tank advice

Yes and no. You could buy a tank that was drilled, but it could be drilled on the sides or back, not necessarily on the bottom. When you see a tank with a corner overflow, or dual overflows, those have an overflow and then 2 holes drilled inside the overflow part. One is for the drain, the other the return. If you have two overflows, the other is exactly the same.

So you definitely want a "reef ready" tank with at least one overflow

 

I thought that too but a friend says it's the way to go. I guess there's quite a mark up at the LFS. ?

 

To further help (neither of these pictures are mine, stolen from Google), here is a picture of a corner overflow:



Here is what the inside looks like if the overflow is removed:

 

They operate on the same premise just in different ways. Drilled through the back/side and overflows that have holes drilled in the bottom of the tank work pretty much the same way. If you have more water that causes the water level to go above the holes or overflow it goes to your sump. An over the side overflow works the same way but needs to have something to keep air from building up and breaking suction.

 

thx Vinny! going to check it out!

 

so the holes are in the bottom of the tank? That scares me. What about an overflow box on the back?

 

Pictures are extremely helpful to this oldfishkeeper

 

Did you see the couple I posted

This is actually the way to go IMO. Right now I have a 55 setup with a hang-on-back (HOB) overflow and a 125 setup that has dual in tank overflows (so 2 seperate overflows, each with 2 holes). There is no risk of loosing siphon with a drilled overflow, it can be made to be dead silent, there is nothing sticking on the back of the tank, all plumbing is below the stand...

 

yes, those pictures were very helpful! I want a 65 wide correct? If I want the 65 that's similar in dimensions to the 40 breeder right?

 

We have a friend that will build me a stand and he does great work and is a fellow reefer He said he could build me the sump also. He was trying to explain to me yesterday and I wasn't quite getting it. You all are helping a lot!