I am running a very similar system with a biocube 29 but in the first chamber I have nothing the second I have filled with small chunks of live rock and in third chamber I have return pump 150w heater and skimmer, on the out flow I have a rotating nozzle and additional aquaclear 70 powerhead in the middle of my tank circulating counter current to the outflow, with the circulating nozzle it creates a back and forth wave action. I have been running like this for 5+ yrs. I do infrequent water changes but add micro nutrients on a weekly basis. I have always wondered about the necsecity of all sorts of equipment. The one upgrade I would like to make is to leds