Protien Skimmer Help

I have a 29 gallon tank that i bought from petco. Bad choice, it is a marineland salt starter tank kit. It had pretty much everything that I needed to start. The only thing is it has a full hood and the only protien skimmer I can fit in the tank because of the hood is the fisson nano skimmer and it sucks. I need some help on getting a bigger better skimmer to fit under this hood. Please HELP

 

i bought a 55 gallon tank from petco, my came with a full hood too, which im not using because the lighting isn't near adequate, but it had pre-formed panels on the back you could cut out to fit external filters, hob skimmers, etc. Does yours have theses cut outs?

 

It is an eclipse system and yes it does have the preformed cut out holes but I have a retrofit light kit that i added and that is why I dont want to get rid of the hood.

 

maybe a mini sump? like a 5 gallon just to put the skimmer in, or just like 3 or 4 gallon water changes once a week.

 

Will the water change help that much, any other ideas