New Gurl With Some Qustions..

ok so i may need alot of help and by the looks of reading some of these posts there are some guys on here who know their stuff...so like i said i have a 35 gallon hexagon tank with some live rock..crushed coral and two damsels..i am running a emperor 280 filter, i was lookin to get a skimmer, but some 1 @ the LFS told me because of the impeller in the emperor (it spins and creates bubbles than pass to the media cartridge) that i didnt need a skimmer because it acted as a skimmer...is this true???


JaZlyn

 

No, that is not true. Skimmer's do an entirely different thing than the hang on back mechanical filters

 

What?! LOL that's the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard - especially coming from an LFS. Normally they are more bent on selling you stuff you don't need. No that's not true at all.

Where are you looking to go with this tank? Do you want corals or fish only? With fish only tanks it's not really necessary to run a skimmer unless you have a large bioload (lots of fish). With corals it's a little more important.

 

LOL i feel a lil ridiculous

yeah..im lookin to put some corals also...

 

Maybe he was referring to them both being able to aerate your water. Well at least he had good intentions, even if he was incorrect. He could have tried selling you something you did'nt need. A protein is going to offer you a different type of filtration. It basically pulls proteins from the water that are not large enough to be trapped in any kind of mechanical filter. Blowing bubbles on it doesn't make it magically grow. LOL.

 

Are you going to be running a sump or will everything be HOB?

 

I would rather have a skimmer than several emperor filters. A Protein Skimmer removes dissolved waste from the aquarium water. I believe they are essential.

I would have a skimmer before I would have anything else concerning filtration (except live rock of course). They make that much of a difference. The smell of a collection cup is enough to know you're doing something good for your tank

You might want to consider dropping that LFS off of your list if they told you that...just saying...

 

The protein skimmer is very important. Just wondering, what are you planning on putting in the emperor filter?

 

Before you do this, do a lot of research on what you want and what they need. Some corals are VERY demanding and even very experienced reefers have a hard time keeping them. Most need extreme lighting and very clean water, which results in very expensive equipment. Most of us here have dropped several thousands of $$$ into this hobby. Just wanted to warn you that his hobby is addictive and can become very expensive.