help me make a paradigm shift -- why no sponge filter?

[abc]

I'm loving my opae ula. I'm just struggling to make a paradigm shift --- why is it better not to have a sponge filter? This is a new concept to me. I always thought having a filter made the water cleaner. Please tell me why I should turn off my sponge filter in my 5.5 gal brackish opae ula tank. Thanks!

[Dch48]

Opae's like calm quiet water and even a sponge filter upsets that.

[JennyPenny]

These shrimp live decades in setups without filters. They are just not necessary.
However, some people do use filters. Some use heaters. There are videos on YouTube with filters in the tanks and the shrimp seem to be doing fine. I bought some shrimp off a local a few years ago and she said she uses filters in both of her opae ula tanks and she was experiencing tons of breeding. If you are curious I'm sure you can find her on YouTube.

[abc]

so it's just a matter of preference? If it's preference, I feel the water quality is better with a sponge filter so I might go with that

[Dch48]

On low, it's probably okay in a 5.5. It would be too much in my one gallon.

[sliphorn]

so it's just a matter of preference? If it's preference, I feel the water quality is better with a sponge filter so I might go with that

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Opae really do prefer calm water, and remember, their bio load is very low. My tanks do not have filters and are crystal clear. I do have a lot of lava rock and a half inch of aragonite for a lot of beneficial bacterial growth. So join the no filter club and I think you will be impressed by how well it works.

Do you have macroalgae in your tank? Maybe a supershrimp mossball or two? Snails? If so, all the better. In fact, I think the macroalgae is necessary for a healthy tank.

A tank with plenty of lava rock, macroalgae, snails, and opae ula creates one of the most balanced systems I have ever witnessed. I have been keeping aquatic life of one form or another for over five decades and I am now just an opae ula keeper. They are easy to keep, fun to watch, colorful, and breed like crazy. Not to mention the sky is the limit when it comes to creating beautiful aquascapes. Red lava rock, brown lava rock, black lava rock, aragonite dry rock, white sand, black sand or a combination of the two. Big tank, small tank, medium tank, multiple tanks......Yup, they are easy to get hooked on.
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[Super Jess]

I agree with sliphorn, and my opae experience has been the same. These shrimp benefit profoundly from the "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" philosophy. My water is beautifully clear, the aragonite and lava rocks provide tons of surface area for beneficial bacteria, and mossballs keep the balance. The burrowing snails do a great job keeping the substrate healthy. My opae are happily breeding in their still tanks.

[sliphorn]

I agree with sliphorn, and my opae experience has been the same. These shrimp benefit profoundly from the "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" philosophy. My water is beautifully clear, the aragonite and lava rocks provide tons of surface area for beneficial bacteria, and mossballs keep the balance. The burrowing snails do a great job keeping the substrate healthy. My opae are happily breeding in their still tanks.

..
Good point about the burrowing snails keeping the substrate healthy. My tanks have a lot of MTS and there are times I never see them. That's because they have burrowed themselves in the aragonite gravel. The snails, I believe, are a big part in keeping the system balanced.
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[Dch48]

Good point about the burrowing snails keeping the substrate healthy. My tanks have a lot of MTS and there are times I never see them. That's because they have burrowed themselves in the aragonite gravel. The snails, I believe, are a big part in keeping the system balanced.
..

I don't know about that. I'm not sure the burrowing type snails are essential. I only have one Horned Nerite in my tank and things are perfectly balanced. He doesn't reproduce either

I actually think it is the snail's waste products that are beneficial, providing nutrients for the macroalgae, other algae, and, the shrimp as well.

[sliphorn]

Good point about the burrowing snails keeping the substrate healthy. My tanks have a lot of MTS and there are times I never see them. That's because they have burrowed themselves in the aragonite gravel. The snails, I believe, are a big part in keeping the system balanced.
..

I don't know about that. I'm not sure the burrowing type snails are essential. I only have one Horned Nerite in my tank and things are perfectly balanced. He doesn't reproduce either

I actually think it is the snail's waste products that are beneficial, providing nutrients for the macroalgae, other algae, and, the shrimp as well.

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Yes, their waste products are beneficial but the burrowing helps in reducing dead spots in the gravel.
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[sliphorn]

Good point about the burrowing snails keeping the substrate healthy. My tanks have a lot of MTS and there are times I never see them. That's because they have burrowed themselves in the aragonite gravel. The snails, I believe, are a big part in keeping the system balanced.
..

I don't know about that. I'm not sure the burrowing type snails are essential. I only have one Horned Nerite in my tank and things are perfectly balanced. He doesn't reproduce either

I actually think it is the snail's waste products that are beneficial, providing nutrients for the macroalgae, other algae, and, the shrimp as well.

..
Snail reproduction has been discussed many times on this forum. A lot of food, a lot of snails. Little food, not so many snails. So in my mind it is about balance.
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[mike.d]

Here's why:
1. Filtration isn't needed.
2. It can be detrimental.

Why isn't it needed?
Think of why you'd normally use a filter in a regular fish tank.

The purpose of filtration is to keep the ugly, beneficial bacteria out of sight and locked away. (Beneficial bacteria processes the waste from the animals.) Periodic water changes (if you had a goldfish in a bowl) prevent the bacteria from taking over. If you had no filtration in a regular fish tank the water would cloud with bacteria and turn brown and disgusting. Likely, you'd also have an algae bloom and you wouldn't be able to see your fish. The fish wouldn't mind, for a while, but you would. (Eventually the fish would get sick and die. Fish don't eat bacteria, they eat the animals that eat the bacteria.)

That's a normal fish tank. What if you had animals that didn't produce much waste? What if the small amount of waste they did produce resulted in very little bacteria and algae? What if the animals ate that bacteria and algae creating a well-balanced ecosystem?

Concentrating the bacteria in a filter takes it off the tank surfaces and the shrimp can't eat it. Okay, they can't eat the bacteria, now you have to feed them. Why? It's better to leave out the filter and let them eat what they've adapted to eat.

Why can it be detrimental?
Now that you've hidden the bacteria in a sponge filter, the shrimp will need to eat something else. What do you plan to feed them? Is there enough algae in your tank for them to eat that? What if the food you give them isn't optimal? Know anyone with a food allergy?

These shrimp have adapted to live in anchialine pools. These are very still waters without a lot of movement. You can imagine that abnormal water movement could be a stressor for animals at the bottom of the food chain.

Conclusion
I would assume they could adapt to the water movement a filter would create. I think the bigger issue is removing the bacteria.

Of course, this is all just my opinion. It's your tank, do whatever you think is best. However, I have had a 10 gallon opae tank set up for more than 2 years with no filtration. I have never fed them anything. I have constant reproduction. There are 50-100 (too many to count) larvae floating at all times.

More about me: I have freshwater tanks currently and have kept fish and freshwater shrimp for years. At first, the thought of a tank without filtration and feeding made me very nervous. But I treated it like an experiment. I kept food, an air pump, and a sponge filter on standby, just in case. I never needed it. All of this to say, "I get where you're coming from, but these shrimp are different."

[abc]

I've been away from the forum with the busy holiday, but checked back to find all these additional posts. Thanks so much for the input. I'll treat this like an experiment and try without the filter then. I do have macro-algae, Mustafa's algae ball (I cut 1 and now have 4 of them), snails and coral substrate+lava rock. Let you know how it goes with no filtration. Thanks!

[sliphorn]

Good point about the burrowing snails keeping the substrate healthy. My tanks have a lot of MTS and there are times I never see them. That's because they have burrowed themselves in the aragonite gravel. The snails, I believe, are a big part in keeping the system balanced.
..

I don't know about that. I'm not sure the burrowing type snails are essential.

..
I never said the burrowing type snails are essential. I said I believe they are a big part in keeping the system balanced.
..

[sliphorn]

Here's why:
1. Filtration isn't needed.
2. It can be detrimental.

Why isn't it needed?
Think of why you'd normally use a filter in a regular fish tank.

The purpose of filtration is to keep the ugly, beneficial bacteria out of sight and locked away. (Beneficial bacteria processes the waste from the animals.) Periodic water changes (if you had a goldfish in a bowl) prevent the bacteria from taking over. If you had no filtration in a regular fish tank the water would cloud with bacteria and turn brown and disgusting. Likely, you'd also have an algae bloom and you wouldn't be able to see your fish. The fish wouldn't mind, for a while, but you would. (Eventually the fish would get sick and die. Fish don't eat bacteria, they eat the animals that eat the bacteria.)

That's a normal fish tank. What if you had animals that didn't produce much waste? What if the small amount of waste they did produce resulted in very little bacteria and algae? What if the animals ate that bacteria and algae creating a well-balanced ecosystem?

Concentrating the bacteria in a filter takes it off the tank surfaces and the shrimp can't eat it. Okay, they can't eat the bacteria, now you have to feed them. Why? It's better to leave out the filter and let them eat what they've adapted to eat.

Why can it be detrimental?
Now that you've hidden the bacteria in a sponge filter, the shrimp will need to eat something else. What do you plan to feed them? Is there enough algae in your tank for them to eat that? What if the food you give them isn't optimal? Know anyone with a food allergy?

These shrimp have adapted to live in anchialine pools. These are very still waters without a lot of movement. You can imagine that abnormal water movement could be a stressor for animals at the bottom of the food chain.

Conclusion
I would assume they could adapt to the water movement a filter would create. I think the bigger issue is removing the bacteria.

Of course, this is all just my opinion. It's your tank, do whatever you think is best. However, I have had a 10 gallon opae tank set up for more than 2 years with no filtration. I have never fed them anything. I have constant reproduction. There are 50-100 (too many to count) larvae floating at all times.

More about me: I have freshwater tanks currently and have kept fish and freshwater shrimp for years. At first, the thought of a tank without filtration and feeding made me very nervous. But I treated it like an experiment. I kept food, an air pump, and a sponge filter on standby, just in case. I never needed it. All of this to say, "I get where you're coming from, but these shrimp are different."

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Excellent post. It is easy to forget that these shrimp eat things that we can not see.....bacteria.
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