Protein skimmer or external canister?

[Hemmdog]

What gph rTe would you suggest? I found a 400 foh for 30$ on amazon

Higher. Shoot for 600-800gph

 

[lilfish717]

No you would need the return pump as well. Checkout the jaebo dcp line. They are cheap and pretty reliable. I use the dcp-6500 on my 90 gallon.

Now that I'm thinking about it, is your tank reef ready? Like does it have an overflow? If not you would need an external overflow to plumb the sump.

And no the sump provides no filtration, unless you add filter socks then you would have some mechanical filtration

No overflow on it? I was looking up a couple days ago and found a nice diy overflow.

 

[ryeguyy84]

Carefully with that, the external overflow is the most likely piece to fail. The result would be a large volume on water on the floor

 

[Seamore2001]

If your tank isn't drilled, there's nothing wrong with a quality HOB skimmer and even a HOB fuge. I'm using early 00's tech (Remora Pro + CPR 4.5g fuge) on a 50 and it works extremely well. As @ryeguyy84 notes, an external overflow can really catch you out in an unpleasant way - and nearly always seems to act up when you're not around (I still shudder to remember one failing on a 75 while I was traveling - luckily members of my local club pitched in to help my wife save the system while I was gone - this led me to upgrade to a RR drilled 150).

The point of the sump is to give you a space to store the in-water equipment you don't want hanging in your DT. An important secondary purpose is that it gives you the ability to set up a refugium to filter, absorb nutrients and allow additional critters (pods) to grow. Make sure you size it correctly for your DT volume so that if power goes out, the sump doesn't overflow.

 

[vetteguy53081]

Sump is best investment with addition of skimmer at a later time.
Canisters polish water nicely but are a pain to service and can be a nitrate factory if not serviced regularly