refugium sump,wet/dry sump, or canister?

[Sambooty]

So I'm fairly new to reefkeeping and am in a bind on what type of filtration is best to go with. Let me tell me about my tank and intentions first. Right now I'm running a 55 gallon semi reef tank and with 4 fish, 16 various crabs, 8 various snails, 2 small zoo colonies, 2 small palythoa colonies, and hairy mushroom. The Tank has been up and running 3 months now and it's been all good so far, except for calcarous type algae that grows on the glass, pain in the butt hard to scrape, but the snails seem to love it since they ate everything else.

So my filter right now isn't gonna cut it, a HOT magnum filter. I so confused on all the choices out there and what would be best. I'm really leaning on going nutz with different types of corals more so than keeping fish. I've been looking at refugium sump type systems like this one

http://www.petsolutions.com/images/400/85079409.jpg

or wet/dry filter like this one

http://www.petsolutions.com/images/400/15919000.jpg

or a canister type like this Eheim wet/dry filter

http://www.petsolutions.com/images/400/20622154.jpg

What do you guys think on my setup and what would be the best bet for my type of reef tank?

Thanks for the input and look forward to hearing on others experiences with various types of filtration.

[corbett_n]

The refugium sump is probably the best out of the three, but you don't have to have one. You can just have a lot of live rock and tons of flow. Thats what i have and my tank is doing great. Do you have skimmer yet? How about lighting?

[mg426]

How much LR do you have??if you have 1 lb/gallon you should be ok as far as filtration. A sump is as eay as getting another tank siliconing in some baffles setting up an overflow system abd thats the basics. if you want to you can make a section of your sump a refugiuma nd run a DSB with some macro algae for nitrate/pfosphate control. a skimmer is a good idea also.

[Sambooty]

Thanks for the replies I do have a skimmer, I have 55 pds. of LR and 20 pds. of live sand. I have PC for lighting 4x 65w brand new bulbs.

[papagimp]

I'd recommend a sump/refugium, about twice the amount of live rock in the tank (personal preference to have more than 1lb /gallon but that minimum in a non-overstocked tank will suffice) The lights will work for now, just be sure to purchase corals accordingly, no high light intensive stuff at all.

I would recommend a visit to the DIY forums, a sump/refugium is alot easier to build than alot of people think and a whole heck of alot cheaper than purchasing a unit prebuilt. (i spent around $40 getting a diy fuge on my 55g, works great!)