VioletEmber
Aquarium Advice Freak
Hi all!
I've looked at several sites about filterless tanks and still find myself confused, so hopefully someone here can advise!
The Inspiration: I have a beautiful male betta with long delicate fins who seems completely unable to deal with any current. He is in a 10g tank and even with the filter on the lowest flow setting he seems blown about and lurks in the "underbrush" constantly. He is a gentle personality and although I haven't seen him being nipped at by his lamp-eye killifish tankmates, I also wonder if he feels intimidated by them. All of my betta's are in 10-20 g tanks with filters and carefully monitored tank-mates, but his behavior has made me wonder if he would do better in a filterless tank.
The possible set up- i have an old 3 gallon tank that I could set up as a small filterless tank, heavily planted.
****DISCLAIMER**** due to Tristan's tissue paper fins, if I am not able to maintain pristine water quality for him, I will not do this. No Betta will be harmed in the making of this filterless tank!
So I set up my little tank with sand from another tank I was taking down and put in a bunch of healthy plants - water wisteria, compacta, floating anacharis, and some kind of dwarf hair grass stuff. I have a light with cf 25watt bulb for lighting... it looked beeeeyoootiful on the first day. Day two all the plants start melting. I also have a little rinky-dink filter for small tanks which though it has filter media in it, seems to be little more than a glorified air stone.
Stoopid question #1: do you need to add Prime to a cycling tank with only plants in it?
#2: If I plan on going completely filterless, should I remove the filter altogether, or leave it for water movement?
#3: In reading up on the Walstad tank method, it suggests using a soil substrate, or soil capped with sand, etc. Is this required, or will just sand be ok for a filterless tank with plants?
#4: When cycling a filterless tank, how often do you change the water? Seems like the dead plant matter might be providing enough ammonia to keep a cycle moving a long??
If you have made it this far into this post, thank you! From some descriptions of the waltsad tank method it sounds like you set up the tank and throw the fish in and all is good to go on day one. But I love my Tristan and don't want to subject him to a stressful situation. I tested the water for ammonia on day one and two and both days had 0.25-0.5 ppm ammonia readings. I just think I must be missing a vital part of the equation!
thoughts? advice? please and thank you!
I've looked at several sites about filterless tanks and still find myself confused, so hopefully someone here can advise!
The Inspiration: I have a beautiful male betta with long delicate fins who seems completely unable to deal with any current. He is in a 10g tank and even with the filter on the lowest flow setting he seems blown about and lurks in the "underbrush" constantly. He is a gentle personality and although I haven't seen him being nipped at by his lamp-eye killifish tankmates, I also wonder if he feels intimidated by them. All of my betta's are in 10-20 g tanks with filters and carefully monitored tank-mates, but his behavior has made me wonder if he would do better in a filterless tank.
The possible set up- i have an old 3 gallon tank that I could set up as a small filterless tank, heavily planted.
****DISCLAIMER**** due to Tristan's tissue paper fins, if I am not able to maintain pristine water quality for him, I will not do this. No Betta will be harmed in the making of this filterless tank!
So I set up my little tank with sand from another tank I was taking down and put in a bunch of healthy plants - water wisteria, compacta, floating anacharis, and some kind of dwarf hair grass stuff. I have a light with cf 25watt bulb for lighting... it looked beeeeyoootiful on the first day. Day two all the plants start melting. I also have a little rinky-dink filter for small tanks which though it has filter media in it, seems to be little more than a glorified air stone.
Stoopid question #1: do you need to add Prime to a cycling tank with only plants in it?
#2: If I plan on going completely filterless, should I remove the filter altogether, or leave it for water movement?
#3: In reading up on the Walstad tank method, it suggests using a soil substrate, or soil capped with sand, etc. Is this required, or will just sand be ok for a filterless tank with plants?
#4: When cycling a filterless tank, how often do you change the water? Seems like the dead plant matter might be providing enough ammonia to keep a cycle moving a long??
If you have made it this far into this post, thank you! From some descriptions of the waltsad tank method it sounds like you set up the tank and throw the fish in and all is good to go on day one. But I love my Tristan and don't want to subject him to a stressful situation. I tested the water for ammonia on day one and two and both days had 0.25-0.5 ppm ammonia readings. I just think I must be missing a vital part of the equation!
thoughts? advice? please and thank you!
