I used a hot magnum in my 20 for 4 years. My tank was great. No issues what so ever related to it's use. It was a pain to maintain a HOB canister so I removed it.

I ran carbon and foam only. Which was changed monthly.

I am now adding a Rena xp1 to replace my not-so-reliable-during-blackouts aqua clear.

If you clean it monthly, you will be fine.

Avoid fluval entirely. A nightmare to service. And it needs priming manually. Junk.

Rena is self priming and easy to maintain.

http://i488.photobucket.com/albums/r...k/IMG_2026.jpg
Thought I would attach a photo of my tank as the tank you are describing is pretty much this one - 46g with hang on Remora skimmer with the in-tank skimmer box. I used to run a Rena cannister but it started to leak and by the time the replacement part was in I had scrapped it - total PITA to clean. I have 50 lbs of live rock with various softies that are easy to maintain (I don't have a lot of light - 96w 50/50 PC) and I do a 25% water change every two weeks. I don't have a glass top and the lights are on legs, not hanging above. I think if you can swing a sump it is easier and takes all the equipment out of your tank. But if you don't this is pretty much what it's going to look like and I think you need to keep it FOWLR with softies IMO. Trying to run a full reef with the lighting that is required is going to be more trouble than it's worth IMO.

That's wishful thinking imo. You would need to clean it out 1-2 times per week. With a sump you can change out the media or the sock quickly and easily. Removing the canister to clean it is time consuming and a pain in the neck.

I run a Fluval 405 on my 33 gal reef. It is stuffed with biomax only. I clean it out every month or so. I have never had any issues with Nitrates or algae. Running for over a year now.

I am not debating that a sump may be a better option if it possible to set one up. I personally don't like the noise and hassle.

I am upgrading now to a 65 gal reef and I will not be using a canister, just 2 Koralia powerheads, 2 Aquaclear 70 HOB refugiums and a Tunze 9006 skimmer

In all honesty, with having tanks with a sump and a canister filter running atm, the filtered tank is much quieter. As I said in my first post, I clean the canister every 2 weeks with a water change, have 0 nitrates and phosphates and my tank looks really good. I run carbon, ammonia and rowaphos in it all the time. Yes it does need to be primed when hooked back up, but that takes 10 seconds. I'm just starting with a sump system and can't speak to the maintenance yet but it takes me maybe 1/2 hour every two weeks to maintain and clean everything. I've had more issues with the skimmer than I've had with the canister. I had a HOB refugium going as well and that drove me crazy, due to the water level needed to maintain the skimmer, there was too much of a gap, so I had constant water running with bubbles. Its been off for over a month now and still no issues. As the tank has matured, I find its doing more on its own with a bit of assistance from me. Its not even running a skimmer now and the tank is actually cleaner. That said, there are only 6 small fish, so low bioload.

A noisy sump or overflow is simply caused by design flaws. My sump and overflow are absolutely silent.

my sumps really quite too, just my return pump needs some sound dampening, I havent used a canister on saltwater before, and dont see a huge problem with it a side from cleaning. I have one on my FW tank, and its awesome for filtration, but takes 20 minutes to clean at least

Oh yea I forgot to mention (and since you cant edit=more thread congestion)... I am definately pro-sump. I love mine. Life is easier.

But.... if a canister is the only option at this time, it can be successful. As mine was.... and will be again once I set up the rena on my 20. :wink:

Agreed! It's my first sump and still figuring things out, tweaking etc. I wanted to do a sump on the 55 but the stand was too small and the canister worked. I knew I wanted a sump on a larger tank, right now it's the return pump that's noisy! Everything else is good!

Thanks again to everyone for your advice and opinions, feeling a lot more comfortable now with this new venture. Cheers.
Mods would you please close this now. Thanks