Brand new system. Help please

This is my first post here guys so please take it easy on me!!

Hey guys, I have recently purchased a saltwater setup from my local aquarium store. I had a custom cabinet built for it to make it look like it was built into my pre existing cabinets. It's a 90 gallon setup. Well, the aquarium provided the setup but I think that they gave me bottom barrel stuff and I'm not wanting to go to far and realize that what I have is going to hold me back. So I'm looking at maybe a Sump setup. I have room underneath my cabinet to fix an external tank. My tank is not drilled. I've read about 2-3 hours worth of DIY sumps with HOB tanks and stuff. I'm looking to see if someone has a parts list of what all is needed to be purchased because these DIY I've read have been vague about what parts wore actually purchased. I'll post pics of my tank when I'm on my desktop as I'm posting via mobile. What they provided me was marineland emperor 4000 (two of them), heater, protein skimmer, and air pump. My goal for the tank is going to be reef tank with a few clown/trigger. Nothing to fancy just a nice colorful tank that is a good show piece in my living room.

 

if it's not too far along you should drain the tank now and drill it. Better to do it correctly now, than try to half ass it 6 months from now when you're looking to take it to the next level.

Do research on different types of overflows. I would recommend the calfo / "coast to coast"/ bean animal style overflow to you, as i think that is currently the best design out there. a quick google search will take you to a site where there's a very good explanation on how it works.

Keep doing your research, sounds like you're off to a good start.

 

+1 on the drilling now. I started with a similar setup, 90 gal. not reef ready. I had that setup for about 2 years and towards the tail end of that 2 years my tank was really established and thriving... Everything I had in my tank (2 clowns/damsel/fire shrimp/mushrooms/leather toadstool/polyps/etc.) were all doing great and just starting to look very healthy. At that point I was running a canister and a HOB protein skimmer (which was horrible). All that being said I decided an upgrade to a sump was needed... I couldn't drill the tank so I experimented with weir and HOB siphon type setups and all were not that great. So I upgraded to a 120 gal. reef ready tank with cornerflo... BEST UPGRADE and I wish I had started with a reef ready tank. It is sooooo much easier/cleaner/nicer/more convenient having a sump rather than a ton of HOB equipment that isn't really big enough to get the job done. With a tank that size you really need equipment larger than what HOB equipment can provide. Also it gives you the freedom to set up a fuge and stuff like that in the future. I transferred everything to the reef ready tank and due to reasons I don't wish to talk about my tank crashed. So lesson learned, go with a reef ready tank from the start and that way you have the option to EASILY upgrade equipment if you want to in the future without having to transfer to a new tank and go through the hassle of tearing down a well established tank.

That being said, IMO either drill the tank now and get some bulkheads/cornerflo setup or upgrade to a reef ready tank from the start. You mentioned you would like to have a reef setup in the future so by starting with a non-drilled tank you are setting yourself up for disappointment/headaches.

Just my 2 cents, hope the advise is useful!

 

Welcome to 3reef we are very friendly here never worry abuot asking questions nobody will beat up on you