My first saltwater tank

[Katie19882010]

Ok I have a 75 gal tank that is just a regular tank will I have to put holes in it ?

[Ingy]

"Have to", no. Want to, yes. If you're planning on running a sump with your system, which is highly recommended, then drilling the tank is preferred to the HOB Overflow system. That being said, many people here use HOB Overflows.

[Katie19882010]

I'm taking this whole experience slowly to make sure I don't screw things up so it will be awhile before anything is in the tank (living) I'm just trying to set the tank up with the sand water and rock, as of right now I just have the tank and trying to get info on steps to set up and what is needed

with that said , I see some people say they don't use a sump and some say they do ... The whole sump thing seems so confusing to make .

[Mebbid]

Good plan to take things slowly It is a necessity with saltwater even though its soooo hard to do! I started with a 20g tank and ended up adding a 10g refugium underneath. Without having the foresight to have my 20g drilled before setting it up I added in a HOB overflow. In a 20g tank it takes up a ton of space and took some modifying to get quiet enough to not annoy the crap out of me (wasn't difficult to modify at all) In a 75g a HOB overflow wont be as prominent but you might end up wishing you had drilled it.

A refugium isnt necessary at all but is a big help with being able to add macro algae and culturing copepods if you want to keep a mandarin goby or other fish that lives off of copepods.

Also, building a refugium can be as simple or as complicated as you want. Most people add baffles into a refugium to cut down on micro bubbles. I skipped that part and haven't really seen and issues with the microbubbles yet

[Ingy]

Sumps sound difficult at the beginning, but is really quite simple. I only have 2 sections in mine (1 set of baffles), and I also have no issues with bubbles in my sump or DT.