Next step was getting sand and salt water mixed up and in the tank. I went and bought 120 lbs of Tonga LR and because of time constraints had to just shove it all in the DT.
It sat like that for at least 2-3 weeks. I ended up sticking 3 cocktail shrimp in there over that period. They totally disintegrated and dissolved in the tank and I never saw any ammonia, Nitrite or nitrate. To this day, I've never seen any of the 3.
Version 2 of the sump drain plumbing looked like this
and my first attempt at aquascaping which is pretty much how it looks now. Although I may have moved 1 or 2 top pieces
