I had a freedom filter and wound up getting rid of it. I had it on a 65 gallon tank, with about 150 lbs of live rock, and very little livestock. Eventually I began having alot of trouble with nitrates. Once I got rid of the freedom filter the nitrates went away. I also had to run a HOB filter as well, because the freedom filter did nothing for particles in the water column. The skimmer was terrible, it pulled out very little. I would avoid a freedom filter, your better off getting live rock, and a good skimmer.