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Well I just got a new job and moved 600 miles. I ended up giving all my livestock and some of my equipment to a coworker at the time. I am not going to immediately setup my tank again so I have some time to make needed upgrades! The first upgrade is going to be my main tank

I have a tank stand that I love so I'm staying with that stand. That will be my "limiting factor". I orignally had the stand built to hold a 29-gallon aquarium (with a little extra room). The stand has a side door to slide a sump in (I've been using a 20-gallon homemade sump). The top of the stand has the following dimensions: 31.5"W x 19"D. The first decision is to decide how tall I want the aquarium to be! A 70-tall is 36x18x25, does 25" tall make the aquarium difficult to work in? Does anyone have an opinion of a 70-tall? Any likes? Dislikes?

The next obvious decision is Acrylic or Glass...I really don't know, I've always had glass but acrylic might be easier to get custom overflows and holes drilled. I'm open for suggestions on that as well.

So here is the biggest problem I am having trouble deciding about...In the 29-gallon tank I had a DIY PVC overflow. I put some long hours into perfecting it but it needs to go! I want to have an overflow and drain put into the aquarium. The company I am looking at ordering from (Glasscages.com) has a bunch of different styles of overflows (Standard, End, Center, Corner, Horizontal,...). What is the best to use to maintain proper flow and to avoid dead spots? Additionally, I cannot/will not drill into my tank stand, so I need to add holes to the tank (as I am not dealing with an over-the-top overflow again). Is there a proper place to put these? How many and what size should I have added?

Should I get a tank top included with the tank? Thanks for all the help...I always appreciate it!

-Josh

Just need a few questions asked. What type tank is this going to be? Reef, FOWLR or Fish only. If it`s going to be a reef tank then you`ll most likely need to buy metal hallides for lighting which will not be cheap. 25 inches is pretty deep for a reef tank. The other two you`ll be OK with regular lighting.
As far as acrylic or glass I would go with Glass. Acrylic scratches too easy. With all the stuff that you`d have to scrape off your glass there`s just too much of a chance of scratching it. To avoid deadspots you`ll need some PH`s. Most returns cant cover every area in the tank but you can cover them with PH`d pointed in different directions. I also would not fool with a tank cover as they allow poor gas exchange at the surface causing low PH. I would try eggcrate that you can get at any hardware store.

Good questions! I should have thought of them in my original post. It'll be a FOWLR. I already have compact Fluorescent so I think I'll be ok with that. I had too strong of a light for my 29 gallon so a little deeper is not going to hurt.

I have three powerheads from my 29 that I'll use for the new tank. I might actually have a few more from a previous FW as well. With my over the back DIY overflow I always had a deepspot in the far corner. Therefore, I was thinking that an overflow in the back center would probably be best (I believe that's a standard overflow). The return will probably have directional tubing as well to take care of some of the water movement problems.

Thanks for the reminder about the cover...I don't know what I was thinking when I asked that. I had eggcrete on my 29 and just wasn't thinking at all...lol..Any other ideas thanks!

-Josh