Thanks! I'm pumped to start this build and see where it goes. Yesterday I managed to find someone who would take the fish in exchange for some cured liverock. Since there was no livestock in the tank I took that time to switch out the sand for some Caribsea Aragonite Oolite. Sidenote, I love this stuff, extremely soft, looks great, helps buffer the water. I use it in my malawi tank too. Anyways, now to wait for the inevitable mini-cycle, then grab a bit of a cleanup crew.
Still looking at RODI and my options. In the meantime I just grabbed a premade bucket of water.
!: ) and research, it's not necessarily 'harder,' as it is more involved. I'm so spoiled by my planted tanks, where I just throw some food in there, maybe some ferts, maybe do a water change every few weeks. I don't need to keep track of my water params, because the plants and everything are at a point where everything is pretty much stable.