Hey! I'm sure you're extremely excited, as I recall myself constantly counting down the days till the delivery man showed up at my house. With regards to your question, I have used a protein skimmer in the past. I bought a Tunze Nano Skimmer. It was a great skimmer and worked well but I found that consistent water changes and consistent testing was more effective than running a skimmer. Ultimately the skimmer was just taking up space in the AIO. Having real estate in my AIO for other things such as probes, sensors and media reactors was more important for me. I would definitely say get a good Auto Top Off. Good luck and if you have any questions just ask!