Exception to the rule and having it work~gives me encouragement and is telling me that some of us old school aquarium SW or FW keepers are not so far off the mark. I have always believed in a good canister filter. For years I've seen many keep SW with the use of canister filters only. I being new to the SW hobby have gotten caught up in the IN thing to do. Forgetting what all I have learned in my 35+ years of aquarium keeping, why and how these old school ideas still work today. Believe it or not, until I set up my lil 8g and started visiting the forums, I had never even heard of a protein skimmer. Because of everything I've read, heard and have seen I've been so stressed out about adding one to my system. Thinking that I would be unsuccessful keeping a healthy SW tank. After reading this reefers article, I'm no longer worried about it and I now know what I'll need to do. I'm just gonna add a Magnum 350 of which I have 2, fill it with whatever the tank calls for at the time and be a Happy Reefer.