Anyone else go filter-free?

[trennamw]

Perhaps the aquatic version of going commando ...

If so, what's the setup and who is enjoying it?

I have a 3 gallon low tech, with a betta, floating pennywort, an ozelot sword, and crypt parva. With a filter the plants didn't grow and even with 50% weekly water changes nitrates were 20 (or more, I often changed more often, and I tested it 2-3 times a week). After the filter broke (and I followed a suggestion from, I think, Fresh2o,) to try it without the plants took off and I never saw another trace of ammonia or nitrate.


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[TheresaM]

I have the Project Tank which is no tech, loosely based on Walstad. Need to get an updated photo but it's a jungle. More about it here: http://www.aquariumadvice.com/forums/f24/theresams-project-tank-thread-333083.html

I also have a 10g that I bought to store extra plants, clippings, etc. No filter or heater, just a clamp-on light with CFL bulb. Very healthy plants and both the RCS and least killifish are breeding like crazy!

 

[molly100a]

I switched my 75gal., 29gal., and 20gal to no filters, just heavily planted, I love the natural tanks. I have a hob filter on my 5gal betta only because it's growing pothos and bamboo out of the filter and tank.

 

[molly100a]

Oh I forgot to mention I just started reading the Ecology Of A Planted Tank by Walsted, wish I would have done this years ago when I started.

 

[hjsvt]

Following

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[trennamw]

How heavily planted did the tanks begin?

I just moved the betta to a 10 gallon for my son and we will be adding some frogs and Otos (the betta has been with Otos before). It'd be lightly stocked and has quite a few plants plus the floating pennywort. I'm thinking of running a filter with sponges just to catch particulates, and thinking maybe it'll never build up BB because the plants are catching the ammonia right away? The tanks seem healthier when plants are addressing ammonia not nitrate.


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[TheresaM]

Oh I forgot to mention I just started reading the Ecology Of A Planted Tank by Walsted, wish I would have done this years ago when I started.

What do you think of the book? I found it very technical...also thought it interesting that her second book it about pressure cookers....

 

[Slavo]

I have 1 tank running that's filter-free. It's a 0.1g pico cube (link in my signature).

 

[hjsvt]

I switched my 75gal., 29gal., and 20gal to no filters, just heavily planted, I love the natural tanks. I have a hob filter on my 5gal betta only because it's growing pothos and bamboo out of the filter and tank.

I hope this is ok. I have some questions about how and when you decided to run without filters. My questions are all related to the OP's question. If you don't mind answering I would appreciate it!

First, at what point is a tank "heavily planted"? Also, I'm assuming there is a balance at some point between fish stock and "heavily planted", how do you determine what that this? If you run your stock through AquaAdvisor how does your percent stocked come out? I'm a beginner but have dealt with water issues from the beginning. So even though I don't know much about fish and taking care of them, I do feel pretty knowledgeable about water parameters and quality. I have a 29 gal and I have 1 large Amazon sword and 1 baby, (the mother also still has 1 runner with two plants both with their own small roots). It had more but I recently removed them all to a smaller tank to grow out. I have two moss balls, some java moss, 3 java ferns, 3 large dwarf sagittaria that are acutally quite large all with several offshots with small plants, 2 Anubias Hastifolia, 4 banana plants and a little bit of micro sword. I have a low light Finnex Stingray and I'm dosing Flourish Excel daily. I have what I think is low light good CO2 based on the reading I've done. Now that I am dosing fertilizers everything is growing again. So where would you consider my tank in the "lightly, moderately or heavily planted" scale?

I do agree with the comment above about plants preferring ammonia over nitrates. My plants where added at the start of the fishless cycle and they were growing great until I added fish then everything slowly stopped. But I've managed to get them to recover and all appear to be doing well again.

Thanks for the input. I'm not sure that I'm even remotely ready for no filter but I'm running two filters 1 rated for a 10 gallon and 1 rated for a 30 gallon. I'd like to remove the smaller one but maybe I could remove the large one and still be okay if my tank was considered "heavily planted"? Anyway I would be very interested in more about your set up. Thanks!

 

[ImACoolguy]

I just have an air stone on my 2.5g tank. Crayfish don't mind it and I keep the water clean.


Caleb

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[trennamw]

I can't answer all the questions above but I have read "heavily planted" means only about 10% of the substrate is visible from above. Floating plants seem like a core ingredient.


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[Mebbid]

I hope this is ok. I have some questions about how and when you decided to run without filters. My questions are all related to the OP's question. If you don't mind answering I would appreciate it!

First, at what point is a tank "heavily planted"? Also, I'm assuming there is a balance at some point between fish stock and "heavily planted", how do you determine what that this? If you run your stock through AquaAdvisor how does your percent stocked come out? I'm a beginner but have dealt with water issues from the beginning. So even though I don't know much about fish and taking care of them, I do feel pretty knowledgeable about water parameters and quality. I have a 29 gal and I have 1 large Amazon sword and 1 baby, (the mother also still has 1 runner with two plants both with their own small roots). It had more but I recently removed them all to a smaller tank to grow out. I have two moss balls, some java moss, 3 java ferns, 3 large dwarf sagittaria that are acutally quite large all with several offshots with small plants, 2 Anubias Hastifolia, 4 banana plants and a little bit of micro sword. I have a low light Finnex Stingray and I'm dosing Flourish Excel daily. I have what I think is low light good CO2 based on the reading I've done. Now that I am dosing fertilizers everything is growing again. So where would you consider my tank in the "lightly, moderately or heavily planted" scale?

I do agree with the comment above about plants preferring ammonia over nitrates. My plants where added at the start of the fishless cycle and they were growing great until I added fish then everything slowly stopped. But I've managed to get them to recover and all appear to be doing well again.

Thanks for the input. I'm not sure that I'm even remotely ready for no filter but I'm running two filters 1 rated for a 10 gallon and 1 rated for a 30 gallon. I'd like to remove the smaller one but maybe I could remove the large one and still be okay if my tank was considered "heavily planted"? Anyway I would be very interested in more about your set up. Thanks!

Think of it this way.. plants were healthier when the tank was new. Then after cycling they stopped growing as well. Could it be that they used up the available nutrients in the tank and since they had grown enough reached a point where the water change nutrients couldnt support them?

I can't answer all the questions above but I have read "heavily planted" means only about 10% of the substrate is visible from above. Floating plants seem like a core ingredient.


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Ive never heard of any hard or fast rule with this.

 

[Mattfinn]

My 10g has no filter, and I've noticed in the last week or so that the plants are really starting to grow fast. I keep it mostly full of low tech plants, but have recently noticed that wisteria and milfoil which i both had growing in my main planted tank where they were struggling to switch from emersed growth, have switched to submersed growth much quicker in the 10....

Im contemplating going filterless for my 5g now, that has my betta in it.

 

[hjsvt]

I can't answer all the questions above but I have read "heavily planted" means only about 10% of the substrate is visible from above. Floating plants seem like a core ingredient.


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Even if it isn't a hard fast rule, it's interesting to consider. I do have a bunch of dwarf water lettuce. I was probably at that 10% but just cleaned out about 2/3 of it because it was shading everything underneath. I'm still curious how people decide to call their tank heavily planted if there isn't a hard fast rule. My tank seems to be doing well right now so I'm not going to make any changes but it's a very interesting conversation.

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[hjsvt]

Think of it this way.. plants were healthier when the tank was new. Then after cycling they stopped growing as well. Could it be that they used up the available nutrients in the tank and since they had grown enough reached a point where the water change nutrients couldnt support them?

Sounds very plausible. Also possible more than one thing caused the decline in growth. But things are back on track again so I'm excited about that and just very interested in how others are making things work in their tanks.

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[trennamw]

Even if it isn't a hard fast rule, it's interesting to consider. I do have a bunch of dwarf water lettuce. I was probably at that 10% but just cleaned out about 2/3 of it because it was shading everything underneath. I'm still curious how people decide to call their tank heavily planted if there isn't a hard fast rule. My tank seems to be doing well right now so I'm not going to make any changes but it's a very interesting conversation.

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I'm sure "heavily planted", if a rule were attempted, would have a lot to do with volume and demand for nutrients not just surface area.

I think I read the "you can only see 10% of substrate" on Barr Report, or in Diana Walstad's book.


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[TheresaM]

This is my 10g unfiltered, I don't know if I'd consider it heavily planted:

For comparison, this is my 10g Endlers tank which is filtered but I would definitely call it heavily planted!

 

[trennamw]

This is my 10g unfiltered, I don't know if I'd consider it heavily planted:

For comparison, this is my 10g Endlers tank which is filtered but I would definitely call it heavily planted!

Those are really beautiful!


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[TheresaM]

Those are really beautiful!

Thank you so much!