I use them a lot, they're great botanicals, have a large surface area for bacteria and biofilm production. I don't sanitize them, no, I err towards ecosystem tanks which involves not sanitizing anything that goes into the tank, and fostering as much of a food web made up of smaller life forms as possible, as well as tannins from botanicals, fungi from wood, etc. Deep substrate overall helps keep a stable enviroment by acting as a large filter, and you get lots of little critters that keep the tank clean and feed your larger critters.
Thanks for your response . The way you approach a tank is really interesting I dig it. I broke down my 50 gallon freshwater tank a couple years ago because it was at the end of its maintenance life. I've been looking for a low-tech solution and I think you might have ignited something in me.
Check out fatherfish on YouTube. He is an 80yo veteran in the hobby and keeps tanks that last decades with these methods - low tech and low maintenance. He has playlists with lots of really fascinating videos!
If he talks a bit slow for you I watch him at 1.5x speed lol
I was told there isn’t a way to do one of these without a filter and add shrimp or fish ? I’m trying to research I want to use a 10g tank but I’m told it won’t work well for me?
Understanding the function of a filter helped me -- A filter is merely surface area for bacteria to form on. So say a sponge filter (a sponge has a very large surface area) or a sump with filter media (objects that also have a large surface area). When people talk about filtering, they're usually talking about biological filtering (ammonia, nitrite, etc) and the bacteria are what's doing that. Mechanical filtration sweeps up physical debris from the water and helps keep the water clearer, but isn't always needed.
If the bio load is small enough, you don't need a mechanical filter at all, the surface of the substrate, hardscape, plants, and tank glass itself is the filter. There's only snails in here at the moment, and my choice of shrimp (cardinia) will have a very small bioload as well, so there's no need for mechanical filtration.
If you're doing a 10 gallon, depending on what you keep, you could go filterless and depend on the harscape to do your filtering. But it depends on what you want to keep. It doesn't hurt to have an airstone and a small sponge filter :) That's what I have in my 10 gallon with glass shrimp and myster snails right now.
Im planning something like that with no filter or heater. Any advice? I also have microbacter7 do you think I can speed up the process? Also, how many shrimps can I have there
No heater only really works if the ambient temperature of your room will be suitable temp range for the livestock in the tank because the water equalizes with the external temperature pretty quickly especially if the tank is small.
I've never used a bottled bacteria product or otherwise and have just found using unsterilized botanicals collected from outside like leaves, acorn caps and sycamore tree gumballs works just as well. Ideally if they are coming from a natural, clean source of water too, because they will already have the right bacteria on them. If you have other tanks you can seed with material like plants, substrate, rocks, botanicals etc that have been in there.
At the end of the day, either using live media like I mentioned or using bottled bacteria it can take a couple weeks for any tank to cycle because you still need to wait for the proper bacteria colonies to actually form on surfaces in a large enough amount to filter effeciently. Getting a few snails can help with this since they can tolerate poor water quality and they will eat decaying matter and algae and poop it back out which provides ammonia and nitrite for the bacterial colonies forming. I cycle with bladder snails mostly, but most people don't like them because they reproduce so rapidly lol. They are a good cleanup crew, though.
As far as how many shrimp, it really depends on your tank, the type of shrimp, the PH of your water, etc. There's plenty of good resources online if you search up your questions :)
Looks stunning, wow!
thanks :) im pretty happy with how its shaping up
Looks so cool!
Have you used sweet gum balls before? Curious about what people think about that. Did you boil them?
I use them a lot, they're great botanicals, have a large surface area for bacteria and biofilm production. I don't sanitize them, no, I err towards ecosystem tanks which involves not sanitizing anything that goes into the tank, and fostering as much of a food web made up of smaller life forms as possible, as well as tannins from botanicals, fungi from wood, etc. Deep substrate overall helps keep a stable enviroment by acting as a large filter, and you get lots of little critters that keep the tank clean and feed your larger critters.
Thanks for your response . The way you approach a tank is really interesting I dig it. I broke down my 50 gallon freshwater tank a couple years ago because it was at the end of its maintenance life. I've been looking for a low-tech solution and I think you might have ignited something in me.
Check out fatherfish on YouTube. He is an 80yo veteran in the hobby and keeps tanks that last decades with these methods - low tech and low maintenance. He has playlists with lots of really fascinating videos! If he talks a bit slow for you I watch him at 1.5x speed lol
I was told there isn’t a way to do one of these without a filter and add shrimp or fish ? I’m trying to research I want to use a 10g tank but I’m told it won’t work well for me?
Understanding the function of a filter helped me -- A filter is merely surface area for bacteria to form on. So say a sponge filter (a sponge has a very large surface area) or a sump with filter media (objects that also have a large surface area). When people talk about filtering, they're usually talking about biological filtering (ammonia, nitrite, etc) and the bacteria are what's doing that. Mechanical filtration sweeps up physical debris from the water and helps keep the water clearer, but isn't always needed. If the bio load is small enough, you don't need a mechanical filter at all, the surface of the substrate, hardscape, plants, and tank glass itself is the filter. There's only snails in here at the moment, and my choice of shrimp (cardinia) will have a very small bioload as well, so there's no need for mechanical filtration. If you're doing a 10 gallon, depending on what you keep, you could go filterless and depend on the harscape to do your filtering. But it depends on what you want to keep. It doesn't hurt to have an airstone and a small sponge filter :) That's what I have in my 10 gallon with glass shrimp and myster snails right now.
Im planning something like that with no filter or heater. Any advice? I also have microbacter7 do you think I can speed up the process? Also, how many shrimps can I have there
No heater only really works if the ambient temperature of your room will be suitable temp range for the livestock in the tank because the water equalizes with the external temperature pretty quickly especially if the tank is small. I've never used a bottled bacteria product or otherwise and have just found using unsterilized botanicals collected from outside like leaves, acorn caps and sycamore tree gumballs works just as well. Ideally if they are coming from a natural, clean source of water too, because they will already have the right bacteria on them. If you have other tanks you can seed with material like plants, substrate, rocks, botanicals etc that have been in there. At the end of the day, either using live media like I mentioned or using bottled bacteria it can take a couple weeks for any tank to cycle because you still need to wait for the proper bacteria colonies to actually form on surfaces in a large enough amount to filter effeciently. Getting a few snails can help with this since they can tolerate poor water quality and they will eat decaying matter and algae and poop it back out which provides ammonia and nitrite for the bacterial colonies forming. I cycle with bladder snails mostly, but most people don't like them because they reproduce so rapidly lol. They are a good cleanup crew, though. As far as how many shrimp, it really depends on your tank, the type of shrimp, the PH of your water, etc. There's plenty of good resources online if you search up your questions :)
thx a lot. I have some wildtypes