# No-filter, no-heater nano's??



## somewhatshocked (Aug 8, 2011)

Plant heavily. They'll eat up all the waste.

Stock extremely lightly - shrimp or fry as you thought.

Do water changes once a week.

Use a nutrient-rich substrate or root tabs and all the plants you mentioned will work well. 

Check out some of the jar/vase/bowl journals here on the forum and you'll instantly "get" it.


----------



## minorhero (Mar 28, 2019)

So Foo the Flowerhorn mentions that his tank is a Walstad setup. MD Fishtanks to my knowledge has never said that his tank is a Walstad tank, but it basically is a Walstad tank. The only difference is that MD Fishtanks does not use dirt as part of his substrate, instead he uses aquasoil type substrates (commercial active substrate). 

Basically its a tank with an active substrate (an inert cap is required for dirt, but is not required for aquasoils) then you plant incredibly heavily right from the start. Light bioload and lots of water changes for the first month. Thereafter water change much less often if your tank is doing well. Once a month or less is possible but you need to be careful with water parameters and make sure you can actually sustain the low water change schedule. 2.5 gallon is not much room for fish but will work fine for snails and shrimp.


----------



## tinkerpuppet (Feb 13, 2010)

Thank you! 

Im looking forward to this, I think I'll use this as an opportunity to try a dirted tank for the first time


----------



## GreenBayHuntz3000 (Sep 3, 2019)

You're doing exactly what I would like to do. Thank you for this topic!


----------



## nautal (Oct 1, 2019)

tinkerpuppet said:


> I'm thinking of setting up a small (2+gal) planted vase for the bedroom.
> 
> I've seen a ton of videos by MD Tanks and Floo the Flowerhorn, and they do no-filter, no-heater nano tanks that are beautiful and exactly what I'd like to accomplish.
> 
> ...


6 Months Update – (Population Explosion) NO filter, NO CO2, NO Ferts 5 Gallon Nano Tank
Foo the Flowerhorn
•
13M views 1 year ago

I dont know about MD tanks but I really like foo's but Foo does have a heater, in the back left of his tank, when doing water changes and the level drops you can see it.
Plus he/she doesn't mention the no heater.

It tripped me up and I went back and rewatched it. read the caption 

Give it a month, just set up a 1gal planted and turned heater off. (automatic 80F is not cool) I will post pics then.


----------



## talontsiawd (Oct 19, 2008)

I have done everything from a traditional tank without heat or filtration to vases and other odd shaped things. As somewhatshocked said, overplant and under stock. Your plants are your filter. They are your biofiliter too. My favorite (which was a standard 5 gallon) had soil, but only about 1/4 inch. I did fine without it. Fast growing plants help as well, though they probably won't grow all that fast, it will get the plant mass going. 

I get the circumstances, I really struggled to have a tank in my bedroom for these reasons, but it will always work better with a filter. I know you don't want to go that direction, I am just saying even a really undersized filter can go a long way. On the contrary, I only had room in my bedroom for a tank and I couldn't do it, though at my old place, I had a nano with a Zoo Med 501 and that didn't keep me up. Just saying that if you were to use a filter, it works better, but if you keep it simple, it definitely can work surprisingly well.


----------

