Should I Drill my new tank???

Hey all, I am going to be setting up my 40B tank soon and have been mulling over whether to drill it and run a sump or just go with HOB skimmer and refugium. I have been somewhat turned off by the price of HOB refugiums and the quality and constant adjustments that need to be made to HOB skimmers

I really want to be 100% sure that the drilled system wont overflow in the case of a power outage because I will be in a APT complex on the second floor.

Can anyone help me with the in and out of preventing a drilled sump set up from overflowing so I can be more confident about it. My sump will be my current 20 gallon high tank which I want to divide into 3 chambers (drain/skimmer, refugium, and return).

 

I think drilled tanks are much safer then a hob overflow and much nicer then having everything in tank. As for being safe the surefire way of doing it would be set the drilled would kind of depend on how your return is run, either through the glass or over the top. You can run a check valve on the return( some people swear by them I don't trust them long term) I chose to drill a hole to prevent to much back siphon(others say what if a snail is on it or its clogged). either way when you got it planned out put the tank you wish to use as a sump below it with the return pump you wish to use and run it bare minimum water and see how much drains back. Then use the drain back amount as the amount of space you need to leave as a safety margin. Best to leave more as a worst case scenario ie snail over the hole or check valve fails.

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