Hello there, I am looking at starting a freshwater community tank using the bow-fronted trigon 190 litre and have had a poke around this and other sites for tips and advice (thanks for some excellent FAQ btw – very helpful). My question is this; the above tank comes bundled with a 600 l/h pump/filter that sits inside the tank. I was wondering whether it would be worth spending a few quid more and buying an external filter with a larger l/h capacity.
Initially my reasoning for doing this were purely cosmetic (I would prefer the tank to be as free as possible from unnecessary clutter, more room for the fish or ‘landscaping’ items like rocks/wood) but I wonder whether the additional capacity that external pumps seem to offer (plus the fact they can be maintained without the need to disturb the tank) would have a positive benefit on the water quality.
Any advice would be gratefully received, also if anyone could recommend a pump/filter that would suit my purposes then that would be great.
Initially my reasoning for doing this were purely cosmetic (I would prefer the tank to be as free as possible from unnecessary clutter, more room for the fish or ‘landscaping’ items like rocks/wood) but I wonder whether the additional capacity that external pumps seem to offer (plus the fact they can be maintained without the need to disturb the tank) would have a positive benefit on the water quality.
Any advice would be gratefully received, also if anyone could recommend a pump/filter that would suit my purposes then that would be great.
I removed the Juwel filter from my Vision 180 a few months ago and am now running with an Eheim 2224. It's dream to maintain and water quality is much improved. You can of course leave in your Juwel filter, but to me that defeats the object a bit as you still have to maintain it on a much more regular basis than the external (and is just not pretty to look at) 
