Upsizing

[Dam777]

I will be upsizing my current 90gal to a 125gal tall. I am currently running 2 AC110's and want some advice on filtration for the new tank. Was thinking of just adding another 110 or the new Big Block filter advertised on this site. My other option is ordering the tank with a sump from Glasscages. Just looking for some feedback from experience what your suggestions would be. Pro's n cons? Thx

[Matt Rose]

Whilst at 125gal a sump is not necessary, it’s definitely a winner in
My opinion it not only increases your water volume drastically and reduces the need for such frequent and large water changes but can also House something like Pathos plants which will suck a large amount of the nitrates out of the water. Plus let’s be honest, once you have the ‘bug’ you are only going to want more tanks or an even bigger tank in years to come. The sump will help with that and if a decent size sump you of 30 gal upwards then it will happily support much much larger tanks in the future. Plus on electricity just the one pump of say 40w not 3 x 40w 110’s.

[14Discus]

IMHO......a sump would be great. I have a sump, two hobs, and a canister w my 75g tank. I love a multi-pronged approach to filtration and since I have a heavy bio load, such filtration is needed.
My sump has a bio balls/ceramic section, a refugium w water sprite growing like weeds, and a section for my algae scrubber. When I do WCs, I turn off the hobs, but leave the sump going. Hobs are great for aerobic action on NH3 and NO2 along w mechanical filtration. The sump does some of this too w the sock and bio balls/ceramic section, but the sump really serves to bring down the NO3 Nitrates.....hence the refugium and algae scrubber. The FX4 canister does mechanical some, and some aerobic, but is full of biohome media for anaerobic bacterial action. Lastly, having more than a single filter allows for a filter failure wo losing all the beneficial bacteria. Should one filter fail, there are others to keep things in check until the next day when I notice the failure. There are others who will disagree w me, but I thought I’d share what has been working great for me. The way I think of it is that one cannot really ever over filtrate. Btw.....water current is managed with diffusers, foam, and custom outlet pipes. You are wise to consider all this in the planning stage.