The season of fishmas begins!... HElp me spend my money!

[squibege]

Santa came early this year so my reef tank is starting!!

First round of incessantly annoying questions I will be asking you all:

1) What's okay to buy used? What should I always buy new?

2) I like the idea of dry rock so I have time to fiddle with aquascaping and don't want to introduce unwanted critters.... BUT I would like to use LR to seed some good biodiversity to the tank. Is there a way to QT the live rock to deal with any unwanted critters before sticking it in the DT? Other than porosity and visual aesthetics- should I be picky about where I get the dry rock?

3) Should I specifically look for a drilled tank to have a sump? Drilling it myself sounds scary... Can I take it somewhere for someone else to drill it? Is there a type of tank that's better for this?

4) I'm assuming the stand just has to support the entire surface area of the tank and be sturdy enough to hold the crazy amount of weight


Anything else to think of while gathering things????