Mechanical Filtration Necessary?

I don't use filter floss of any kind. Skimmer, live rock, and flow is about it. I'm running carbon right now in my 55 because of the crash but this is the first time I've run carbon also.

 

about 5 hermits, 4 nassarius's, and 6-7 turbo and cerith snails.....

 

wow i think i am going to set up another 55 and try it au naturale

 

i'm dying to try this but don't have the kahonies just yet! it's been pounded into my brain for years that you need a filter,the bigger the better. i've kept successful freshwater planted tanks filterless with low bioload, i don't see why it wouldn't work as well in a reef with lots of rock...

 

one of the ways I get by without using a filter is I have a bare sump so I just shop vac the waste out of the sump once per week. This combined with a bare bottom tank makes a pretty clean system.

 

i'm generally a function before fashion type of guy but i just can't do the bare bottom thing, not saying theres anything wrong with it.just not not for me
what do you mean by "bare sump"

 

I understand how someone wouldn't like the BB look and I'm ok with that. With the flow I have in that tank (cls powered by a reeflo snapper=2500 gph, spraybar powered by 700 gph magdrive, and a mag 5 return pump.) That's about 3700 gph minus head pressure in a 50 gallon tank. My sps love the flow but a sandbed doesn't. I may in the future put a sand bed in but for now my corals are just mere frags as I am recovering from a tank crash (at no fault of my own) and getting it built back up. So it's all about getting the corals to grow at this point. Now with the bare sump, there's nothing in my sump other than my skimmer, heater and return pump. That's it. No LR, no fuge, no nothing. Just skimmer and heater. this makes it easy to keep the system clean.

 

ah ok thats what i thought you meant about the sump but thought maybe i was missing something. wouldn't be the first time. if i was doing what you are i would go bare bottom to, i keep about a 1/2 inch of real fine sand on the bottom.last night the koralia #4 decided to fall off and blow sand everywhere, it's still a mess almost 24 hours later..lol
i want to throw all the my filters out the window so badly,or find ways to run em without using electricity,cost of electricity put a man out of business!

 

ah ok thats what i thought you meant about the sump but thought maybe i was missing something. wouldn't be the first time. if i was doing what you are i would go bare bottom to, i keep about a 1/2 inch of real fine sand on the bottom.last night the koralia #4 decided to fall off and blow sand everywhere, it's still a mess almost 24 hours later..lol
i want to throw all the my filters out the window so badly,or find ways to run em without using electricity,cost of electricity put a man out of business!

 

I tried using a sand bed in this tank for about a month after set up but no matter how I possitioned my nozzles, there was always a sand storm. There's just no way to do it with that much flow in the tank. It doesn't look so bad when coraline covers the bottom tho