Bless my loving wife!

[Boomboy]

you can drill the back. lets say you want a herbie style overflow. drill one near the bottom, not to close though, and then drill another one a little higher up and just put a 90 on it and have the pipe out of the water. you could also drill for your returns and order glass from a store for the overflow. its not to hard. depending on your skills it might be cheaper, reef ready tanks are alot more than just a normal tank.