Fluval fx6 or sump

they arnt that quiet but work well on my heavily stocked 300g... sounds like a fridge in my lounge, two is definitely louder than one too... they do the job just fine imo... look...

[video=youtube;I8OEYByG3GA]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I8OEYByG3GA[/video]

2 and a 1200lph powerhead to stir things up, heavily stocked aswell.

I've got one on my 5x2x2 works just fine also , I've got an old fluval internal filter full of k1 for a bit more flow at the other end of tank from fx outlets

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Sump would be better imo. How long are you away for? Before you go just top off the sump and it wont drop too low for the pump for a week or so depending. Adding water is super simple just set a fill line and tell the wife to fill the tank or sump until it hits that line. Nice thing is they are like autoleveling so its pretty tough to mess up. When you hear a horrid noise and see bubbles in your tank its time to top it off and you can fill a sump as much as you want without any issues (unless the power goes out then you get an overflow if sump doesnt have room)

Also look up "coast to coast overflows" and "herbie overflow". There is no excuse for a loud sump unless you are lazy and dont care about the noise like if you have a filter room

I agree with having a fill to line on the sump, also why not put together an auto topoff?

i think you should go with FX6. i was always away as well because of work and i had a fire in my sump that cracked my tank.
yes, fire. the sump ran dry while i had a heater in there. it melted and cought fire.

so if you are away for a while, canister filter is the way to go