Need help with buying new mixed reef tank setup

[jake2342]

Hi im relatively new to salt water tanks. I currently have a 30 gallon mixed reef tank with a canister filter and wave maker. I'm looking to upgrade to a 50-70 gallon tank with a protein skimmer and a more proper filtration system. Should I buy an all in one set up or buy everything individually? are sumps required?

 

[Ron Reefman]

IMHO, a 50-70g aio tank is getting near the upper limit. I have a 40g aio, but there are no fish. The tank is full of BTAs, RFAs and some zoas. And I run 2 filter socks. I think if I had fish the filter cleaning would be more like 2 or 3 times a week instead of the once a week I do now.

A good skimmer could help with the aio. I just use a very small HOB skimmer.

Sumps are not required, but they can make it easier to keep bigger tanks clean. The issue then becomes, drains and return pumps.

At one point I had over 600g of saltwater spread over 4 tanks and 2 sumps. They worked fine, but they did require regular attention on my part for maintenance. I now have 2 aio tanks. The 40g mentioned above and a 20g aio that I built and it has only LPS and SPS corals and some CUC... again, no fish. I clean filters once a week and test parameters once a week. Both tanks are doing very well.

 

[TylerHaworth]

For me a sump is a requirement, I want to hide as much equipment as possible.