abc wrote: ↑Sun Dec 22, 2019 4:02 pm
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!
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I am sure your tank will do great, especially if you avoid any and all urges to mess with it. The occasional top off with distilled or reverse osmosis water is about all you will ever need to do. And maybe a flake or two of fish food once a month. You will experience a bit of surface film/scum with no filter which can be a bit unsightly, but both the snails and opae ula will eat it. If it bothers you, you can swirl your finger across the surface once in a while and that will break it up allowing it to fall to the bottom for them to eat.
Good luck.
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My vote is for "no sponge filter." For the curious crowd here and for what it's worth...Scott Santos (Ph.D, Auburn University) who has written and co-written many papers about our shrimp and their habitats, used to have filters in his lab tanks and never got much reproduction in his tanks. Then he contacted me for some advice...(we're talking more than 10-12 years ago...maybe more). I told him to get rid of the filters, among other things...basically the setup that I recommend here now. Lo and behold, soon after reproduction took off.
Curious: can I just leave the filter in there and turn it off? Or does it make a different to actually remove the sponge filter. I was thinking of just unplugging and not turning it on but leave the filter in. May be algae will grow in the sponge?
