No Tank Filtration

[Terraphyte Tank Guy]

Hello MFK...

New to this forum, but have been keeping tanks for several years. Have an idea for a 75 gallon Comet tank with Chinese evergreen house plants for filtration and nothing else, but large water changes every 10 days to two weeks. Have used the evergreens in other tanks with good results. My theory is that the immersed plant roots use the dissolved nitrogen from the fish waste and maintain good water conditions. Will have some floating plants as well. I've found Anacharis and Hornwort to be good nutrient users too.

TTG

 

[elting44]

Welcome to MFK,

There are some threads on plant only filtration, my concern would be finding a balance of O2 production from the plants and CO2 production from the fish.

Would you have an air stone or way to create surface agitation to exchange gases?

I am by no means an expert, just curious of your plan

 

[tlindsey]

Hello MFK...

New to this forum, but have been keeping tanks for several years. Have an idea for a 75 gallon Comet tank with Chinese evergreen house plants for filtration and nothing else, but large water changes every 10 days to two weeks. Have used the evergreens in other tanks with good results. My theory is that the immersed plant roots use the dissolved nitrogen from the fish waste and maintain good water conditions. Will have some floating plants as well. I've found Anacharis and Hornwort to be good nutrient users too.

TTG

Welcome aboard

 

[Terraphyte Tank Guy]

Welcome to MFK,

There are some threads on plant only filtration, my concern would be finding a balance of O2 production from the plants and CO2 production from the fish.

Would you have an air stone or way to create surface agitation to exchange gases?

I am by no means an expert, just curious of your plan

Thanks for the reply. Yes, there will be air stones placed underneath the plant roots of the house plants. I've learned that the evergreens grow better with a constant supply of O2 to their roots.

TKG

 

[elting44]

Cool, in that case give it a shot.

Do you have another tank you could seed a sponge filter with some beneficial bacteria in, in case things don't go as planned you can toss it in?

JK47 would be a good resource, his thread on plant only filtration is a sticky at the top of the forum

 

[Terraphyte Tank Guy]

Cool, in that case give it a shot.

Do you have another tank you could seed a sponge filter with some beneficial bacteria in, in case things don't go as planned you can toss it in?

JK47 would be a good resource, his thread on plant only filtration is a sticky at the top of the forum

Hello...

Thanks. Maybe I can pick up some more ideas. I guess this tank I've been thinking about has a type of filtration, it's just not mechanical.

TTG

 

[duanes]

In the 1950s when I first started keeping fish, this was called a "balanced aquarium" and was very popular. The thing that stablility was, that the plants by weight, needed to be about 10 times heavier, or more in weight and volume compared to the population of fish, otherwise the fish waste would eventually overwhelm the system. Probably one of the main reasons filtration was developed, and became the norm.
It was very hard for many people to keep that balance of lots of plants, and only 1 or 2 small fish to be realistic about real balance.
I use plant filtration in many tanks, but use dedicated tanks just to support heavy plant growth in order to use up fish metabolism byproducts, along with heavy filtration, and every other day 30-40% water changes, to support a fairly large fish load.