Continual water feed

[mhancock]

I'm considering plumbing into my big tank a drop feed of water, say 20% per week, with an overflow. This is to keep nitrates down and conditions steady. Of course the bottom will need a clean. This amount per week will not be a problem for chlorine and bacteria in the filter.

I was wondering if it would be possible to have a higher water flow and do without filtration completely.

Has anyone done this, or seen research into something similar?

 

[AbbeysDad]

In well established tanks (fish only or planted) there is typically more beneficial bacteria in the substrate than the filter, However, good water circulation in a tank is very important and a continuous supply w/overflow would likely not provide sufficient circulation alone.
Increasing the supply too much might present problems with chlorine/chloramine and could be thermally detrimental. Even with a slower drip, I think I'd use an inline carbon filter to handle chlorine (assuming your supply does not use chloramine (which you should verify)).
Instead of powerhead(s), I think I'd stick with a filter for circulation.
I quite like the idea of automating water refreshing. The King of DIY (Uraujoey, aka Joey Mullen) has done this with drip irrigation parts and overflow.