Do you need filtration?

[ninjamini]

Do you really need a filter. I am setting up my third tank and I wonder...
Do I really need a filter???
I run a 12 gallon nano cube. It has a built in filter with 3 chambers.
Chamber 1 contains 2 sponges.
Chamber 2 contains carbon and ceramic pellets and bio balls.
Chamber 3 contains a pump and a heater.
I never put in Chamber 2's carbon and ceramic pellets and bio balls. Instead I put in live rock rubble.
I put in chamber 1's sponges only to remove them when I was developing high nitrates.
Do I need anything a filter has to offer??? Can I just use the natural filtration that the live rock offer in the main tank and use a power-head for circulation??

 

[speg]

Its really nice to have some filter pads for sure. They collect a lot of the larger particles and would otherwise just sit in the tank getting to be bigger and bigger. I dunno how your tank runs... but I know that every time I replace my filter pads and I see the crap thats stuck in them... im glad I have them

 

[funkyman]

This is just an opinion, but with a 10 gallon tank I wouldn't think you would "need" one. As Speg already mentioned, you may want to have a mechanical filter to extract physical debris and also have the added benefit of it being a "powerhead" of sourts since it's also providing water movement.
On the other hand, water parameters which are more critical could easily be kept in check with simple water changes. Shoot, if you did a gallon every other week, that would be 20%.. :thinking:

 

[ninjamini]

Yes a filter is better but ounce you remove all the mechanical filtration from the filter what's really left? The sponge is a nitrate factory! I do 2 gallon h2o changes per week. Thats 20% funkyman.

 

[funkyman]

Some people base their water change %'s on a weekly basis, some on a monthly basis. I do the monthly.

 

[ninjamini]

Humm that means that I do a 15% change 4x/ month. a 60% change???