FW tank gravel vs soil/planted

in the future i would like to set up around a 50 gallons freshwater tank. this isn't a community tank. this tank will house some large messy fish(example pacus,probably won't be them but the fish will be similar)

what would be the best setup to deal with the waste.
fully planted tank or gravel which will be vacuumed weekly?

i have use plants many times before to process waste in community tanks with good results how ever i worry the fish would be producing to much waste for the plants to break down fast enough and since its planted using a gravel vacuum to remove excess waste would be hard to do.

i have never large species or predator tank before, so im not sure what to expect other then alot of waste.


edit: and yes i know pacu's are omnivores and would eat the plants that why it won't be them just use them as a judge for the waste

 

I had some pacus that were over a foot red belleys i used planted soil with amazon swords the tank was 125 there were 2 pacus and a pair of red devils

 

one other thing I ran 2 fluval 404 cannister filters and a tidepool2 sump setup using media treys.

 

i plan on running a big canister filter.

what about there poop did it break down pretty fast, or was it like your dog some how found a way to squat over the tank.

 

I never noticed a problem but i had 2 surface skimmers and a few placos

 

have you had them before Id like to add every time I turned the lights on the flipped out and rammed the glass the mantis shrimp and got nothing on the banging sound of them hitting the glass

 

no that why i kinda want to try them, although im kinda leaning toward some pictus catfish.

edit: but i don't know if i will since i just read pacus get 3 feet long. how big did yours get

 

One time I bought 2 fish tanks from the paper this was back in 99 I paid 750 for a 100 & a 125 complete setups with fish. there were like 30 different cats one I rember was the Balla Sharks. I swear they were so freaky I sold one of the tanks and made the person take all the fish my brother told me he usta have nightmares about the cat fish. If i did a fresh water I would do red devils or pacus like you were thinking

 

what was wrong with them, bala sharks look kinda crappy but i don't know how they could be scary.

 

I dont know they look like bugs maby its the wiskers No the balas were the cool ones