Question about my friends tank

As most of you know i'm new into saltwater which i'm (slowly) making progress, but I got my friend into This hobby also... he didn't have money for a sump and I talked to him today and he told me that he too has a 29 gallon tank like mine but he has a marineland bio wheel filter and a Red Sea Berlin Protein Skimmer and his heater all just in his main tank..

Is that bad or will it be fine?? hes had it up a little over a month and it seems to be alright so far but i dont want his whole tank to crash but i'm a newb so I need some input

I have heard bad things about the bio wheel filters, but somethings work for some but not for others. Just like canister and wet/dry filters. His filter may very well work for him.

its alright to have a skimmer in his main tank??

Not the prettiest but I seen it before.

I had a skimmer in my tank in the 90s was a fish only setup also had a big aquaclear hob filter also. I ran that tank almost 10 years. Wasnt pretty but it worked just have to stay up on maint. Might be easier now with live rock more available I didnt have any rock until I think 95. The thing is if you have flow , a established bio filter and do water changes/maint. You would be suprised at what will work. Oh ya and lite stocking nothing will work if you overstock.

I have a emperor 350 on my tank. I started with with some very nice live rock. Have not had a problem with nitrate or ammonia. Small tank with small fishes though. I change out the carbon filters at 3 weeks and do water changes everyother weekend. I do my top offs during the week.

Will most likely get a small skimmer and put a K1 in there in its place.

His tank will do fine with that set-up, my 1st tank was a 29gal set up the same way.

I ran my first tank the exact same way.It was a 30 gallon with 2X Emperor 400s and a Seaclone 100 skimmer. The nitrates never zeroed out,but they never got over 10ppm either.
No,its not the best set up.But it'll work and long as your up for the maintance on it.