Fishkeeper Again After Many Years

[Whiplash4ever]

I just bought a 210 gallon tank yesterday. I'm supposed to get it Thursday. I have til then to figure out how this wet/dry sump filter system works. I'm getting the tank, glass canapé, two strip lights and the stand plus the kit to get me started, but I have never undertaken a tank this size before. I've always used a combo of an under-gravel and HOB filtering system. As I understand it now though, under-gravel filters are considered taboo by most, so, I'm looking at a sump and canister combo. I can figure out the canister, but how does the sump work perzactly?

 

[Tessla]

The sump will work by pumping water from the tank through filter media in the sump and back to the tank again, similar to the way a canister filter works just on a larger scale. If you go with a sump, I doubt that you'll need to use any other filtration. There are a whole bunch of different sump designs, they're often custom made. I'd actually check out the saltwater hardware section of the forums as they're much more frequently used in saltwater setups than in freshwater (I'm assuming this is a freshwater tank). Here's a bunch of topics on freshwater sumps in the freshwater hardware and DIY section as well.

Undergravel filters aren't taboo, there are just more effective options out there that will give you more substrate options.