Yes, greater water volume gives you greater stocking flexibity, a better environment for almost any fish and more time to react to water problems. This makes bigger tanks generally a win in most directions. However, one should not discount practical considerations: the cost, especially of the equipment, goes up sharply. The tank itself can be much harder to handle as you get into the biggest sizes. The water changes get longer and harder. The cost of water itself and various chemicals can become greater. Also, taller tanks have various disadvantages that should be understood too.
Fluval gets the best recommendations in the small internal filter class, with their Plus and U series filters. AquaClear get high marks in the HOB (hang on back) class because their media areas are open, simple and rectangular and they are relatively simple and quiet. Starting around 20 US gallons and especially as you get to 30g and past, the external cannister filters begin to make sense and they are the king of filters is many ways. Very quiet and potentially powerful, they are easy to maintain and have tremendous flexibility. The four major competitors are Eheim (at the high end), Rena, Tetratec and Fluval. There are Pros and Cons to all of these and some of these makes have more than one "line" or series of external cannister models. In the hardware section, one can find numerous discussions of the pros and cons over the years here on TFF.
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