[fortheloveofcrabs]

Hello,

The easiest lighting would be coralife self ballasted bulbs. They come in two sizes: 10 watt and 20 watt (50/50 or daylight). The 20's fit in a 10 gal incadecent hood and they work great. They are about $30 a bulb. Second as for the skimmer, you can use a skimmer. I use one on my 5.5 gal nano with a 2.5 gal sump (it's so tiny!!) and it's great. Just remember that skimming is no replacement for water changes... changing water (as you know) does more than take stuff out, it puts stuff back too!

There are some really small skimmers by, again, coralife that you can get from Big Al's and other places around. You can easily make one though. What I did is I took the bottom part of a gravel vaccum (the large tube) and put a small zip lock container on the top hole and ran an air stone into it. It works great and it cost me under $10!! Hope this helps!