live rock= no filter?

hello im new to the whole saltwater aquarium world and im wanting to set up a 40gallon FOWLR tank. ive heard that if you have enough like rock (im looking into getting about 35lb ...maybe a little more) and an efficient skimmer that a filter isnt neccessary? ...is this true? im new to all this so any bit of info helps!! thanks!

 

Welcome to 3reef!

By filter I assume you mean a mechanical filter of some sort that catches and traps particles in the water. This could be a hang on the back filter. If that's the case then the answer is yes. You don't need one. I don't use one. All I have is live rock, sand and a skimmer.

You do need lots of flow though. The live rock needs flow and lots of flow will keep particles suspended so they can be removed by a skimmer. Use power heads like Koralias to provide the flow.

The bad thing about typical filters is they trap particles. They then decompose into ammonia then nitrite and then finally nitrate. The decomposing occurs in your tank's water unless you change or clean the filters very regullarly.

With a skimmer the particles are captured in the foam and removed from the tank's water. They can decompose all they want in the skimmer's collection cup without impacting your tank's chemistry.

 

what he said LOL!!!

 

sweet! thanks much kind sir.

 

In addition to that great into above, with the incorporation of a refugium with macro algae and additional live rock. And or and ATS will give you even more natural filtration w/o adding mechanical means.

 

A good skimmer should capture free floating objects in the water column and remove them completely. Before they can break down into harmful substances. With that said, you may want more than 35 lbs of rock for your biological filtration depending on your bioload. 1-2 lbs of rock per gallon is sufficient, so you may want at anywhere from 40-80lbs of rock.

And WELCOME to 3reef!

 

I have a 55 with 60lbs of rock, HOT AquaC Remora skimmer and 3 Koralias but for circulation and extra bio filtration and tank circulation I have 2 Fluval canister filters with no foam filters just the baskets are set up with ceramic bio cylinders.

Load: 1 Sailfin Tang, 2 large green chromis (left over from breakin 8 months ago) 1 Clown, 3 Bar Gobies, 2 cleaner shrimp, several small blue hermits and 6 large turbo snails, 5 corals all soft

Nitrates2.5, nitrite/ammonia 0, Kh 9, Ca 480 Temp avg 78-79, dose calcium, strotium, magnesium, iodine and Zeocon only use Ro 5-8 gallon water change per month, have high evaporation so I add about 3 gallons of ro top off per week, use a Current T5 4 bulb system, ground probe, digital therm, feed frozen mysis 1 cube, Formula 1 and 2 1 cube ea per day and alge strips every 3 to 4 days for the Tang and everyone and a little flake once and awhile.