HOB filtering vs sump

[kuzco77]

I have never done a sump system before and had always thought of them as more of a salt water tank thing but I now seeing a lot of fresh water tanks with it.  I was just wondering what are the pros and cons of a sump system vs a traditional HOB system. 

[danielratti]

Hides everything and it is way easier to maintain.  It also increases water. Volume for the tank.

[Steve]

I haven't done a sump yet myself, but I know it also give you a much higher number of options for media choices, as well as more overall volume of media than a HOB does as another bonus.

[danielratti]

Plus there is more options for how much water the pump moves and with hobs not so much

[Ron]

With sumps, you'll have more of a DIY situation rather than an off-the-shelf product in most situations. I think it's great, because you can tailor the setup to what you want. There are commercial sumps that can be purchased, but the cost is much greater and there are often fewer available configurations as a result.

A sump would make sense for a display tank where you want to keep all of the equipment out of the display tank.

A sump would also make sense for cichlid tanks where it's hard to over-filter with conventional equipment. The larger the tank, the more likely this becomes the case. I say starting around 180 gallons and up, though some of the newer canister filters are quite capable (FX6 can hold >5 gallons of media, etc).