I am going to be moving my 2 oscars, convict, firemouth and 2 plecos to a 125g aquarium, but can't decide what filtration to use. Would it be better for me to construct my own sump with filter media, planted refugium equipted with a used pump or to use the aquaclear 110 I have and adding another additional one for the other end of the aquarium?
Sump Refugium vs Overhang Mechanical Filter
- Thread starter tbradley97
- Start date
I'm just worried about the noise and whether the Sump will be able to clean the amount of mechanical waste these fish produce.
tbradley97;4989024; said:
Depends on the way you build it They can sound like your sleeping next to Niagara, or they can be so quite you run over thinking you forgot to turn it on.
A sump can clean the water just as good or better then any other filter. They make 25 micron filter socks, you wont get any lower then that unless you get some custom filter. Exuding diatom filters of course as they are not normal filters
Also they can be cleaned much eaiser, and without shutting down your filtration. They can keep your bacteria alive longer during power outages and they let you hide all the things in your tank in the sump.
Now the same can be said for an over head filter, but it can be harder to clean depending on how much clearance from the ceiling you have.
O man do I have a video for you then. My tank has a canister and OHF the only noise is the vibration from the pumps. My canister is louder, granted its an older 403 but its louder then my pumps. I suspect when I switch my pumps from being hard plumbed to using hoses the vibration will be elimination, as I have them sitting on damping pads so the vibration is actually transmitted through the pvc to the tank.
First of all keep the AC110. Good idea to run redundant filtration. That AC110 will work great in tandem with another filter, whether it be another AC110, sump or canister. As far as what your choice should be, it's going to boil down to personal taste more then what most effective.
Sumps are a good choice as they can be very quiet, low cost, and effective mech filters. They can also be very noisy, expensive and poor mech filters. Which you end up with is dependant on you. Are you creative, are you willing to do a fair amount of research, trial and error? If so then a DIY sump may be for you.
If you are just looking for plug and play, then maybe a canister would be a better choice and they are a much better value then buying a manufactured, sump, overflow, return pump set up.
A pair of AC110s will effectively filter a moderately stocked 125g tank. I have done this, though it did require weekly 50% W/Cs and I would clean one of the two AC110s every week.
Sumps are a good choice as they can be very quiet, low cost, and effective mech filters. They can also be very noisy, expensive and poor mech filters. Which you end up with is dependant on you. Are you creative, are you willing to do a fair amount of research, trial and error? If so then a DIY sump may be for you.
If you are just looking for plug and play, then maybe a canister would be a better choice and they are a much better value then buying a manufactured, sump, overflow, return pump set up.
A pair of AC110s will effectively filter a moderately stocked 125g tank. I have done this, though it did require weekly 50% W/Cs and I would clean one of the two AC110s every week.