Planted tanks and filters

[joelfish]

I'd like to better understand filters for planted tanks. I see some people with massive wet/dry filters for their planted tanks. OTOH, we have a planted tank club in my town and there are people that have beautiful tanks with a decent fish load and no biological filter at all! They do use powerhead(s) to circulate water and difuse CO2.

I have a planted 55. Right now for fish I have two discus (3" & 4"), 7 blue rams, 12 cardinal tetras, 4? ottos and maybe a shrimp or two. I feed them pretty good with CBWs. Whenever I test - I can barely detect any ammonia and no nitrites. For filtration I use two Duetto DJ100's - one on each end (these are small, internal filters). One of them has foam in it, but the other one doesn't and I use it to diffuse the CO2.

I have some algae battles like anyone, but it's going pretty well. I am posting, because the discus were added about a week ago, and I want to make sure I'm not heading somewhere in a handbasket. ::)

I know plants themselves can be a pretty good filter, but I'd just like peoples comments on my setup and filtration for planted tanks in general. I really appreciate the expertise here!

thanks,
Joel Fish

[ChloroPhil]

Joel,

It's entirely possible to maintain a well planted and stocked aquarium with no filtration as long as there is sufficient current to provide the plants with nutrient rich water. In fact, the only reason I have filters on my planted tanks is to remove particulate matter. I doubt I've got any biological activity going on in my filters at all with the way the plants use up Nitrogen.

[angel12]

Yep got to agree with Phil the I have very little current going through my Tank yet the plants keep the water clean enough and provide extra O2 for the fish in daylight ... as Phil has mentioned I think before Healthy Plants =Healthy Fish