The tank has been wetted!
I put all the pipes together, and it was easier than I'd been worrying.
Filled the weir and waited for leaks - none! Huzzah!
So I filled the rest of the tank until it started running into the sump, then until the return chamber had 6" water, then stopped it.
I've yet to put the return pump on and adjust the water settings in the sump, but I plugged the skimmer in briefly and all was working.
I need to put a hose clip on the return hose, just for safety's sake.
I was going to run all the equipment through a citric acid bath separately, but I'm going to try and do that (with some other equipment from my other dry reef tanks) in the system itself - I might need a lot more citric acid.
But at least it's got water in it for the first time, all the important stuff is working and every step is a crawl forward to getting it set up!
Next immediate steps:
add the hose clip on the return hose
run the return pump and adjust the water level
including power outage test
plug everything in and running and run a citric bath
drain
rinse
put coarse sponge in the baffles
and set up an ATO system
I'm probably going to use the float valve system already in place, I'm just not sure how I'm going to set up the ATO reservoir - probably gravity fed via 5 gal jug on the side? I might have to end up using a small pump, ugh, another socket, but no biggy
Oh, I need a larger power strip.