Recommended Filtration for 12 gallon.

[AnTz]

I am so lost about filtration for saltwater. It seems like some people do not use any HOB, while others do. I plan to get a 12 gallon tank or possibly even 24 gallon depending on space (already have 55 gallon tank for turtle that my roommate wants) for next school year's apartment. I want a nano reef tank with Ocellaris Clownfish. Can someone recommend a decent setup for filtration.

[klam]

I've kept a 10g tank for over one year depending on my live rock and weekly 10% water changes for its main filtration. The only mechanical filtration I used is an aqua clear 150 HOB filter with just a plain sponge to collect the bigger particles and a bag of activaded carbon inside. I depended on the weekly water chages to export waste and to import trace elements.

Now I have a 14g with an AquaC Remora HOB skimmer and still using the aqua clear HOB. Now I just do bi-weekly water changes.

[malkore]

If you want a more stable system, go with the larger tank. Then you'll definitely be able to have a pair of clowns, a cleaner shrimp, and some other little goodies.

I don't get why a turtle needs 55gallons...but I know people don't understand why I need 7 aquariums

[Biotoper]

I've been researching doing a nano-reef. www.nanoreefs.com has a lot of info that you might find useful. A lot depends on what you want to keep. Live rock should be the basis of your filtration - many people recommend not using skimmers on nanos, arguing frequent water changes are better (although not mutually exclusive if you do have a skimmer of course). Aqua C Remora is highly recommended but may be too tall for your tank, so you'd either need to raise the tank or leave room behind the stand. You don't really need a HOB - if you have one, it's good for extra circulation (you'll need at least 1 ph too), but if you keep a sponge in, you should clean it constantly to keep nitrates down.