Nature's Balance: How And Why Aquarium Filters Aren't Always Necessary 

How much nitrate you rocking? 🤓Get Some Test Strips!!! ► geni.us/gtyj4k 🐟🦐LEGIT. Fish Food ► geni.us/LEGITFishFood

Someone on the coop forums did a little experiment and found that lucky bamboo pulls more nitrate than pothos. It was very interesting. I myself played around with this and ended up needing to remove some of the lucky bamboo because my other plants were suffering and I just couldn't keep decent nitrate levels so I think they do indeed soak up nitrates.

Mike: What is that like 8 inches? Actually it's only 3. Weird. Me: *suspicious* 😂😂😂

I let the fish store test my water, if my wife ever found out how easy and cheap it is to test your own water my supply of new fish would be pretty much cut off....

I just saw a rabbit running around on the floor. Ahhh. great video

I’m a no filter guy. Life’s better and easier for the most part. 1st reason is what did it for me.

I am new to the hobby and started right off with planted, low-no filter tanks and I had to move them two weeks ago. I was so worried but to me everyone/thing is recovering. I am doing pretty much what you are saying here and this video just kinda gave me a pat on the back so thank you!! I am really enjoying trying to use less/no synthetic products in my tanks. Thank you for this it was fun to watch and I learned a lot!

thanks to channels like yours i managed to somehow get a large vase to work for guppy fry with basically no water changes. Only added a small piece of Mopani wood (wood lowers the ph is all i know) and having a huge thick carpet of duckweed on the surface appears to help with all the other factors. So the fish have nice, stable, and a bit tan water. A tank doesn't need much to be self-sustained but fishkeeping itself is a very complex thing where lots can go wrong.

Aquariums throw surprises at ya no matter how experienced ya are or how long ya been keeping fish. It's always interesting to see something you've never experienced before. Test strips are the one staple supply nobody should be without. 👍❤️👍

Love it! It made me go do test strips on my tanks! No nitrates, just needed a water top off, and I cleaned sponge filters.

That's a funny looking dog (9:44).

I am loving your videos! Awesome content, keep up the amazing work!

Great video and glad to see you posting! You have great knowledge!

Really nice presentation style mike. 👍

Awesome video, really appreciated it, thank you.

An info packed video. Thank you. 😏

Very impressed 👏

When I do water change on my shrimp or guppy tank and it is just a straight water change, I put a prefilter sponge on the end. That way I don’t have anyone riding the roller coaster. I also use a sponge when adding water and it diffuses the water wonderfully.

Hey Mike, watched this video and I noticed your test strip was a light violet for GH which isn't on the chart. I get the same on my water. Do you notice any issues with neocaridina and java moss? I can't grow moss well and have a low survival rate on shrimplets. My strip readings are near identical with yours. Thanks.....Mike

I got into undergravel filters and I really enjoy it. I have it on my 75

Great vid. Thanks.

Liquid tests are far more accurate than test strips. How do I know this? - Well, everybody on RU-vid says so. I've always wondered whether this is in fact true or is everybody just parroting what they have been told for years by other people who are also just saying the same thing with no idea whether it's actually true. I've seen a RU-vid fish channel do a side-by-side comparison between tests strips and a liquid test and when the results differed confidently pronounced that the test strip was inaccurate - like, how do you know it was not the liquid test that was inaccurate, maybe they are both inaccurate?

30:12 that's basically what a pothos does if it's a baby pothos then no it's gonna take some time. but i have GIANT pothos at my house, like they send off tons of leaves and those leaves need nitrates, tbh the other minerals in my tank become a bottleneck before the pothos can use all the nitrates. however they still reduce the nitrates by a substantial amount. however they can also rot, leading to an increase in nitrates. so i've found the best practice is to have a smaller pothos in multiple containers, letting them get large is fine but they become a bit of a pain to move around and they'll probably break once they get really long, also they drop leaves sometimes so you gotta clean those up too (or they fall into the tank and increase nitrates) just do what makes sense, i love pothos, i noticed the fish love to hide in the root systems, and if you can get the pothos to root (into the substrate of the tank, not just the filter) then that also has an exponential boost to production. I put pothos in all of my tanks, let it root down and give it tons of light (or use it to block out light if you have an algae problem) use the brain cells i believe in yall, I'm making a filterless aquarium in my grow tent (lit 24/7 with hp grow light) im going to fill the container with pothos and throw an endler in there to see if i can filter a tank entirely with pothos (and not let the nitrates get out of hand, although tbf fish can tolerate really high nitrates and the higher the nitrates the better the pothos will grow)

VERY INTERESTING :) THANK YOU FOR THE EFORT :) THANK YOU FOR SHARING :) THANK YOU FROM ISRAEL :)

Sorry 4 the long comment... I set up my 1st no filter but failed. I added the smallest sponge I had(it's small small) The tank is 5.5 gallons with a 3 or 4 inch sand/pea gravel mix substrate fully planted with a few cpd's. Had a die off so moved them into the cube n they r doing good so far. Oh n some Ramshorns. Thinking of removing the sponge n trying again. I would love no filters on all my tanks as I have 9 in my bedroom and it gets warm during the day especially being in Southwest Florida.

Liquid test are undoubtedly better and more accurate that test strips. For you next video maybe you should do some back to back testing with multiple brands.

those are some amazing guppies!

I had a filter on my 75 clog up and stop flowing for probably a week or two before I even noticed it. The tank isn't necessarily heavily planted but most of the fish are still small so the bioload relative to the plants makes it work I guess. I'm considering taking the filter off completely. Only thing in that tank currently is an air stone on full blast for circulation.

I don’t have any no filter tanks. I even put a nano sponge filter on the 2g Wabi Kusa. I do have a couple tanks that don’t need water changes often though.

cool video. what's your ammonia level?

Great video Mike! I have been a no filter girl for 20+ years, largest no filter is a 125gal. It does have two air stones. I don't do any water changes, just top off. Low bioload, heavily planted...easiest tank in the world! I also have two macroalgae salt water tanks, also no filter, sump or skimmer, lots of macros, low bioload, 20% water change a week. I also have two outdoor, year around ponds, no filters and no air stones. I'm also an aquarium co-op test strip user, love them! Easygreen also👍

I have HUGE pothos & other plants growing up a lattice out of my guppy aquarium. I highly recommend you do this! I just got my first fenestrated pothos leaf. I am stoked! Do it! Do it! Do it!

First

1:49 You won’t take it off 😂😂😂❤

What are the floating plants that cover the top of most of your tanks called?

I have 15 gal no filter planted tank and its perfectly running for 2 years I have guppies and german blue ram on it..

I think the test strips can be better. One of my tanks has read 0 on everything for 2 years so i got lazy with liquid tests. Every now and then put strip in and caught a random spike of nitrates.

"Deep substrate" 11:00 lol

I like doing water changes because i like to be active in my hobby. To each their own though. Different styles for different people.

My one 6.5 gallon guppy tank has no filter and to be honest it is doing better than other tanks that have filters. The fish are as healthy if not more healthy than the filtered tank. Just an air bubbler in there.

Great video! Re: plants and nitrates.. I have a 90 gal discus tank, which I had planted with tons of Val, my nitrates were always pretty high. After I removed the plants and 90% of the bladder snails that lived on them, the nitrates are consistently under 10 ppm. Of course, it's a filtered tank, but my work load actually went down after removing the plants! I believe it is because the snails were creating so much waste. Less plants = less food for the snails= less nitrates.. I'm guessing? Also, the Co-op test strips are a staple! I always test my water in all my tanks before doing a W/C. Sometimes, it just isn't necessary! Love your channel!❤

You need shrimp in your tank, it would complete your ecosystem.

Quite a surprise how your betta tank's nitrate is high. It seems very little bioload. I am sure you didn't over feed. Do you have any explanation on this?

Do I need to feed my mollies...? Because I found a lot of microfauna in the aquarium

You look and talk like a doctor ❤

I have a 55 gallon with a 40 gallon filter that barely works. It could definitely run no filter

I’m no scientist but I e always read anywhere , even in books that nitrite is the deadlier then nitrate or ammonia as the lethality of ammonia also reduces with the lowering of ph and increases in high ph .

I believe you put some inaccurate and dangerous informarion our there on the effect of nitrite. Plus when it is present in an aquarium the balance is off, for beginners this is when to worry and start doing water changes and regulars intervals to keep it low and wait for the cycle to pick back up...

A 50% water change plus another 50% water change is a 75% water change, not a 100%. When you remove the second lot, its half original water and half fresh water, so you're only removing an additional 25%

👍🏻👍🏻

i dont have a filter but I vacuum every 3-4days and I have an airstone

I don't really think it's "impossible to know", I've been following the channel Father Fish and he seems to know. In the guppy mansion tank, you have deep substrate, but it isn't JUST deep, it's layered up with what looks like dirt under the sand, creating an anaerobic area that REMOVES nitrates from the tank itself. The other tanks that don't have this specific condition have very little way to remove the nitrates, aquarium plants do use nitrates, but they'll actually use Ammonia first, meaning they're basically skipping out on the nitrates.

Try father fish

Your room is hooman tank. 😃

I would always question the accuracy of a test strip, on getting an indication of high nitrate I would definitely use a more accurate test like a liquid kit,

Twin cities!

I watched it using Indonesian subtitles, I think I would understand better if you explained it

Love your stuff but this was a hard video to stick with, kind of all over the place.

U dont really need a filter in a tank. All you need is a surface skimmer with polishing floss

I see what you did there 10:33

What's your gamer tag?

Why can't a test strip include ammonia? We can put a man on the moon, but no ammonia test strip? As for the aquarium coop test strips, I was getting some false super high nitrate readings and false nitrite readings when compared to the API test kit readings. That's not cool. I would say use all these test strips for a general (possibly false) understanding, not a precise one. In other words, compare any out-of-range reading on a test strip to a more accurate test.

2x 50% water change is 75% in total. Not comparable with a 100% change ;)

20:00 Your plants require nutrients.

dude. you did 2 50% waters changes..thats not 100%..lol. Good video though.

All the cichlid owners want to know how to do a no filter?

Nahhh dude you wont ever get real nitrate eaters unless you have a plenum that has an anoxic condition

What did we learn? Nothing. Get your act together.

aquariums are kool, make my comment the top 👍🏽😭

“All 3 of the nitrogen species” this guy has no clue. Why is there any nitrite in his tanks at all? Those Aquarium Co-op strips are notoriously bad at testing too, but he’s pushing them for his buddy. It’s all about the cash for these influencers.

Man i m jealous, how do you keep all those plants? I have green algae growing on the dying leaves of my floating plants AND all over the roots of the floating plants. I tried hydrogen peroxide and it also damaged my floating plants, they seem more fragile. I only use an 11W LED on a 5 gallon for 10 hours which is absolutely nothing for floating plants. Any1 has a pro tip? 😅🥲🤪