Reef Ready Aquariums

[sharkbait33]

I'm very interested in starting up a saltwater aquarium and have helped with one in the past, so i'm pretty familiar with the setup process. I've recently invested in a larger aquarium for my African cichlids, it is not a reef ready aquarium though. So my question is..Is it hard/more expensive to MAKE an aquarium reef ready or would yall advise someone to just buy an aquarium that is ALREADY reef ready? and if i were to make one reef ready, how would i go about doing that?

[xcreonx]

you could either drill it (if it's not tempered glass!) for drain pipes and make your own internal overflow out of acrylic or get an external hang-on-the-back overflow box. Either of these will give you similar results to a "reef ready" tank.

[Joseph9123]

Not that hard at all, just a little patients and someone that have done it before helping you.

-Joseph Le

[Headless_donkey]

I agree with joseph. I just converted two tanks into reef ready. My advice would be buy one step thicker acrylic then you think you need and cut it with a good table saw. After that the silicon part is super easy. BTW binswanger(sp?) glass drills aquarium for 23.50 a hole.

If your bottom glass is tempered you can drill the back side instead.

[thedude]

I personally feel that if you have the option to purchase an already reef ready tank go that route. I'd had a tank drilled and had standard overflows on tanks and the standard overflow is a nice addition to begin with.

I also agree with the guys above that if you do have a tank that isn't reef ready it would be much easier to get it drilled then save yourself the headache of messing with an external overflow.

John