Good to see that you have resumed your build! I too am curious about your order of doing things. Here's what I did in my tank. Create rock structure and add to the tank. Then fill up the sand. Fill it up with water and let it run! I did add filter socks to my overflow standpipes. Sure it created a sandstorm but it wasn't too bad at all and cleared up in 2 days. Assuming you use a hose to fill the tank up (instead of buckets), you should be able to avoid the waterfall effect that you would get with buckets, or water falling from the return line down to the floor of the tank. The other thing you can do is put a dinner plate on the sand and direct the water from the hose so it hits the plate as opposed to the sand. This will help prevent kicking up a lot of the sand.
I too am curious why you are adding salt to the tank instead of making the saltwater outside the tank. In the grand scheme of things, I don't think it matters a whole lot on the first fill.
