tank with no filtration just maxi-jets

[Amstar]

can you make a tank, say 22 gallon tank with no filtration. i was going to use live sand, live rock, and marco algae in the tank, use two maxi jets to move water around, and have 65 watts of light (12 k power compact light) on the tank.

is this possible.  want to try as an experiment.

[JoeAyers]

Sure. Live rock and water changes will work wonders. Just keep your stock low.

Joe

[MechanicalEngineer]

I think so, but maybe other people will chime in before I ruin a tank too.

I did a 2 gallon with 4 lbs LR, macroalgae, and 18W lights...ran it for a couple of months including cycling time.  Took it down b/c I got too involved with my main tank.

I'm running a 10g frag tank.  The lower level of the tank is LR and sand...I have a Maxijet 1200 and another little powerhead in it.  I run carbon 4 days/month.  Above the LR is eggcrate for my corals.  I have 72W lights over it.  I run phosphate remover 24/7 too.

I think as long as you're running 1.5-2 lbs LR/gallon, then you'll be fine if you plenty of flow.

[Amstar]

i was thinking maybe a mantis shrimp, then have my zoa frags, mushroom frags, etc put on smaller rocks and placed on the live rock in the tank. 

[verper]

Yep, I ran a 12 gal NanoCube with only LR in the rear compartments.  Of course I got lazy and stopped doing weekly water changes and watched my nitrates and phosphates skyrocket.  When I was keeping up on the weekly water changes, everything was just fine.

[Joel]

At my old shop I had a 30 gallon with a bac-pac skimmer and few power heads, No other filtration. I had as much live rock as would fit and still look good and about 3" live sand bed. It had a lousy dual 30 watt strip light with a 50/50 & a actinic. It was absolutely packed with Zoa / palythoa polyps & mushrooms, xenia / anthellia, a trachyphyllia brain, galaxea, and a bunch of other stuff I can't remember. I had a pygmy (argi) angel, six line wrasse and a pair of percula in it. I did a gallon or two water change per week and dosed with calkwasser, calcium, iodine, strontium, magnesium & iron. I loved that tank. It was the cheapest POS set up I had in the shop and may have been one of the coolest.

Joel

[slandis3]

At my old shop I had a 30 gallon with a bac-pac skimmer and few power heads, No other filtration. I had as much live rock as would fit and still look good and about 3" live sand bed. It had a lousy dual 30 watt strip light with a 50/50 & a actinic. It was absolutely packed with Zoa / palythoa polyps & mushrooms, xenia / anthellia, a trachyphyllia brain, galaxea, and a bunch of other stuff I can't remember. I had a pygmy (argi) angel, six line wrasse and a pair of percula in it. I did a gallon or two water change per week and dosed with calkwasser, calcium, iodine, strontium, magnesium & iron. I loved that tank. It was the cheapest POS set up I had in the shop and may have been one of the coolest.

Joel

I got to see this tank. It was a cool setup so simple yet you would have thought he had $1000's tied up into it.

[Joel]

It was nothing but left over junk I wasn't using any more.


I need another one of those.

[Amstar]

you should do it.  I am turning my old refigium into an "experiment" tank.  the main part of the sump (about 22 inches long, 12 inches wide) will have the sand and live rock to support some corals and who knows what else.  then the side that held the pumps, etc will have the live sand, live rock rubble and a slew of macro algae.  have a maxi jet send water back over to the other side (where the main tank use to drain)  to continue to move the water through out the tank.  i will also have one other maxi jet in the main part of the new tank/sump to help with water movement with the corals.  basically i have the extra sand, the extra maxi jets, and about 30 watts of power compact light (going to upgrade this)  and heater, just laying around, so I just need some live rock, and go from there.  cheap, and use small frags that i cut myself from the main tank that I have. 

[Joel]

Sound like that'll be pretty cool.

Post some picks of it when it's put together.