150gal question

[sharkbait9]

I have a 150 gallon glass tank its not set up with "drains thru" the bottom i really don't like that concept any way, always like the canister filters. in all honesty just don't understand the whole deal second no offense to the real keepers but its not very astatically pleasing with all the lines and sumps and drains and time. When I did have the tank up and running I was using three canister filters (fluvial) bio wheel and protein skimmer and never had any problems with levels and fish kills or “new tank dieses” granted it was fish only tank with live rock out the wa-zoo. The only difference I find now is that the lighting has come a long way and my protein skimmer is way out dated and my fluvials were beat up pretty bad to the point that the magnets crumbled in my hand when I took them apart to clean fix so I bought two new cascade 1000 filters and they seem to really move more water then my fluvial did when they were new. So I guess my questions are what is that sump thingy all about and is it really worth the hassle and does any one run a system like I had and will have running once again? As to the lighting I can not see spend the money for some of these lighting systems for a tank that’s pretty much going to be a fish tank with maybe some type of shrooms and maybe some low light inverts. I personally like the corallife lunar aqualight system I’ll probably get two sets to run and for what I can read and am told for the route I wanna go that system is fine plus some. Again this tank is mostly fish with some inverts to add some aquascaping (do they sill call it aquascaping). So just go ahead and throw your ideas out at me and lets see what sticks.
Thanks to all who rely with question related answers

 

[jumpfrog]

The good news is that you can still go with a sump system. You just need a hang on the back overflow and many prepackaged sumps come with them. In reality, a well designed sump system will have less showing that the cannister, hang on system you were/can use. One overflow in the back of the tank, water drains into the sump. Heater, skimmer, and return pump back into the system. With all the LR you have you don't need extra biological filtration in the sump. With fish only you don't have powerhead requirements to help the corals.
I can't see a drawback other than the expense. As for lighting. You're only concerned about how the tank looks to you. The fish and mushrooms don't care. If you want it brigher than go for it. Remember too that the color of the bulb, 10k 12k 20k acticnic will all affect how your tank looks.
Hope that was of some help.
Good Luck!

 

[lion_crazz]

Well, I honestly think you see less with a sump system, but that is me. It just seems that you are able to hide all of your equipment, such as heater and skimmer, in the sump if you have one, and it allows you to just use one sourse of filtration, as opposed to three different cannisters.
I like the Corallife light fixtures, so you are off to a good start there.
As far as skimmer, I would recommend getting an ETSS model for your tank.

 

[jupoc911]

i have no sump on my 55 and have no sump on my soon to be 75. i run 2 skimmers and 1 penguin 350. i have 2 maxijet 1200's for my power heads. here is a pic of my tank.