I am getting familiar with my wife's Canon XTi and thought these came out rather well. My sailfin seemed shocked that I was able to figure out the camera.
Having a basement for the sump and other goodies has to be considered "cheating". I really like having an extra 150 gal or so of "support" water. I had to beef the heaters up to 2x500 watts due to the basement temp. I plan to eventually tie another tank into the system and oversized for that reason.