# No Filter Tank



## Ding (Jul 3, 2016)

Does anyone keep a tank with no filter and just letting the plants absorb the excess nutrients?


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## carl (Feb 11, 2010)

Ding said:


> Does anyone keep a tank with no filter and just letting the plants absorb the excess nutrients?


That's how they did it before in the olden days, plant your plants and when the plants start growing add some fish but not to many, a small circulation pump will help


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## Erratic-Fish-Finatic (Apr 23, 2012)

Did it with a 20 gallon tank full of java moss and massive growths of hair algae.
I was raising a group of 20 Jewel killifish (Aphanius.mento Zengen) in the tank, and stopped using the filter after the algae kept growing on the filter and clogging it.
The killifish kept the tank in check, as the algae is one of their primary food sources. Only had to siphon poop out and add water to the tank weekly.


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## default (May 28, 2011)

Filter-less planted tanks are actually very easy, I've done several in the past few years. I find aside from savings from less electricity + filter cost, the only good reason was not needing to clean a filter.

You should however, include a pump/powerhead into the set up (if you weren't already planning to do so). Stagnant water doesn't help, you'll need some movement within the closed system.

Also, you won't necessarily keep the tank in check by allowing plants to absorb all the nutrients, but instead the surface area of everything within the system would house enough beneficial bacterial for the nitrogen cycle.


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