Do I really need a filter?

The friendliest place on the web for anyone with an interest in aquariums or fish keeping!
If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.

six2sevenproductions

Aquarium Advice Activist
Joined
May 31, 2009
Messages
160
Location
San Pedro (Los Angeles), Ca
Hello, I'm sure this must be somewhere on the forums but i didn't see it. I have a 60g tank with about 55 lbs of live rock. I have an old marineland HOB biofilter but now with the metal halides hanging from above, the filter is an eyesore. not really an eyesore but everything looks so smooth looking. I have a sump that cannot accommodate the filter but the sump does include a protein skimmer and bio-balls. I removed the cartridge in the filter and it was clean as new but full of amphipods. I think i disturbed their home. can I do without the filter?
 
How large is the sump? I would say you're fine without the filter. Although it wouldn't hurt to keep around as a place for your pods to live. Sort of like a tiny refugium.
 
Most people on this forum don't use a filter.

Infact, using a HOB and bio-balls, I would be concerned about nitrate problems.

For mechanical filtration, I simply use a filter sock which gets switched out and cleaned once a week killing all beneficial bacteria. The live rock I have takes care of the nitrifying bacteria though, thus it is my biological filtration. I don't use chemical filtration unless there is a need.

I would dump the HOB and if your nitrates start getting high, might want to do away with the bio-balls as well.
 
Back
Top Bottom