I would honestly recommend the BGK to anyone who has room. They are graceful, elegant animals, and always a great conversation piece.
Just remember, in case you build a wet/dry, or even most sumps, there will probably be noise. You could use soundproofing material on the inside of your stand's walls, but in my case, where the sump is next to the tank, it's a constant flowing water noise. I've gotten used to it (to the point where if there's a power outage and the noise stops, it wakes me up). The good thing about canisters, besides being almost silent, is that once they get set up, they only need maintenance like every six months. You could get an Eheim canister filter rated for your tank size, and a couple of big sponge filters, and run them on air pumps that take batteries. This way, in case of a power outage, your fish still have active filtration. Which reminds me, canister filters can become toxic after power outages, due to the oxygen in the canister running out and all the beneficial bacteria dying. After than, anaerobic bacteria take over which produce sulfur compounds. There's always some risk involved.
Wet/dry filters are great for biological filtration because the fact that the water splashes and trickles over the biological media means that the bacteria are constantly exposed to the atmosphere while wet, which allows for a LOT of oxygen exchange and more ammonia and nitrite being metabolized. Of course, in case of a prolonged power outage, your media could dry out and your bacteria die, which is why I can't stress enough why you should get a big sponge filter connected to an air pump that will switch to battery power when the power goes out.
You can get pretty inventive when building your own wet/dry. I made mine from one big rubbermaid tub, and two smaller ones. I took one of the smaller tubs and made a bunch of little holes in the bottom. In the next small tub I made slots at the bottom to let the water out, and holes so I could stick pvc pipes through to make legs. I stood the second little tub in the big tub and filled it with scrubbies, and then I sat the first little tub on top of the scrubbies and filled it with mechanical media. Then I just made pvc overflows which led to the first little tub, had the water cascade in for maximum oxygenation, and presto. But like I said, there's always noise.
Just remember, in case you build a wet/dry, or even most sumps, there will probably be noise. You could use soundproofing material on the inside of your stand's walls, but in my case, where the sump is next to the tank, it's a constant flowing water noise. I've gotten used to it (to the point where if there's a power outage and the noise stops, it wakes me up). The good thing about canisters, besides being almost silent, is that once they get set up, they only need maintenance like every six months. You could get an Eheim canister filter rated for your tank size, and a couple of big sponge filters, and run them on air pumps that take batteries. This way, in case of a power outage, your fish still have active filtration. Which reminds me, canister filters can become toxic after power outages, due to the oxygen in the canister running out and all the beneficial bacteria dying. After than, anaerobic bacteria take over which produce sulfur compounds. There's always some risk involved.
Wet/dry filters are great for biological filtration because the fact that the water splashes and trickles over the biological media means that the bacteria are constantly exposed to the atmosphere while wet, which allows for a LOT of oxygen exchange and more ammonia and nitrite being metabolized. Of course, in case of a prolonged power outage, your media could dry out and your bacteria die, which is why I can't stress enough why you should get a big sponge filter connected to an air pump that will switch to battery power when the power goes out.
You can get pretty inventive when building your own wet/dry. I made mine from one big rubbermaid tub, and two smaller ones. I took one of the smaller tubs and made a bunch of little holes in the bottom. In the next small tub I made slots at the bottom to let the water out, and holes so I could stick pvc pipes through to make legs. I stood the second little tub in the big tub and filled it with scrubbies, and then I sat the first little tub on top of the scrubbies and filled it with mechanical media. Then I just made pvc overflows which led to the first little tub, had the water cascade in for maximum oxygenation, and presto. But like I said, there's always noise.
