Hello Melanie,
Don't get discouraged, you can take your time. I've spent six months rebuilding mine and I've had plenty of fun along the way (along with some very painful experiences as well). I wish Dave had posted this for me back in December. In hind sight, I actually did a lot of what he recommends. I guess that's because Sasquatch told me that I had such a great system before that I should just think what would be possible with all the new technology ~ so I started thinking! And then, I started replacing my equipment a piece at a time, replaced most of my sand, got rid of my plenum filter, and supplemented my LR until it was all done. I now get to keep cool stuff I wouldn't dream of keeping just a year ago. All parameters stay stable and I don't fight the battle to keep it that way!
This is what started my rebuild...
Christmas Tragedy in My Tank
Good luck!
Lorraine