Nano reef with no mechanical filtration to raise nitrates - Yes / no ?

[Jakesaw]

Has anybody ran a nano tank without mechanical filtration?

 

My 8 month old 10 gallon is still running zero nitrates / zero phosphates.  I've been dealing with Dino's because of it.  Been raising fish food & going to add another fish, but I read recently that a tank doesn't need mechanical filtration to the Nitrates reaches the desired level.  Considering tinkering with this concept. 

 

I've only got a few frags in the tank,  and want to get nitrates up to a reasonable level before adding additional corals, although I would like to add some sooner, I don't mind waiting a bit to get tank parameters correct.

 

So - anybody ran a nano tank without filtration to up nitrates successfully?

 

Thanks

[WV Reefer]

37 minutes ago, Jakesaw said:

Has anybody ran a nano tank without mechanical filtration?

 

Check out any of my threads. 😊

[Jakesaw]

17 minutes ago, WV Reefer said:

Check out any of my threads. 😊

Checking a few out.  So all those tanks are running with no filtration?

 

Thanks

[WV Reefer]

3 minutes ago, Jakesaw said:

Checking a few out.  So all those tanks are running with no filtration?

 

Thanks

Yep. Just lights, heat and flow. 

[jservedio]

That's how my 20g was run for years and years. While I upgraded last year, it was running for 10 years. No mechanical and no chemical filtration.

[Jakesaw]

I think I'll have to try that to see if it'll solve my low nutrient issue

 

Transition from FW to SW has been a bit bumpy with some zigs and zags in the learning curve.  Will figure this out though in enough time

[Tired]

All you need is water movement. Having a spot available to put a bit of carbon is good, but plenty of tanks run with no filter at all, just one or more pumps for circulation. Nearly all our good bacteria lives in the live rock, so there's no need for filter media to house it.

[Jakesaw]

Just now, Tired said:

All you need is water movement. Having a spot available to put a bit of carbon is good, but plenty of tanks run with no filter at all, just one or more pumps for circulation. 

Good to know.  Starting as a newbie, I thought it was necessary to have a mechanical filtration to pull floating things out of the water.  Started with sponges and moved to filter floss.  After 8 mo of zero nitrate / zero phos, Newish DINO issue, I'm re-examining my initial approach.

 

I'll be leaving my HOB filter for some water movement combined with pump but going to remove the floss.  Want to give a good cleaning to HOB filter first.  Wish me luck on coming DINO explosion as it's been a way I pull some out of tank weekly. 

[Tired]

Corals like that floating stuff, usually, it's a lot of what they eat. Mechanical filtration is only for when there's way too much of it. 

 

Crank up your nutrients nice and high, preferably introduce biodiversity from elsewhere (shells covered in algae, a bit of live rock if possible), and that should get rid of the dinos. 

[Jakesaw]

Filter floss is out.  I grabbed 2 small rocks from LFS display tank. One had small bit of coraline algae and the other some kindof spongey / corralish structure on it   Wasn't focused so much as what was on the rock as much as getting some diversity for the sake of diversity.  Whatever that ends up meaning.

 

When I placed em in my tank, the flow was disrupted a bit and my acan decided to unpuff itself.  My little 10 gallon is looking a little full in front now.  Got to get that 20L rolling ASAP.

 

Also, My dingiest looking rock is on the other end of tank from Powerhead.  Could it be possible that it's because the flow is lower there.  I think that there is plenty of movement circling the rock structure at end of tank, but that rock is definitely more dingy looking than the others. 

[Tired]

Yeah, dinginess will definitely collect in low-flow areas. As long as there isn't tons of detritus building up around it, that's probably fine. A little detritus shouldn't hurt anything. 

 

Rock with algae and unidentified stuff growing on it should bring in some good diversity. 

[Jakesaw]

1 hour ago, Tired said:

Yeah, dinginess will definitely collect in low-flow areas. As long as there isn't tons of detritus building up around it, that's probably fine. A little detritus shouldn't hurt anything. 

 

 

Don't exactly know how to identify detritis, but my running thesis was that the DINO was collecting on that one rock in the corner and that's why it looks dingy. I my buy a turkey baster and give it a blast to see what blows off the rock.  It may be a little scary. 

 

I've only blasted rocks one other time with a siphonette.  It was a good looking rock and alot of crud blew out of some holes.. I assumed "THAT " was detritis.  Maybe incorrectly.

[Jakesaw]

I've upped my feedings to twice a day from once daily and a little messier than I had been feeding before.  I also removed the filter floss and started testing Nitrate every couple of days.

 

Any idea how long it should take for my Nitrates to creep up to a noticeable level?

 

Tank is a 10 gal with about 10 lb of LR - with 1 medium sized clown in it and 3 Hermit Crabs.  

 

Thanks

[Dave MN Nano]

This is a great discussion. My 20 gallon long has been going about a year. I used to have 0 nitrates and phosphates. I went to 2x a day feedings and got up to 5 ppm nitrates and 0.06 phosphates. My only mechanical filter is an HOB box filter. Have been wondering forever about a skimmer. Do I need a skimmer? Maybe instead I should be wondering if I even need the box filter?

 

One word about upping your feeding. It definitely worked for me. The nitrates and the phosphates change slower than you think. Once I got up to desired levels I went back to 1 a day feeding and they went up for a while longer. My advice is don't panic. Have patience. Slow changes.

[Jakesaw]

1 hour ago, Dave MN Nano said:

This is a great discussion. My 20 gallon long has been going about a year. I used to have 0 nitrates and phosphates. I went to 2x a day feedings and got up to 5 ppm nitrates and 0.06 phosphates. My only mechanical filter is an HOB box filter. Have been wondering forever about a skimmer. Do I need a skimmer? Maybe instead I should be wondering if I even need the box filter?

 

One word about upping your feeding. It definitely worked for me. The nitrates and the phosphates change slower than you think. Once I got up to desired levels I went back to 1 a day feeding and they went up for a while longer. My advice is don't panic. Have patience. Slow changes.

Sounds good.  I've got a new fish addition in the works and a tank swap from 10 to 20L.  I never panic over tank, quite patient.  But I can recognize when my desired outcome is not coming soon.  After observing 8 months of zero nitrates / phosphates followed by DINO, I had to change my approach somewhere. 

 

Then I came across the concept of not using any filter floss until you reached desired Nitrate levels.  ... Interesting.  Hadn't really read it on this site before.  Maybe I missed it. 

 

Figure, why not give it a try.

 

BTW - what livestock do you have in your 20L?

 

Thanks

[Dave MN Nano]

19 minutes ago, Jakesaw said:

BTW - what livestock do you have in your 20L?

2 percula clowns

1 firefish

1 yellow watchman goby + pistol shrimp

1 bangai cardinal

1 cleaner shrimp

5 hermit crabs

3 snails

 

hammer coral

frogspawn coral

torch coral

kenya leather tree

leather toadstool coral

pom pom xenia coral

bubble coral

GSP

devil's hand coral

candy cane coral

Acan coral

a few zoas and palys

ricordea mushroom

rhodactis mushroom

3 rock flower anemones

 

Full enough now that I have to be very careful about adding anything else. Considering a porcelain crab to hang out in my rfa garden.

[Dave MN Nano]

[Jakesaw]

Nice tank.  Looks like I have some catching up to do re: Livestock

[Tired]

5 hours ago, Dave MN Nano said:

This is a great discussion. My 20 gallon long has been going about a year. I used to have 0 nitrates and phosphates. I went to 2x a day feedings and got up to 5 ppm nitrates and 0.06 phosphates. My only mechanical filter is an HOB box filter. Have been wondering forever about a skimmer. Do I need a skimmer? Maybe instead I should be wondering if I even need the box filter?

You don't need a skimmer unless your dissolved organics and/or nutrients are too high. You definitely need water movement from the filter, but you may not need the media in it. 

 

And yeah, detritus is pretty much just crud. If you blow water at something and see brownish-grayish crud, that's detritus. It's a natural thing to have in the tank, and is fine in small amounts, but a large amount building up in the tank without things to feed on it can potentially cause some issues. If there's a lot of it, just gently stir it up and remove it during water changes.

[Jakesaw]

Well, I got 3 fish in the tank now.  So I should get a bump in nitrates without overfeeding.  And it's probably good I started testing water params on weekly basis. 

 

Ready - set - Wait! for nitrates

 

Clownfish seems happy to have some mates.  He's exploring areas of the tank he's never swam in to say Hello!

[1st reef]

On 9/7/2021 at 9:47 PM, Jakesaw said:

Has anybody ran a nano tank without mechanical filtration?

 

My 8 month old 10 gallon is still running zero nitrates / zero phosphates.  I've been dealing with Dino's because of it.  Been raising fish food & going to add another fish, but I read recently that a tank doesn't need mechanical filtration to the Nitrates reaches the desired level.  Considering tinkering with this concept. 

 

I've only got a few frags in the tank,  and want to get nitrates up to a reasonable level before adding additional corals, although I would like to add some sooner, I don't mind waiting a bit to get tank parameters correct.

 

So - anybody ran a nano tank without filtration to up nitrates successfully?

 

Thanks

Sw noob here. If you use a sponge, won't that create nitrates since sponges are "nitrate factories"? 

[Jakesaw]

1 hour ago, 1st reef said:

Sw noob here. If you use a sponge, won't that create nitrates since sponges are "nitrate factories"? 

I can't say - b/c I hadn't started testing nitrates at the time.  With hindsight, I wish I had done weekly testing from the getgo.  I was trying to bring my FW habits with me for ease of tank maintenance.  

 

I always had minimal algae growth, even with strong light so I don't "think" nitrates ever were a problem for my tank, and 1 clownfish was a low bioload.  I started with Sponge b/c it was the least expensive mothod to rinse and re-use.  Trying to keep tank as low tech and low cost as possible.  

 

Either way, whether it be rinsing sponge or replacing filter floss you're exporting that excess nutrient / debris from tank when cleaning or replacing the filter pad.

[1st reef]

2 minutes ago, Jakesaw said:

I can't say - b/c I hadn't started testing nitrates at the time.  With hindsight, I wish I had done weekly testing from the getgo.  I was trying to bring my FW habits with me for ease of tank maintenance.  

 

I always had minimal algae growth, even with strong light so I don't "think" nitrates ever were a problem for my tank, and 1 clownfish was a low bioload.  I started with Sponge b/c it was the least expensive mothod to rinse and re-use.  Trying to keep tank as low tech and low cost as possible.  

 

I hear you. Same here. 

[Tired]

A sponge that's infrequently cleaned can generate some nitrates, yes, from all the gunk trapped in it. It does tend to strain gunk out of the water that the corals would like to eat, which isn't really ideal.