Firstl sorry for the very long post please bear with it 
I was originally going to use canister filters on this new tank, as I wanted a silent system with less chance of floods than a sump and no pipe work or heaters visible in the display area, all plumbed in through the base via bulkheads with inline heaters and UV hard plumbed through canister returns. The eheim canisters I was planning on using were the 2078e or 2080, the 2080 are too tall to be able to effectively plumb anything to and from what I have read the microchip control on the 2078’s does not like anything plumbed inline and unless you run it in manual mode the flow is severely affected, I also wanted something that was easy to maintain and clean hence the pro 3’s as they have the pre filter at the top. The entire in tank plumbing was going to be hidden behind a background so nothing in display area. Also after looking at the actual flow rates of the eheims with media and head the best I was going to get out of the 2078’s was around 1000 LPH with nothing connected inline, 700LPH with inline heater, and considering the 2080 have a pump that has 100 LPH less the 2078’s I cant see them putting out anymore. I would need three to get over 3x turnover which starts making the whole thing rather expensive at about £250 per filter.
Now I know that I can get significantly more LPH and media capacity for my money by using a sump, a sump certainly fulfils the requirement of nothing in the display area. But the two other requirements may be more difficult to sort out, it must be silent or as near as and as leak proof as possible.
This is just a rough idea at the moment that I am hoping to turn into a more finished idea with your help. Firstly I don’t really want to use a weir, I know big panic with floods, I am planning to put my outlets x 2, easier to make quite?, for the sump 6-7” below the surface,27” water depth, there will also be an under substrate jet system pushing waste towards the sump outlets, I intend to drill the sump with an overflow connected direct to the house drainage so in the event of a power failure the drain down from the tank will just flow down the drain and stop once it reaches the outlets still leaving 20” of water in the tank, the tank will also have a drain straight to house drainage, one so I can set up an auto water change system and two to function as an emergency drain to stop the tank flooding. The auto water change will not be connected to the power in any way it will just run through a HMA and inline heater into the tank via a drip system 4 GPH so this would replenish some of the water lost due to power failure whilst power is off. Not sure how viable an idea this is although it does seem to be fail safe regarding leaks I think. By using this or similar system I can get 5 x turnover no problem for a lot less money. The sump will be 4ft and around 220 litres and can be built any way as it is just an old tank at present.
This may not even be possible and I may have to use weirs within the tank but this is not what I want, I equally don’t want to cause any hardship to my fish, and if it was a choice between a weir and causing problems for the fish it is a no brainer I would have to put a weir in, the display space is very important to me that it has the bare minimum in it.
I would greatly appreciate any views on any of the above any comments, constructive criticisms or ideas on if this is viable or to make it better as this needs to be right the first time.
Thanks in advance.
I was originally going to use canister filters on this new tank, as I wanted a silent system with less chance of floods than a sump and no pipe work or heaters visible in the display area, all plumbed in through the base via bulkheads with inline heaters and UV hard plumbed through canister returns. The eheim canisters I was planning on using were the 2078e or 2080, the 2080 are too tall to be able to effectively plumb anything to and from what I have read the microchip control on the 2078’s does not like anything plumbed inline and unless you run it in manual mode the flow is severely affected, I also wanted something that was easy to maintain and clean hence the pro 3’s as they have the pre filter at the top. The entire in tank plumbing was going to be hidden behind a background so nothing in display area. Also after looking at the actual flow rates of the eheims with media and head the best I was going to get out of the 2078’s was around 1000 LPH with nothing connected inline, 700LPH with inline heater, and considering the 2080 have a pump that has 100 LPH less the 2078’s I cant see them putting out anymore. I would need three to get over 3x turnover which starts making the whole thing rather expensive at about £250 per filter.
Now I know that I can get significantly more LPH and media capacity for my money by using a sump, a sump certainly fulfils the requirement of nothing in the display area. But the two other requirements may be more difficult to sort out, it must be silent or as near as and as leak proof as possible.
This is just a rough idea at the moment that I am hoping to turn into a more finished idea with your help. Firstly I don’t really want to use a weir, I know big panic with floods, I am planning to put my outlets x 2, easier to make quite?, for the sump 6-7” below the surface,27” water depth, there will also be an under substrate jet system pushing waste towards the sump outlets, I intend to drill the sump with an overflow connected direct to the house drainage so in the event of a power failure the drain down from the tank will just flow down the drain and stop once it reaches the outlets still leaving 20” of water in the tank, the tank will also have a drain straight to house drainage, one so I can set up an auto water change system and two to function as an emergency drain to stop the tank flooding. The auto water change will not be connected to the power in any way it will just run through a HMA and inline heater into the tank via a drip system 4 GPH so this would replenish some of the water lost due to power failure whilst power is off. Not sure how viable an idea this is although it does seem to be fail safe regarding leaks I think. By using this or similar system I can get 5 x turnover no problem for a lot less money. The sump will be 4ft and around 220 litres and can be built any way as it is just an old tank at present.
This may not even be possible and I may have to use weirs within the tank but this is not what I want, I equally don’t want to cause any hardship to my fish, and if it was a choice between a weir and causing problems for the fish it is a no brainer I would have to put a weir in, the display space is very important to me that it has the bare minimum in it.
I would greatly appreciate any views on any of the above any comments, constructive criticisms or ideas on if this is viable or to make it better as this needs to be right the first time.
Thanks in advance.
