External Overflows

[midgetwaiter]

Originally Posted by Subdued

Another question.....is it possible to have a succesful reef tank without a sump?
What i mean is what is the next best thing to a sump...like an enheim wet/dry?

If i put say two canister filters on a 70 gallon tank would that be sufficient?

You are kind of making a mistake by assuming sump == filter. The way a lot of people use sumps in reef tanks they are not really working as a filter. The good parts of a reef tank sump are like Gizmo said. Not all sumps have built in trickle filters and most people who do have a wet/dry trype of thing going on end up getting rid of them.

A filter is not a strict requirement for a reef tank, it can actually cause problems. If you are starting with a good ammount of live rock and a skimmer you won't need it. Your biological filtration happens on the surface and in the crevices of your rock and you are not going to need mech filtration because you don't (shouldn't) have many fish and your clean up crew will get to the left over food. The skimmer will get the disolved gunk for you. You can actually end up having too much crud build up in a canister over time making it impossible to control nitrate levels.

The thing you need in a reef tank is water flow, most people overlook that at first. You can acomplish water flow much better with a couple of powerheads than you can with a canister. You can also get about 3 SIEO 620s for the same price as a single Fluval 404.

So spend that money on the best skimmer you can get (for hang on the Remora is good) and a few big powerheads.