Drilling a tank?

[TNT]

I have just recently come back to the hobby after a couple of years away. I got a good deal on a 90 gallon tank and stand, with about 180 pounds of live rock....I have had the system running for around 2 months now and am trying to decide whether to let the guy at the LFS drill the tank or not....He swears he does them all the time and that it will not cause any problems with the strength of the tank, but I have had alot of people tell me different. My first post, and I look forward to this forum and any input would be appreciated.

[Fatman]

Depends on the glass, tempered glass (from my understanding) should NOT be drilled.

[jerryc]

You can drill most tanks you just need to no if it is tempered.
most tanks or only tempered on the bottom
I drilled my 55 in the back works fine

[dakar]

Drilling tanks really is not a big deal, I really regret not drilling our 180g tank, she's been up and running for 2 years now and to avoid the hassle of using overflow boxes and the like on it would have made things a lot easier. I've contemplated taking it down several times to drill it lately.

As far as strength goes, you really do not loose much, I was able to drill 2 x 1 1/2" holes in the rear of a little 10g tank and have noticed the rear pane to be any weaker, not for the lack of trying, I haven't broken it yet.

As mentioned just need to be sure the glass is not tempered or it will explode like a car window.

[AquaSquid]

Be careful! this weekend at the LFS they had a 300 gallon tank crack and leak out. This tank was drilled by a guy who does them all the time too! Tank was up for two years before this. Luckily they had a tank to transfer all the rock and such to. Take it to a place that does this type of work. Don't do it yourself.

[TNT]

Thank you all.....and no I would never attempt this myself....but will probably think about it for a month or so....he swears I will not have to empty the tank....just drain it about 1/3 of the way....and fill back up in 24 hours.