75 gallon Fish Only (period)--2 Aquaclear HOBs or a Wet-Dry (AKA trickle sump). Keeping cheap, tough fish (e.g damsels, clowns)

[dascyllus58]

Hi
Kept a 30 gallon FO tank years ago with some damsels, UG filter and Aquaclear 300 (=70) HOB. Fish actually did OK for 2 years before I had to move and break the tank down. Been out of the hobby for years, but recently picked up (craigslist) 75 gallon outfit with the following
1. Tank, glass hood and 48 in flourescent light.
2. 1 Aquaclear 110; 1 Aquaclear 70 (HOBs)
3. Oak stand
4. Heaters
5. Other stuff
Now I'm a tightwad and don't want to invest anymore than I have to. If I want to run this 75 as a Fish Only (no LR, no inverts) with cheap, reasonably tough fish, what is my best filtration option?
1. The 2 Aquaclears with double sponges and biomax rings.
2. Spend another $150 (not including pump) for a wet-dry (WD-100cs eshopps) system. Figured that if I added a UG (old school, I know) between the cost of the UG and the amount of crushed coral for a filter bed, I'd wind up paying around $150 anyhow (still have powerheads from old tank, plus some crushed coral and salt and plastic coral decorations), so a UG was not a good option.
3. I'm not using LR, just a FO tank.
Any help/suggestions would be greatly appreciated!
Thanks

 

[slice]

Welcome to the site!
I'm sure you will get plenty of great recommendations, I would strongly reconsider not having rock. You could buy much less expensive base rock and let it become "alive" over time. And you don't have to buy it all at once. It took me several months to build up to the amount of rock I needed. Ample amounts of rock can be your best biological filtration. I might even, if you are going to re use the CC, add some aragonite sand in with it; this will also help in bio filtration.
I'm afraid if you only rely on the HOB filters, you will be severely restricted on the bioload your tank can support.
Looking forward to the better advice of others here...
One more thing...we love pics!
Welcome!