The Great Filter Question Debate

[Reefing Madness]

So, I've been at this along time now, and I know that a filter is not needed, perse, skimmer yes, but filter. hmmmmm, Very good question indeed.
My answer to this question, depending on if you run a sump, is YES, you do indeed need to run a filter, and here is where I tell why.
A skimmer gets free floating debre out of the water column, no arguements there, but, where does the detritus go? It goes onto the rocks, and into the substrate. Not a very good look by any means. Oh, you can wave it around the tank, but the powerheads will put it back where it came from, and still not a good look. Now for us people who run crushed coral, and no we are not going to debate crushed coral here, I run it, and have for eons. It gets dirty, not dirty looking don't get me wrong, it collects garbage underneath it. Then you have to vacuum up the substrate, not a very fun job at all to get into, and doint it in a 8' long tank, just agravates the situation. Tough really to get all that detitus out of the substrate and off the rocks. So, I know that most all will debate the "Filters are Nitrate Traps", thats a load of bunk if you ask me, bet your substrate is holding alot more Nitrates in it than that old filter. I would think that the filter would fail before it became a Nitrate Trap., if you let it go that long, the pump in it would fail surely.
Most of us watch our tanks fairly well, so cleaning out a canister filter once a week is well worth having that thing to clear out all the yuck that can't be taken out otherwise.
So to Filter, or not to Filter, that is the Question. I vote a big NEED to have it if your not running a Sump. What do you think?

 

[AdamNC]

I’ve been using an AC70 on my sumpless tank for the past almost 4 years. It holds my sponge, de*nitrate, Purigen and Phosguard. The excess big stuff and detritus has to go somewhere after I blow the rocks off. I do however rinse out the sponge weekly and I typically run an ULNS.

 

[Daniel@R2R]

I agree. If you're going sumpless, a filter is a good idea as long as you keep up the maintenance meticulously. That said, if you DON'T do the maintenance at least weekly, then you might be as bad or worse off for the filter. The issue is that if you don't do the maintenance, then you're not actually removing the junk...it's just being stored in a place where none of the CUC can get to it (btw, the same is true of filter socks or other in-sump filtration).