Creating A FILTERLESS AQUARIUM Using Anoxic AND Aerobic Bacteria. How to Setup A Natural Fish Tank

The Truth: How to Set up Filterless Aquariums using anoxic & aerobic bacteria. The natural fish tank. Deep Substrate beds, anoxic filtration, the nitrogen cycle, planted fish tanks, using shrimp, snails and fish, to create beautiful, calming nature aquariums and aquascapes.

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[barbarusbloodshed]

I've been in this hobby for roughly 25 years, had my first tank when I was about 9/10 years old. Had aquariums until I was 22, then a few years break because of a small apartment that didn't allow for any tank of a size I'd like and then started again 5 years ago and have a fishroom since then with 11 tanks.
5 years ago I started doing all the usual stuff; but I put much more focus on the plants than I did when I was younger. I always planted my tanks, but now I was trying to fill the tank with plants, whereever I could find a tiny bit of space I put a plant. And then floating plants. And then covering all the rocks and wood with moss.
I noticed how these tanks were able to go 6 weeks without a water change with no consequence. I tried 8 weeks. 10. 12. 14. 16. and so on.
Then I stopped doing water changes alltogether. Just tipped off when water had evaporated. Also fine.
Then I turned off the filtration in one of the tanks. Weeks passed. Everything was fine. Months passed, everything was fine. Did the same thing with a second tank. Again, same result.
And now the filtration in all my tanks is off. And has been for almost two years.
If you've got enough plants and enough surface area for the beneficial bacteria everything's fine.
Oh, and snails. Always have snails.

[kevinpowell]

I have two Walstad tanks, no filters, deep substrate, both been running for over 3 years, stable ph, clear nitrate reading, have very limited knowledge of what's going on biology wise but all organisms are thriving so I just sit and stare with my gormless face. 🍀

[dusk]

Yes, and well done, great discussion and examples.
I say this as I've dabbled in aquariums for fun, but I’ve studied plant and soil science as a profession. You've come very close to describing conditions that allow these organisms to function under multiple natural conditions across various biomes. What you've created is a successful food web, and the substrate conditions to moderate proper nutrient cycles.

It's not that science lacks the understanding to achieve this, what you describe is common knowledge in various fields of biology where individuals study natural systems. Rather it's that most consumers just want fish. You can’t create your setup without a multitude of species and an abundance of patience. You must want an ecosystem in a box, to achieve these conditions. Our modern filter technology isolates specific organisms and optimizes their growth in a way that enables a brand-new hobbyist to stock an aquarium with fish, only fish; in a way they survive off water changes and food alone.
Filters make the hobby approachable and manageable for those with limited to no knowledge or experience in the hobby nor biology. However, as you have shown here; if you mimic nature and understand ecological services and nutrient cycles, you don't need a filter.

You have to have posses a certain level of intrigue and desire, to approach the hobby in the way you’ve shown. And as planted systems become more prevalent, and captive invertebrate diversity become more common in the hobby; I do hope more people start thinking in this manner. I personally prefer creating partial ecosystems over keeping fish alone, and that is why I've written this much in a comment. ( I hope it’s of some use to you)

What I know, from courses taken and books read: It's substrate and the benthic organisms that moderate and maintain most natural systems.
Most fish are higher level predators that rely on the ecological services of primary producers and lower trophic level consumers to survive and predate upon. How you've chosen to keep and stock your tanks, also created an environment where those lower trophic levels are present and can offer the services associated with their niche's. I would take an educated guess and say if you incorporate even more infaunal invertebrate diversity, the sediment will mediate conditions even better. An example would be something like black worms (assuming they don't get eaten).

Your discussion was great, but I don't think you touched on the invertebrate’s importance enough. The main push back you will get with this are comments talking about toxic gas build up... In reality, a substrate with few or no invertebrates will lack the forage behavior of creatures like the planaria, trumpet snails, blackworm; which mediate gas exchange in a way that does not disturb the stratification of bacterial communities in that substrate. In a system without them, you can get biproduct buildups; gas pockets form, which once disturbed can bubble to the surface. oddly, the gas is what’s blamed for killing fish, but the gas enters the atmosphere. It is the liquid surrounding that gas which then circulates in the water column and damages your livestock. If you attempt to maintain that substrate yourself, to prevent toxic pockets from forming, you often kill off the stratified bacterial colonies when you stir it and disturb it; which sets the system back months and can cause further damage. The infaunal invertebrates prevent a large build up of those conditions simply by their natural forage behavior; facilitating gas exchange.

Additionally, they assist in the movement of wastes like mulm into lower levels of the substrate as it breaks down further. The mineralization of food to inorganic nutrient is long and mediated by a multitude of organisms. Detritivores, fungi, bacterial all play key roles in fully breaking down waste. And once all that is converted, the plants uptake the inorganic fractions which were left over.
And you have been able to effectively stock enough plant mass to keep up with your input of foods, another ecological principle slowly working it’s way into the common hobby.

I said all this because I’m excited to see others trying to develop a system this way. And I certainly am learning right along with you. Hopefully, this comment offers some support for your endeavor and perhaps areas of additional research.


**On a side note, my personal system ran similar to yours (it was eventually converted to salt water, to learn the marine side). The only thing I found was that adding a sump went along way. I drilled an overflow box in my display and let water gravity feed into a sump which had baffles dividing separate chambers. My first chamber was a deep sand bed (about 5 inches deep and specifically pool filter sand with laterite added to the bottom. The follow on chamber was a small amount of traditional bio-media and a separate neocaridina colony. I ran it this way to see if I could optimize the anoxic and anaerobic bacteria in the sand bed (out of the main tank) and to play with ways of growing floating plants in the sump (much like a refugium), where I could more easily control and harvest fast growers like duck weed... The sand had mixed results, but isolating the duckweed was a personal win (I don't aesthetically like it in the display). It's a concept I will return to once I get a larger space and can have a second tank (one marine, one fresh is the plan).

[ctsfiddler]

Learning from someone who has done it saves us from mistakes. Nice tanks. I've been in the hobby since i was a teen, 70 now and it wasn't until i went back to simplicity that things started thriving with less of my hand in the tank.

[kannadiga]

I must have seen 1000s of videos on aquatic life to this date, but this is the video I'm vibing the most with.. It is not one of those low tech setup or DIY projects but rather a guide to achieving a sustainable ecosystem.
.
How much time it needs, what can be knocked off, what cannot be compromised. This has to be one in my top 5 best videos on aquatic life...

[travismorgan]

In most highly planted, low stocked, good substrate tanks, filters are just wasting electricity and causing extra maintenance.
You also don’t need water movement to heat an aquarium. Turn the heater horizontal and place it just above the substrate and the tank will heat fairly evenly. Convection is all you need.

[tomi.d]

Amen! Been keeping fish for more than 30 years and have arrived at really low maintenance setups without heat or filtration. I've kept native goodies, killies, sunfish, dwarf livebearers, endlers, rosy red minnows, etc that way. Love bladder snails because without water movement they can skim the surface of the water and remove all of the protein film. I also put scuds in most of my tanks (oh! the horror!) I've done the Walstad thing, too lazy now, lol. Don't even do water changes and it's not an issue. I use coarse gravel and rhizome plants on rocks/wood, and floaters. All of my tanks are open-topped with emerging houseplants like philodendron, arrow plant, dieffenbachia, etc - they add a tremendous amount of filtration. The other benefit of not having mechanical filtration is all of the microorganisms are able to survive in the water and feed the fry. Great video!

[herpdiversity]

Filter- less aquariums are my favorite. And with my paludariums i have used a similar method without filtration in something as small as a three gallon. I use coconut fiber as the substrate it seems to work well. And I use a tank with a six gallon base but fill half of it with gravel. Wow, thank you this is making much more sense now.

[tamajquinn]

The youtuber Foo The Flowerhorn sets up their tanks without mechanical filtration. They have wildly entertaining content. Totally worth the look if you haven't heard of them.

[AquariumExperiments]

As far as I found out from my experience you are right. With the right setup you don't need any technology for filtration.

[marypaigeflynn]

My goodness Alex the opening shot of your aquarium is just incredible!! The colors are popping!! I'm really enjoying the aquarium hobby this time around after learning about how to keep it natural and develop a ecosystem.. There's nothing more beautiful than looking into an aquarium just like yours and watching it thrive!
I have joined the Mulmy muck filter gang😁
I really appreciate your "Canary in a coal mine" approach to keeping an eye on your tank. It makes perfect sense and is a great indicator to help keep an eye on your tank! And you are right.. look at how beautiful the colors of your fish are and how natural everything looks.. happy for sure!!
Your aquariums are perfect example of what laying down a good foundation can help you achieve so you can enjoy a forever Aquarium! I appreciate your teachings Alex!! Hope you have a very blessed day!!🙏🌿🐟🌿💚

[sherrylynn]

I love FF methods, I followed him and now have a deep substrate tank and I absolutely love it, its my best tank. ❤

[notlehsydna]

i keep over 20 planted aquariums in my garage. i have literally a tank with every type/brand of substrate because i like doing tests. what ive found is my dirted tanks(walstad method) even after 2 years are doing the best and i have completely removed filtration besides a little wave maker for surface tension on one of them. but using the deep substrate method with sand and some soil has been by far the most successful long term tanks without having any filtration what so ever andb minimal water changes. i learned alot from the infamous Dr. Novak and ill say ive found most success when using 1-2 different types of bacteria (aerobic, anaerobic, and anoxic ). in my opinion the best set up is a tank with a nice heavy planted aquascape that has a deep sand bed in the sump this way you can have a beautiful tank and get all the benefits of a the deep substrate method. you'll never have to change water again, but with these other types of bacteria you have to realize it takes about 6 months to have it successfully working so dont think throwing in a 4 inch deep later of sand or 2 of soil 3 of sand is going to be instantly ready. quite the opposite you need to have a hob or something then over the months slowly back off on the amount of active filtration you are running. well thats whats worked for me for the last 10 or so years. good luck and always try something new even if it is terrifying at first.(in all aspects of life not just fish tanks)

[Nuummite]

Once again, Alexander, You have nailed it.

I bought an FX6 but as it has since proven. 4 inches of Substrate has taken over the job.

Subsequently, I mostly require surface disruption alone to facilitate gas exchange.

My Substrate has very much acquired stratification and as such provides for the anoxic Bacteria.

I do think Aquarium Companies do a number on us when a very simple sponge filter will take care of any extra toxins released from fishes.

My current perception is in actuality that some companies do a number on you by suggesting “ You absolutely must have this”

As you have rightly suggested. Snails, Detritus Worms and indeed Micro Organisms as Shewn by your Microscope investigation was proof positive.

My Tank with it’s deep substrate, has and indeed shall, keep chugging along.

Can’t believe I was sucked in to buying an FX6.

Cest La Vie. ❤️

[btcbob]

Your 100% percent right about everything except you didn't quite stress enough that this whole idea takes TIME. The average person walks into petco on a Saturday afternoon and see's that one really nice display tank and thinks, maybe expects that they can just load up the shopping cart with all the bells whistles and chemicals and by Sunday night will have the same thing in their Livingroom . It's worse if you have young kids who just want their new fish NOW. Cant tell your kids that we have to wait two weeks for the plants to establish them selves and then 2 more weeks for some snails and maybe shrimp to join the party and then after 2 more weeks they can have some fish. I had a severe case of MTSD " Multiple tank syndrome " back in the late 1970's- 80's. when undergravel filters were all the rage and Ehiem were the only canister filters available problem was no one could afford them . A lot has changed since then but when you look back you realize that most of the fish keeping problems were self induced. The old saying is still true " Keep it simple stupid " . Great videos by the way, thanks.

[huseins.hassanali]

I have been in this hobby for over 30 years and have setup and maintained many tanks. Currently i have 2 tanks - 75 Gallons with artificial plants and monster fish and a 45 Gallons heavily planted with Discus, a group of guppies, long fin Danios and some Neons with nerite snails hatching. I was actually thinking of getting rid of the snails, but this video changed my opinion. Instead of getting rid of em, it is wiser to manage their reproduction. I need to introduce some Amano shrimps to help as cleaning crew. The game changer question is NOT about cycling the tank, but creating an ecosystem that will be able to cycle the tank - Naturally.

[bubblerings]

You asked Why a little cloudy... 17:15 or so... Looks like a (Real) clean pond. Nice!
-Yes, any dying leaves in open water... will cause a bacteria increase, like in an Infusoria culture.
-If too much of that, then bacterial / fungal Smells also come in.. to tell you that something has died.
Your clean-up crew does a pretty good job, here.

[klarag]

I’ve learned a little about bioactive setups for mammalian pets that burrow and it made sense that living creatures can be adapt to living in smaller environments when their natural ordered ecosystem is reproduced. This is the same for permaculture gardening as it is for our own homes and even our bodies. It just makes sense to get back to observing and learning from the created order within the ecosystems of the creatures we bring into our lives.

[ColorzGuppyFarm]

Great explanation Alex! I love your content, you really know your stuff and explain things very well. It all boils down to going back to basics the way nature intended, much like moving away from mono culture to permaculture. Everything lives in harmony. I did the same thing with a 55G it was an open top with emerging plants, it worked perfectly with just one sponge filter and just adding water from evaporation, no heater. I could have turned off that sponge filter im sure. Working on a couple of setups like this now!

[arlenecam]

Love your video. Had a 100 gallon tank for over 15 years. Last year one by one the goldfish died, one week at a time. Now fish no more. Just water and gravel. Then we decided to make a planted aquarium with guppy. We are just on the process of planning things. First to buy substrate like others suggested 5 inches at least . Thank you very much for this video.