Filters and Plants?

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benzjamin13

benzjamin13

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Sep 12, 2005
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Just curious if a filter is really needed for a planted tanks that contain little to no fish. It seems that every time I see a Iwagumi style tank or a nano planted tank being set up, they always seem to put a filter on it and yet, the stock is low to none. I tried to have a do an Iwagumi style 2.5g tank without a filter and it just doesn't seem to be doing well (HC dying off, out of control algae, etc.) compared to the Fluval Edge I have with it's filtration system that it has.
 
i read somewhere that if you don't have co2 system you want as much surface agiatation to introduce as much co2 ( and o2) from the air as possible. this is if your system seems to be defecient in co2. the aquarium wants to reach an equibrium of equal levels of co2 and o2 this is reached whether you use surface agitation or not. the agitation speeds up the equilibrium process. wheras it is the opposite for co2 introduced systems b/c you want to prevent the extra co2 from leaving the system. if you use excel then it does not matter if you use agitation or not.
 
I run a Red Sea Nano filter on my 4G. All I have in it are Aponogetons and cherry shrimp. I like the filter to keep the water moving. But before I added the shrimp the tank did just fine with out a filter.
 
I actually did have a little CO2 System on the 2.5g. The algae went out of control and the HC still ended up dying off for the most part:(
 
:( sorry to hear that. i never kept hc but i read it needs an acidic substrate. some people easily grow it emersed by putting it in damp substrate and spraying the leaves; look up tom barr method. they keep the environment humid by leaving aquarium lid closed and once it grows they add water. this helps avoid algae problems. depending on your substrate, it could be leaching something in the water column to cause an algae bloom requiring you to do a few more water changes to slow down production; ada aquasoil leaches nh4. having a filter with good water flow will help with the nh4 production; the bacteria helps breakdown nh4.
 
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