[sorcerer]

Curt,
The ecosystem filters are based on the skimmerless concept. I've been tring out the hang on back Ecosystem 40 on the 20G tank I have at the office. Its only been up about three months and as you know from my posts on Frag, I recently had fish and shrimp die. I still feel this is related to an outside chemical getting into the system.

The filter is very simple. It is basically a three chamber 'fuge. the first chanber receives water from the tank via a j-tube overflow siphon. This chamber is loaded with bio balls to aid in converting ammonia and nitrite to nitrate. The seond chaber is the largest and is filled with a miracle mud substrate and Calpura (sp?) macro. The ecosystem folks strongly recommend this tpe of macroalgae for their filter. The macro and mud bed in the second chamber are supposed to take up the nitrates and phosphates. The third chamber has a filter sponge and return pump (rio eck!).

You also get some pod growth in the second chamber but the filter sponge and the return pump pretty much insure that very little in the way of pods get back to the main tank.

I don't know that I am a believer in this system yet, it will have to run a lot longer before I will be convinced that it is any better than a system with a skimmer.

The ecosystem folks are great believers in the skimmerless concept. We have several other users that are pursuing this type of filtration. maybe they will join in.
HTH