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[BlueAbyss]

Originally Posted by Coleus

Ok, just called Gold and they said my bow front can't be drilled :-(. To buy drilled one it would cost $1300 for stand + tank + glass and they have none in stock for like 6 weeks already.

Hmmm, I think i don't think i should sell my current setup for $800. I should convert it it to sw to save some money. Maybe save money for bigger proper setup in my basement.

This brings up an interesting idea... now that you know the tank can't be drilled, have you considered modding the tank into an AIO? A sheet of glass and some silicone, a return pump and BAM instant AIO.

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Unfortunately, going this direction will take away from a fair bit of your tank space, but would allow you to sequester all those ugly things (like heaters, thermometers, skimmers etc.) away, without a sump (which you could still have, using one of those CPR siphon overflows...). You could even drill the sheet of glass for a few return holes and run a SCWD or whatever... and you would never have a flood. Plus it would be fun to build. You might have issues finding a suitable pump for a system like that... it would all depend on the end display area gallonage I guess. If you end up going with a display area that works out to around 60 gallons in the end, and you want to run 30x turnover you need a return pump that will push 1800 gph and is submersible... actually now, having figured that out, that's not bad and would be enough water movement for LPS and softies. I think a Mag 18 would do it, there's likely a QuietOne pump that would do it also... Really, I suppose it depends on what you plan to keep in your reef. SPS will need double that amount of flow (well, maybe significantly less than that but that's what I would aim for in an SPS dominated reef) and a mixed reef would probably have high flow and high light zones and low flow and light zones...

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That's probably what I would do in your situation. But there is the option of the siphon overflows.