Anyone do a filterless tank?

[RTR]

Many years ago there was an article on a particular filterless tank in one of te hobby mags, perhaps FAMA, which suggested a long tank with plain gravel and val with White Clouds. No filter, no pump, no heater, little food.

I don't remember what the article proposed, but I did water changes without substrate distrurbance. It was interesting, and certainly minimal care. The final population was higher than the start, but it never crowded, as they were only fed a couple of day per week. I used a thirty long with two single strips. I think they were on a shorter time than my normal 12 hour days.

 

[Matak]

Originally posted by CHINABOY1021
hey matak, just want to ask you.
how is your tank doing? the tank im STILL planning for very similiar to yours. 36L x 12W x XX Height.
120 watts of normal fluorescents.

i love amazon swords and tall plants like vals.

are you having any problems with the plants in your tank? thanks

No probs with plant growing but I did have a few bouts with just about every form of algae out there. My problem is that I just haven't grasped the nutrient equation yet (read: too lazy to bone up on the subject). I probably will when the construction season winds down. At present, I can only run 60W without kick starting the green water

I think you said in a previous post that you live NE of TO, which means you are on TO's water mains. I think that water should give you a good base for plant growing. (8 grains hard, a good amount of KH, 7.5 pH i think)

 

[CHINABOY1021]

thanks a lot for the tips!

 

[rdmpe]

FIRST DAY OF NO FILTER

Well, nothing much to note. After removing the Emperor 400, I had to crank the co2 back to about 1 bubble every 3 to 5 seconds (it was going at about 2 bubbles per second before). After feeding this morning I haven't been able to detect any ammonia or nitrIte all day. I still plan to keep a close eye on it the rest of the weekend and then test it morning and evening for a couple of days, but I think it's going to be fine.

With the water so calm now I can see streams of oxygen bubbles coming off the plants here and there, quite beautiful. I'm very happy with it!

Typical readings:
Am = 0
NitrIte = 0
PH = 7.0
KH = 9.0
co2 ~ 27 ppm

 

[Heady]

Of course otos count towards stocking your tank. They eat and breathe, and they produce waste.

I tried this before in a 29 gallon. Fluorite substrate with LOTS of plants and understocked (5 congo tetras). Just used the light that came with the aquarium (20W). Had an air stone in there but no filtration.

This went well for awhile. Then I started getting a serious infestation of algae.... I don't know the name of it but is was very dark colored and attached to things in clumps and had short strings coming off of it. Although I kept cleaning it out, it kept coming back. It was so bad you could not see the fish more than a couple of days after cleaning & water change. The plants were surviving but not thriving by any stretch of the imagination. The fish were fine.

If you had up to 2 wpg and CO2, no filtration might work. But with low light and no CO2, it did not work for me.

 

[thom336]

The only filterless tank Im running at the moment is just a 5gal - I do 50% water changes every week, its well planted and lightly stocked. Been going for afew months now. and has been great. But I would imagine it would be a whole different matter on a larger scale.

I find filters so efficient, quiet, unconsuming in electricity and easy to work - as well as not overly expensive - that I dont see the point in trying a tank without them. Also, when you say about people who used to keep tanks without filters and that, you gotta remember that fish are generally alot weaker these days.

 

[superjohnny]

Originally posted by thom336
...Also, when you say about people who used to keep tanks without filters and that, you gotta remember that fish are generally alot weaker these days.

Who/what/when/where did this come from?

 

[Matak]

Iv'e heard this rumor more than once myself. Might make a good topic at General Freshwater

 

[mickey]

Originally posted by Matak
Iv'e heard this rumor more than once myself. Might make a good topic at General Freshwater

Post it and let the debate begin, should prove to be an interesting one.
Cheers.

 

[brianfl]

Before we were married, my wife ran a 55 gal filterless for over a year. No casualties. All she had was a 40 watt light and an airstone. She cleaned it about once a month, probably 50% or more. She was poor and couldn't afford a filter when her's went out. The lfs didn't give her any info at the time. She had 3 rainbow sharks(3"), 1 plec(8"), 1 rosey barb(he came in as a fry on a plant), 1 black shark(6"), and 1 rafael cat(3"). It was lightly stocked and she had no problems. Now of course we do things much different , but it is interesting how it worked. All those sharks aren't supposed to get along and barbs should be in shoals (actually the barb hung out with the big black shark) and no filter to boot She had a few plants as well. We wouldn't go back to that again although probably because of a great deal of luck it worked very well. The one thing I did glean from that was how upset I get when the lfs's don't let people know things, they just sell.