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I'm just curious why sumps aren't frequently used on the freshwater side of the hobby. It seems that the benefits of a sump are not limited to saltwater aquariums (increase water volume, hide some equipment). It seems like a sump would be a nice improvement to a freshwater aquarium...am I missing something?

They are sometimes. Adams 150 (half dozen clown loaches, one or two random ciclids, and a catfish) runs a sump. They're very effective but since for freshwater a canister, even on that sized tank is just as effective there's usually just no need. Even a large canister on that sized SW tank wouldnt be enough.

I'm fairly sure it comes down to cost. Most tanks aren't predrilled, and when they are they're usually a bit more .
Space would be an issue as well. My tanks take up the same ammount of floor space, but since I won't be running a sump, I get two extra tanks under the main one .

^_^

One of my magazine back numbers has an article on creating a sump for freshwater and using it as a vegetable filter. Keep it lit 24 hours per day with plants such as Amazon Frogbit, Hornwort and other fast growing nitrate hoovers to manage the wastes from the main aquarium and its fishes.

I posted at length on this some time ago. The old thread is here.


Panda Catfish fan and keeper/breeder since Christmas 2002

They are alot of work especially versus just throwing a powerfilter on there. Alot of freshwater tanks don't need that kind of filtration. Some even do fine with just a sponge filter so most people don't go through the trouble. Alot of really big setups especially with messy fish like cichlids will use a sump or people with very poor tapwater may run a sump with plants to help clean the water. Saltwater tanks tend to be large, in need of very strong filtration, and with lots of equipment that aquarists would prefer to hide so sumps have become fairly standard. Most people with freshwater tanks have the opposite. Tanks under 55g are probably more common than larger tanks, they have maybe $30-$40 worth of filtraion on them, and the only other piece of equipment is a heater. No need to go through the effort (and possibly cost) of putting in a sump for that.