Is there any way to setup a tank with no filters and needing only minumal added water or water changes? I was thinking of making a water fall type thing with a little river and having it flow through roots of plants, having a 40 gallon tank with fishes and plants and then another cage thing on top with lizards or something?
filters
- Thread starter OxyBomb
- Start date
Not ideally. Plant filters will help maintain water quality, but it's hard to duplicate nature's system. If you are unwilling to do regular water changes, even if you top it off frequently, you end up with high concentrations of wastes and minerals. If you have a very light fish load, you can get away with less frequent changes--but you're creating a survival situation, rather than one where the fish will survive.
If you have the lizard setup on top, you'll need to make sure none of the wastes fall into the water section--that would be a serious overload.
If you have the lizard setup on top, you'll need to make sure none of the wastes fall into the water section--that would be a serious overload.
if I understand it correctly, this is what a nano tank is prettymuch, at least for saltwater nano tanks. you might check out the nano tank website (not sure the address), there's quite a bit of info on them. Kyle
SW nano tanks don't function the same way as FW tanks do.
If you want to create a self sustaining FW tank, you need large volumes of water, with tons of plants, and a very very very light fish load... think in terms of a small school of neons in a 100 gallon tank.
-Richer
If you want to create a self sustaining FW tank, you need large volumes of water, with tons of plants, and a very very very light fish load... think in terms of a small school of neons in a 100 gallon tank.
-Richer
Thanks, thats what I expecpted. I am just not sure how to setup a filter in a way that it will work well. this isn't going to happen soon, maybe next year, it is just a thought/plan im working on.
What would be a good filter to go with. I dont have alot of money to use at the moment but I can save up for a nice one.
Look into internal corner filters. They are efficient, and can be hidden behind the fram work that supports to upper tiers easily. Then you can have a few fish. Or, since you'll need several pumps to push the water up to the upper tiers, you could put sponges on those pumps--cheap, and easy to maintain.
This is just a thought, but could you put a canister filter in line with one of the pumps running the water back to an upper tier, or even use a canister as a pump?:idea2:
In a self-sustaining tank, plants will be your main source of biological filtration. Since a self-sustaining tank has a very very light bio-load, biological filtration shouldn't be a problem... but you'll still need mechanical filtration. For that, I would do as OrionGirl suggested, put sponges over the pump/pumps that you're gonna use to create the waterfall. Rinse those out once a week, and you got yourself a pretty decent mechanical filter.
HTH
-Richer
HTH
-Richer
I would go along the lines of what The Inspector and Richer have said and integrate the filter into your water fall plan. If you have a light fish load you should be fine with sponges for filtration.