My whole point wasnt that the aquaclear itself was bad, the idea that you can use it for extra circulation, or to hide a heater etc is fine.
But using its filter floss to trap food and other particles is a BAD idea. It just promotes decay and ammonia and takes out valuable food source for the tank. A skimmer does not promote ammonia and helps circulation, and provides a buffer to a tank, for a small tank its especailly helpful, especially for bioload. A tradition filter does no such thing. Hence my feelings of bad advise. But notice that I didnt say the skilter was bad advise, as poor as it may be, it still does something beneficial without the potential bad side effects. If your going to use treadition filter floss on a small tank, then hell why dont we all use filter floss on our large tanks too then? :roll: