I've been running my 75 gal sumpless for a couple of years now. I have a new drilled 90 gal ready to go for which I plan to have a basement sump. Not sure where you're headed, but my 75 is running fine with a Rena XP canister filter which I use to run carbon and GFO. Other than that the canister is empty, no rubble, just the empty baskets. I do have a DIY air driven skimmer though and it pulls some pretty nasty stuff from the water, so I'd recommend a skimmer if you're going to keep any number of fish. I clean out the canister every few weeks since it does collect a fair amount of grunge even without any filtration media in it. My nitrate levels were elevated somewhat for a time, but recently they've dropped to almost nil. Might be the addition of a ball of Chaeto, or my DSB is finally starting to work, dunno. In any case, none of my fish nor my BTA seem to have suffered any ill effects from the nitrate levels. I used to have all the recommended media in the canister until I read it can become a nitrate factory. Weeks after removing the filtration media the nitrate levels didn't change, so who knows.
So for just starting out with a new tank, I believe you could get it running without too many issues using the Fluval... empty and a skimmer. You can always upgrade to a sump in the future as you develop and stock the tank. If money is not an issue, then starting out with a sump is probably a good idea.
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