sump and skimmer help, i'm desperate!!!!

ok so I have a 15 gallon FOWLR (fish only with live rock) setup with a HOB filter lit by 2 crappy incandescent bulbs meant for freshwater I have a little bit of space under my stand for a sump but that's where my problem is...

I'M A NEWBIE AND KNOW ABSOLUTELY NOTHING ABOUT SUMPS OR PROTEIN SKIMMERS!!!!!!! ... everyone is always talking about sumps and protein skimmers what are they and how can i set one up for a relatively low cost? please HELP HELP HELP HELP HELP i'm begging you!!!!

 

Not to be a downer, but unless you can fit a 10 gallon tank underneath I really don't see the point in a sump. Read this thread, it should help a lot.

http://www.3reef.com/forums/reef-aquarium-articles-how-tos/all-about-sumps-filters-fuges-79852.html

 

I have room for a sump but I need advice

 

In a 15 gallon tank, I wouldn't even worry about a sump or a skimmer. A regular waterchange routine will remove plenty of dissolved organics.

 

I agree with Inwall75, even with a sump, I wouldn't bother on a tank that size. Really you can accomplish just as much, if not more with water changes. The benefit to a sump and skimmer is it removes some gunk from the water so that the water changes are need more just to adjust trace element levels and such. With a 15g, a 5g water change weekly would be well over 33% of the actual water volume. That would be huge and a skimmer would not come close to that level of water purification. If you had a 150g, then you'd need to do a 50g weekly water change to achieve the same result. This would be a nuisance, so better to just go with a protein skimmer and do smaller water changes, but for you no need.

Also, do to the physics of protein skimming, small protein skimmers, such as you would use on a 15g tank, just can't and don't work particularly well. Skimmers need to be fairly large, have a sufficient amount of junk in the water and a fairly substantial contact time with that gunk, for example to really work well. There is no way to achieve this with a small skimmer for a number of reasons, for example, there is a limit to how small bubbles can get or how fast they rise in the column. You can make the skimmer smaller, but you can't make the bubbles smaller and you can slow down how fast they rise (i.e. you can't extend the contact time sufficiently to make it work in such as small column). So, they tend to be finicky on small tanks, and IMO, on a small tank, protein skimmers can be more headaches than they are worth.

Also, here are some protein skimming articles. They don't really discuss small skimmers in particular, but if you understand the basic physics, it is fairly self explanatory why small skimmers don't work well. :

Skimming Basics 101: Understanding Your Skimmer by Frank Marini, Ph.D. - Reefkeeping.com

What is Skimming? by Randy Holmes-Farley - Reefkeeping.com

 

Ok thanks for the advice!