back into sw lots of new questions any help greatly appreciated

[lex2lo]

getting back into sw tanks after a couple years, picked up a 90 gallon wave tank with stand and canopy for 100 bucks, the tank is scratched from i guess the guy tried to clean it with brillo looks like. hopefully when its full u cant see the scratches any input on this would be appreciated.
 
next i wanna get lights to go under the canopy, i know the majority are gonna say go retro but id rather buy a unit that has the moonlights, and fans already built in and just put it under the canopy question is will it get too hot for t-5's? what lighting recconmendations does everyone have? i like the tek 8x54 but i heard the new ones have a work horse ballast which from what ive been reading arent that good, plus no moon lights and/ or fans. the tek elite has the fans but no moon lights. next the nova extreme pro looks good 8x54 with fans but no moon lights but has the single lamp reflectors yet everyone seems to say get the tek better. i personally like the aquactinics solar flare 8x54 fans moonlights plus has ice cap ballast which overdrive the bulbs to 83 watts each.
 
water movement if anyone can assist me on this one would be nice i would like to build some kind of spray tube to lie along the back wall using pvc but am not sure how to go about this ex, how far apart to drill holes and or how many, how big of a pump, what size piping?
 
last question i had a refugium prior but i would like something with a little less maintance so would a couple canister filters be ok, or should i just go with what i know and setup the refugium again, i know the benefits of the ref plus i can tuck away the skimmer uv etc. i know its my preference but would like to hear from refugium/sumpless people have for a reef and theyre results. i plan to have 80lbs of live sand plus around 90 lbs live rock in tank to handle biological so really all i need is a good canitster for mech/chemical filtration plus water movement.
 
any and all opinions are welcome
 

 

[btwk12]

sounds like you got it all planned out to me! everyones been telling me to go with ati light fixture on my 110gal, 60'' -6x80 watts no moonlights but cooling fans. i have been running my tanks for about 3 years with just a hob filter and a hob skimmer, doing about 12% water change weekly and i have never had any problems. however i am gonna get a hob overflow box to run a refugium for more water volume and to hide all my pumps/skimmers/heaters. and as far as flow its just what corals ur gonna have.

 

[flower]

 
 

 
This sounds so much like another post. Search this site for scratches, someone on here just got done getting out scratches on an $800.00 tank he got for $100.00
 
 
I have a 90g tank as well…I wouldn’t go retrofit…I hung my MH lights over my canopy on a pulley system. I removed the hinged lid and hung the lights over that area.
 
 

 

[lex2lo]

looks nice good idea, u can get away with it being so high off the tank because theyre halides i dont think t5 would penetrate low enough if i did that setup. but again good idea if i decide to go the halide route