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Hello
I just curious is there anyone having a filterless plant tank (or very light filter) with only powerhead to keep the water current. Or do you have experience with it. Coz I am very interesting to try this. But now I have high stock of fish therefore I think I can't do this at this moment.

I think if you are using ADA mud, a powerful filter was needed. Because the mud dust was easy spread over your tank and make it cloudy. My 30" tank's previous setting was using Holland Sand, and use internall filter head with small filter, water was clear and do not have dust.
As I know, TW plants fan also use small power filter and the water flow was slow, but they are using "American Silicon Sand".

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You may interest on this book "Ecology of the Planted Aquarium : A Practical Manual and Scientific Treatise for the Home Aquarist". It describe the rationale of "low-tech" aquarium without filter, CO2, expensive substrates, fertilizer, strong lighting. Quiet interesting and worth reading.

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/ ... 91-8131973

i think if the fish stock is low, a fully planted tank may be filterless, as the plants can do the filtering function.

hello,
i read the book before so i TRY to summarise the important points mentioned in it :

1) plant many species of plants and let nature choose which plants stay and which should go .
2) use floating plants because they grow fast and so they remove waste products faster.
3) do not cut plants that grow above the waterline so they can get more CO2 from the atmossphere.(she does not add CO2)
4) use moderate lighting and supplement with sunlight. put the tank at a place where the tank gets some natural sunlight (she says that did not cause algae growth in her tanks)
5) feed the fish more than usual so that the waste can be natural fertiliser for the plants. (she doesn't add liquid fertiliser also)
6) the substrate is gardening / potting soil and a layer of gravel on top.

thats all i remember ah.... hopefully i remember correctly also.

and since plants take in ammonium more easily than nitrates, and filters convert ammonium to nitrate, why do we need filters ? i do not understand can somebody explain ?

thanks alot.

Agree, Plant is filter in this case. If fish stock is low (or about right) - the rate of waste generated by fish is similar or same as the rate of food (waste) absorbed by plant, no extra filter will be needed.
The only input is fish food and the output is trimmed plants as a result. The book also measure weight of input (fish food) against the weight of output (trimmied plant).

But I think such kind of equilibrium is pretty difficult to achieve, especial in small tank.

>and since plants take in ammonium more easily than nitrates, and filters convert ammonium to nitrate, why do we need filters ? i do not understand can somebody explain ?

That's because our tank is a confined environment, we need certain amount of nitrogen source "stored" in our relatively small amount of water for the plant to absorb. In order to retain the level of nitrogen available, we need more nitrogen than level usually found in nature. Ammonia and nitrite is harmful to animals, and that's why we need a bio-filter in ALL TANKS, except a tank with very high plant to animal ratio.

kenny, Great! your memory is brilliant

thank you all for your great responses. I will get the book plus some others from Amazon. Actually my first attention on this issue is when I am browsing the filtration part in the "thekrib" website. And I found that quite a number of people is enjoying a filterless low-tech and "cheap" tank. OK, see after a couple months if I have any luck......

Pls share with us your finding of your experiment after a couple of months.

good luck oh ~
but be reminded the book has only drawings and no colour pictures so it can be abit boring.... but the information is really good !

Yes, maynbe we can send an Email to the Author and ask her (not sure the gender) to send us some of the pictures of the tanks related to her book.

No wonder Amazon doesn't rate this book any star!!!
I guess after I double or triple my plants in my tank, I will take the approach as Karen in "thekrib"that is "forget" to turn on the filter, or gradually reduce the sponge in my internal filter and see what happen. Will keep you guys posted.