Most ammonia tolerant fish species? Or species for unfiltered tanks?

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Finley

AC Members
Hi

I am not usually a fan of unfiltered tanks, but as long as they are a reasonable size, planted, and have good light, it seems that they can work quite well...

Which fish species have you been able to keep healthy, long-term, in an unfiltered tank?

e.g. I have a pair of Gardneri Killifish which have done fine for the past 1.5yrs.

Thanks :)
 

Jakezori

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Jan 24, 2009
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All tanks are "filtered" one way or the other. The nitrates/nitrites find there home on something in the tank, but filter media is the best. I would highly discourage no filtration.
 

jpappy789

Plants need meat too
Feb 18, 2007
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Josh
It depends heavily on the plant density, tank size, water change regiment, etc. It wont work by just throwing any "hardy" fish into any tank and have them live for a specified period of time...not only that but one could argue that they're never going to thrive, just survive.

Anyways as for ammonia tolerance...I personally don't think it should ever come down to it, but my zebra danios pretty much lived through every mistake I made.
 

jpappy789

Plants need meat too
Feb 18, 2007
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Josh
All tanks are "filtered" one way or the other. The nitrates/nitrites find there home on something in the tank, but filter media is the best. I would highly discourage no filtration.
I assume you are referring to the actual bacteria since nitrite and nitrate are not living :grinyes:
 

Chrisk-K

Theodore P. Charles Fellow of AC
Dec 1, 2009
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Why do you not want to have a filter?
 

NegativeLogic

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Feb 12, 2010
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The only way I would conceive of an "unfiltered" tank being succesful is if the natural filtration (ie: plants) was high enough, and the bioload low enough that there was no detectable ammonia. In other words a balanced ecosystem (aka: The Walstad Method).

Any level of ammonia can cause gill damage.
 

Michwol42795

CanTANKerous
Dec 28, 2009
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Chattanooga, TN
I would recommend a filter unless you're willing to do large daily water changes and/or extremely low bioload with plenty of plants.
 
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