No no. Any and all help is much appreciated. Especially given my circumstances.
And I would actually be starting out with a 12" Piraya not a baby.
Two Fluval FX6's or Custom Sump
- Thread starter The-Almighty-Zugs
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- fluval fx6 fx6 sump sump vs fx6
And I would actually be starting out with a 12" Piraya not a baby.
I started with HOB overflows... I would highly reccomend skipping that whole adventure and just drill the tank. HOB overflows do work... a conventional drilled overflow is so much less trouble.
We've already established he's out of his depth regarding DIY. And even if he did drill his tank he's also a little overwhelmed with the whole sump thing. I think he needs to do what he is comfortable with, and at this moment I think cannisters/HOB's may be the way forward. As he gets more experience then maybe he can move it up a notch.
I'd get two, and yes that's plenty of filtration. The tank you are getting is 6' long, so you can have intakes/returns and both ends and get good circulation throughout the tank. Once it's cycled, you won't read ammonia or nitrite as long as you stay on top of water changes. I do 75-80% weekly.
If you're just running the Fluvals, then you may want to consider adding aeration. It would be pretty easy to set up an air pump with an air stone in each corner, and the tank would be plenty oxygenated.
FX-6 maintenance isn't that bad. Just don't put anything in it that requires being changed like filter floss, carbon, purigen etc. I have bio media in the bottom 2.5 baskets, and the very top I have Bio-Foam. It's very low maintenance.
i dont get why you need to be handy? there is nothing complicated about a sump. if you can open an FX6 and clean it and replace the impellers and motor when they fail (witch they will) you can do a sump. it is easier if you have a chance go with the sump! what are the pros to a canister filter? what are you afraid of with the sump? if the tank is set up for it it cant get easer. go carry a 5 gallon bucket around your house and see if you want to do that every time you have to clean your filter. and the tank looks so much better without all the heaters and other things in the tank.
I like sumps and here is the big reason.
If you buy a canister filter from any manufacturer you will eventually need their spare parts which will not be readily available at your local fish store.
If you have a sump with a 1 inch pipe you can put any 1" pump up on there.
If you use low restriction Plumbing designs you can achieve 1000 gallons per hour from a very inexpensive pump. Keeping a spare pump on hand is not expensive.
This is all a matter of how willing you are to educate yourself, and your personal risk tolerance.
Cleaning a sump is very easy if you have two hoses.
If you buy a canister filter from any manufacturer you will eventually need their spare parts which will not be readily available at your local fish store.
If you have a sump with a 1 inch pipe you can put any 1" pump up on there.
If you use low restriction Plumbing designs you can achieve 1000 gallons per hour from a very inexpensive pump. Keeping a spare pump on hand is not expensive.
This is all a matter of how willing you are to educate yourself, and your personal risk tolerance.
Cleaning a sump is very easy if you have two hoses.
Dont use a hob overflow box. They are well known for their ability to flood ones house. The main problem is that when a power outage should occur for long enough to drain the main tank down past the box, the siphon will break and the overflow will stop draining. Once the power comes back on and the return pump starts pumping again, the sump will empty into the main tank and whatever doesnt fit will spill over the top. If youre not around to manually prime the box or cut the pump off you'll have a lot of water on your floor.
I never had this happen . . . more than about ten times . . .figuring out how to run a sump on siphons.
You need both an internal and external "box".
Eventually I figured that with any siphon to sump design, you had to balance the water that could drain with the sump space available, keep the siphon ends submerged 24/7/375 and have a big enough siphon or siphons to never fail from a mystery snail clog or random air bubbles.
Also I make sure my pumps have a bypass on the outflow pipe, in the sump, which circulates water in the sump and this keeps the pump from burning up dry even when the sump level is too low to lift water to the main tank. This prevents the tank from overflow. If the siphons quit or clog, the tank will fill up, but by controlling the sump level in relation to the pump, the return pipe pressure just falls off before the tank overflows. the pump will run in the sump OK until you fix the problem.
The same thing happens if you forget to add make-up water. The tank quits running but the sump does not, and all your bacteria stay alive.
My two 55 g tanks run with siphons, while the 75g is bottom-drilled and the 125 is back-drilled twice.
Siphons are not as reliable as a drilled tank, but they don't have to be dangerous once you know the system
I think there is a good chance he might be better off with a canister. Then again he might decide that he is up for putting together a sump. It is not my call to make and really not your call either. I just try to present the pro/cons of each system and let him make the call of what he is most comfortable with. I believe he is looking for an education of what are the strong points and weaknesses of each approach, not someone to make a decision for him.... but I could be wrong.
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