Are there advantages of a wet/dry sump to a canister filter? I know both are flexible with media but what about the quality of filtration?
Comes down to personal preference. Theoretically, a w/d has a massive advantage on a canister for bio capacity. Realistically, taking advantage of that capacity doesn't make much sense - If you REALLY need 50gal of bio media for a 100gal tank, you'll be doing water changes every few hours. In terms of practicality, a canister is king. I built several iterations of wet dry sumps for my 200gal setup, and at the end of several months, I wound up going with an FX5 and never looking back. Sumps are noisy, energy inefficient, and unless you have yours somewhere other than under the tank, a PITA to clean. If you're looking to tinker and enjoy farting around with your filtration, a Sump is great, but if you're looking for low maintenance, low noise, low evap, low power consumption and so on, the Canister is the way to go.
Right... but why would you use a w/d for any reason other than it's increased biological capacity? Unless you want a sump to put your heaters in or a fuge or some other valid reason. My point was that a w/d has tonds of bio capacity, but 99% of applications do not use this capacity - they just underpopulate a larger volume of media. a couple of bags of aragonite are all the media I need to filter my 200gal tank, along with whatever bacteria is growing in the tank, so what would I gain by having 5gal of media?I'm not sure I understand your statement when referencing
"If you REALLY need 50gal of bio media for a 100gal tank, you'll be doing water changes every few hours. "
a sump may have a greater capacity for bio media. but it depends on the set up.
I've debated this at length in other threads and some people refuse to believe me, but for the same flow, a sump is less energy efficient than a canister, no matter what your flow is. Canister pumps are mag driven too, you still have to put the energy into the water. If you're moving MORE water, you're using even more energy with a sump.energy efficiency is relative to the pump.. the sump can be fitted with a large pump..they are also mag driven and will move a lot more water than a cannister. with a good design you may only need one sump.
Right I missed the extra water capacity. WRT the plants though, that's not part of a basic w/d, that's a plant scrubber.an extra added benefit.. water capacity.
I run a 75 with a 30 g sump(really only adding about 15-20 more gallons). the extra volume allows more water to the volume of the tank = stability.
the sump can also be set up with plants which will help with nitrate take up.
This is true... in my experience, all the wet dry's I've built, no matter how carefully I design the standpipe, seem to be noisier than I like though. Could be I just haven't found the right formula yet, but then again there are threads every day asking for help with noisy overflows.they are a bit more noisy tho the gurgling from the over flow in a drilled tank can be greatly reduced with the addition of a stand pipe.
Ehhhhhh, there are quiet ones and there are LOUD ones. Choosing carefully is important here. You're right it's possible to get a quiet pump, I've had bad experiences, but I was using Q1 pumps, which apparently, Ironically, are known for noise issues.the large pump that run the sumps are actually pretty quiet. it really all boils down to personal choices.
Central filtration is another good point. I am not sure the OP was concerned with this, but you're right on that front. Gotta go to a pretty large tank before canisters aren't an option, like 500gl+. For my 600 I'm going with an in tank wet filter.Nobody bothered to mention that sumps can be used to filter multiple tanks- ie central filtration.
Also, for really large tanks, a canister is not often an option.
50 gallons of bio-media? I never heard of that, please explain as I don't understand.Comes down to personal preference. Theoretically, a w/d has a massive advantage on a canister for bio capacity. Realistically, taking advantage of that capacity doesn't make much sense - If you REALLY need 50gal of bio media for a 100gal tank, you'll be doing water changes every few hours. In terms of practicality, a canister is king. I built several iterations of wet dry sumps for my 200gal setup, and at the end of several months, I wound up going with an FX5 and never looking back. Sumps are noisy, energy inefficient, and unless you have yours somewhere other than under the tank, a PITA to clean. If you're looking to tinker and enjoy farting around with your filtration, a Sump is great, but if you're looking for low maintenance, low noise, low evap, low power consumption and so on, the Canister is the way to go.