Quote Originally Posted by markross View Post
wow almost like 2 year reply lmao hahaha honestly i listened to the people at the pet stores and all my ADF's passed away, i then did my own research i then cycled my tank once again with a filter added some beneficial bacteria i actually got phytoplankton to grown in my tank, once my tank was cycled i took out the filter. These frogs are really sensitive and yes people may say the frogs survive in the tank with a filter but with out a filter is when they are more happy. my frogs actually sing and mate with each other and I have only 3 frogs, two females and 1 male.
I'm glad your frogs are happy. I wouldn't necessarily say it is because of the lack of filter but more the fact you are on top of your maintenance with frequent water changes. The solution to pollution is dilution, so they say.

I don't feed them once a day which the pet store tells you to do, that will cause bloating and if not they will be over weight unless you control the eating... but I did a little research and talk to professionals about these frogs and if you feed them once every 4 days they will feel as if they are at home. In the wild these creatures do not eat every day, and they can survive with out food for about 2 weeks. So if i have to say with my experience with the creatures and filters i would probably never use a filter with these creatures every again... instead maybe put a few snails to help clean.
ADF have quite a low bioload, which means they don't foul the water a whole lot. If you aren't leaving excess food in the tank and are frequently changing the water out, correct you don't necessarily need a filter. Less feedings means less waste in the water too. I actually feed my fish about every other day maybe every third. I am the same way with my clawed frogs (the big ones), not one of them is near starving (the frogs actually quite fat). So I would agree feeding every day is not a great idea. Even so though, you can't say a filter is a negative.

I would be wary of snails though, some snails such a mystery/apple snails DO have a heavy bioload. Small snails like ramshorns or pondsnails are nice but they also breed like crazy and have a tendency to die off in large numbers which can foul the water quickly.

And no algae eaters they attack your frogs like they did to mine and kill them. They go after the slim coat on the ADF.
Bottom feeders like plecos will attack other fish or frogs and try to feed off their slime coat if they are starving, since many plecos are not fed properly this happens pretty often in aquariums. Some fish like chinese algae eaters are known to attack slime coat and are overall one of the worst fish to keep in a community tank.

People will argue that you need a filter but you know what it'll take a Little more work to clean the tank more often but you'll have happy frogs at the end of the day. When i tell them they are mating they dont believe it. I had to record it to show them at the pet store. So replicating the actually place they live will bring better results, Like everything else.

Hope this helps.
It's not really pro or anti filter. It's really a case of how often you want to do water changes. I have several tanks and tanks some are quite large and I wouldn't want to replace 30+ gallons of water per day, a filter means weekly or even biweekly water changes are only needed.

Also having a heavily planted tanks helps remove ammonia too, my main ACF tank is a jungle and it helps keep the water quality stable even with a filter.