No filter setup

[shaman]

Is it ok for me to setup a planted tank without filter?
What are the disadvantage of such setup?
thanks

[|squee|]

Yes indeed you can do so.

Possible disadvantages I can think of are lack of water circulation to bring nutrients to the plants and circulate stuff around, as well as dangerous levels of ammonia/nitrite/nitrate if your plant mass is not enough to absorb all these in.

[PeterGwee]

Act as a backup for plants in case they stunt for some reason (mostly due to us not keeping up on things like CO2 or nutrients.). Better to have bacteria than algae.

Regards
Peter Gwee

[shaman]

algae grows because of high nutrition in some area of the tank?
so filtration actually stir the water and make sure the distribution of nutrients is more even?

Thanks!!

[|squee|]

No, algae grows when plants do not grow . As long as plants grow actively, algae will somehow not appear.

You're right about the second part though, the water movement moves the nutrients around so that all plants can have easy access to the nutrients since they take in nutrients from the leaves as well as roots.

[juggler]

I think it is OK without filter since the substrate will have an abundant source of bacteria. The roots from growing plants will keep the substrate oxygenated.

You can use a powerhead to have water movement in the tank. And if you intend to have a powerhead, might as well have some filtration at the same time, right?

I have some small low-tech setups without any water movement. The growth looks OK to me.