Ace's wife has a viper on her tank, and it looks great. You would be fine with a canister, but it would be a pain to do sps with it. Typically in canisters they use some type of biomedia, and I have heard to put live rock rubble in it's place. Personally I would choose as nature has I just had the mechanical filtration (pads) and in the other basket I filled it with carbon, and spread a thin layer of pillow batting over that before securing the lid. It worked great, but it's a mess to clean. If you are up to a rigid maintainence schedule, this tank should be perfect for you. Sumps are easier, and you could glue in an overflow chamber in a corner and do as Ross stated minus the drilling. Sumps are just easier, and you have more versatility. You could set one up in a day with the pressure locking sump baffles. Easy is better for me!