Skimmers OR Filters?

[king-of-clowns]

do you have to have both a skimmer switched on at all times???
also do you have to have a skimmer and a filter???
what jobs do they do?

 

[king-of-clowns]

what i mean is what job does the skimmer do?

 

[fshhub]

i don't think either is an absolute neccessity, but in a new tank, especially for a person new to the sw aquarium, i do highly reccommend a good skimmer, they are great tools and make the job much easier, you can do it without one, but it is not easy at all, until after you get it well esablished(a good year normally), otherwise it will be very dificult and vwry possibly scare a new aquariist away from this great hobby, it is often easy to scare a rookie away at times, especially in the beginning(first 6 months)
as for what they do, they basically filter the water, they remove the excess nutrients from the wateeer column, withouth trapping garbage in your water system, trapped detritus contributes to nitrates, where a filter traps the junk, and keeps it in the aquarium, until they are cleaned ot removed