sump or canaster?

Hi everyone!
As some of you have seen i have an 1.2m comunity tank but have a stupid little power head filter in there that im not hapy with.
Im doing over the tank next month and wil then have a few blue and pearl gourami's maybe some dwarfs, 5 yoyo loaches a pair of rams and some diferent tetra's.

I cant deside if i should try and make my own sumo out of a spare 3ft tank or i should buy a canister filter? i don't want somthing with a very heavy waterflow as i dont wana upset the plants and i realy wan't to go into plants alot more.

I can get a nice canister filter for R780 and i'm willing to pay that just want to know what you guys think is best?

There is also the option of a cling on filter with a little water fall but thats R1300! is it worth it? there is also some of that cling on filters for like R300 but wil it work?

Please give youre imput!
All of the Best!
Schalk

 

i would choose sump,you can adjust the water flow and you can DIY which is a lot of fun.

 

I agree with Dasher...

 

I would also say sump...

It gives you allot more volume at the end of the day

 

Schalk
As the forum members we are not factoring all your circumstances
Do sum research as well as how much you willing to spend.
Then post some of your questions to make the final decision

 

Schalk,

You say you have a 3 ft spare... but you didn't tell us the volume of your main tank? This would also make an impact on what people would recommend. I mean, if your main tank is only 50litres, then I really would not stress about a sump, or a canister for that matter.

I would suggest going for the sump if you prepared to go the whole DIY route with regards to the overflow pipe. Sumps will increase the volume of your tank by the amount of water in the sump, and are in my opinion a lot easier to keep clean, as well as work better.

The canister, if rated for your volume of water, will also work very well. It all depends on how handy you are, and if you want to go the route of setting up the sump, or just go "plug and play" with a canister.

If you want to go the sump route, do a LOT of research. There a a lot of good threads here in TASA alone that will get you off on the right track.

Can I also make a suggestion, send Dolphin a PM, and ask him how he would recommend setting up a sump. He has some interesting ideas on that too.