I've been in the fish hobby for a good dozen years or so and I used to primarily use canister filters after i got rid of my power filters. But in recent years of doing freshwater on the side of my reef tanks, I primarily use wet dry filters. They're much easier to clean, maintain, and if you build em right you can put all your extra crap in there too, carbon, heaters and whatever else you so desire. Though after reading through this section and most of the rest of the forum I've discovered that a lot of people here really like to use cannister filters and I'm curious why? They were always pretty expensive and a pain in the arse to clean. I built my wet dry filters out of rubbermaid tubs and instant ocean 6 gal buckets and some bio balls and it worked great. I put it together for next to nothing. I think the most expensive part was the bio balls. Not including the pump or the overflow box. I'm pretty set on my next tank having a built in overflow and running my sumps. What's everyone elses opinion on filtration for large freshwater fish. Or any freshwater fish for that matter.
