filter broke!

[jc]

I have a 75 gallon fowlr tank that has 85 pounds of LR in it. Yesterday I installed a surface skimmer on my pak bak and on my canister filter. Today I noticed that the canister filter inlet control was leaking. Upon further investigation I must have tightened it too much because I broke the plastic part with the o-ring on it. I can't just go to the local store and get a replacement because I got a cheap knockoff brand and I have to order the part online. My question is will the protein skimmer provider enough circulation to keep the oxygen levels o.k.? Also, since I only have 1 clown, 2 firefish, and a clown goby should I even get a filter? I was thinking about maybe getting a hang on back Aquaclear type filter so that I can keep my surface skimmer and have circulation.

[carlinsa]

yes get a filter. put some power heads in the tank for movement and make sure your skimmer is running WELL. dont buy cheap sometimes that is all you get. is cheap. look for inexspensive

[matt]

The skimmer will certainly help with O2 levels, but not much with water movement. The easiest thing to do would be to get 2 or 3 maxijet1200 powerheads and put them in the tank, and leave them there. Put them in the corners pointing sort of at each other; best would be on in each corner pointing diagonally at the center of the tank. Probably you won't need the canister at all, except to run carbon if you want. For a while you might keep an eye on ammonia levels, as it's likely that the canister was providing some bio filtration, depending on what you had in it. Do you have a sand bed? If so, maybe you could add some live sand; not the stuff you buy at the store, but a cup or two of real live sand with lots of worms and micro life to mix in with your current sand bed. If you don;t have a sand bed, maybe try some of the commercial bacteria mixes to pour in the tank to give the bacteria a shot in the arm for colonizing on the live rock.

[jc]

I only have a sand bed of about 1". I managed to get the filter working again, but it still drips about a quarter size puddle on the top of the filter about once an hour. I ordered the parts but at the earliest they will get here wednesday. I use filter pads and ceramic media in the canister. I was wondering if it would be a good idea to take out the ceramic media at a later time and maybe put in some LR rubble in its place? I would like to get a mandarin later and right now I am trying to stick to fish that won't eat the copepods. Would the LR in the canister be a good place for copepods to grow uninterrupted, besides the ones in the tank itself?