Hello, I'm new to freshwater (have 240 gallon reef tank) and this forum so I thought I would share my current build in progress.
I bought some 1/4" glass from a local shop (40.5 x 22 x 18) to save money on a custom tank. These dimensions fit the stand I bought perfectly.
Here is the stand I bought for $50 on craigslist. I took it apart and reinforced the structure with 2x4's and painted it black with high gloss oil based paint.
Painted doors...
After the silicon (GE Type I) cured for 48 hours it was time for a water test. It was a success after 24 hours so I drained it to add overflow.
Sky blue acrylic overflow 10 inches linear length (for 1" drain this was suggested). I broke 3 teeth during the cut, so I fashioned some replacements. You can't tell from the front though, so it was successful.
Overflow installed...
And with sky blue acrylic backdrop installed.
I ordered a few pieces of driftwood and boiled them for 8 hours and soaked them for another 24 hours to remove most of the tannin.
I went rockhounding up by some mountain streams and found a few nice pieces. Per state law you can rockhound 250 pounds per year for non commercial purposes. I took about 100 pounds worth in a 5 gallon bucket. (EDIT: I should note that I did give the rocks a bath and did a two day soak in diluted bleach to remove organics)
So I started building my trickle filter. I should be able to put 700 g/hr through this system (10x). The top drawer will contain filter floss to catch larger debrise, the next drawer will be bio balls under a drip plate. Third drawer will be media, carbon, etc. (as needed) and bottom drawer will be more bio balls. This will sit in my sump tank with the heater to be returned to the tank.
Here is my overflow drain and spray bar to feed filter tower.
Here is the completed plumbing under the cabinet.
Here is the backside of the tank and stand with 3/4" return powered by a Sicce 4.0. With 7 feet of head pressure I should be able to push 650-675 g/hr.
I'm doing final clean-up today to prepare for substrate and planting. My plants should arrive today.
Glad to share my experiences, hopefully I can learn alot here and give people some tips/ideas as well.

I bought some 1/4" glass from a local shop (40.5 x 22 x 18) to save money on a custom tank. These dimensions fit the stand I bought perfectly.

Here is the stand I bought for $50 on craigslist. I took it apart and reinforced the structure with 2x4's and painted it black with high gloss oil based paint.

Painted doors...

After the silicon (GE Type I) cured for 48 hours it was time for a water test. It was a success after 24 hours so I drained it to add overflow.

Sky blue acrylic overflow 10 inches linear length (for 1" drain this was suggested). I broke 3 teeth during the cut, so I fashioned some replacements. You can't tell from the front though, so it was successful.

Overflow installed...

And with sky blue acrylic backdrop installed.

I ordered a few pieces of driftwood and boiled them for 8 hours and soaked them for another 24 hours to remove most of the tannin.

I went rockhounding up by some mountain streams and found a few nice pieces. Per state law you can rockhound 250 pounds per year for non commercial purposes. I took about 100 pounds worth in a 5 gallon bucket. (EDIT: I should note that I did give the rocks a bath and did a two day soak in diluted bleach to remove organics)

So I started building my trickle filter. I should be able to put 700 g/hr through this system (10x). The top drawer will contain filter floss to catch larger debrise, the next drawer will be bio balls under a drip plate. Third drawer will be media, carbon, etc. (as needed) and bottom drawer will be more bio balls. This will sit in my sump tank with the heater to be returned to the tank.

Here is my overflow drain and spray bar to feed filter tower.

Here is the completed plumbing under the cabinet.

Here is the backside of the tank and stand with 3/4" return powered by a Sicce 4.0. With 7 feet of head pressure I should be able to push 650-675 g/hr.

I'm doing final clean-up today to prepare for substrate and planting. My plants should arrive today.
Glad to share my experiences, hopefully I can learn alot here and give people some tips/ideas as well.