You'll love this

[Tempestuousfury]

Well, P.T. and I were talking about bettas and otos and whatnot, and I mentioned to him that my 45 gallon is unfiltered. He said you guys would skin me alive for this, and I agree with him. But, just for the sake of being argumentative, I decided to post it here to see what would happen.

Here goes:
I have only done water tests twice in my life, and those were before I moved and recycled all three of my tanks.
Tank was cycled with a filter and the filtered died on me two months ago
I added two corydoras and 5 zebra danios after the tank died

Only one neon tetra died (the only one I had)

Tank specs:
45 gallon tank-
(36" x 12" x 24")/231
Bubble bar stretching about 2'
Stock:
1 male dwarf gourami
7 black skirt tetras
4 harlequin rasboras
6 zebra danios
2 albino corydoras
3 schwartz's corydoras
Plants:
9 aponogeton, hybrids
3 dwarf lilies

I feel the tank is understocked, when considered in terms of a cycled, properly circulated and aerated, and properly filtered tank.

So, anyone want to dig in?

 

[Ben]

well i dont think its wrong

mainly because when i do water changes i dont use dechlorinator and i dont cycle my tanks. havent ever done it in my life and my fish never die.

DD

 

[canarsie11]

really?

 

[Tempestuousfury]

? Who/ what was that directed at?

 

[Ben]

yes really.(if you were talking to me )

 

[Synirr]

I haven't cycled any tanks into which some none-too-delicate fish went (my oscar and betta tanks, for instance.)
I also didn't cycle my grandmother's tank before I set it up for her a week ago, because she lives an hour away and it just wasn't possible under the circumstances... I just threw some old filter media in and hoped for the best. So far everything is still alive (dwarf gouramis, yo-yo loaches, and otos

 

[The-Wolf]

As a newbie I didn't cycle any of my tanks, I had three when I joined this forum.
Scince joining and learning about cycles, I have cloned my existing tanks and therfoe I've never cycled a tank.

My brother has a 17gal tank that is unfiltered and unheated, he has 2.5" of pea gravel and only ever syphons the gravel every month! He keep danios and wcmms in there and has not lost one fish to any disease. The luck of some people.

 

[mwm]

I didnt cycle my tanks eather and my fish are fine and i rarely ad declor and all my fish are doing good

 

[modernhamlet]

I didnt cycle my tanks eather and my fish are fine and i rarely ad declor and all my fish are doing good

I'd hate for a newbie to have read that. Congrats on being the exception.

 

[Tempestuousfury]

There's one person that doesn't agree. (well, I don't either, but mwm is lucky ) Wolf's right about luck.

 

[FrAnK3333]

this forum changes just about every one, i cant wait to get pictures up to show how this forum changed my tank, from gravel to sand, unplanted to planted, its amazing.

 

[Erised]

I dont really see whats so bad about not having a filter in the tank if it got cycled with some good media in it first. I do believe the sand/gravel, water and plants are enough to keep in cycled. Also, small tanks often dont have filters in it (like betta tanks).

I'm one of those lucky ones myself as well ... 'cycling' to me was adding water from a different tank till it was 50% full, then adding normal tap water (untreated) to fill it up. Leave the tank with gravel and stuff in it running for a day, and done! Never lost a fish coz of that either Good old days ... but nah, now I do cycle and use dechlor.

I do however think people think too much about all these things. I honestly do not think a proper stocked tank will NEED a filter as long as you keep up with the water changes and have sand or gravel instead of an empty bottom. I also think that if you dont live in a big city but a farmers town (like me), where the water tends to be fine, that you have to dechlor your water all the time.

Blah, opinions will always be different, and the way its said here in pinned topics is the way most people think about it. I do think however, that people kept fish before we even had filters. Back then it was normal and far as I'm aware, most fish had the same live span in aquariums as they have now. Perhaps fish do die earlier now when we dont dechlorinate the water and add filters and dont do our weekly water changes ... perhaps, just perhaps, this is simply because the way we're treating fish right now and making everything as perfect for them as we can, is actually not doing them any good. Who says we're not messing around with their immune system by doing this, and making them a lot weaker than they once were?

 

[lucky62]

The tank in my sig only has U/G filtration driven by power heads [ like 3 years now , the tanks been up much longer than that , like 10 years ], and many members here will say U/G is a poor system compared to what is available .As long as water changes are made frequently to remove any build up of waists , it's fine , my fish are smallish and my tank is a good size , I forgot the plants , they count as filtration as well.


K.I.S.S , this means keep it simple [ stupid ] no offense to anyone , I didn't coin the fraise .

Technology can help , but fish have been kept with success for many years , one big key being ..........water changes .

 

[Tempestuousfury]

So many of us (P.T., Erised, and I, to name a few [granted, P.T. hasn't posted here ]) are of the mind that biological filtrationa nd adequate circulation are all that are required in order to maintain a healthy tank. The water changes (which many books and members stress is the tool that aquarists should rely on to maintain good water conditions) are what keep the tank healthy, provided you have a good culture of bacteria in the substrate and low or moderate level of stocking.

Haven't really heard from anyone who doesn't agree with that.

 

[jflowers]

Seems to make sense, and the theory is good. But I will stick with overfiltering Bought another ehiem today to put on my marine

Jon