Wanting to buy a skimmer

[lighteningthes]

Out tank is 6 months old and I think I am ready to pickup a skimmer. I currently have a 75, but we are thinking of upgrading to at least a 150, if not a 200 in 6 months, so I want to do one purchase that will do everything for me. I do not have a sump, nor do I plan on one, I have a FOWLR tank with an ehiem ecco canister, two AC 70 power heads and one 50 powerhead. I have not had any water conditioning problems recently, the canister has been up for a month with no signs of nitrate issues. I do keep it clean, I rinse the media with fresh saltwater and rinse the canister out. I am looking for a skimmer and don't really want a HOB. I was thinking an external one but I do not know if a DNW 200 octoups would fit the bill. I do not want to add a sump, can I pipe this from the tank to the skimmer and back?

 

[jackri]

Any reasons for not wanting a sump on a bigger tank? Just curious.

 

[lighteningthes]

Not really wanting to add another tank under my tank, looking to keep things simple. Besides I do not want to build a sump and it seems sumps for that large of tank are out of this world cost wise.

 

[jackri]

I built a 26 gallon sump out of acrylic for under 100 bucks... awesome place to put skimmer/macro algae -- which while being gone for the military for 6 months and wife not doing any water changes --- nitrates/phosphates were at 0.
You don't NEED a sump... just very very beneficial IMO.

 

[lighteningthes]

I know they are nice to have but we really only want the tank for fishies and crabbies. Not looking for corals and other things in the tank. I like how clean everything is now, it seems like when people add lots of stuff under tank things look like a turd.

 

[stanlalee]

sump is the only practical way to run even an external skimmer because the output has to be higher than the body of water its pumping to so its output cant be plumped upward. In order to run it you'd have to build a skimmer stand tall enough to so that the output dumps down into the tank. if you want a suitable skimmer a sump is almost mandatory on a tank 150-200 gallons.

 

[lighteningthes]

Originally Posted by Stanlalee
http:///forum/post/2928464
sump is the only practical way to run even an external skimmer because the output has to be higher than the body of water its pumping to so its output cant be plumped upward. In order to run it you'd have to build a skimmer stand tall enough to so that the output dumps down into the tank. if you want a suitable skimmer a sump is almost mandatory on a tank 150-200 gallons.
Guess its HOB then. Bummer