protein skimmer for an eclipse

[eric c]

hey guys. if anyone could help me out with this it would be strongly appreciated. I recently set up an eclipse 1 (12 gallon) as a salt water tank and I am having trouble finding a protein skimmer that will fit the tank. does anyone have any ideas/suggestions?

[MJC]

Finding a protein skimmer for any Eclipse system is difficult without modifiying the hood, but it has been done using some simple mnethods as well as one method I'd term as overkill.

Assuming you want to make some cuts to the hood, you could use a hang on the back skimmer such as the popular CPR backpacks, AquaC Remora, or Red Sea Prizm skimmers. HO skimmers fromother manufacturers are also available.

If you don't want to cut your hood, an option is to consider an in tank submersed airstone driven skimmer such as the Berlin Airlift or the Lee's Protein Skimmer. These skimmers use suction cups as a means of attachment inside your tank. Simply run the airtube through the accessory hole in the back of the hood to the skimmer.

Perhaps a drastic method would be to consider a seperate sump with a skimmer. Using the accessory hole and a power head, you would pump water to a sump where you'd have a skimmer, a seperate powerhead in the sump will then return water back into your tank.

Hope this helps,

Marty

[eric c]

thanks for your help. you guys rock.

[eric c]

sorry...one more question....i am willing to make modifications to my tank, but my tank only leaves room in the back to cut a max of 4 inches in length and 2 inches in height..which of the skimmmers do you think would fit those dimensions? i have about 20 pounds of live rock from an established tank with healthy algae and plants growing on it and live sand as well. someone told me that i might not even need a protein skimmer. is that true?

[MJC]

Live rock provides you biological filtration, Protein Skimming eliminates other compunds that live rock cannot get to.

As you mentioned, there are some systems that claim to not need PS, but dissolved organic compounds or oils can only be eliminated by skimming.

IMO, aside from your primary biological filtration, protein skimming, is the next most important aspect of any healthy marine system.

Regardng a HO PS that fits within those dimensions, I would take the hood to a LFS and see what they have. I don't have a HO PS, but am looking to purchase one for my nano.

However, I would suspect with the limited space of 4x2, you might find HO PS driven by air stones.

Hope this helps,

Marty

[Alf]

On a system this small I would concider skimmerless. You could grow so Macro alges in the tank and prune it regularly for nutrient removal and a 10% weekly water change schedule would allow this sytem to thrive. Provided that you use live rock and a small sand bed for your filtration. Most of use who run small tanks 20 gal or smaller run skimmerless. You can click on my 20 gal tank in my sig. This system is 1.5 years old and is skimmerless. Remember that with a small tank and no skimmer keep the bio load low and you should have no problem.

But if you still think you need a skimmer here is a nice plan for a DIY skimmer for nano tanks.



http://www.reefs.org/diy/diy2.html

HTH