Hello anybody, I'm brand new to this fascinating hobby although I've kept tropicals years ago. What I would really like to find out if possible is whether a sump filter type set-up would be better than an external canister type set-up if I want to set up a 4'x24"x18" reef tank to keep fish, inverts and soft coral. If a sump system is better then would you know where I could buy a sump please.

make one yaself dave,usea 2ft-3ft tank, add some baffles[dividers]whack ya skimmer/heater/return pump in there along with some cheato+ caulerpia jobs a goodun

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yeah telboys spot on, you can buy one pre made but it'll cost you a bit.

easy to make one yourself and will be just as good, if not better

Defo use a sump at the least it holds all the unsightly equipment, but I feel its better filtration and easier maintenance. I would also say make one, buy a cheap tank that will fit in your cabinet below your main tank go to the glaziers and order some glass for dividers. If your mind is boggled go to your marine stockest and ask to see there sumps in use and ask questions. I have always used them and made my own.

Thanks Will for the reply. Thought a sump would be better, good idea about buying a tank to fit into the cabinet and divide it off. Have you anymore info such as how many dividers/chambers I need and what medium I would use. I supose the dividers need to be progressivly shorter to allow the water to overflow into the next chamber. Have you any dimensions for that?
Dave.

Thanks Telboy and Pete for the replys. Will investigate further.

Not the clearest sump picture, but this should give you an idea... The water would enter on the top right, it goes under 1 baffle (divider), over the next, under again...


This is it full of media, ideally you want a filter sock on the incoming pipe so it catches the waste, or just some big sponges to catch all the waste... But yeah anything to stop that waste getting into the actual media...
So mine goes through sponges, onto bio balls, through scrubbies (get them super cheap from pound shop) then through some larvae rock (cheap from LFS) then through some more scrubbies and sponges... Mine is a bit OTT but thats cos I had it set up then needed established media so threw some of that in also.


I think if you had sponges or a filter sock to catch the crap... then one section of scrubbies and another of more sponges, you'd be good to go.

Best thing about sump use is you can hide your heaters, thermometers and all that in there, so the tank is purely fish and plants

Thanks Pete for the pics, gradually getting the idea. Im doing a lot of reading up at the moment and trying to weigh up the pro's and con's over the different filtering systems etc. Im not going to rush into it as I want to make sure that what I end up with will be the system I will mainly stick with. Still thinking about a Fluvel canister filter system, what du think?

i use a fluval 405 on my marine rio 125 filled with alfagrog + live rock rubble seems to work a treat, although if i had the space in cabinet id go for a sump,just to put all the bits n bobs in,on my 30l nano i use a eheim 2213 not as good as the 405, on the 6x2x2 trop i have a fluval fx5,ok but dont rate em that much but given the choice id go for sumps everytime

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hi chaps,
wondered if ya can give me some advice im just starting up my 1st marine 6 x 2 x 18 and would like to run a sump underneath is this poss if you tank is not drilled i was told you could run it on like a syphon from tank to sump but its very difficult controllingthe flow rate with the sump pump ie to much entering sump will flood to little will go dry any ideas
many thanks