AIO or sump

[brizzo]

Look into a herbie drain setup, also known as a full siphon drain. Requires 3 holes drilled; main drain, backup drain, and return.

I'm a big fan of all-in-one tanks. I have a 28g nanocube drilled with a sump

If you're going to setup a 50g tank, you may as well setup a real sized sump. 20-30 gallons with a refugium section.

[BlueAbyss]

I agree with nazerine (welcome back, BTW ), if you want to do a sump definitely look into a herbie style drain. Durso's can be good too, but seem more fiddly IMO.

AIO is nice because you don't have to worry about plumbing as much, but it's sort of wasted on a tank of that size... you'll likely want to have a decent bioload (I would want a number of medium sized fish if I had a 50 gallon) and that will require a good skimmer which would be a pain to make space for in an AIO set-up. Also, if noise is a consideration things like skimmers are pretty noisy and you'll want to enclose that in a cabinet of some sort, a sump seems like the best option.

Just on the offhand what are the dimensions of the tank?

[pirate]

36" l x 16" d x 20" h. Glass is approx 1/4 thick.
It's a Hagen tank with a store bought tank. It's home now. Inside ofthe stand the space is as follows 26.5" long 14" deep and 24" high. I was leaning towards drilling it when I got it but then thought it would make a really neat AIO but not sure what to do. Since I have never drilled glass befor and don't have a bit to do it with, it scares me just a bit. AIO is just silcone I can do that. But i'm still on the fence. Any other opinions out there! 2 for drilling

[mark]

When started this hobby jumped in with a 75g DAS AIO. Had a small compartment in the corner (~8x16") for the overflow, skimmer and pump return. Quiet as all pumps submerged and really no complaints other than pump return section sort small so would need topping up every few day or blowing bubbles.

Never really considered converting to put a sump under the display as couldn't see any great advantage other that increased size of display and volume of water plus hiding the heater. Did though think a basement sump directly below made more sense from the convenience factor.

Think AIO okay for small tank.

[BlueAbyss]

It all depends on what you want. Depending on how you do the AIO, you'll lose probably 6" of space at the end of the tank, making the display area 30 x 16 x 20. IF you feel you can afford the loss of display space, go for the AIO simply because it's easier. If you feel you need those 6", go for a sump. If you do an AIO, use automotive window tint to hide the AIO area somewhat, so the equipment isn't as easily seen.

[pirate]

Well I started to play around with the tank and I think I will be going with a sump, I don't really want to lose that much of the tank. So now the next question is how big of a hole do I need to drill? I think I want to gowith a herby type drain. How big of a sump should I go for? ( what firs inside of the stand or somehjng else?) how big of a return pump? Should I drill it my self or is there anyone in Calgary that you guys would recomend? It is an older tank if that makes a difference. Or should I do one of those siphone type drain boxs? Any help is good help.
Thanks

[mark]

just put this up in another post but here's Reefjunkie's Herbie, doesn't take up a lot of space if you want to drill the back.