Sump, premade or DIY? pump recommendations welcome

[agrasyuk]

While I'm building the stand for my new 125 gallon I'm researching the rest of the equipment . it will be a FW community and maybe if I'm brave a discus tank.

The tank came with aquaclear sump (no media though). I am debating whether to use that or have a custom sump inside 30gal I have laying around. Pluses to a custom sump I see is more water capacity and perhaps room for more plants. I'm also not sure if I can house a heater in the acrylic aquaclear. Which one would you use?

And I'm stuck in the debating loop as far as pump. Will the Eihem compact 3000 provide enough flow at 4ft head for 125tank or do I have to spring up extra cash for 5000 and throttle some flow ?

Thank you !

 

[agrasyuk]

Well I think pump research is done. Tested harbor freight 620GPH pump and I think eiheim 3000 will be plenty of flow (the somewhat noisy HF pump will be for water transfers or standby.

And now to the heater. I have a 150w non pro aqueon in my 55gal and can't say anything bad, so naturally I was thinking a pair of those in 300w flavour to put in sump, cheap enough. But then looked at titanium units, read good things about catalina and now wonder whether to use their 500W model. Pair of aqueons looks better as far as redundancy in case of failure, but single unit is probably more precisely controlled and efficient. And then I see those finnex digitally controlled tubes...

you Thoughts?