Filter sock or protein skimmer for refugium?

I am planning on having algae in the display tank as it's going to be a seahorse goby type tank with a deep sand bed. Do you think the sock filter will do enough to justify the refugium. I have a nano tank set up now that I have filled with chaeto and it works great, have never used a sock filter.
Thanks.

 

The sock and the skimmer are designed for different purposes.
The sock will catch small debris in the water column, but that's it. It can also catch some of your pods... and you don't want that to happen, specially in a seahorse tank.

A protein skimmer, will not only catch some of the debris, it will also get rid of the extra nutrients in your water column, making your H2O more habitable and clean for your animals. In the ocean all the ammonia and nitrates among other things are dissolved in such vasts amounts of water, in a closed circuit like a home aquarium, this does not happen. That's why we have to do water changes often. A protein skimmer will not only help you space out those water changes, it will also help you keep the water cleaner at a chemical level.

You can also have both. I have a skimmer, and sometimes when I move stuff around, I find particle gets on my water column. I just add the sock for a day or two and it helps catch the trash.

Hope that helps.

 

I am new to using a proper refugium. My current nano tank's fuge is just a 10 gallon with a bunch of chaeto in it. My new setup has a proper Pro Series 3 chamber refugium. I bought it from a guy who had it set up with a filter sock in the middle chamber that he had a bag that he said he filled with live rock and had a split valve so some water goes to the first chamber and some to the middle one. Looks like it would work by the water pouring over the live rock. I've heard of this maybe it's called wet dry? He said originally one would have done this with bioballs but that live rock was better (then he has some carbon sponge cut out thing under the sock.) Is this outdated or will it work effectively? Thanks