I can actually see the difference in water quality now following the natural method and your advice. I just bought some more neon tetras to restock my school and a little frog, and within seconds of making the drip acclimator slits in their respective bags, they got up as close as possible to them like they were desperate for clean air, the frog literally sat with his nose pressed up against his drip feed the entire 15 minutes.... And when the only things to worry about are running the lights too long to cause an algae bloom or a simple water top up every couple weeks, this is by far the most amazing way to keep a tank! I'm truly thankful for your dedication to teaching us what is probably the single greatest and easiest method for fishkeeping ever devised!
Ive never succeeded at planted tanks. Tried everything from aquasoil to high lights ferts and co2. Thanks to you i have my healthiest tank of my life by following your most basic advice. Inch of potting soil, 2 inches of sand, and a heater is the only thing plugged in. No filter or water changes. Zero algae and fish are thriving and breeding. I have a lot of riparium plants growing out above the tank also. So thanks! Your advice helped me and my animals
hey ! i am one of those foolish newbies on the learning curve right now i got a 10 gallon tank with like half an inch of gravel as the only substrate💀 So i was thinking could i just add an inch of potting/garden soil over the gravel and then cap it up with 2 inch sand?? or do i have to remove the gravel first? i would end up having like almost 4 inches of substrate by this...would this be an issue? thanks
@@sandidsaman7723 it's very difficult to add soil at this stage. You have a few options, one would be removing the fish and restarting. Another would be just slowly pouring two inches of sand over the gravel and add some plants 👍
@@DashDrones well whats the benefit of adding sand over pure gravel that has no soil?how will the plants survive in gravel? sorry i dont have much knowledge regaridng planted tanks also i dont have any fishes in there , just a couple of cherry shrimps
But but... I like my multicolor gravel!! Nah, seriously, 100% agree with F.F. it take a lot of courage to initially try when you are brainwashed that you need a 500 gal sump filled with biomedia and chemical to have a healthy 100 gal. If every new fish keeper received F.F. crash course with their first tank, less would quit and feel like they failed.
I had a 10 gal tank with a thriving community of coroy cats, a beta, and a school of tetras. with nothing but sand, plants, and dirt. When I joined the military, my father neglected the tank for 3 years. Every time I visited, the fish were thriving off of the natural exo system that I left behind.
Set up a 20g using your method and added 10 black neons, 9 Cory’s and a betta on day 2. 4 months later and the plant growth is phenomenal with no algae. Not one fish loss and crystal clear water. I put away the testing kit and feed once every 2 days. Bliss.
@@FG723-78I used ocean forest organic soil. I added some epsom salt, lime and ironite plus as supplements. The sand is the standard black sand for aquariums
I had issues with Fish dying until I capped my basalt gravel with sand and threw away my testing kit. I like the analogy of bare gravel being an open sewer pit releasing toxins into the water column. I watched a lot of "main stream" aquarium channels that promote filter systems, chemical fertilizers and gravel vac technics. I learned so much about fish keeping from them but this channel is all about an environment that self regulates and looks absolutely gorgeous compared to what other channels have to offer. Thank you so much for the knowledge you pass on!!
I am an environmentalist. I love your conversations together and teachings about real eco system based natural aquariums. Barren or semi barren aquariums look artificial and plastic and are artificial in and out period. They are not good for the health of the fish, because they are NOT ecosystems. Fish are NOT only display objects, but nature based living things. Thank you for treating them like that. I am grateful to you and to Diana Walstad!
I’ve searched Google all day just to find this basic straightforward info. I don’t want just a list of steps, I want to understand why we need each step but not overloaded with fluff. Even looking up info on the Walstad method was overwhelming. This simple video answered the questions I have now, so I feel better in going on to the next steps. So glad I found your channel before I added in my fish!
I have a 5 acre pond where i have feeders that feed the fish daily. Some of the Bluegill are the largest “borderline obese” fish Ive ever seen. As an angler, I thought that is what you wanted. However, watching your videos and listening to you opinions on feeding makes me second guess, in fact, come to the realization that I have been wrong. Same principles apply to large bodies of water as your aquariums. My pond is extremely healthy and the only thing I do is “encourage nature” a little to assist in keeping my healthy pond. I am now rethinking my feeding habits to encourage the health of the fish rather that the size. Ive also set up an aquarium in our home based on you principles and has turned out to be extremely successful. Everyone that visits wants to know the secret. I kindly direct them to your channel. Thanks for offering your wisdom and education 👍🏼
Father Fish obviously does not have a science background. His recommended approaches are oversimplified, and he fails to suggest other approaches that are perfectly acceptable by using different techniques. A formal scientific background (inorganic chemistry, physics, organic chemistry, biochemistry) comes at a tremendous price of intense effort over a period of many years. The academic subjects are reinforced with laboratory investigations. This combination yields real science with real, measured results. It's impossible to arrive at that point by absorbing the hobby periodicals. The problem is that "Father Fish" is so emphatic with his statements that they are presented as the ultimate answer to everything; he hasn't made one claim that is infused with supportable evidence and can't easily been challenged. There are no shortcuts for a thorough grasp of scientific principles. If you're going to enter that world with competency, you have to pay the price.
Hi Father Fish! I am new to the aquarium world. I've studied a lot of your videos and changed my tank completely over to substrate, sand, pepples, and planted new plants. You'll be proud. I wish I could send you a picture of my changed over tank.
I'm about to leave my tanks for about 9 days. I was worried how will they be able to survive without me giving them food then I realized that my tanks are heavily planted and has sand and soil as FF described, but now? Naahh, I'm confident they'll survive. Thank you for Father Fish for guiding us on how to do the hobby properly.
hi, I learnt from FF yesterday that sliced of blanched carrot etc r good additional food. I tried it except I did not blanch. just cut a middle long sliver. I only have a 6 week old mini tank! FF's way. the carrot is being eaten and half gone already! so good holiday food. piece of broccoli. a few algae covered rotting pond/dam leaves. yaaay!!
It's refreshing hearing some one else say "leave the tank alone". I have been keeping aquariums of various sizes for over 30 years and my advice to other hobbyists has always been, don't touch it (once it's established). A heavily planted tank takes care of its self for sure. I essentially top off the water in my tank when needed and maybe once a month rinse the canister filter pads (never touch the bio media of course). Like I mentioned, 30 of trial and error and this was the key.
I have a 300 litre. Planted, new tank. It looks amazing. I've got gold fish and danios, weather loach. I'm amazed at how good it is. Week one. I also have a canister filter. I've never cleaned it yet. I'm just going off your comment. Is it only the pads I clean? Leave the bio balls as is? I noticed your comment by chance. I'd be grateful for a reply if that's what to do. Thanks, in advance. Scott.
What kind of filter pads do you use? If you use sponge filteres with large pores you only have to slightly squeeze them once in a while (like every 2-3 months) in warm water to remove access. But never throw away all of that precious activated sludge that builds up. It's as precious as the microbial fauna in FFs described baselayer (although being aerobic instead). But that is my motto too. Never touch a running system. Or when you do want to "clean" it, always only clean a small part at a time.
@@scottlouis4076Don't touch the bioballs, never let them dry out or stay stagnant for to long when cleaning the mechanical pre-filtre (assuming your bioballs are ment to house your aerobic microbia). If you have these balls with really fine pores (ceramic or sinther glass) some manufacturers say you have to swap these after a few years since they are said to clog up eventually (no personal experience with that). When cleaning or changing bio-filtre media, never do it all at once, but only step wise or you loose that precious activated sludge.
@@haifutter4166thick sponge filters in my cannister get rung out in the dirty water, the polishing cotton pads I basically throw out and I have a ton of various bio media like plastic bio balls and porcelain cylinders in bags that I shake out and never rinse to keep the bacteria in order.
He's absolutely correct. I could not keep my guppies alive so I bought a pregnant mom she had 11 babies at all of them thrived because they were born into the tank so I didn't have to worry about constantly adjusting the water
Bought berried ghost shrimps from petsmart not too long ago, all of them passed away after some time one due to a failed molt and the others because of the change in the water. Their babies thrived in the tank though
Thank you for such valuable information! I’ve struggled for years with tanks….until I started my shell dweller tank. Why did I choose Multi’s? Because my water is extremely hard! Being a Cichlid lover, I researched “small Cichlids that thrive in hard water”The answer was the Lake Tanganyika Shell dwellers. Then I set up with soil and sand (over the dreaded gravel). I wasn’t interested in a planted tank, so I utilize sponge filters (2 - one on each end of my 40 gal low breeder tank) over my previous hang-on-tank filters. My fish have grown from my original 6 I purchased from Imperial Tropicals (my local fish farm) to well over 100 in past 4 years. I’ve given dozens of the juveniles back to Imperial to keep my tank from being overloaded. Lastly, I feed about every three days or so….These little “bull dozer” fish are an absolute DELIGHT to watch as they set up their homes and defend their territories. We are so fortunate to have a wonderful resource like you for us amateur fish keepers….thank you for all you do for us! ♥♥♥
Honestly can these videos be any more informative and interesting. Watching fellow members tanks while the masters voice churns out free advice in such a calm demeanour. This one in particular really registers with me. I have followed his advice to the letter and closing in on 3 months have the most beautiful planted aquarium i have ever owned. I will admit,feeding was the hardest obstacle to overcome. Feeding twice a week once a day has worked wonders. My tds is sitting at 324. How could you question this method with all the testimonials abounding. You have made a lot of people happy and enjoying the hobby and for this i thank you. 😀
hey ! i am one of those foolish newbies on the learning curve right now i got a 10 gallon tank with like half an inch of gravel as the only substrate💀 So i was thinking could i just add an inch of potting/garden soil over the gravel and then cap it up with 2 inch sand?? or do i have to remove the gravel first? i would end up having like almost 4 inches of substrate by this...would this be an issue? thanks
@@sandidsaman7723certainly no need to remove the gravel. I have 1 inch of organic potting soil and 2 inches of sand in a 5 gallon tank for shrimp. Takes away a little room but then again it’s shrimp. You could add some soil and sand over the gravel however.
Thank you for providing such valuable information for free! It is strikingly simple yet we are so accustomed to purchasing things! I’m doing a 180 turn with my new tank. Returning new canister filter, ditching gravel, buying less fish food, buying no chemicals. This is amazing, looking forward for this ecosystem to thrive!
Father fish, we need videos of how to safely turn a wrongly set fish tank ( such as gravels for 6 month with 40 fishes, 4 dead) - to your recommended setting … 🙏🙏
I agree with the sand from my own experience. Cheaped out ones by using sandbox sand, rinsed well to get the dusting out, found it made a much better substrate than gravel too. Never did the dirt underlayer, but just sand already beats gravel in my opinion. Combined with a oversized canister filter and ofcourse plants, you get a very low maintenance tank.
Thank you so much for this video! I feel like I’ve learned more in ten minutes than in watching fish keeping videos for two years on UA-cam. I’m now excited to do it and not intimidated. Thank you!
I noticed the large striped cichlid in your tank stayed right there with you almost the whole time you were speaking. That's what I call a real fish buddy!
If y'all listen to what he's saying you will succeed. I have 3 that I did as close as was possible to what he advises. Fish snails plants shrimp everything is thriving. Thank you for taking the time to impart wisdom that you've acquired the hard way. You da man.
I'm glad I watched this. I did a lot of reading of labels on different fish foods to try and make the best choice I could and one thing that was the same on every packet and jar and bottle, "feed up to 3 times daily" I guess that makes sense if you're trying to sell fish food and want to make a huge profit from it. We are definitely going to cut back our feeding frequency.
Thank you very much, you speak slowly and clearly, easy to understand. I know English at a basic level. Greetings from Poland. Thank you for the knowledge.
I have a 2 years old tank with soil in the bottom and sand in the top and plants and its always crystal clear I never changed the water for 6 months now and all the fish and shrimps are multiplying. I'm glad that I am doing the right thing in my tank. 😊
hey ! i am one of those foolish newbies on the learning curve right now i got a 10 gallon tank with like half an inch of gravel as the only substrate💀 So i was thinking could i just add an inch of potting/garden soil over the gravel and then cap it up with 2 inch sand?? or do i have to remove the gravel first? i would end up having like almost 4 inches of substrate by this...would this be an issue? thanks
@@francoiscaron1279 I never clean the sand my tank is heavily planted now with dwarf sag as carpet and ludwigia, jungle val and amazon sword as background.. I only have 3 dwarf sags in the beginning and after 3 months it's almost fully carpet..
@@sandidsaman7723 I suggest to remove the gravel put your water and filter medias in a container so you can use it after your reset.. I always put like 1 inch soil in front and 2 inch in the back and then 1 inch sand in the top to trap the soil.. the purpose of 1 inch front and 2 inch back soil is to elevate the substrate and it looks really good..
Can you please share the lighting that you're using for your aquarium. Is it a RGBW light or normal led light. Also the size of your aquarium and watts of the light that you're using
Father fish , I wanna start off with saying Thank you for being you Thank you for taking the time to get the message out to those who truly care for thier fish. I truly appreciate your knowledge thank sir. I’m in Canada an I’m now three tanks all natural . Please keep up with the video’s truly enjoy watching them all.
Thank you!!! I’m just getting into fish keeping. I just bought a tank and wanting to help my kid get into making UA-cam videos (since it’s what he wants to do). I’m now going to completely redo his tank with soil/sand instead. And im prepared to start my own!!!
I agree with the whole well water aspect. I moved from well water to spring. I can not complain about free water at all. When I was on well, just gravel was absolutely fine. Since moving I have had to switch to a dirted substrate to keep fish and plants thriving.
Hello father fish, I love listening to you. I had an aquarium many years ago, but the plants never really wanted to grow. I also definitely fed the fish far too often, so I made exactly the mistakes you listed in the video. But your valuable tips make me want to try it again more and more. Kind regards from Germany, David
Some of the best suggestions I've ever heard. That said there's something that I would suggest ahead of his three rules. Research before you buy. Fish have different needs. Learn about the environments your fish come from and try to match that as much as possible. Some fish require soft acid water, some hard alkaline water, some cool water, some very warm water, some still water, some flowing water, some need a particular substrate while others may be happier with none, some need to be crowded while others do best alone in the tank, some are schooling and won't show their best colors without a school of similar fish, learn about fish lifespans and related adult size, learn which can get along together in one tank. It's very important or you may end up with some fish killing the others. Also make sure you can provide them with a suitable food. I used to make my own fish food from eggs, liver, shrimp, carrots, spinach. It would feed anything from a six pound pacu to new born fry of small fish. For store bought food I always used tetra ruby that they no longer make but most quality tetra foods work well. Feed live or frozen foods when you can. I raised a school of two dozen neons from 1/4" fry to jumbo size over two years and I can tell you they enjoy live mosquito larva. You can have two benefits from that, you're feeding your fish and at the same time reducing the mosquito population. I would set a bucket of old tank water outside in the shade filled with leaves part way up. Drop in a tablespoon of milk and check it daily until you see wigglers. Use a brine shrimp net to net them out until they are all gone and wait until the next batch is ready. That's assuming you live somewhere that mosquitoes exist.
So I'm going to leave a remark. I just introduced the resurrection jar to my tank and everything went freaking crazy and the tank is so much better now on a 20 gallon long props to you father fish. Three pandas 3. 3 Cooley loaches, 7 neon tetras 5 galaxies overabundance of plants I use your method. Topsoil sand Canadian bluestone. And drift,wood 40 nitrite snails. Just added 1 pearl gourami Month 2 tank plus flourish. In three mystery snails. Thank you for everything ❤️
What a great video! I wish I had watched and rewatched this before I got my first aquarium. I have recently tries to put i to practice the Fr. Fish and so far it is going swimmingly!
I made my first tank inspired by a mix of yours and Dianas teachings and probably some things picked up here and there. I used pure raw vermicompost instead of mts/manure with some peat, xaxim and clay mixed in. Bottom layer dolomite granules. I left this tank at a farm where i used to live, 2 years with no wc/feeding, only topups. I now went and got the tank, shrimps are still alive
Hey Father Fish. I appreciate your knowledge and experience. I do have a caveat to the gravel is bad idea. In my opinion, small and medium gravel is a wonderful, healthy and stable substrate after a year or two if you don’t gravel vac. Of course this is for experienced fish keepers with planted tanks. Cheers.
Precisely. Gravel is extremely difficult for a novice fish keeper to prevent fouling. Most newbies quit the hobby over problems associated with gravel.
I am so grateful that I found you I had no idea what I was doing and I had been doing the wrong thing for 60 years so now every time I watch a video I learned something and I'm going to set up my old tank the right way and hardly ever feed my fish just making sure it's at 78° and has some filtration and a little bit of bubbles and a ton of plants and my little guppies and my Clown floush will be happy. I know my guppies love the plants but I'm constantly putting in plants because I don't have the right substrate now I know why my plants are dying thank you so much please keep your videos coming
Thankyou.. im finding your video's super interesting.. I have a planned tank with moscow guppies that I had neglected for 8 months (not but choice) but in that time the filtration system & heater had stopped working and i stopped cleaning it, but my tank has never looked better! I have more and brighter fish, more plants that are a whole lot healthier and loads of snails.. it's been 12 months now and other then the odd water top up and a whip of the front glass it's fabulous.. I never understood it until now.. so thank you
Thank you for what you said about feeding the fish. I always thought that my fish were eating without me feeding them. I see them pecking around all the time. I’m going to 2-3 times a week immediately
Great advice! Thanks for the video, after over 60 years of keeping fish, i still struggle with over feeding, these videos put help put me back on track, love my deep substate tanks, it makes fish keeping a pleasure
I kept fish about 30 years ago. I bought a tank today and I'm amazed at all the 'gadgets' there are out there now. My old tanks had healthy gravel beds and never bloomed or went green. Father Fish is right, if you was to pin down the SINGLE worst thing you can do to a small enclosed environment, is to overfeed it. You're not just feeding the fish, but every microbe in there, and when everything is overfed and starts pooping, the balance goes off the scale!
Working in commercial aquaculture I learned that to keep the fish the healthiest possible (for aquaculture this means fastest growing for food), you need to feed to 75% of satiety. That means if you feed until the fish stop eating you are giving them at least 25% too much food. Eating until you are full causes harm by overloading the digestive system while at the same time providing extra nutrients to pathogenic microbes in the digestive system.
Absolutely right In a healthy environment the system provides a basic amount of food. Anything you provide is in addition to that natural food. The environment may not provide enough for good growth so added food is necessary, just not so much and not so often.
In the 1950's, my mother had a 10 gallon self sustained aquarium. She told me it was a "balanced' aquarium. I had a book from the 40's which explained the concept. Yourr aquarium is balanced and a sight to behold. Thank you for sharing your techniques.
What is the filtration system you are talking about in your video when needed. I very much want to have an ecosystem tank that pretty much takes care of itself. The beauty of the natural bottom and the tiny fish swimming happily through the vegetation is remarkable. I started off WRONG!!!! Thanks to PetCo who absolutely knows nothing about aquatic life. Do I have to be a tank operator for years BEFORE graduating to your class!!!!! I will be ordering the dirt substrate after my few remaining fish die off which sounds like it’s inevitable.. As far as the sand goes, would I need to purchase the sand or scoop some out of the lake we own??? I know where I can get plenty of leaves and I believe I saw some sunken sweet gums balls in one picture……Man THANKS FOR ALL THE INFO. P.S. Congrats on the new store. I had a brief stint in Silver Springs, MD….years ago
Another wonderful video from FatherFish! God bless him everyone who works with or has worked with him. In fact God bless anyone who has any connection with him!💜🧡💛😇
I just love the way you explain things. Even if understand them (you dont know me, but people who do know i need things really broken down to understand, my husbadns explains it as “explain like ur talking to a kindergarten” lol) and i love how real you are and i think its cool the way u stop and think of how u wanna say something before you say it. Almost like ur trying to make sure to make ur point but not offend, i respect tht…. & everuthing you said in this is so correct. Having two kids a cat a dog and a fish tank plus all my loved plants and myself. The fish tank was starting to drive me nutz “OH NO I FORGOT TO CLEAN THE TANK” “OH MY GOSH MY FISH ARE GONNA DIE, I HAVE TO CLEAN” ect. I was starteing to go nutz with the weekly sometimes twice weekly changes and all the management and stress. I thought there must be an easier way. So glad i looked up natural ecosystems and came accross ur video. This video here told me that all those chemicals and sterile enviroment is actually killing the immune system of the tank (so to speak) and we wouldnt weaken our own immune system so why would we wanna do that with our fish/water/plants. Thank you for generously sharing your knowledge with all of us❤
I have a couple of questions regarding a new planted tank that I quickly made to keep a bunch of newly acquired plants alive. Put in the dirt, put in the sand, added well water, put in the plants. There are few species that have almost completely melted. They turned dark and mushy. A few look ok. What do you think I did wrong? I put in in the window to get some sun during the day. It also has biofilm on top that gets dense. Thank you!
Your channel convinced me to change my tank to a dirt/sand substrate, with natural plants. I just set it up that way a couple of days ago, because the 5 gallon tank has a single betta who has severe fin rot. I tried all the chemical treatments/medicines, none worked. I wanted to give him one last chance, and I removed all the gravel and plastic plants, and replaced with top soil and playground sand, and a bunch of real plants in hopes nature could do what I can't seem to. I also hauled buckets of water from my parents house to mine because they have natural well water. My well water is testing at a high PH though. I have strips for pool care, and they top out at 9.0. My well water is hitting that color, maybe even going a bit off the scale. The alkalinity is also hitting the max color. Do you still recommend I let my fish and plants continue to live in this high of a PH? Thanks Father Fish!!!!
Sir, you are a wealth of information… as a child I had no aquariums, everything else, no fish or reptiles in the house! Lol. My Mom threw an Anole out the back door, box and all. I wished that I would have found you before I set up my recent 75 gallon. I use a canister and wave maker, I need to get into plants, but I have a bed of black gravel.😮 However I am the proud owner of a 39 year old Talking Raphael. I’m going to have to give him to a rescue eventually, I guess, he is only 6-7 inches long.
hey ! i am one of those foolish newbies on the learning curve right now i got a 10 gallon tank with like half an inch of gravel as the only substrate💀 So i was thinking could i just add an inch of potting/garden soil over the gravel and then cap it up with 2 inch sand?? or do i have to remove the gravel first? i would end up having like almost 4 inches of substrate by this...would this be an issue? thanks
Couldn’t agree more especially feed sparingly I’ve kept fish for many years. I have one tank in particular that is my favorite and it’s in the living room I would feed the fish daily I would have fish die randomly maybe one a week or one a month. I started out not feeding once maybe twice a week and I have never seen my fish so active and healthy I also haven’t had a casualty in over a year. I keep deep substrate and tons of plants I do have a homemade sump also with lots of lava rock. Mostly because I like heavily stocked tanks. I have over 100 fish in my 75 gallon tank.
I'd love to see a more in-depth video about ph. My city's tap water is very soft and is close to mid in ph. I'd love to know things I could do to make it better for my fish.
Baking soda with increase kH (carbonate hardness) and pH. Marine salt will add minerals in the same proportions/ratios by which they occur in Earth's surface/crust, and will increase gH, TDS, and hardness (+2 charged ions).
I went for crushed coral in my 20g for my shrimpys & aragonite sand in my 29g for my small cichlids & haven't done ANY water change in about 5 months or more. Set my 20g up on March 1st of 2023 & my 29g almost 2 weeks later. If you want another option. My water comes outta the tap like yours... clouds devoid of anything at all.
Gracias Father Fish soy principiante en el mundo de los peces y me alegro de haberme encontrado éste video que hará que logre crear un ambiente adecuado para mis peces
Thanks for all the help. I've just begun making my way into aquariums and I have been having trouble trying to find the right info. Your advice is a big help.
Very informative vid that I wish I could've gotten years ago if youtube would've came out in my teen yrs , after watching your vids it brought back my desire to have an aquarium again , from what it looks like it looks like the ones you make are self sustaining besides the fish food that you add from time to time I have a question , does it matter what kind of substrate soil/dirt i use on the bottom or is there a specific kind i need then add the 2" sand on top ?
Thank you father fish! You are a living library for fish keepers around the world 🌎 Only if I had learned about you years ago, I’d have saved lot of money, time, patience, energy, resources and sanity! Glad to have found you now!
After seeing your videos I have converted my two tanks into planted tank, I did not have all the ingredients of making the dirt but I took some soil from aquarium shop because where I live, getting soil which is not treated with pesticides or fungicide is a bit difficult, so I mixed some compost in the coarse brown gravel looking soil that the shopkeeper gave me and added to the existing small amount of gravel that I had in the fish tank and then put 2 inch of sand and lot of plants and added back the water and fish that I had removed in big buckets. I wanted to ask that my aquariums had pothos roots growing in them, should I let them be or remove them from the tank now? Pls advise, it will be a great help.
I used 2 inch aqua soil and 2 inch small gravel, planted out the tank and its been awesome for 2 years now, i installed 2 filter pumps, 1 for constant running and a high flow pump for a once a fortnight poo clean, i call it the tsunami, i run it for 4hrs any poo on the substrate is sucked up and the fish seem to like the high flow too. 102 ltr tank
Thank you for the great advice! I used to worry about my nano fish because I work away from home. I had someone feeding them every second day. Now I have them coming to take care of the fish every 3rd day. They are just fine and I'm sure I could let it go longer thanks to you. Take care!
Thats a very risky thing to do unless the other person is a fishkeeper aswell if i were u i would be in constant fear lol, i just love my fish and aquariums too much to let anybody else touch them:)
@@sandidsaman7723 My fish sitter comes in, dumps a pre-portioned amount of food into the tanks, and he's on his way. Sometimes he gives a block of frozen food. When I'm home, I usually feed the fish just three times a week. the tank is well established, heavily planted and there is natural food in there too. I've been keeping fish for over 20 years and haven't starved any of my fish to death yet. 🙂
@@CarolynnMc01 I have never heard of anybody starving their fish to death either :) I am actually worried about the opposite...feeding your fish to death when ur not home! I had bitter experience in the past and thats why i developed a fear of fish sitters lol , now i dont trust anybody for feeding my fishes or even going near my aquariums when i m not home:))
thank you for the content master fish I had my first saltwater aquarium using beach sand exactly as you did, its been 3 months, no problems, no issues, adding more animals slowly.
So I love your videos. I only feed my fish every other day now thanks to you. Thank you so much for letting me know there is a natural way to do this. I knew that there had to be. Here is my question. I have a 35 gallon tank, 2 goldfish, 2 guppies and 2 pleco. They are all still fairly small, I am trying to find a bigger tank, but in the mean time I want to implement your methods. I have a gravel substrate because I didn't find your videos until I got started. Should I fill dirt and sand over the gravel? And how can I do that safely without hurting the fish. Should I remove them from the tank while I do it? Also can you give me tips for when I switch them to the larger tank? Thank you so much.
Hi Father Fish, im only relatively new to the hobby, around a year now. I took your advice from another video and put some rocks from outside in, the tank is so clean and clear its unreal
Regarding the You Tube short on 3 questions to ask the salesperson , the better response to the first question would be "Temperature depends on the fish. Not all are from tropical waters.". That would indicate that the salesperson has a clear knowledge of fish.
Using soil is a great way to keep aquatic plants. I've been using it for over a decade once I learned about it through The Walstad Method. I've recently put a tank together using oil-dri & akadama soil (clay based) capped with coarse sand. So far, it's had fewer issues than soil in the startup phase, and has maintained a steady 6.5ph and very moderate GH and KH despite having very hard well water. I'm interested to see how it plays out.
The water and the food part is pure gold and wisdom...the substrate part is interesting because yes, sand/dirt subtrate works well, but as I can see gravel works too. I have 4 ultra healthy betta as my username suggests and 5 harlequin rasbora in a fairly big tank with gravel and they live happily, so I guess both way can be good in some cases.
hey ! i am one of those foolish newbies on the learning curve right now i got a 10 gallon tank with like half an inch of gravel as the only substrate💀 So i was thinking could i just add an inch of potting/garden soil over the gravel and then cap it up with 2 inch sand?? or do i have to remove the gravel first? i would end up having like almost 4 inches of substrate by this...would this be an issue? thanks
I guess I have to explain this: In the gravel I have fake plants, so I do gravel vac once per week, but I also have natural mopani driftwood and some dragonstone in my setup, cause the tannin also helps makin better water quality. But as I see you may have live plants which is different case. In that case I would say put the gravel out first, then the soil goes in and the sand is on top of that. Or if you wanna work with something like my setup with the fake plants and mopani wood than you can use only gravel, but then you have to vac it regularly because the ammonia will be a problem if you don't these are the two options ahead of you.
The talk about municipal water isn't universal, it depends on where you are. This is just to point out to any viewer that e.g. almost everyone in Sweden have soft tap water (despite most of it coming from underground), and this varies from region to region depending on a multitude of factors, including bedrock in your area. This can vary from village to village as well. Essentially, there's no shortcut to finding out yourself if you have soft or hard water
I feed my fish almost evryday. But i remember the first time, many years ago i went on holidays not organized, and they didnt eat for 15 days. When i open the door home i was expecting doom and death. Nobody died to be honest they looked better. What a joy. Since that i go on holidays and i expect my absence to improve the tank.
hey ! i am one of those foolish newbies on the learning curve right now i got a 10 gallon tank with like half an inch of gravel as the only substrate💀 So i was thinking could i just add an inch of potting/garden soil over the gravel and then cap it up with 2 inch sand?? or do i have to remove the gravel first? i would end up having like almost 4 inches of substrate by this...would this be an issue? thanks
My neighbors has a goldfish when we were kids that they kept in a bucket and lost interest or forgot about it, I don't know what. But the bucket was put outside and months, maybe a year later, we noticed it and looked in. The water was white but much to our disbelief we saw an orange fin pop out of the water and realized the fish was still alive! So they fixed up a tank for it with clean water, put the fish in it, and about a day later it unfortunately died. I've been absolutely convinced ever since that cats are actually the easiest animals to care for.
STEM PLANTS BUNDLE SALE - Over 75 plants - 15 Species for $59! Limited Time OFFER so HURRY! father-fish-aquarium.myshopify.com/ For Special Soil Supplements, Plants, FIsh & Merch in your country: fatherfish.fish/
Thank you Father Fish. I learnt a lot from watching this. I am going to raise frog tadpoles but and I have gravel as substrate. I now realize what a huge mistake that is ....I will look to change that! Thank you Father Fish I appreciate it
Father fish. My children and I are very much enjoying learning from your videos. May I ask you a question please although it may be slightly off-topic. What about pouring natural water from a rain catcher with leaves into your tank? Any benefit to that?
This is good information! I'm going to dirt my tank this weekend. Oh, and I'm going to STOP feeding at least once per day. Thanks, Father Fish. What kind of soil? Just regular soil from the backyard? Any specific sand I should get or stay away from?
I can actually see the difference in water quality now following the natural method and your advice. I just bought some more neon tetras to restock my school and a little frog, and within seconds of making the drip acclimator slits in their respective bags, they got up as close as possible to them like they were desperate for clean air, the frog literally sat with his nose pressed up against his drip feed the entire 15 minutes.... And when the only things to worry about are running the lights too long to cause an algae bloom or a simple water top up every couple weeks, this is by far the most amazing way to keep a tank! I'm truly thankful for your dedication to teaching us what is probably the single greatest and easiest method for fishkeeping ever devised!
Ive never succeeded at planted tanks. Tried everything from aquasoil to high lights ferts and co2. Thanks to you i have my healthiest tank of my life by following your most basic advice. Inch of potting soil, 2 inches of sand, and a heater is the only thing plugged in. No filter or water changes. Zero algae and fish are thriving and breeding. I have a lot of riparium plants growing out above the tank also. So thanks! Your advice helped me and my animals
Same, so glad I found nature thanks to Father Fish
hey ! i am one of those foolish newbies on the learning curve
right now i got a 10 gallon tank with like half an inch of gravel as the only substrate💀
So i was thinking could i just add an inch of potting/garden soil over the gravel and then cap it up with 2 inch sand??
or do i have to remove the gravel first?
i would end up having like almost 4 inches of substrate by this...would this be an issue?
thanks
@@sandidsaman7723 it's very difficult to add soil at this stage. You have a few options, one would be removing the fish and restarting. Another would be just slowly pouring two inches of sand over the gravel and add some plants 👍
@@DashDrones well whats the benefit of adding sand over pure gravel that has no soil?how will the plants survive in gravel?
sorry i dont have much knowledge regaridng planted tanks
also i dont have any fishes in there , just a couple of cherry shrimps
But but... I like my multicolor gravel!!
Nah, seriously, 100% agree with F.F. it take a lot of courage to initially try when you are brainwashed that you need a 500 gal sump filled with biomedia and chemical to have a healthy 100 gal.
If every new fish keeper received F.F. crash course with their first tank, less would quit and feel like they failed.
Father Fish is like the Bob Ross of fish keeping 😂
Happy little fish 💖💖
Great analogy!
I had a 10 gal tank with a thriving community of coroy cats, a beta, and a school of tetras. with nothing but sand, plants, and dirt. When I joined the military, my father neglected the tank for 3 years. Every time I visited, the fish were thriving off of the natural exo system that I left behind.
Hey what kind of sand
And how did the water no evaporate?
@@whothennow24it does. You just replace it.
@@vblackwell3347 Na-From the NAVY?
-Dumbledore said calmly
@@HelloacxAnt. Lay sand, pool sa.d, etc
Set up a 20g using your method and added 10 black neons, 9 Cory’s and a betta on day 2. 4 months later and the plant growth is phenomenal with no algae. Not one fish loss and crystal clear water. I put away the testing kit and feed once every 2 days. Bliss.
what kind of soil and sand?
@@FG723-78I used ocean forest organic soil. I added some epsom salt, lime and ironite plus as supplements. The sand is the standard black sand for aquariums
Join us in the Shoal for all the details and support: discord.gg/father-fish-shoal
Can I use spring water to fill up my aquarium?
@@FG723-78what kind of sand . Can you put it on top of gravel
I had issues with Fish dying until I capped my basalt gravel with sand and threw away my testing kit. I like the analogy of bare gravel being an open sewer pit releasing toxins into the water column.
I watched a lot of "main stream" aquarium channels that promote filter systems, chemical fertilizers and gravel vac technics. I learned so much about fish keeping from them but this channel is all about an environment that self regulates and looks absolutely gorgeous compared to what other channels have to offer.
Thank you so much for the knowledge you pass on!!
I am an environmentalist. I love your conversations together and teachings about real eco system based natural aquariums. Barren or semi barren aquariums look artificial and plastic and are artificial in and out period. They are not good for the health of the fish, because they are NOT ecosystems. Fish are NOT only display objects, but nature based living things. Thank you for treating them like that. I am grateful to you and to Diana Walstad!
I’ve searched Google all day just to find this basic straightforward info. I don’t want just a list of steps, I want to understand why we need each step but not overloaded with fluff. Even looking up info on the Walstad method was overwhelming. This simple video answered the questions I have now, so I feel better in going on to the next steps. So glad I found your channel before I added in my fish!
I agree, I was so lost on where to start
The big market stores don't do any of this nor will they teach it to you, just buy all these insane products
@12:02 They're not hungry, they're happy to see you. I agree!
then one minute later he tells us that fish are ALWAYS hungry. so wich is it?
I was given a black fish tank yesterday. I’ve never looked after fish, but so glad I found this channel to learn. Today is day 1 of my fishy journey
How are you doing 4 months in?
Out of curiosity, black water? Was there wood in it? Could just be tannins and a healthy tank.
How's it going so far? ☺
I have a 5 acre pond where i have feeders that feed the fish daily. Some of the Bluegill are the largest “borderline obese” fish Ive ever seen. As an angler, I thought that is what you wanted. However, watching your videos and listening to you opinions on feeding makes me second guess, in fact, come to the realization that I have been wrong. Same principles apply to large bodies of water as your aquariums. My pond is extremely healthy and the only thing I do is “encourage nature” a little to assist in keeping my healthy pond. I am now rethinking my feeding habits to encourage the health of the fish rather that the size. Ive also set up an aquarium in our home based on you principles and has turned out to be extremely successful. Everyone that visits wants to know the secret. I kindly direct them to your channel. Thanks for offering your wisdom and education 👍🏼
This man's passion for this hobby is wonderfully infectious !
Father Fish obviously does not have a science background. His recommended approaches are oversimplified, and he fails to suggest other approaches that are perfectly acceptable by using different techniques. A formal scientific background (inorganic chemistry, physics, organic chemistry, biochemistry) comes at a tremendous price of intense effort over a period of many years. The academic subjects are reinforced with laboratory investigations. This combination yields real science with real, measured results. It's impossible to arrive at that point by absorbing the hobby periodicals. The problem is that "Father Fish" is so emphatic with his statements that they are presented as the ultimate answer to everything; he hasn't made one claim that is infused with supportable evidence and can't easily been challenged. There are no shortcuts for a thorough grasp of scientific principles. If you're going to enter that world with competency, you have to pay the price.
Personal experience is priceless 🤞
@@KC135jetjockeyPersonal experience is priceless 🤞
Hi Father Fish! I am new to the aquarium world. I've studied a lot of your videos and changed my tank completely over to substrate, sand, pepples, and planted new plants. You'll be proud. I wish I could send you a picture of my changed over tank.
I'm about to leave my tanks for about 9 days. I was worried how will they be able to survive without me giving them food then I realized that my tanks are heavily planted and has sand and soil as FF described, but now? Naahh, I'm confident they'll survive. Thank you for Father Fish for guiding us on how to do the hobby properly.
Once it has leaves, you'll be fine
hi, I learnt from FF yesterday that sliced of blanched carrot etc r good additional food. I tried it except I did not blanch. just cut a middle long sliver. I only have a 6 week old mini tank! FF's way. the carrot is being eaten and half gone already! so good holiday food. piece of broccoli. a few algae covered rotting pond/dam leaves. yaaay!!
@@AndyMacMahon nice! Courgette/zucchini is also a great option 👍
It's refreshing hearing some one else say "leave the tank alone". I have been keeping aquariums of various sizes for over 30 years and my advice to other hobbyists has always been, don't touch it (once it's established). A heavily planted tank takes care of its self for sure. I essentially top off the water in my tank when needed and maybe once a month rinse the canister filter pads (never touch the bio media of course). Like I mentioned, 30 of trial and error and this was the key.
I have a 300 litre. Planted, new tank. It looks amazing. I've got gold fish and danios, weather loach. I'm amazed at how good it is. Week one. I also have a canister filter. I've never cleaned it yet. I'm just going off your comment. Is it only the pads I clean? Leave the bio balls as is? I noticed your comment by chance. I'd be grateful for a reply if that's what to do. Thanks, in advance. Scott.
What kind of filter pads do you use? If you use sponge filteres with large pores you only have to slightly squeeze them once in a while (like every 2-3 months) in warm water to remove access. But never throw away all of that precious activated sludge that builds up. It's as precious as the microbial fauna in FFs described baselayer (although being aerobic instead).
But that is my motto too. Never touch a running system. Or when you do want to "clean" it, always only clean a small part at a time.
@@scottlouis4076Don't touch the bioballs, never let them dry out or stay stagnant for to long when cleaning the mechanical pre-filtre (assuming your bioballs are ment to house your aerobic microbia). If you have these balls with really fine pores (ceramic or sinther glass) some manufacturers say you have to swap these after a few years since they are said to clog up eventually (no personal experience with that). When cleaning or changing bio-filtre media, never do it all at once, but only step wise or you loose that precious activated sludge.
@@haifutter4166thick sponge filters in my cannister get rung out in the dirty water, the polishing cotton pads I basically throw out and I have a ton of various bio media like plastic bio balls and porcelain cylinders in bags that I shake out and never rinse to keep the bacteria in order.
I care for my ponds the same way.
He's absolutely correct. I could not keep my guppies alive so I bought a pregnant mom she had 11 babies at all of them thrived because they were born into the tank so I didn't have to worry about constantly adjusting the water
Bought berried ghost shrimps from petsmart not too long ago, all of them passed away after some time one due to a failed molt and the others because of the change in the water. Their babies thrived in the tank though
Thank you for such valuable information! I’ve struggled for years with tanks….until I started my shell dweller tank. Why did I choose Multi’s? Because my water is extremely hard! Being a Cichlid lover, I researched “small Cichlids that thrive in hard water”The answer was the Lake Tanganyika Shell dwellers. Then I set up with soil and sand (over the dreaded gravel). I wasn’t interested in a planted tank, so I utilize sponge filters (2 - one on each end of my 40 gal low breeder tank) over my previous hang-on-tank filters. My fish have grown from my original 6 I purchased from Imperial Tropicals (my local fish farm) to well over 100 in past 4 years. I’ve given dozens of the juveniles back to Imperial to keep my tank from being overloaded. Lastly, I feed about every three days or so….These little “bull dozer” fish are an absolute DELIGHT to watch as they set up their homes and defend their territories. We are so fortunate to have a wonderful resource like you for us amateur fish keepers….thank you for all you do for us! ♥♥♥
Honestly can these videos be any more informative and interesting. Watching fellow members tanks while the masters voice churns out free advice in such a calm demeanour. This one in particular really registers with me. I have followed his advice to the letter and closing in on 3 months have the most beautiful planted aquarium i have ever owned. I will admit,feeding was the hardest obstacle to overcome. Feeding twice a week once a day has worked wonders. My tds is sitting at 324. How could you question this method with all the testimonials abounding. You have made a lot of people happy and enjoying the hobby and for this i thank you. 😀
@@MarmiteManRUMBLE-iw4wn seems he has to keep driving home the point to reach the masses hehe
hey ! i am one of those foolish newbies on the learning curve
right now i got a 10 gallon tank with like half an inch of gravel as the only substrate💀
So i was thinking could i just add an inch of potting/garden soil over the gravel and then cap it up with 2 inch sand??
or do i have to remove the gravel first?
i would end up having like almost 4 inches of substrate by this...would this be an issue?
thanks
@@sandidsaman7723certainly no need to remove the gravel. I have 1 inch of organic potting soil and 2 inches of sand in a 5 gallon tank for shrimp. Takes away a little room but then again it’s shrimp. You could add some soil and sand over the gravel however.
So true.. 👍👍
Thank you for providing such valuable information for free! It is strikingly simple yet we are so accustomed to purchasing things! I’m doing a 180 turn with my new tank. Returning new canister filter, ditching gravel, buying less fish food, buying no chemicals. This is amazing, looking forward for this ecosystem to thrive!
Father fish, we need videos of how to safely turn a wrongly set fish tank ( such as gravels for 6 month with 40 fishes, 4 dead) - to your recommended setting … 🙏🙏
Yes! I have sand in mine but no soil underneath…. I have a feeling it’s going to be reallllll messy to correct 😅
Yes please!! 🙏🙏🙏
YES PLEASE!!
I'm a simple man, i took FF words for it and followed few basics FF methods and my aquarium hobby have been smooth sailing since.
I agree with the sand from my own experience.
Cheaped out ones by using sandbox sand, rinsed well to get the dusting out, found it made a much better substrate than gravel too.
Never did the dirt underlayer, but just sand already beats gravel in my opinion.
Combined with a oversized canister filter and ofcourse plants, you get a very low maintenance tank.
You’ve had success with plants without adding soil?
What plants, may I ask? Cause I’m trying to start my first planted tank and don’t wanna do soil
Thank you so much for this video! I feel like I’ve learned more in ten minutes than in watching fish keeping videos for two years on UA-cam. I’m now excited to do it and not intimidated. Thank you!
I noticed the large striped cichlid in your tank stayed right there with you almost the whole time you were speaking. That's what I call a real fish buddy!
If y'all listen to what he's saying you will succeed. I have 3 that I did as close as was possible to what he advises. Fish snails plants shrimp everything is thriving. Thank you for taking the time to impart wisdom that you've acquired the hard way. You da man.
I'm glad I watched this. I did a lot of reading of labels on different fish foods to try and make the best choice I could and one thing that was the same on every packet and jar and bottle, "feed up to 3 times daily"
I guess that makes sense if you're trying to sell fish food and want to make a huge profit from it.
We are definitely going to cut back our feeding frequency.
Thank you very much, you speak slowly and clearly, easy to understand. I know English at a basic level. Greetings from Poland. Thank you for the knowledge.
This is what youtube was invented for! Fabulous chanel here FF! ❤
I have a 2 years old tank with soil in the bottom and sand in the top and plants and its always crystal clear I never changed the water for 6 months now and all the fish and shrimps are multiplying. I'm glad that I am doing the right thing in my tank. 😊
How do you clean the sand, do you syphon the bottom?
hey ! i am one of those foolish newbies on the learning curve
right now i got a 10 gallon tank with like half an inch of gravel as the only substrate💀
So i was thinking could i just add an inch of potting/garden soil over the gravel and then cap it up with 2 inch sand??
or do i have to remove the gravel first?
i would end up having like almost 4 inches of substrate by this...would this be an issue?
thanks
@@francoiscaron1279 I never clean the sand my tank is heavily planted now with dwarf sag as carpet and ludwigia, jungle val and amazon sword as background.. I only have 3 dwarf sags in the beginning and after 3 months it's almost fully carpet..
@@sandidsaman7723 I suggest to remove the gravel put your water and filter medias in a container so you can use it after your reset.. I always put like 1 inch soil in front and 2 inch in the back and then 1 inch sand in the top to trap the soil.. the purpose of 1 inch front and 2 inch back soil is to elevate the substrate and it looks really good..
Can you please share the lighting that you're using for your aquarium. Is it a RGBW light or normal led light. Also the size of your aquarium and watts of the light that you're using
I just found here the best aquarium information than in most other high priced high tech styles and channels here in UA-cam! Thanks father fish!👍
FF, I love how you talk to this newbie. What you say is pure logic and the simplicity. Bravo.
I used thriving soil/millipede compost I nutured for almost a year in a terrarium to plant out a tank bottom. Love that one ecosystem feeds another.
Father fish , I wanna start off with saying Thank you for being you Thank you for taking the time to get the message out to those who truly care for thier fish. I truly appreciate your knowledge thank sir. I’m in Canada an I’m now three tanks all natural . Please keep up with the video’s truly enjoy watching them all.
I appreciate that
Been a fishkeeper since 1989, and Father Fish is the best thing I found
What a great video Father Fish! I’ve been keeping fish for 40 years and there is always something new to learn..
Thank you!!! I’m just getting into fish keeping. I just bought a tank and wanting to help my kid get into making UA-cam videos (since it’s what he wants to do). I’m now going to completely redo his tank with soil/sand instead. And im prepared to start my own!!!
That is awesome! Be sure to follow the formula carefully. You will find it here: discord.gg/father-fish-shoal
I agree with the whole well water aspect. I moved from well water to spring. I can not complain about free water at all. When I was on well, just gravel was absolutely fine. Since moving I have had to switch to a dirted substrate to keep fish and plants thriving.
And with food. Feed the system and it will feed the fish.
Hello father fish, I love listening to you. I had an aquarium many years ago, but the plants never really wanted to grow. I also definitely fed the fish far too often, so I made exactly the mistakes you listed in the video. But your valuable tips make me want to try it again more and more. Kind regards from Germany, David
Some of the best suggestions I've ever heard. That said there's something that I would suggest ahead of his three rules. Research before you buy. Fish have different needs. Learn about the environments your fish come from and try to match that as much as possible. Some fish require soft acid water, some hard alkaline water, some cool water, some very warm water, some still water, some flowing water, some need a particular substrate while others may be happier with none, some need to be crowded while others do best alone in the tank, some are schooling and won't show their best colors without a school of similar fish, learn about fish lifespans and related adult size, learn which can get along together in one tank. It's very important or you may end up with some fish killing the others. Also make sure you can provide them with a suitable food. I used to make my own fish food from eggs, liver, shrimp, carrots, spinach. It would feed anything from a six pound pacu to new born fry of small fish. For store bought food I always used tetra ruby that they no longer make but most quality tetra foods work well. Feed live or frozen foods when you can. I raised a school of two dozen neons from 1/4" fry to jumbo size over two years and I can tell you they enjoy live mosquito larva. You can have two benefits from that, you're feeding your fish and at the same time reducing the mosquito population. I would set a bucket of old tank water outside in the shade filled with leaves part way up. Drop in a tablespoon of milk and check it daily until you see wigglers. Use a brine shrimp net to net them out until they are all gone and wait until the next batch is ready. That's assuming you live somewhere that mosquitoes exist.
Thanks for the mosquito tip. I will definitely do that!👍
So I'm going to leave a remark. I just introduced the resurrection jar to my tank and everything went freaking crazy and the tank is so much better now on a 20 gallon long props to you father fish. Three pandas 3. 3 Cooley loaches, 7 neon tetras 5 galaxies overabundance of plants I use your method. Topsoil sand Canadian bluestone. And drift,wood 40 nitrite snails. Just added 1 pearl gourami Month 2 tank plus flourish. In three mystery snails. Thank you for everything ❤️
What a great video! I wish I had watched and rewatched this before I got my first aquarium. I have recently tries to put i to practice the Fr. Fish and so far it is going swimmingly!
I made my first tank inspired by a mix of yours and Dianas teachings and probably some things picked up here and there.
I used pure raw vermicompost instead of mts/manure with some peat, xaxim and clay mixed in.
Bottom layer dolomite granules.
I left this tank at a farm where i used to live, 2 years with no wc/feeding, only topups.
I now went and got the tank, shrimps are still alive
I don’t believe it
Hey Father Fish. I appreciate your knowledge and experience. I do have a caveat to the gravel is bad idea. In my opinion, small and medium gravel is a wonderful, healthy and stable substrate after a year or two if you don’t gravel vac. Of course this is for experienced fish keepers with planted tanks. Cheers.
Precisely. Gravel is extremely difficult for a novice fish keeper to prevent fouling. Most newbies quit the hobby over problems associated with gravel.
@@dudewhereismycar3061 Coconut fibre will lack the bacteria and nutrients present in soil.
I am so grateful that I found you I had no idea what I was doing and I had been doing the wrong thing for 60 years so now every time I watch a video I learned something and I'm going to set up my old tank the right way and hardly ever feed my fish just making sure it's at 78° and has some filtration and a little bit of bubbles and a ton of plants and my little guppies and my Clown floush will be happy. I know my guppies love the plants but I'm constantly putting in plants because I don't have the right substrate now I know why my plants are dying thank you so much please keep your videos coming
Thankyou.. im finding your video's super interesting.. I have a planned tank with moscow guppies that I had neglected for 8 months (not but choice) but in that time the filtration system & heater had stopped working and i stopped cleaning it, but my tank has never looked better! I have more and brighter fish, more plants that are a whole lot healthier and loads of snails.. it's been 12 months now and other then the odd water top up and a whip of the front glass it's fabulous.. I never understood it until now.. so thank you
I was searching about goldfish. Came across your Channel. What a gem I found! Thank you!🙏
Thank you for what you said about feeding the fish. I always thought that my fish were eating without me feeding them. I see them pecking around all the time. I’m going to 2-3 times a week immediately
Great advice! Thanks for the video, after over 60 years of keeping fish, i still struggle with over feeding, these videos put help put me back on track, love my deep substate tanks, it makes fish keeping a pleasure
I kept fish about 30 years ago. I bought a tank today and I'm amazed at all the 'gadgets' there are out there now. My old tanks had healthy gravel beds and never bloomed or went green. Father Fish is right, if you was to pin down the SINGLE worst thing you can do to a small enclosed environment, is to overfeed it. You're not just feeding the fish, but every microbe in there, and when everything is overfed and starts pooping, the balance goes off the scale!
Working in commercial aquaculture I learned that to keep the fish the healthiest possible (for aquaculture this means fastest growing for food), you need to feed to 75% of satiety. That means if you feed until the fish stop eating you are giving them at least 25% too much food. Eating until you are full causes harm by overloading the digestive system while at the same time providing extra nutrients to pathogenic microbes in the digestive system.
Absolutely right In a healthy environment the system provides a basic amount of food. Anything you provide is in addition to that natural food. The environment may not provide enough for good growth so added food is necessary, just not so much and not so often.
In the 1950's, my mother had a 10 gallon self sustained aquarium. She told me it was a "balanced' aquarium. I had a book from the 40's which explained the concept. Yourr aquarium is balanced and a sight to behold. Thank you for sharing your techniques.
I have a 25 year old aquarium with just pool filter sand for substrate. It's pretty much self sustaining. 👍
What is the filtration system you are talking about in your video when needed. I very much want to have an ecosystem tank that pretty much takes care of itself. The beauty of the natural bottom and the tiny fish swimming happily through the vegetation is remarkable. I started off WRONG!!!! Thanks to PetCo who absolutely knows nothing about aquatic life. Do I have to be a tank operator for years BEFORE graduating to your class!!!!! I will be ordering the dirt substrate after my few remaining fish die off which sounds like it’s inevitable.. As far as the sand goes, would I need to purchase the sand or scoop some out of the lake we own??? I know where I can get plenty of leaves and I believe I saw some sunken sweet gums balls in one picture……Man THANKS FOR ALL THE INFO. P.S. Congrats on the new store. I had a brief stint in Silver Springs, MD….years ago
Baba bıkmadan seni defalarca izliyorum.Her izlediğimde unuttuğum bakım bilgilerini tekrar hatırlıyorum .İyiki varsın.
Another wonderful video from FatherFish! God bless him everyone who works with or has worked with him. In fact God bless anyone who has any connection with him!💜🧡💛😇
Thanks, people like you are a GOD gift ,Father Fish !❤
Thank you so much for your help. I'm excited to get my aquarium going!
I've never learned so much about keeping fish, in so little time.. Great video..
Thank you for this video. It has given me the confidence to change many aspects of my fish keeping.
I just love the way you explain things. Even if understand them (you dont know me, but people who do know i need things really broken down to understand, my husbadns explains it as “explain like ur talking to a kindergarten” lol) and i love how real you are and i think its cool the way u stop and think of how u wanna say something before you say it. Almost like ur trying to make sure to make ur point but not offend, i respect tht…. & everuthing you said in this is so correct. Having two kids a cat a dog and a fish tank plus all my loved plants and myself. The fish tank was starting to drive me nutz “OH NO I FORGOT TO CLEAN THE TANK” “OH MY GOSH MY FISH ARE GONNA DIE, I HAVE TO CLEAN” ect. I was starteing to go nutz with the weekly sometimes twice weekly changes and all the management and stress. I thought there must be an easier way. So glad i looked up natural ecosystems and came accross ur video.
This video here told me that all those chemicals and sterile enviroment is actually killing the immune system of the tank (so to speak) and we wouldnt weaken our own immune system so why would we wanna do that with our fish/water/plants.
Thank you for generously sharing your knowledge with all of us❤
I have a couple of questions regarding a new planted tank that I quickly made to keep a bunch of newly acquired plants alive.
Put in the dirt, put in the sand, added well water, put in the plants. There are few species that have almost completely melted. They turned dark and mushy. A few look ok. What do you think I did wrong? I put in in the window to get some sun during the day. It also has biofilm on top that gets dense.
Thank you!
Sounds like the dirt overwhelmed the system. Try capping with another inch of sand
Good thing i watched this before setting up my aquarium. Thank you very much and God bless you sir!
Your channel convinced me to change my tank to a dirt/sand substrate, with natural plants. I just set it up that way a couple of days ago, because the 5 gallon tank has a single betta who has severe fin rot. I tried all the chemical treatments/medicines, none worked. I wanted to give him one last chance, and I removed all the gravel and plastic plants, and replaced with top soil and playground sand, and a bunch of real plants in hopes nature could do what I can't seem to.
I also hauled buckets of water from my parents house to mine because they have natural well water. My well water is testing at a high PH though. I have strips for pool care, and they top out at 9.0. My well water is hitting that color, maybe even going a bit off the scale. The alkalinity is also hitting the max color. Do you still recommend I let my fish and plants continue to live in this high of a PH? Thanks Father Fish!!!!
13:00 i got a corydora doing his business and danio right behind cleaning it up 😂 the timing was perfect
Sir, you are a wealth of information… as a child I had no aquariums, everything else, no fish or reptiles in the house! Lol. My Mom threw an Anole out the back door, box and all. I wished that I would have found you before I set up my recent 75 gallon. I use a canister and wave maker, I need to get into plants, but I have a bed of black gravel.😮 However I am the proud owner of a 39 year old Talking Raphael. I’m going to have to give him to a rescue eventually, I guess, he is only 6-7 inches long.
hey ! i am one of those foolish newbies on the learning curve
right now i got a 10 gallon tank with like half an inch of gravel as the only substrate💀
So i was thinking could i just add an inch of potting/garden soil over the gravel and then cap it up with 2 inch sand??
or do i have to remove the gravel first?
i would end up having like almost 4 inches of substrate by this...would this be an issue?
thanks
Couldn’t agree more especially feed sparingly I’ve kept fish for many years. I have one tank in particular that is my favorite and it’s in the living room I would feed the fish daily I would have fish die randomly maybe one a week or one a month. I started out not feeding once maybe twice a week and I have never seen my fish so active and healthy I also haven’t had a casualty in over a year. I keep deep substrate and tons of plants I do have a homemade sump also with lots of lava rock. Mostly because I like heavily stocked tanks. I have over 100 fish in my 75 gallon tank.
I'd love to see a more in-depth video about ph. My city's tap water is very soft and is close to mid in ph. I'd love to know things I could do to make it better for my fish.
Baking soda with increase kH (carbonate hardness) and pH. Marine salt will add minerals in the same proportions/ratios by which they occur in Earth's surface/crust, and will increase gH, TDS, and hardness (+2 charged ions).
Perfect!
I went for crushed coral in my 20g for my shrimpys & aragonite sand in my 29g for my small cichlids & haven't done ANY water change in about 5 months or more. Set my 20g up on March 1st of 2023 & my 29g almost 2 weeks later. If you want another option. My water comes outta the tap like yours... clouds devoid of anything at all.
@@cave.dweller.mediocrates what are the kinds of proportions and measurements of those things are you adding to your water?
@@wildbill4138 I do not use heaters in tanks with local fish.
Gracias Father Fish soy principiante en el mundo de los peces y me alegro de haberme encontrado éste video que hará que logre crear un ambiente adecuado para mis peces
Thanks for all the help. I've just begun making my way into aquariums and I have been having trouble trying to find the right info. Your advice is a big help.
Very informative vid that I wish I could've gotten years ago if youtube would've came out in my teen yrs , after watching your vids it brought back my desire to have an aquarium again , from what it looks like it looks like the ones you make are self sustaining besides the fish food that you add from time to time
I have a question , does it matter what kind of substrate soil/dirt i use on the bottom or is there a specific kind i need then add the 2" sand on top ?
Definitely not my first setup but im adding another tank to the collection and thought i might as well see what father fish does 😊
Thank you father fish! You are a living library for fish keepers around the world 🌎
Only if I had learned about you years ago, I’d have saved lot of money, time, patience, energy, resources and sanity!
Glad to have found you now!
After seeing your videos I have converted my two tanks into planted tank, I did not have all the ingredients of making the dirt but I took some soil from aquarium shop because where I live, getting soil which is not treated with pesticides or fungicide is a bit difficult, so I mixed some compost in the coarse brown gravel looking soil that the shopkeeper gave me and added to the existing small amount of gravel that I had in the fish tank and then put 2 inch of sand and lot of plants and added back the water and fish that I had removed in big buckets. I wanted to ask that my aquariums had pothos roots growing in them, should I let them be or remove them from the tank now? Pls advise, it will be a great help.
I used 2 inch aqua soil and 2 inch small gravel, planted out the tank and its been awesome for 2 years now, i installed 2 filter pumps, 1 for constant running and a high flow pump for a once a fortnight poo clean, i call it the tsunami, i run it for 4hrs any poo on the substrate is sucked up and the fish seem to like the high flow too. 102 ltr tank
Sand would be better
Thank you for the great advice! I used to worry about my nano fish because I work away from home. I had someone feeding them every second day. Now I have them coming to take care of the fish every 3rd day. They are just fine and I'm sure I could let it go longer thanks to you. Take care!
Thats a very risky thing to do unless the other person is a fishkeeper aswell
if i were u i would be in constant fear lol, i just love my fish and aquariums too much to let anybody else touch them:)
@@sandidsaman7723 My fish sitter comes in, dumps a pre-portioned amount of food into the tanks, and he's on his way. Sometimes he gives a block of frozen food. When I'm home, I usually feed the fish just three times a week. the tank is well established, heavily planted and there is natural food in there too. I've been keeping fish for over 20 years and haven't starved any of my fish to death yet. 🙂
@@CarolynnMc01 I have never heard of anybody starving their fish to death either :)
I am actually worried about the opposite...feeding your fish to death when ur not home!
I had bitter experience in the past and thats why i developed a fear of fish sitters lol , now i dont trust anybody for feeding my fishes or even going near my aquariums when i m not home:))
I’m setting up my first tank in ten years right now. So glad I found this channel.
thank you for the content master fish
I had my first saltwater aquarium using beach sand exactly as you did, its been 3 months, no problems, no issues, adding more animals slowly.
Thank you for your very helpful tips😊👍🐟
Thank you father fish ..you really help me improve on my tanks alot..thanks for all the information you give..
Sono felice di aver trovato il tuo canale, così ricco di informazioni 🙏❤️🐳
So I love your videos. I only feed my fish every other day now thanks to you. Thank you so much for letting me know there is a natural way to do this. I knew that there had to be. Here is my question. I have a 35 gallon tank, 2 goldfish, 2 guppies and 2 pleco. They are all still fairly small, I am trying to find a bigger tank, but in the mean time I want to implement your methods. I have a gravel substrate because I didn't find your videos until I got started. Should I fill dirt and sand over the gravel? And how can I do that safely without hurting the fish. Should I remove them from the tank while I do it? Also can you give me tips for when I switch them to the larger tank? Thank you so much.
just add 2" of sand to the gravel and build a food web. With the new tank follow the formula: discord.gg/father-fish-shoal
Hi Father Fish, im only relatively new to the hobby, around a year now. I took your advice from another video and put some rocks from outside in, the tank is so clean and clear its unreal
I came across a UA-cam expert the other day who changed 40% of his water every day. Seriously. That's just nuts.
Regarding the You Tube short on 3 questions to ask the salesperson , the better response to the first question would be "Temperature depends on the fish. Not all are from tropical waters.". That would indicate that the salesperson has a clear knowledge of fish.
Using soil is a great way to keep aquatic plants. I've been using it for over a decade once I learned about it through The Walstad Method. I've recently put a tank together using oil-dri & akadama soil (clay based) capped with coarse sand. So far, it's had fewer issues than soil in the startup phase, and has maintained a steady 6.5ph and very moderate GH and KH despite having very hard well water. I'm interested to see how it plays out.
Thanks so much! I learnt a lot. I’m getting rid of the gravel and feeding far less! Will do more water testing.
Do less water testing, not more.
The water and the food part is pure gold and wisdom...the substrate part is interesting because yes, sand/dirt subtrate works well, but as I can see gravel works too. I have 4 ultra healthy betta as my username suggests and 5 harlequin rasbora in a fairly big tank with gravel and they live happily, so I guess both way can be good in some cases.
hey ! i am one of those foolish newbies on the learning curve
right now i got a 10 gallon tank with like half an inch of gravel as the only substrate💀
So i was thinking could i just add an inch of potting/garden soil over the gravel and then cap it up with 2 inch sand??
or do i have to remove the gravel first?
i would end up having like almost 4 inches of substrate by this...would this be an issue?
thanks
I guess I have to explain this: In the gravel I have fake plants, so I do gravel vac once per week, but I also have natural mopani driftwood and some dragonstone in my setup, cause the tannin also helps makin better water quality. But as I see you may have live plants which is different case. In that case I would say put the gravel out first, then the soil goes in and the sand is on top of that. Or if you wanna work with something like my setup with the fake plants and mopani wood than you can use only gravel, but then you have to vac it regularly because the ammonia will be a problem if you don't these are the two options ahead of you.
You are a very knowledgeable man I could not agree more with all Ur points. I really enjoyed Ur video thank you .
The talk about municipal water isn't universal, it depends on where you are. This is just to point out to any viewer that e.g. almost everyone in Sweden have soft tap water (despite most of it coming from underground), and this varies from region to region depending on a multitude of factors, including bedrock in your area. This can vary from village to village as well. Essentially, there's no shortcut to finding out yourself if you have soft or hard water
Thanks so much for all your help in feeding fish and having a healthy tank.
I feed my fish almost evryday. But i remember the first time, many years ago i went on holidays not organized, and they didnt eat for 15 days. When i open the door home i was expecting doom and death. Nobody died to be honest they looked better. What a joy. Since that i go on holidays and i expect my absence to improve the tank.
hey ! i am one of those foolish newbies on the learning curve
right now i got a 10 gallon tank with like half an inch of gravel as the only substrate💀
So i was thinking could i just add an inch of potting/garden soil over the gravel and then cap it up with 2 inch sand??
or do i have to remove the gravel first?
i would end up having like almost 4 inches of substrate by this...would this be an issue?
thanks
@@sandidsaman7723remove the gravel sadly then soil and cap with sand
My neighbors has a goldfish when we were kids that they kept in a bucket and lost interest or forgot about it, I don't know what. But the bucket was put outside and months, maybe a year later, we noticed it and looked in. The water was white but much to our disbelief we saw an orange fin pop out of the water and realized the fish was still alive! So they fixed up a tank for it with clean water, put the fish in it, and about a day later it unfortunately died. I've been absolutely convinced ever since that cats are actually the easiest animals to care for.
STEM PLANTS BUNDLE SALE - Over 75 plants - 15 Species for $59! Limited Time OFFER so HURRY!
father-fish-aquarium.myshopify.com/
For Special Soil Supplements, Plants, FIsh & Merch in your country:
fatherfish.fish/
Do you ship to Europe?
I only have a 10 gallon tank, would this bundle be too many? I don’t know how many I need.
Next month i wanna buy aquascaoe with guppy fish, neon netra and shrimp.. Here i am watching this video.. Hope my fisrt tank healthy and safe🙏
Thank you Father Fish. I learnt a lot from watching this. I am going to raise frog tadpoles but and I have gravel as substrate. I now realize what a huge mistake that is ....I will look to change that! Thank you Father Fish I appreciate it
I'd love to hear your advice for taking care of goldfish or other cool water species!
Thank you for your words of wisdom Sir. It’s much appreciated.
would you reccomend going to a local pond or river and getting the soil from there and adding the 2 inch sand from a shop?
No. That is 1/4 of the material for the soil layer. This explains it: discord.gg/father-fish-shoal
@@FatherFish ok I’ll check it out !
Thank you father
Father fish. My children and I are very much enjoying learning from your videos. May I ask you a question please although it may be slightly off-topic. What about pouring natural water from a rain catcher with leaves into your tank? Any benefit to that?
This is good information! I'm going to dirt my tank this weekend. Oh, and I'm going to STOP feeding at least once per day. Thanks, Father Fish. What kind of soil? Just regular soil from the backyard? Any specific sand I should get or stay away from?