me with another filtration question..lol..
 

after some consideration, i think i have decided against doing a sump, my tank is not a reef ready tank, and i am afraid of flooding.(hate it, i loved the idea of a sump/refrigium) but i have not seen a overflow that i trust enough not to flood/ or burn up pumps in a power outage. so i think i will use a hob skimmer, run my fluval 305 canister with carbon, maybe some phos remover. and let live sand and live rock do the rest. do you see any problems with that. can a sw set up run like that, and be as quality a system as a sump set up...

I have run many saltwater systems exactly as you describe. You will be limited by the quality of the hang on skimmer you choose, and options are fewer than in sump models, but you can run a great marine tank with a hang on skimmer and live rock.

Your all set. You don't need to run a sump. And HOB Skimmer models have improved quite a bit. Even if you do consider going to a reef setup, your still ok to use the setup you listed.

thanks, that is what i figured, just needed to hear it, pasfur,reefmadness i really take what you 2 say to heart, so thanks for all the help. you 2 are kind of like my confidence boosters lol..

I have a Rena Filstar canister and a HOB Red Sea Prizm skimmer on my predator tank. I don't have any corals in there, but it works GREAT with my eel and lionfish! All I have for CUC in there is a Choc. chip starfish and an urchin for algae. It can be done ;)

how do you like that skimmer, has it done pretty good for you

Honestly its been a little hard to get it running the way it should be, like my round/conical skimmers. It takes some breaking in and adjusting/tweaking to get it running right. It may just be the nature of the beast since it is sort of square. Every skimmer I've had takes breaking in and adjusting, but this one needed quite a bit more.

BTW where are you in So.IL? I live in Granite City.

I forgot to add, it does not leave a lot of bubbles in the water like a lot of skimmers, which is great for an in-tank HOB! (I wouldn't dare want either of my other 2 hooked up directly to the display tank. WAY too many bubbles!!)

Just wait til the air line clogs up with salt, and you gotta tear the thing apart to clean it out, bubbles will be mad inthe tank. Also, what are your trate readings using that thing? What are your water changes like? I've had one of those, nothing but a headache. Its not really rated for its numbers on the box, I would only put a Prizm on a 30g tank, and nothing else.

trate readings? Do you mean nitrate?

The combo of my rena canister and the prizm is actually pretty good now that we have it dialed in, haven't had to do a water change in a VERY long time. Just have to clean the filter media in the canister on a regular basis. I bought it used from the same guy I got the tank from, and it does fine now, in a 44g. Not saying everyone else can use them with sucess but mine is good.

I have an AquaEuroUSA nano skimmer that I ran in a 20g tall I used to have. It worked VERY VERY well but made lots of bubbles.