Sure.
This is a 240 gallon "Uniquarium" made by Clear for Life. The specs are 96"x24"x24", but technically the depth would be 20" of usable space, as the sump area is 4" deep. The display area is roughly 200 gallons of water, while the sump has the capacity to be 40 gallons if full, but would never be completely full.
The internal sump is a wet/dry with dual overflows that flow into a mechanical filtration chamber, one at each end of the tank, then flows out to each have their own respective drip trays and columns of bio-balls underneath. Each side eventually flows back to the middle of the sump where (3) RIO 2100 return pumps are located.
The logic behind this had a few reasons.
First, I have gone through a handful of large tanks over the years, I have had a full canister filtered tank, a tank with a fluidized external sump, combo setups, etc. I like trying new things and testing to see what works best for me, so when I came across this it was something I hadn't tried, but it seemed like a great idea. I don't keep what I consider "monster fish" anymore, so losing display area wasn't really a big deal to me. Unless the future stocking ideas drastically change, I won't have anything in this tank that is larger than 10" when fully grown, at least for the foreseeable future.
Second, I have always purchased used glass tanks in the past, my luck eventually ran out and I purchased a 210 gallon that lasted 5 months before a perfect looking seam failed. Luckily it wasn't a huge leak and was something I caught early on and was able to put fish in temporary housing and address the issue, which turned into selling the tank and calling it a day.
So when my wife and I moved into our newly built house in August, I wanted to minimize the risk of damaging flooring, walls, etc. with water. So, I decided I was only going to buy a brand new tank and I was only going to buy acrylic, because I was tired of moving heavy glass tanks. Plus, with the sump being inside the tank, it reduces the risk of an external factor causing a failure. Power outages? Not a big deal on this tank, because the water isn't leaving the tank, so power goes out, the tank drains into the sump until it can't anymore and that's that. No reverse suction issues, etc. Plumbing failures? Nope, because there is no plumbing. Pump failures? Not really, if all 3 pumps happen to fail at the same time it'll be just like a power outage, the tank will drain until it can't anymore.
Granted, most of these are easily minimized on a typical display + sump system, but I didn't want to minimize them, I wanted to eliminate them.
Last, but certainly not least. COST.
I got a fantastic deal on this tank. This tank is basically a turn key system, all I have to do is move my heaters and some existing media over to seed and this tank is ready to run as a full system. Something I noticed on my fluidized sump system, was that cost builds QUICKLY, especially if you haven't established a plan and budget before you begin. The more frustrated you become with the setup, the more money you are willing to spend to sort it out. With this setup I was able to have everything bundled into the cost with the filtration already done, for less than a standard 96x24x24 acrylic tank and all I sacrificed was 4" of depth, so it just made sense. My only concern is the use of RIO Pumps, which seem to have a hit and miss success rate. If they begin to fail, I will replace with a better product. I am huge Fluval fan and have always had a great experience with their products, so I would more than likely replace with the 3 rios with 2 Fluval SP2s.
