Which canister or should I sump it?

[captmicha]

I think I don't have the energy to DIY at this point. I might just suck it up and buy a filter.

65 gallon high with three female Rainbow Cichlids and three common (?) Ancistrus.

I don't think I'm going to be able to put these cichlids in a larger tank like I was planning, so I need to step up the filtration to cut down on my work.

It's planted, medium lighting (it's diy so I don't know more specs than that), heated, and there's very little space on top and below it to hide a filter, but I think I could stash one on the side next to the tank as long as it's not noisy and doesn't poke out. So a waterfall one in plastic drawers is unlikely.

This is supposed to be a show tank, so should look nice/not too big to hide.

I'd like to do a water change only every couple of weeks, if I can get it down to that.

I don't really care about water polishing or chemical. Biological filtration and some mechanical are my chief concerns.

 

[jonclark96]

What are you using to filter it now? In my opinion, adding additional biological filtration won't "help" with water change frequency. Once your beneficial bacteria culture in the tank is robust enough to convert the waste in the tank to nitrate, "more capacity" won't do much of anything. Water changes remove the nitrates.

The plants will help use the nitrates. It doesn't appear that you are heavily stocked. I would think that bi-weekly water changes would be sufficient. The only real way to tell is to check nitrate levels after a couple weeks and see where they are.