as far as the foam, it all depends. Lots of people use it, lots of people don't You just have to make sure it is cleaned often or else detritus can build up. If it were me, I probably wouldn't use it. Or may put some filter floss in occationaly just to clean things up a bit. Instead, I would put some carbon and phosban in a media bag on the racks.
For the skimmer, take a maxi-jet 1200 and take off the screen on the intake. Then you just take a normal piece of airline tubing and stick it in the intake. It will squeeze through area that holds the impeller and put it in the right amount, itll start pulling a ton of air. There is a venturi part to put on the outtake of the maxijet, but I've found that this way pulls a lot more air. Then you can just put the maxijet under the skimmer are point it up.