Seeing as I cannot afford a canister filter right now I decided to take the sand out of my 55 gal. BOY what a chore. I added some river rock instead. Looks much better...i still need to decorate and get scenery for the back so you can't see the fireplace behind it!!! Still deciding on type of fish..might just keep my discus pr in the 30 gal and put my bala, plecos and barbs in the larger tank??