6 foot tank with sump or canister filter

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redtailshark1

Gambusia
MFK Member
Nov 6, 2009
472
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16
Australia
I have a 6x2x2 tank that has a 2.5 foot sump that is only running at 528 gallons per hour and has 15 fish that grow to around 6 inches and I would like to add some more stock later on in the future.

So should I upgrade my sump and pump

or

Buy one large canister filter

or

Buy a few smaller canister filters (like buy 3 of these)
http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/160654255675?ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1438.l2649

It would be good to use a canister so I can get rid of the pvc overflow because it is somewhat noisy.
 
Not sure what type noise the sump is making, but there are ways to quiet the noise of the sumps some what. I would keep the sump and add a canister. Use the sump strickly for Bio filtration and a canister for mechnical filtration. Though two of those canister would do the job and quiet the tank down greatly.
 
an FX5 would be good if you want to fund it
Id rather run several small canisters that are easy to clean when it is that time again, I would do 1 filter per month (so each canister gets cleaned every 3 months)

+ there is less to worry about when I am not home for the weekend with canisters
 
I have that exact filter. Here's my take on it. Does it work well?. IMO yes, even the uv seems to work. Was it cost effective. Yes, lots of bank for the buck. Other than the spray bar and intake (which are junk) it's a pretty well built filter with decent media space and flow. Do I look foward to doing maintenence on it? Absolutely not. No handles and it's not the easiest filter to get ahold of. Even picking it up from the bottom causes it to leak out the top when moving it. And it's heavy and needs to be filled ro work, regardless of how it's supposed to prime. Lots of water to pick up and move.

It's a good filter but my xp's are about 100 times easier to clean, use half the power and cost about 20 more.

But if I had that tank, Id run a 55 gallon for my sump with something like a q1 6000. With media you'd spend about 200 bucks total for around 1000-1200 gph depending on how you plumb it. Same price as the fx5 with double the flow at least 5 times the capacity and if you ran socks maintenence would take about 2 minutes a week. Herbie style overflows to silence the system.
 
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