hob refugium with skimmer

[nick05061978]

Im new to marine tanks, ive had fw tanks with live plant for years. so my question is, am i able to just run aquatraders 14" refugium with skimmer on my 38 gal only . i have a canister on it but im getting some micro bubbles every now and again from the outlet of the can. im not sure thats good. ammonia is 0ppm nitrite is 0ppm and nitrate is btwn 5 and 10ppm. i have 45 lbs of rock and 55 lbs of live sand. the rock was 20 lbs live and 25 dry a month ago when i started the tank. i have 2 percula clowns, 3 turbo snails (that i think had babbies already) and three ricordea frags. Thanks for any info

 

[nyguardian21]

Better off just getting a HOB fuge without the skimmer, especially the ones from aquatraders. I use a cpr med HOB fuge with a CPR aeroforce 2 skimmer, has worked well for me. Skimmer pulls alot of gunk out and fuge contains all the unwanted algae confined to the fuge and out of the display tank. CPR makes one with the the fuge and aeroforce skimmer all-in-one. But be prepared to pay a pretty penny. If youre gonna have coral, ditch the canister filter as a primary filter, you could probably use it occasionally to polish the water...

 

[jgraz]

The skimmer/fuge from aquatraders is actually pretty decent for what you pay. The skimmer is passable. The fuge is no different then the CPR. For the money, worth it. For a lightly stocked LPS/softie tank it should be great. Anything more then you would want more heavy duty. You may want to retain a mechanical means of filtering though, but that's up to you. You could always get a small aquaclear.