drilled vs non-drilled tanks for planted aquariums

To: Aquatic-Plants at actwin_com
Subject: drilled vs non-drilled tanks for planted aquariums
From: George Booth <booth at hpmtlgb1_lvld.hp.com>
Date: Mon, 04 Nov 1996 10:38:06 -0700
In-Reply-To: Your message of "Sun, 03 Nov 1996 15:39:02 EST." <199611032039.PAA25560 at looney_actwin.com>

> From: david at joshua_medimg.emory.edu (C. David Cooke)
> Date: Sun, 3 Nov 1996 15:31:41 -0500
> 
> There wasn't a lot of information in the archives, pro or con,
> although George Booths excellent article on his SST (super show tank)
> was on a 90 "reef ready" with a sump.

Actually, the 90 was a "plain old tank" to which we added a wet/dry
filter.  I prefer undrilled tanks (with a hang-on-the-back prefilter)
for flexibility - I'm not stuck with the overflow in one place (a very
minor point).  I also have some mechanical filtering material in the
prefilter that is easy to clean and reduces maintenance on the wet/dry
itself.  Thirdly, I can completely remove the prefilter for photos and
for cleaning the tank and filter.

I think most of the rest of your questions deal with a "sump system"
vesus a "canister filter" and I think a sump has advantages over a
canister.  You can (must?) design your own plumbing, so you can set up
interesting water flow patterns. 

Wet/Dry or trickle filters do NOT drive off CO2 if they are set up
correctly. 

The redundancy of two canisters would be nice but quality cansiter
filters like Eheim rarely, if ever, fail. 

George