Hey sump users: Do you do less water changes than canister users?

[asm129]

I've met a few people on mfk who use big 40-60g sumps and they all told me that they do less WCs and are able to keep a lot more fish in their tank with a sump than before when they were using canisters. Is that true? How often do you guys need to do water changes?

I've only used canisters like FX5 before but I plan to use a sump for my next big tank. I want to buy a 240G tank and use a 60G sump with an FX5. I want to be able to do less frequent WCs so I hope that what those sump guys told me is true. Some guys told me they only need to do a WC once every few months and clean or change the filter sponge every week. Does that sound right?

 

[PrecisionAquatics]

I didn't change a thing as far as water changes go when I switched from a canister to a sump.

 

[Egon]

I didn't change a thing as far as water changes go when I switched from a canister to a sump.

+1

 

[jcardona1]

Water changes are done to reduce nitrates. Your choice of filter has nothing to do with nitrates. Although with a sump you do have more room for media, which theoretically would support more fish.

 

[Jc1119]

I run both types of systems and I change water weekly on all my tanks.

Nitrate reduction is the primary function of water changes and will need to be done at some point regardless of filtration style. Lightly stocked systems with large volumes can go much longer between changes, but changes still need to be done..

 

[Delpapabear]

I have a 240g tank, i have a big sump and a fx5. I have 5 large fish and I do water changes of 25-30% weekly.

 

[johnnycoolxx]

Do you think it's true that someone could put more fish into the tank with a big sump (let's say a 40g sump) than with a canister (FX5)? It seems like the extra volume of bio would be able to support more bioload than a canister could.

 

[L.BelcherII]

Do you think it's true that someone could put more fish into the tank with a big sump (let's say a 40g sump) than with a canister (FX5)? It seems like the extra volume of bio would be able to support more bioload than a canister could.

That's correct in theory, but you're still going to have to do a bunch of water changes to reduce nitrate.

 

[Oughtsix]

IMHO you can keep more fish in a tank with a wet/dry sump than the same tank with a canister mainly due to the extra oxygen the wet/dry sump adds to the water. Canisters are sealed systems and add no oxygen to the water. The beneficial bacteria in the bio portion of a canister actually consumes the oxygen in the water to some degree. The bio balls in a wet/dry sump does a great job at breaking streams of water down to drops of water and the mechanical interaction of the water and the bio balls exposes huge amounts of water surface to the air. This huge water surface area allows for a lot of gas exchange between the air and water area and provides a lot of oxygen to the water at the point where the beneficial bacteria consume it leaving plenty of left over O2 for the other aquatic inhabitants.

I believe a tank with a wet/dry trickle sump, in general, is able to handle a larger fish population than a comparable tank with a canister... especially with non-planted tanks.

 

[Jc1119]

Do you think it's true that someone could put more fish into the tank with a big sump (let's say a 40g sump) than with a canister (FX5)? It seems like the extra volume of bio would be able to support more bioload than a canister could.

Yes. This is true and part if the reason I opt for tall tanks. Stock based on footprint and extra water volume is always in the equation. Which in turn usually means a cleaner tank.