Advice for a Noob. Evo 13.5

[texas72]

Okay, here goes. A little background, I'm a experienced fish keeper for well over a decade but, only freshwater until now. Well versed in the nitrogen cycle etc. I recently bought a new Fluval Evo 13.5 to try out saltwater. At the place I bought it, they offered me a Fluval mini skimmer for an extra $20. My question is, if I run the skimmer in the first chamber, an InTank media basket in the second chamber, where or how will the water be mechanically filtered? Thanks in advance for any help. This will be my first question of many.

[bribo12]

Skip the skimmer. In that small of a tank you don’t need one and I highly doubt a $20 one will do anything anyway. I’d just have live rock and sand and maybe carbon if needed. I run a filter sock on my nuvo 20 but it comes with the system. I also run marine blocks that act as biological filtration. Other than that it’s just live rock and sand.

[BigRedsReefs10]

Honestly the only filtration you’ll need long term on a nano is water changes and the flow in the system. I’d skip adding any coral or anything else to the rear chambers, floss is ok though. Just manually remove the clamp with your water changes and once you get everything in the normal ranges 20% or so weekly water changes is all you’ll need.