Running a tank with no filtration!!!! How long can this go on???

[Jon]

Today I had to do a little maintenance work on my sump adding a extra baffle. How long can my tank sit and be ok like this? I have a 58 gallon tank with two fish and that is it? Can the tank sit like this and keep everything alive for a solid 24 hours while the glue dries in the sump?
Jon

 

[calaxa]

What do you mean no filtration? I'm guessing you have live rock right? That's your filtration. Just keep surface agitated for oxygen and you can actually have this running forever on that bioload.

 

[JRWOHLER]

I would agree so long as you have surface movement you should be fine. Lightly feed your fish, make sure you don't overfeed for the day.

 

[Jon]

Yes I have 75 lbs of live rock in my tank with a koralia 2 power head running. the surface of the water is moving so it sounds like I am fine. Thanks for the advice.
Jon

 

[REEFLECTIONS]

consider when they ship fish they can be in a quart of water for 24 hr... so this is more than fine

 

[mkreef]

If you have stopped the flow to your sump and only have flow circulating in your display, I would hold off on all feeding for several days (5 max). Your fish should be fine.

 

[calaxa]

That's being paranoid. He has a 58G with 2 fish. He has more volume and filtration than almost all nano tanks.

 

[NJ_ychung1]

cool lots of good info for future reference. thx

 

[Dabooth]

Yea if you have a powerhead in there , you could prob get away with like 2 weeks with no use of the sump .

 

[calaxa]

Guys,

You guys need to step back and read this again. There is a massive biological filter in the tank. It is the live rock. Many, many tanks do not have sumps. The sump is not a filtering device. It serves several purposes but it is not the filter:

The sump's function is:
1) Hide unsightly devices (additional filters like wet/dry, etc., skimmers, heaters, probes)
2) Add flow/turnover to system (aeration)
3) Add volume to overall system

Nanos/Picos almost always have no sumps. They use biological filtration methods such as LR/LS. Like I said earlier, this system can run for a long time (years).

Do not confuse skimming as a filter either. It provides some filtration but does not qualify in my book as the true filter.

 

[Phyl]

Absolutely right. As long as there is rock and the water surface is breaking and you have good O2 exchange the tank alone has everything it needs.