Protein Skimmer: yes or no?

[leyner]

I have a 11 gallon Via Aquarium which contains 18w power compact lights and an underground filter. Currently I have a live sand bed and aprox. 10lbs or live rock (maybe more). At the present time I only have fish (2 clowns and a royal gramma) and plan to add inverts in the next few weeks.

Here is my question. Being that I have the underground filter which I was told to turn off and a power head circulating water, do I add a protien skimmer??? I was told to add a CPR or RedSea Prisim, but I was thinking of the RedSea Air Lift. Anybody have any ideas on what I should add or should I just pas and use the rock as the only filtration?

 

 

Thanks

Steve

[reef93]

I think UGF is part of history. nowsday, no body using underground filter specially with live sand. You don't need skimmer for your size of tank, regular week change(weekly) will do all the job. You may add about 15-20lbs of liverock for filteration and 4-6'' livesand(southdown play sands for money saving then seeding with live sand). HTH

[Joe]

As far as the protein skimmer goes it cant hurt anything when you first add them they are whacky but after that they shouldn't collect anything.. unless something dies and the body isnt consumed by your cleanup crew. As for skimmer choices

 

A friend of mine owns both these two:

The Roma is the best but big money!

 

The CPR is Very good! Still pricey but good

 

I have heard mixed things about the red sea Prism skimmer I cannot speak either good or bad things about it because I dont know. Ive seen one at the lfs and it looked like it was doing a good job!

 

as for the berlin red sea airlift. unless you have a sump or somewhere outside of the tank to put it it will eat up alot of tank real estate and its unsightly. They can do a great job at skimming

 

IF..

 

You keep your airstone clean and replace it every 3 months! heck for a buck you can replace it every month!

[spectre]

Hot debate whether or not to skim a nano. I have a cpr bakpak on my 20 gal. but, I also tend to overfeed. I had a Red Sea Prizm and it was a joke. Not very user-friendly and on mine the collection cup o-ring failed overnight. Cost me $3000 to have my hardwood floor replaced because of it. If your going to get one, get the cpr.