No Sump?

[Sarah88]

lol sorry tony sometimes when i get carried away i forget about that stuff. lol and jenglish thanks for the input about the ecosystem method, thats good to know because i dont really have anyone to talk to personally with any experience in saltwater (only LFS left in town is HORRIBLE and its bad enough i have to go in there to buy my water so all info im getting is from various sources online and sometimes those cant always be trusted. but yeah i think i am going to go with the HOB (filter or skimmer whichever is cheaper) for now and then switch over to a sump when i can get all the necessary parts for it. that way i can go ahead and set it up quicker with my limited budget

[jenglish]

A HOB filter is going to be far cheaper than a skimmer. A skimmer is a better piece of equipment, but on a 20 gallon if you are willing to change 3-5 gallons a week many run w/o a skimmer. I think Purigen is the media most folks run... it may be chemipure though. The simplest and most adaptable HOB filter IME is aquaclear. I have one running on my 10 gallon shrimp/goby tank now that I put on my first FW system from 1999. Just make sure you get enough water movement in your tank. Have you thought much about flow?

[Sarah88]

yeah im not sure if im gona go the HOB route or go ahead and go the sump route lol still thinking things over. but yeah i am going to have at least 1 koralia 1 powerhead and maybe another one or maybe a nano as well not sure yet but if i did go the filter route it would definitely be a 400gph filter too, found a nice HOB refugium with a protein skimmer added to it from aquatraders.com, looks like it would be good addition, not sure if i could just run this on its own though with out a sump or anything else?

[nan0_r33f3r]

i have a 26 gallon with an acua c hang on skimmer and eheim canister filer.....no sump i also have about 30 lbs of sand and rock......am i ok with out a sump???? i have a pretty heavy bio load......