Pros and cons on sump or no sump

[Chefstar]

Hey guys I?m looking into getting the waterbox 50.3 AIO or the 70.3 has a sump. What?s the pros and cons of have a sump compared to the all in one with the sump built into the back ?

 

[marrone]

Pro for a sump:
1. Can set it up the way you want, Refug, Skimmer, LR.
2. You can put in whatever skimmer that you want. So if you want a real bigger skimmer you can add one.
3. You can add things easily, like a reactor, carbon, poly filters,etc.
4. You can put things like fish and corals in the sump if need be.
5. Good area for dosing.
6. You can put in a filter sock to have remove waste and things in the water.
7. You can do you water changes just by removing water from the sump.
8. You can put your LR in the sump, which means you don't need as much in the MT, which lets you put in more corals and stuff.
9. Gives you more water volume.



Cons for a Sump
1. You need to plumb the system and you can get leaks from the bulkheads.
2. Sump can leak, at which point you need to either fix it or replace it.
3. A power outage could cause a flood if you don't have it setup correctly.
4. Need to have a top off, otherwise the sump could run dry and you could burn out the pump. Also the top off could mess up an dump a ton of water into you sump/tank.
5. Always a chance of a flood.



All in One built into the back:
Cons
1. The equipment that comes with it, like a skimmer or pump, mayn't be the best.
2. You mayn't be able to get to the back if a fish or something gets into it or you need to change out things.

Pros:
1. Usually easy to use and is just plug and play.
2. Since it's connected the chance of a flood isn't as great, or mayn't exist.


Generally it's better to have a sump but if you live in an apartment building you need to worry about flooding, so an all in one would be a better thing.