Help Please

[seffieuk]

Hi all

Please excuse a salty creeping in (salt creep - hehehe, a marine joke!!)

PrincessCoral,my granddaughter has a 180l tank here at mine, so most of the time the maintance is mine, all mine her tank is now about 90% covered with:

Brown Crypt (Cryptocoryne wendtii 'brown', i believe! And loads of swords (I think )

She has five peppered corys, I love em, one starry night plec, a real beauty and one black molly.

Today, I have suddenly realised that her filter has been turned off for at least a month, since the last time I took it out and cleaned it - doesnt need cleaning very often, once a month is fine
But the strange thing is that the tank has never looked better - the plants are greener and have grown more than they ever have!! All test results are fine, does this mean a mature, planted tank, with a small stock doesnt need a filter and indeed, may do better without one (hasten to mention there is water flow from a pump)?

Or should I turn it back on post haste?

Seffie x

 

[ian]

good question Seffie (and welcome to the lightside!)

A lot of the 'Diana Walstad method' tanks don't use filters as the plants do the work of nutralising all the excess rubbish in the water. Hense why all the plants look good and the tank is algae free (or almost algae free). I'm presumimg the tank is low light, nothing is dosed fert wise and water changes aren't done on a regular basis?

 

[seffieuk]

good question Seffie (and welcome to the lightside!)

Thanks

You are right, I dont dose with anything, although we did put some slow release plant food in some time ago, water changes are done once a month of 25% and the light is from 2x t8 tubes. There is little algae, just enough to feed Domino, the plec! Although she does have quite a few snails, I bought some assassins and they are slowly munching through the pests, although to be honest, they dont seem to be eating the plants

So, would I be safe to leave the filter off? I will go have a read of the 'Diana Walstad method' always good to learn something new

Could you also suggest some low light loving, easy to keep and find plants that I could add to princessCorals tank for a bit of variation?

Thanks for your help Ian

Seffie x

 

[ian]

Me, personally, would switch the filter on, because i like a lot of flow in my tanks.

as for slow growers, you may want to look at some java ferns, anubius, Cryptocorynes, Hygrophila and more swords if needs be.

 

[seffieuk]

thanks for your help. much appreciated

Have a good Christmas

Seffie x