lol I hear ya, I been working tirelessly in my fish room for days now.....no, WEEKS lol I took a much needed day to go fishing and relax Thursday, but I'm right back at it yesterday, today, tomorrow, forever, after that.....u get the idea. My business partner brought me another dozen tanks yesterday so I got siliconing and epoxying and sterilizing to do and probably days worth of moving tanks to make this fishroom look the part. It's a time-consuming hobby you'll soon realize haha, but very rewarding for our efforts. Partner hooked me up with a SWEET metal stand for 45g/55g/67.5g tank with a lower shelf for a sump or just a 2nd tank if I want....can't wait to sort that all out.There is some existing 3M tape that the previous owner used in the tank for his light fixtures I think so that will be helpful once the time comes. I just want to get this started already but trying to keep it on the back burner lol. Parents seem to have come around to it but just incase.
I have a whole plan to tackle from DIY lighting, filtration, Waste Overflow, Auto water fill/changes. should be fun!
Have you decided on a substrate yet? I have always been partial to polished river rock but it gets harder and harder to find every year, not many places carry it these days, but it's great for larger fish because they are quite a bit bigger than standard gravel and even IF the fish are strong enough to move them, the polished shine makes them slippery and harder for a fish to hold on to, so the tank kinda stays more like the way you set it up initially......cichlids love the re-arrange and destroy stuff.