anyone have a 5gl with no filter?

[Oldfishlady]

I had a different result on the experiment I conducted on water quality-but this might be due to the fact that I don't need to use dechlorinating products with my well water. Some of the dechlorinator can cause skewed test results for various reason-among other things.

On the experiment with 5gal unfiltered without live plants-I found that 50% weekly with vacuum would maintain water quality, however, I recommend a 90-100% monthly in addition to the 50% weekly- as a safety measure to error on the side of caution, since sometimes a hobbyist may not be able to vacuum well or correctly or have a lot of decoration in the tank or overfeeding or poor quality food related-But with proper deep vacuuming, feeding of quality foods properly- the 100% shouldn't be needed-based on my non-scientific experiment, however, I did have a control tank.

I have found that too clean can sometimes be as bad as too dirty in some cases. Even in unfiltered tanks you need to maintain a balance-you have more going on than ammonia. You have both good and bad bacteria and by over cleaning you remove the slow colonizing good and this can allow the faster colonizing bad to take over-not to mention antibody development that is also important.

With the nitrogen cycle beneficial bacteria-these bacteria are self limiting-you can only colonize enough based on food supply, oxygen and surface area. When one of these are missing or limited they die and/or see spikes.

For example-we fishless cycle so that we can safely stock the community tank once the nitrogen cycle is established-If the only stocking in the tank will be a single Betta and we fishless cycled for-lets say 10 fish...all that extra BB with start to consume itself for food. Without a filter-will limit dissolved oxygen and in smaller tank you have limited surface area for the sticky BB to adhere to and colonize-This is over simplified-its more complex than that....but....hopefully you get the point...Read my Fish-in Betta specific cycling and water change recommendation for more information.

[Myates]

I have a 10g unfiltered with 2 bettas in it, snails and a ton of live plants (about 30+ stalks of different species with floaters)... I do weekly 50% with siphon - haven't needed to do a 100%.

[Hallyx]

A cycled tank (or a NPT) will always provide consistently cleaner, less toxic water than a non-filtered tank, regardless of the frequency of water changes. Even with an established tank you still have to do a weekly water change to remove nitrate, TDSs and DOCs.

Cycling a tank is not for the convenience of the keeper, but for the health and safety of the fish.

[Bsalem05]

Originally Posted by Fin Fancier

My 5 gallon gets a once weekly water change. My boy has been happy in there for several months with no problem, and that way I don't have to worry about there being a problem with the currents some filters cause.

From your avatar pic I can imagen what a filter would add to lugging around all that finnage! lol =)

I'm more assured now on what I want to do with the tank now.

[Tikibirds]

I have a 5 gallon unfiltered tank. I do 50-75% water changes 1X a week and a 90% once a month. Everytime I put a filter in his tank, he freaks out so I gave up. I also have had 10G's unfiltered.

[Bsalem05]

Originally Posted by Tikibirds

I have a 5 gallon unfiltered tank. I do 50-75% water changes 1X a week and a 90% once a month. Everytime I put a filter in his tank, he freaks out so I gave up

what kind of substrate do you have??

how do you do the cleaning on it?

[misty1477]

Originally Posted by Tikibirds

I have a 5 gallon unfiltered tank. I do 50-75% water changes 1X a week and a 90% once a month. Everytime I put a filter in his tank, he freaks out so I gave up. I also have had 10G's unfiltered.

I have the same size tank and do the same water change schedule as you do. Sparkle freaks out with filters also ... silly bettas.

[misty1477]

Originally Posted by Bsalem05

what kind of substrate do you have??

how do you do the cleaning on it?

I have a very small layer of clear/green/blue 'gems' as substrate and use a gravel vacuum.