I concur on the welcomes. Always good to see new folks join in!
With the local stores, just remember some really want to help, some really want to sell you things, and most are somewhere in the middle. Do your research. Never impulse buy, regardless of whether its tanks or livestock, etc... Everything you do/add/buy has bonuses and adds limitations. If you know them going in, you'll be happier in the end.
My suggestion is almost always to read build threads. Find tanks you like and watch how people put them together. How they decided what equipment, how to plumb.. Find their mistakes, don't repeat them. Everyone of us who have been at this a while can tell you things we'd do differently, even on the tanks we're most proud of....