On the dry rock question, there is no need to seed it with live rock, there are lots of bacterial strains you can buy and add to your tank, you can buy live zooplankton and most snails/hermits have Coraline on their shells which will spread onto your glass and rocks. Even adding some macro algae will introduce tons of critters.
I do not have a drilled tank, it is older so its tempered glass so I can't drill it even if I so wished, I use a hang on overflow and it does the job just fine.
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