Are HOB overflows (weirs?) any good?

[20 20]

The LFS has a perfect size tank for me, a 120 gallon that's 60" long x 18 inches wide. A 6 foot tank just won't fit where I want it, and a 4 foot long just isn't long enough for me. Trouble is, it doesn't come 'reef ready', and has tempered glass, so it shouldn't be drilled. It's a Perfecto, and they won't start making/delivering 'reef ready' tanks until the end of July. And then the same size tank will be more than twice as much as the non-reef tank! So. I still want to use a sump for filtration. And with the tank I want, I'll need one (or two) of those HOB skimmers ("Weir's"?). Do those work well? How noisy are they? Do they reliably keep the siphon if the power goes out? Any particular brands I should look for?

EDITED: I changed the thread title from 'Are HOB skimmers' to 'Are HOB overflows'. I didn't mean protein skimmers, I meant the overflow boxes that hang on the back of the tank to siphon water into a sump. I thought of it as 'skimming' the surface of the water, hence the confusing thread title. Doh. And in my travels through the internet reading about marine aquariums, I've seen these overflows refered to as "Weir's". Either that, or I just really got confused!

[malkore]

I think you need to do more research. I had no idea what a Weir skimmer was...turns out it's a very large, industrial grade oil skimmer, for cleaning up oil/gas spills on lakes, ponds and oceans.
http://www.aquaguard.com/Skimmers/weir_skimmers.html

Start by reading the Conscientious Marine Aquarist by Robert Fenner...make sure you know the expense, time and maintenance involved with a 75gallon SW tank.

Now, if you plan to use a sump, then you should look at in-sump skimmers, rather than HOB's, because they're more efficient. If you had to go HOB, you'd probably need two CPR bak-paks, or one of the large Aqua C. Remora's.

[20 20]

Sorry for the confusing thread title, malkore. I changed it, and put an explaination about it in the first post. Doh.

[SirLight1337]

CPR also makes overflow boxes depending on your tank size, and what GPH you are looking for. I would say wait for the reef ready tank that has a built in skimmer box. Plumbing with those things are a snap. No spendy overflow box and no worrys of floods in the event of power loss.

[malkore]

Ok, Weir overflow is a real piece of equipment for marine tanks...but I don't have a sump so I cannot comment on what the best overflow manufacturer is.