side drilling drawbacks?

[kolosy]

so i realized that as i was going to move my tank onto a new stand this weekend, i'd have the water level drained low enough to drill the side of the glass. Is there an issue in having the side drilled as opposed to the bottom?

Also - are there overflow partitions designed for this?

 

[reefergeorge]

The bottom may be tempered, and you may only be able to drill the back.
If you drill near the top you won't be taking up all the volume that a bottom drilled tank overflow uses.

 

[kolosy]

any links on guidelines for drilling the back? how high should i do it? do i even need a partition/overflow box at that point? why couldn't i just use a bulkhead with a screen and call it a day?