> Hey Naturnut, I think that you have found an intesting topic to talk
about.
> Your filterless aquarium, in my opinion, is what separates two very
> different disciplins in aquariology. Your average hobbyist, whether a
> native or tropical fish enthusiast, is hammered by everyone they know and
> ask to get the biggest, best, most advanced, technologically coolest, most
> expensive filters that they can buy for their aquarium. "This is the
only
> way to keep the numbers and kinds of fish that you want to keep in an
> aquarium!" Usually, we get started in this business to keep as many
> different varieties of fish together, whatever habitat they are found in.
> It is a totally unnatural situation to have so many and such a variety of
> fish in such a small amount of water. That is why we need to rely on
> "unnatural" or "conventional" filtration. We need to provide a place
> (actually a refugium) for organisms to grow in great quantitites to be
able
> to handle the excessive wastes that the absorbitant numbers of fish per
> water volume produce. Fish are the focus in this discipline. Although
> some have been doing it all along (here in the US but mostly in Europe),
> the vast majority of us have not heard much about this "natural aquarium"
> technique until relatively recently. This concept has taken off in the
> saltwater part of our hobby with living reef aquariums. Much of the
credit
> goes to Dr. Walter Adey who is usually credited with algae scrubbers (the
> algae filter you mentioned) for making this popular. There were others
> involved too. This discipline of aquariology is different in that it is a
> much more ecologically minded approach. It is the system which is most
> important and the fish are part of the system. An analogy that I often
use
> is that the sytem is like the human body. All the components of the
system
> correlate to organs of the body. Although you still are perfectly allowed
> to have an unnatural variety of organisms in your tank (unless you are a
> purist which is the ultimate right wing of the hobby) but instead of
fancy
> gadgets and gazactometers to do your filtering and monitoring, you rely on
> more diversity of organisms (ie-plants, algae, snails, worms, and other
> miscellaneous "critters") to do you food conversions. As in nature, the
> more diversity that you have in a system, whether a pond or an aquarium,
> the more stable the system is. If these organisms start to decline (or go
> extinct) it is only a matter of time before the balance is disrupted and
> you have major problems with diseases, (weather patterns) etc. It is so
> ironic that this is usually considered the route of the advanced hobbyist
> but this is how our hobby started in the mid to late 1800's! No fancy
> filters or gazactometers then.
>
> Nick Zarlinga
> Aquarium Biologist
> Cleveland Metroparks Zoo
> 216-661-6500 ex 4485
>
> "Fish worship... is it wrong??" (Ray Troll)
>
> On Friday, February 02, 2001 10:58 PM, nanfa
> [SMTP:owner-nanfa-digest_at_aquaria.net] wrote:
>
> > Date: Fri, 2 Feb 2001 22:00:08 EST
> > From: NATURNUT_at_aol.com
> > Subject: NANFA-- Filter-less aquariums
> >
> > I understand several aquarists have planted tanks with no filtration
> > except the plants themselves. The ammonia levels were at nearly zero,
> with
> > the nitrite readings the same. Nitrate levels were not as low, but still
> were
> > quite low. Some tanks incorporated a sump, and a 10 plastic tank heavily
> > planted with floating plants, and the water was returned back to the
> tank.
> > Others were completely self contained, but current is essential. The
idea
> > that nitritifying bacteria thrives on every part of the tank(glass,
> plants,
> > rocks, gravel, sand, ect) was used. In many instances, a filter was
> placed in
> > these tanks out of curiousity, and did nothing in the way of lowering
> > ammonia, ammonium, nitrites, or nitrates. The filters looked very clean,
> > filtering out very little suspended particles. This topic has probably
> > allready been addressed, but if anyone has tried a filter-less aquarium,
> > please share your experiences. Sorry this is kind of off-topic! Thank
> you!
> > __Dan
>
>
>
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