbed up soon.
 
Had to do a little customizing to get the skimmer to fit underneath inside the cabinet, but I made it work.
I also got the shell of my sump/fuge all glued together... I still need to do the baffles and holes for the drain/returns though.
 
I havent really decided on how I am going to do this yet... I do have another 10 gallon that I could utilize as well that will fit underneath with the skimmer.

I was thinking of either of these 2 options.

1. Overflow box --> 10 gallon (MJ1200) --> skimmer --> fuge (mag7) --> aquarium
2. Overflow box --> directly into skimmer (no pump) --> fuge (mag7) --> aquarium
3. Overflow box --> fuge (MJ1200) --> skimmer --> fuge (mag7) --> aquarium

what do you guys think??
 
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