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Re: filterless tanks
>From the looks of this test it would seem to me that the filter was
> robbing the plants of needed nutrients and converting it into nitrates,
> I may be wrong on this note. This brings up a concern for me, if the
> plants does a better job of filtration than conventional filters does
> this mean that filters are NOT needed on a planted tank?
I have always run my planted tanks without any biological filter. I do,
however, have a mechanical filter on the tanks. For most of my tanks
this consists of only a prefilter sponge that is rinsed about every
other day in hot tap water. I have never had a noticeable cycle to my
planted tanks. I also have never had measurable nitrates (I think I had
a little color show up in a test once...but it may have been my
imagination 8Þ). I have also run tanks with no filter at all for short
periods of time and had no adverse effects. I thought it was standard
practice not to use a bio-filter on a planted tank...I guess I was
wrong.
Neptune
gregcox at usa_net
http://gfn2.gfn.org/gfac/neptune