Doug's 250, now 300, in wall build

[mr_X]

I'm not following you. How long what should work?

 

[Bonessurf]

I'm running a 20 gallon, no filter, no skimmer bare bottom, closed system basically, only a power head. I haven't seen anyone else do something like it.

 

[mr_X]

You have rock in the tank, right?

 

[Bonessurf]

Yeah. That's it. I have plenty of that. That is my filtration.

 

[mr_X]

So, you have no fish and don't feed the tank? If so, how is the bacteria colony surviving?

 

[Bonessurf]

I have fish. 2 barnacle blennies, sergeant major, and a goby.

 

[mr_X]

And I do not feed at all.

What don't you feed?
I don't see a problem keeping a tank with just water changes. It's all a matter of how much food you are putting in V.S. how much nutrients you are taking out. Plus replacing lost trace elements to grow your coral skeletons.

 

[Jmkb02]

I don't feed my pico at all, just water changes and two part calcium and mag. I have a tiger goby and a clown goby. Both are nice and fat too. So many pods for them to chow down on.

 

[Keithhjs]

I have the same stuff in my 20. Thought it was some sort of cyano. I have plenty of nerites and a few cerriths. But I don't do water changes. I only dose. And have no filtration at all but live rock and a power head. And plenty of macro algae.

I'm lost. You don't do water changes, use any filters, and don't feed. Just dose vodka?

 

[mr_X]

I don't feed my pico at all, just water changes and two part calcium and mag. I have a tiger goby and a clown goby. Both are nice and fat too. So many pods for them to chow down on.

I don't see this working long term. Not sure how long, but There are other things besides calcium alk and mag that corals need. Plus, I can't see fish living indefinitely off of a few pounds of rock.

 

[Jmkb02]

I do feed once in a blue moon, like once a month of that, but I have kept this routine for over a year now and they are both fat as can be. I do add tablets Seagrams 28's as well for trace elements. There really are hundreds of pods in the water so I can only imagine what's on the rock, and they both chill all day using little to no energy.

 

[Gti_Leo]

i guess its possible pods feed off organics i nthe water so if there is enough crud u can see them surviving and breading to feed the fish, are your fish wild caught f so i can also see them hunting for pods on their own, captive bread are stupider and will rely more on you to feed them.

by pico what size are we talkign about though

 

[Jmkb02]

I have a clown goby and a tiger goby in a 5 gallon pico. I have a hang on the back Fuge and skimmer.

 

[Bonessurf]

I'm lost. You don't do water changes, use any filters, and don't feed. Just dose vodka?

I only dose a 2 part nano substance. I think it's kent. But I'm gonna change that to something else. Not sure yet. I wanted as low a maintenance tank as possible. So yes, water change was done once in 4 months.

 

[Bonessurf]

I'm lost. You don't do water changes, use any filters, and don't feed. Just dose vodka?

And also, vodka requires heavy skimming. Which I do not run one.

 

[mr_X]

they both chill all day using little to no energy.

Do you think this might be a bit of torture?

 

[Jmkb02]

Well they are both a total of an inch and a half if you add them together. They are the only thing in the tank besides a couple mushrooms and some softies. Very chill fish that have great personality.

 

[Gti_Leo]

Do you think this might be a bit of torture?

i don't know about that clown gobies usually stay around acros so i doubt it will swim around much same with watchmans they usually hang otu outside the cave with the pistol shrimp so i don't think little activity from them is unusual, if it was something liek a tang that usually swim alot sitting around then i would think stress but gobies are very different and are usually just bumming around, even sifters just sit around sifting sand and those i would think are the most active of the goby family

 

[Jmkb02]

i don't know about that clown gobies usually stay around acros so i doubt it will swim around much same with watchmans they usually hang otu outside the cave with the pistol shrimp so i don't think little activity from them is unusual, if it was something liek a tang that usually swim alot sitting around then i would think stress but gobies are very different and are usually just bumming around, even sifters just sit around sifting sand and those i would think are the most active of the goby family

The goby is actually a tiger goby, much different than a watchman. Elacatinus macrodon is the fish I am talking of. The clown will get about 2 inches full grown and the goby pretty much is already at around 3/4 to and inch.

 

[mr_X]

I'm just guessing. The fish is going to do what it's going to do whether it has a lot of food or a little. There was a short debate a while ago on this site about fast and slow metabolisms in fish. I would like to see links to any studies that have data on this, but haven't found anything yet, except hearsay.