Anyone do a filterless tank?

The filterless tank is a 30 gallon with 130 watts from 2x65 power compact 50/50 bulbs (I like the blue look), co2, etc. The plants are _really_ thriving and the algae has not been a problem. The SAE and ottos are keeping it under control.

It is much quieter than with the E400 on it. I could go with a nice quiet canister filter but it doesn't seem to be necessary. So far everything is fine, I have not had any detectable Ammonia or NitrIte, PH is stable, etc.
 
Latest on the filterless tank:

30g
heavily planted
silica sand substrate
4.3 watts/gallon of 50/50 lighting
co2 system
30% water change every two to three weeks

1 pearl gourami 3"
1 weather loach 3" <--- edit - forgot about this little guy!
1 oto cat 2"
6 oto cat 1"
1 SAE 3"
1 unknown cat 2"
10 cardinal tetras 1"
~100 Malay trumpet snails
~20+ ghost shrimp

Ammonia, Nitrate and Nitrite = 0
snails and otos keeping algae at low level, however I do have to clean the front glass once every two weeks or so

Last check showed KH=12 and PH=6.6 which indicates CO2 of 90ppm !! I hadn't checked it in a while, so I immediately cut the bubble count in half. Haven't had any fish deaths, and I've read that the 30ppm toxicity guideline has little to no actual data to back it up. In any case, my experience of running around 90 ppm CO2 for possibly several weeks was no noticable problems with the inhabitants. However, I am going to get it down to around 30 ppm since that should be more than enough for the plants.

This tank is generating enough growth to supply more than enough plants for my 55g, 30g and 10g "non-planted" tanks.
 
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I doubt you're really running 90ppm CO2 - you have to remember the equation assumes no buffers other than (bi)carbonate, and no acid other than carbonic. I suspect there are other organic acids involved.
 
Could be... There is a bit of aragonite in the substrate which I kow is a carbonate, but I haven't added any non-carbonate buffers or any other PH adjusters. The rocks are red lava rock. No other decor. I don't know what types of acids the tank might generate on it's own. My tap water is about 7dKH and 7.8 PH. Before I had heavy plants and CO2 my PH was very stable in the 7.8 range.

After having this tank overstocked and hardly planted for almost a year and battling the associated high nitrate levels, I am feeling really great about seeing zero nitrates (although the plants may not be so happy about it)!
 
Just went filterless

I have a very large tank, and maintance was becoming a hassel. buying feeder fish was getting expensive. So removed all the large fish, I had three large arawana's, two plecos, and some other exotic gobies. Kept the tank running for a week. Then I planted a ton of plants. I think I am up to 45. So far everything seems to be good, all I added was a bottle of liquid fertiizer. I want the plants in there for a month or so before I start adding fish. Thinking about putting in 20 golden barbs and 20 rosey barbs and 20 guppies. I think the volume of plants I have will be able to handle the nutrient load these guys will generate.
 
Were you planning to add all of those fish at once? :eek:
I think it's interesting having a filterless tank. However, I do have to have a powerhead going to run my CO2 reactor, and the gentle water flow seems like a good idea. The powerhead only has a strainer for large debris though, not even a sponge on it. I'm going to add at least 10 more of those cardinal tetras this weekend...

Will the barbs eat the guppies? I had 6 tiger barbs once that would eat guppies that were not all that much smaller than they were. It was unbelievable. I finally had to get rid of them (back to the lfs).
 
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I agree with rdmpe, esox48. It mgiht be catastrophic to add a large bioload without cycling the tank first.
 
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