Skimmer Necessary?

I am not trying to step on toes so PLEASE pardon me if you thought I did.
I am sayin, save your money. Try it without and see what happens. Your tank will balance itself out.

 

naw dude...it's cool. I ran my 55fowlr for 4-5 years without one and I noticed a huge difference when I finally broke down and bought a good one. I'm a believer!

 

Yes, you can't extend the tubes. It has a soft soft suction. And like Froc says... most "dump". Definitly recommend the Sump though... hide it all in there!

 

lol thats the one thing i think is the ugliest... the collection cup.. if there was a way to just have it sit down behind my tank it would be great.

And to rock'n it, thanks for the suggestion, i dont have the money for one right this second so im not gonna have one for a while so ill see how my tank does and then decide.

 

what exactly is a sump?

 

What differences did you notice? People claim "clear" water, not yellow... Mine is clear. It wont make or break a tank (imo).
Id rather not spend money to skim, to spend more money to add what was skimmed.

 

it's a place under your tank, such as a big rubbermade bin that has water coming from the tank into it and it gets pumped back to the tank after filtration has occurred. that's where all your eq is placed and usually there is a refugium too, that's your filtration.

here's a pic looking into mine

Everything in my tank looked happier, the water turned from green to clear and my nitrates went down.

 

TC, a sump goes below the tank where the extra water flows to be filtered.
A sump gives you soooo many more benefits.
You can increase pump sizes, decrease, run heaters, chillers (in the future), mix your additives with out burning corals, control a stabile water level and the more water you have, the more stabile the tank (temp included)
That way, you'll only have an over-flow box (if you aren't pre-drilled / reef ready) and you can hide all the "ugly" stuff below) leaving you with your beautiful tank to look at.

 

cuttingras, That is a nice sump.
didn't mean to repost what you wrote,
I was typing while you sent.
(apologies)

and "input" >> Refugium is where you put more live stuff like plants for better filtration.

 

Gotta go!
Good luck!
"Do what you can with what you've got"
"It'll all work out in the end"

;D