Terrible Advice Tuesdays: Sumps are outdated technology. A canister filter is a far superior method of filtration over a sump. The rest of the story: Some things make me want to vomit and terrible advice like this definitely makes my stomach turn. Lets look at some basic facts first: - A canister filter can act as a mechanical, biological or chemical filter depending on what type of media you put in it. - A sump can also act as a mechanical, biological or chemical filter. At this point it appears that a sump is just as good as a canister filter. Looks can be deceiving though and digger deeper, heres where a sump starts to pull ahead: A sump adds water volume to your system and everyone knows a larger system is more stable than a smaller one. While it is true that a canister filter does add some water volume to your system, it wont add near the volume that a sump will. Advantage: Sump A sump can also house a protein skimmer to remove waste from you tank. You cant add a skimmer to a canister filter no matter how hard you try. Advantage: Sump A sump also houses other unsightly equipment such as heaters, pumps, probes, etc. If you have a sump, these pieces of equipment will be out of sight leaving you to enjoy the uncluttered look of your display tank. Advantage: Sump Heres a big reason I prefer sumps: with a sump, youll see detritus building up, which is a sign you need to do a water change. And when you do that water change, you can easily suck out the detritus. Less detritus means less nutrient sources which will help keep things like algae out of your tank. Does a canister filter also collect detritus? Absolutely! But you wont see that detritus and if something is out of sight, its likely out of mind. Unless you clean that canister filter frequently - as in weekly - then it will collect detritus and cause issues. Advantage: Sump Bottom line: Keep the sump and sell the canister filter to some freshwater person. Oh, buy some frags with the money you made! P.S. There are successful saltwater tanks run off canister filters and youll more utility out of a sump. Keep the sumps and NOT the canister filter.
Posted on: Tue, 01 Jul 2014 12:30:01 +0000
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