# no filter?



## empty

how many people actually have no filters in there planted aquariums, n how is it working out?


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## empty

hm guess no one wanted to respond to that lol


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## Gold Finger

Sometimes no answer is an answer. Maybe not many do this. I wouldn't. For one thing, ammonia is the most toxic form of nitrogen so I want to be sure and have a good bac colony to convert it rather than plants alone with no fail safe. Even Walstad recommends a filter now, and she's an extremist IMO.


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## bluegoldfish

I have the lowest of low-tech nanos going... So far, so good. It's a fishbowl, maybe 1 gallon? It's got natural sunlight, no heater, no filter, inert gravel, dwarf sagittarius, frogbit and some duckweed. Inhabitants include about four snails ("accidental" snails that came in with the plants) and one grumpy but beautiful betta. I think the only reason this works is I do weekly 50% water changes to keep the fish poop down and that bettas don't require any additional oxygenation to their water. It can be done, just be careful what fauna you put in there.


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## Indy6724

No filter is absolutely possible. The reason no one replies is because its a scary propositon fish keepers are trained to avoid. I have done it twice. Once with fish, once without. The only problem besides the obvious is the tank doesnt rebound as well in my opinion. If something goes wrong, its very hard to correct. Plus, water movement is a pain. Of you need help or info look into the Walstad method. I honestly suggest just using an under powered filter and a metric ton of fast growing plants. Plants are a filter, but you will need water movement from somewhere . Pm meif you have any questions


This is me on my Iphone


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## monkeyfish

Skim through the low tech and nano forums. I've seen quite a few "walstad bowls" essentially a nano with no or very little tech involved, no filter, heater etc.


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## Accidental~Aquarist

I have two Fancy Goldfish, a tangerine-gold Fantail and a Nacrous Calico Ryukin, in a 20 (us) gallon tall with which I use an Eheim Classic 2113 canister w/ pre-filter. When I upgrade them to a 40 (us) gallon breeder, I want to have a planted tank. I know it will be part playground, part salad bar, but I still want to give them a more naturalized habitat. Exactly as Indy6724 had said, I'm scared to do it without my filter. My most Utopian outlook allows me to use the same small filter successfully on a larger tank because of the plants ASSISTING with the water quality, but not being solely responsible. As my user name suggests, I suddenly found myself needing to be a fish-person due to circumstance rather than choice or experience and we've had one successful year thusfar. I've always wanted a planted tank for them, but was so focused on figuring out how to keep them alive that I didn't want to figure out how to keep plants alive, too. Now that I feel more confident as a fishkeeper I feel that, when I upgrade to accomodate their growth, I want to set it up as 'natural' an NPT as I can... as I dare...


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## Accidental~Aquarist

Hmmm... Just posted but it's gone... Anyway, if this blurb happens twice, sorry. 
I have two Fancy Goldfish in a 20 (us) gallon tall with an Eheim 2113 w/prefilter. I plan to upgrade them to a 40 gallon breeder and I want to try a planted tank, but, exactly as Indy6724 suggested, I'm scared to lose the filter. I feel optimistically that, with the plants, I could successfully use the smaller filter on the bigger tank because the plants can assist with the water quality... but that's my comfort-boundary. 
Truthfully, is there anything 'natural' about a glass box full of water in your livingroom? My pets have all been of the 4-legged and furry variety until last year when we were suddenly given the Fantail, Swimmer. In a bowl!!! Once Swimmer was in the cycled tank, about 6 months later, we got the Ryukin, Groucho. I've been learning as I go, and now I want to have a planted tank... with my filter! LOL


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## RandomMan

Hi tech planted?


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## Sairure

I had a tank run for about a year with no filter. Just Anubias and java ferns with a Betta. The tank was already very mature when the filter broke, so I just left it like that. It was fine the entire time, but I don't think it would have worked as well if I started filterless from the beginning.


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## toastedtoast

I have a low-tech 10g with 12 chili rasboras that ran without a filter for a while. Water quality was fine and the fish were happy, but without circulation I started to get a significant buildup of staghorn algae on the tips of my taller crypt leaves etc. I added one of the cheap hagen elite mini filters for circulation and the algae cleared up pretty fast. The 2x2cm foam "media" is probably doing some biofiltration, but ammonia was zero either way.


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## PinoyBoy

All my tanks are only running powerheads with a sponge attached to prevent shrimps from getting chopped. No fish, just shrimps. Before I took down my 20 long I only had a powerhead with a sponge on it. It was moderately planted and there were maybe between 30-50 shrimps; it worked out great.

IMO aslong as there's circulation of some sort, well planted, and low bioload, no need for filtration. Many will disagree, but that's just me.


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## Brian10962001

I have a tank in my gallery that is a 1 gallon, just gravel, vermiculite, laterite, one strand of Bacopa and a giant female HMPK betta. It's been that way for months now. I just did a big water change, the first one ever. I usually suck about 1/2 of the water out every week with a turkey baster and feed it to my house plants, I break up the surface film and try to get as much of it as possible when I do this. When I did the last water change I added 5 drops of Excel and 3 drops of Potash/iron. I have another small 1/2 or 1 gallon square jar with a spade tail giant female and 3 strand of anacharis, 2 planted one floating. This tank has never developed a film, I think the floating plant has something to do with that. It's also not quite as mature as the other tank. The third tank I have like this is a 2 gallon cookie jar with a hunk of driftwood, anubias and java fern. This tank has a lid and has also never developed a film. It has a regular female betta in it who kept digging herself down into the gravel of my 10 gallon sorority.


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## John K

I have three tanks w/o filters - 10G, 29G, 55G. I do use small powerheads for water movement. These are Walstad style tanks, so potting soil capped with gravel with lots of plants. The oldest has been up for 3 years. None ever test positive for anything, even nitrates. I do water changes once in a while, every few months. They are extremely low maintenance and very stable.


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## Eldachleich

Many of my tanks are unfiltered. Although water movement is key.
A powerhead with a sponge is enough filter for most of my tanks. If that. I have a few tanks without even that and they have been doing well for many years. However having a filter does allow more options and heavier stocking.
I also think that a filtered tank is easier to maintain an keep stable in the long run. If something goes wrong with an unfiltered tank it is alot harder to make it right.


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## Tplant

From 92 to 95 I kept a 37 gallon natural tank. I started with a dirt/sand/gravel base from a local stream. I had a nice branched piece of wood removed from the same creek that went from the bottom to about 6 inches above the tank. One branch was at water level. A few larger rocks from the stream were also included. I attached a small flower pot basket from the back corner to the middle of the backside of the tank.

Inhabitants, some snails, two green sunfish, young red ear sliders, and a few madtoms. The tank was set up in front of a large window and utilized no heater and no lights. A HOB filter minus all filtration was used for water movement only.

The tank was planted coontail, hydrilla, brittle naiad, water shield, and salvina minima. I planted some pickerelweed and smartweed in the basket in the rear. I frequently tossed various collected plants in the tank for short periods of time to add new "critters" but those above listed plants were always present.

I had no issues with algae and the plants did a good job keeping the water clean. I did water top offs and one large water change during the year. I ended up with a lot of aquatic insects because of the addition of plants off and on but were quickly eaten by the sunfish or the small sliders. I frequently added small minnows, craws, tadpoles, etc.. to the tank for food.

Never had any issues with the tank and was always managed to draw people to that corner of the room.


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## sockfish

I've always had a 2 gallon crock and a 2 gal bowl planted with java, a crypt or two, and frogbit. They each house a Betta and even guppy fry [which the Bettas wouldn't eat] and a Nerite. One was just cherry shrimp and snails for a while.The substrate was scooped from bigger tanks. Sometimes one was just in sunlight, other times it's a desk lamp. (I fiddle around with them a lot!) One has a tiny piece of manzanita wood

I change about a 1/2 gal on them each week. No filters. No problems.


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## empty

wow a lot of good info here thanks for the advice and its good to hear you guys doing well without any but yea i agreed with the whole water movement thing i got a small filter for my 30 gallon i think its the aquen quietflow 10 or 20 just for water movement and extra oxygen.


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## gerrard00

PinoyBoy said:


> All my tanks are only running powerheads with a sponge attached to prevent shrimps from getting chopped. No fish, just shrimps. Before I took down my 20 long I only had a powerhead with a sponge on it. It was moderately planted and there were maybe between 30-50 shrimps; it worked out great.
> 
> IMO aslong as there's circulation of some sort, well planted, and low bioload, no need for filtration. Many will disagree, but that's just me.


Isn't a powerhead with a sponge attached a sponge filter?


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## jasonpatterson

gerrard00 said:


> Isn't a powerhead with a sponge attached a sponge filter?


Indeed... It may not seem like much, but even a small sponge with high flow can make a fair filter, especially for a low bioload, planted tank.


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## Brian10962001

I always thought of a sponge filter as a sponge that an air pump hooked up to. They're used a lot in breeding tanks because they don't disturb the water much. I guess it's proper to say a power head with a sponge on the bottom is a sponge filter as well, just a different way of moving the water.


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## gerrard00

Brian10962001 said:


> I always thought of a sponge filter as a sponge that an air pump hooked up to. They're used a lot in breeding tanks because they don't disturb the water much. I guess it's proper to say a power head with a sponge on the bottom is a sponge filter as well, just a different way of moving the water.


ATI sells sponge filters with powerheads already attached to them.


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