Filterless aquarium

[emeraldking]

That's a lot of power consumption for a filter. I have powerheads and pumps here that use 4-10 watts per hour.

I use an aeration pump for my tanks. So basically, no mechanical filters for me. All sponge filters with the exception of three hang on filters.

 

[Wills]

Iv saw filterless tanks before just not with my stocking , I’d like to shutdown the filter for 3 days to see if anything happens I’d be confident if it did spike it would be minor after 3 days and would give me some sort of idea at what biological filtration the tank has already , honestly if after 3 days I have a 30ppm no3 reading id be happy 70% water change and I’m good for another 3 days , I wouldn’t mind a mid week change as long as it’s sustainable in the long run

The problem would be actually producing nitrate, the risk would be you just ammonia and nothing to process it.

One thing I've briefly wondered in the past (as in a random 'huh wonder if that would work') is could a freshwater tank work like a marine tank with a really porous rock like lava rock piled up in the middle with air stones fitted underneath and powerheads pointed at it, would you get nitrifying bacteria growing on the rock? But equally that would require power for powerheads and airpumps.

One option you could do is the type of air driven filters where you have a pile of bioballs/ceramic rings behind a piece of foam siliconed into the corner of the tank - that way you would just get the costs of the airpump which there are pretty efficient ones these days.

Wills

 

[Guyb93]

The problem would be actually producing nitrate, the risk would be you just ammonia and nothing to process it.

One thing I've briefly wondered in the past (as in a random 'huh wonder if that would work') is could a freshwater tank work like a marine tank with a really porous rock like lava rock piled up in the middle with air stones fitted underneath and powerheads pointed at it, would you get nitrifying bacteria growing on the rock? But equally that would require power for powerheads and airpumps.

One option you could do is the type of air driven filters where you have a pile of bioballs/ceramic rings behind a piece of foam siliconed into the corner of the tank - that way you would just get the costs of the airpump which there are pretty efficient ones these days.

Wills

Good shout with the lava rock style build I’m going to see if anybody has put it to method but seems plausible, I didn’t think about the nh3 conversion as naive as it may seem I honestly thought the shear size footprint of the tank with substrate would manage but I honestly feel I underestimate the waste of my fish