Goldfish, keeping them alive and healthy for years using an Anoxic filter
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- Опубліковано 9 лют 2025
- Yes, there was a time when I could not keep goldfish for very long either. However, once I started using the anoxic filtration system all that changed and my goldfish lived for over 15 to 17 years. The anoxic filter is a game changer for those who want to keep Koi and/or goldfish.
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I remember when we were kids we won some goldfish at the carnival throwing the ping pong balls in the glasses they were in....my Grandma bought a 29 gallon fish tank second hand from her nextdoor neighbor to home them in and she had two air pumps and 2 of the old penplax clear plastic housing type filters to put an air stone and layer of filter floss one bottom some carbon in the middle and more floss on the top then put the cover part on top she ended up with about 13 gold fish in it including some celestials and fantails and the original 3 fish won at that carnival she figured maybe to have them be alive for 3 to 4 years tops...surprisingly they all made it to full adult hood healthier than ox's and all lived over 20 years and she never dreamed they could live so long and that she would be caring for them as pets for so long. She was careful to never over feed them and fed them once in the morning and evening, she cleaned their filters alternating every week and a 25% water change with dechlorinator once every 2 weeks so bi weekly she was so happy when they finally all started dying off of old age to get rid of the fish tank finally... LOL
I really liked your story it reminded me of when I was a kid and won a goldfish, the same way.
That is a very clean setup.
Second time I've watched this video. I implemented this system in my new 50 gallon tank. It's been only 2 months but so far I'm thrilled with the results!. I bought 6 young Orandas to add to the new tank and haven't lost a one. In the past I accepted a loss of 1 out of every 3 I've purchased from the same reputable dealer. I have a fin nipper in the bunch and don't bother medicating and the victim is recovering just fine. I can't wait to send you a one year update! Thanks again Dr, Novak for all the sound advice. We do hear you!
How is your tank doing now?
Case closed! I can't wait to implement this system with my new tank. Sound advice from a man that's done the research. Thanks so much Dr. Novak!
Glad to help
Would be nice to see a video on how installing the anoxic filtration. This video was very helpful and I’m surprised no one else is talking about it
Yes, exactly. We really need a video on how to install anoxic filtration. So far, all I’ve got is that adding koi clay is a part of it.
it was yesterday when i discovered your channel. Goldfish corner youtube channel also said that traditionally clay was used to line goldfish and koi ponds. and after googling i learned clay is also very beneficial to people and it's eaten in some parts of the world. thank you so much, i will upgrade my kannister filter in near future, i hope my fish will grow long and happy lives, thank you so much!
Play is very beneficial to most fish and aquatic life. In fact, it is so important in some systems that they will collapse immediately when it is removed from the whole Eco system.
These videos make me want to try goldfish again, as they are beautiful and originally got me in the hobby
Go for it!
Wow thank you so much. I never planned to have a aquarium or pet fish. Stupid me wanted a cute little fountain outside to enjoy the sound of water but also control mosquitoes repopulating from feature. I put some cheap “feeders” in it with lotus, floating plants and solar pump etc. Low and behold I they survived after raccoons and weather to the fall. I couldn’t just kill them so now they are inside and I have little to no knowledge about how to keep the tank clean without going crazy. I’ve had for a yr now and they are still alive with plants and snails. But I so needed to find someone with a better method to keeping them happy and thriving til they get a pond. Thanks so much again truly it’s hard to find goldfish videos that are this informative.
Thank you so much Dr Novak. I have amongst many aquariums an African Cichlid tank that is heavily stocked (to reduce aggression). The Nitrates after a water change would sit at 150ppm. This worries me, so I set up a BCB basket in said tank. The Nitrates never rise above 20ppm before a water change now. I am so happy and grateful for your teaching me about the Anoxic Filtration system.
I only corrected a spelling mistake.
@@eyadjamus7126 How many cichlids? How big is your tank. Nitrates after a water change at 150ppm, what was the reading before water change. Thanks in advance
I know about the female youtuber you're talking about i used to watch her all the time, I've also made the same mistake as her but I actually gave up after the first time. I've always loved orandas and when I lost my two orandas i just moved on to different fish. Now after 5 years of keeping fish and with more knowledge I'm feeling more confident and watching your videos I'm getting this desire to get myself some orandas one more time. I will definitely try your method when I finally decide to get them. Thank you so much I've learned so much watching your videos.
It's a shame because she had a large following and all she talks about is frogs and snakes now. I was just being honest in the video. I also had Goldfish die constantly and I did everything right at least I thought I did. But now with an Anoxic filtration system that's all behind me now.
Solid Gold Aquatics (Jennifer Lynx) the girl who begged everyone for money to build a fish room for her then sold her house and never gave anyone the content they paid for.
@@bluebowser3121 lmfao i guess she sold you guys with her looks
wow. awesome . The lights of the aquarium is brighter than the reflected sunlight.
Your goldfish is something to look foreward to in future as the journey begins.
Thanks for the quick update on the 20gal at 21:40. That little bit of gravel can be lifted up with a hose siphon, just like a vaccum. Those gravel at the bare bottom maybe caught in the sponge when you clean your tank, acting like a glass cutter.
I appreciate updates every now and then.
Thanks 👍
In Japan many Gold fish and Koi breeder using montmorillonite clay powder into their tank or pond. I tried that too, color and scales of the gold fish look shining after using clay.
Where do you buy that ?
Where do you buy that Clay
❤
Will it suitable for arowana too? Since arowana prefer soft water but this clay adds calcium.
this video is a game changer. exactly what i needed to hear. you got me excited again for this hobby. Thank you sir!
Glad to hear it!
I appreciate your insight! That girl just didn’t really know what she was doing and then called the whole breeding of fancies unethical as a cop out! Sad!! I love my goldfish and I don’t give up on them. ❤
Yes, I do remember watching that video where she chastise the breeders of Chinese and Japanese goldfish that's been around for thousands of years and the cruelty of making the hybrids.
Thank you so much! Finally someone that I can get the right knowledge to keep my fish living a long life!
thank you dr. novak. The same thing happens to me with goldfish too. I consider myself an experienced aquarist, and yet I cannot keep these fancy fish for a long time. Your video made me regain my spirits. I want to give him a hug. thank you
Thanks for sharing
You are so right about the clay. You have proven it. I have been keeping a fancy goldfish for 36 years. I get them from Walmart or the box store, which is a 3 hr round trip. I just love them,, but I have lost my fair share. Then our town switched to well water in 1989 or 1990. Our town is about 150 houses. Then my fish started living 11 - 15 years. I only have 3 to 6 at a time. I know you are also correct about having quality water. We have very good water which is really made a difference for my fish.
Wow this is a nice video! Now ill try to study and research more about this Anoxic filtration and try it out. Looking forward change and remodel all my tank filtrations Thanks! :D
I have only 1 oranda in a 20 gallon long and she is 3 years old.Im mainly into tropical fish.They are expensive like you said and I spend alot on her to keep her healthy and it works.Sometimes its not all about the tank size but the quality of water.
This is happening to us. We're far from knowledgable or deep into the hobby, but of 4 Ranchus we've bought, we've lost two. Spent a small fortune on a decent filter, tried all sorts of things and clearly still not doing it right. This was supposed to be something relatively straight forward and beneficial to teach our 8 YO son about having a pet and looking after it, instead my weekends are now punctuated with all sorts of tank related stuff while he has zero interest. I feel like, exactly as you said, we're just doing the same thing all the time (clearly not right) and getting the same results. I try different things too, but to little effect. Wife is buying all sorts of additives and stuff to cure the various issues and I can't help but think it's only causing more issues with their environment. Need to Google what this filtration system is etc. and learn more - Thanks!
Thanks for sharing, I’m trying to learn more about gold fish. Gald that I found your video ❤
Glad it was helpful!
Hey, sorry I'm late to the party. Everything you said is true.
I ended up coming to the same conclusions about goldfish keeping. I managed to replicate an anoxic filter using a 1/2 gal hang on back breeding box full of clay, leca, and seachem matrix.
The clay absolutely works. As a geologist, my theory is that the crystal structure of clay minerals trap and bond to water extremely well. Water trapped in clay tends to be highly anoxic due to its high porosity and low permeability. That paired with its high surface area makes clay an ideal media for anoxic filtration. Driftwood can achieve a similar effect.
With this method I've kept my goldfish healthy for 5+ yrs with no dropsy, swim bladder issues, or fungal infections.
I will admit your method is far more thorough. I'll be adding a plenum to my 55 gallon as soon as I can.
Thanks for the years of insight. As a 27 yr old, I will now be able to avoid years and years of mistakes, and will save hundreds if not thousands of dollars.
Cheers from Akron, OH!
It's awesome to see you're enjoying success using this type of filtration, it's a great option for goldfish keeping!
thank you for this video. I'm having goldfish issues right now, with dropsy and fin rot. The one with dropsy was my fave and the 2 with fin rot came up recently. I will look into the anoxic filtration system for sure now. Thanks again.
Thanks for the info doc, i tried your filtration and for 2 days all red streak from all of my goldfish is gone, before i tried so many products to treat them like praziquantel, anti bacteria in and out but they keep comming back. So happy to find your info doc. Thanks a lot.
Make sure you let everyone who keeps goldfish know of you outcome too.
I love this. I love goldfish. I'm going to build a plenum tank for my tropicals. Thank you for explaining this ❤
Glad it was helpful!
This is very interesting, I upgraded my goldfish to a 36 gallon aquarium. I mixed my old gravel with a clay based aquasoil and capped it off with sand. My fish are so much more beautiful and they seem to be shinning. Maybe the clay helps with magnesium levels. I also feed my goldfish cichlid food as well as vibra bites and as a treat some frozen blood worms. I will have to looking more of your videos. Thank you so much for sharing! 😊
Back in the 70's when I was a kid I was given a 55 gallon tank. Being a kid w/no $ I went down to my local pong w/ a couple of buckets and gathered muck from the bottom and some surface muck w/ algae, sticks leaf detritus the top 2" of the pond bottom. I mix the muck w/ soil to a thick mud consistency @ 2" deep in the tank topped w/ 1/2" clay kitty litter and mixed the top 2" of pond bottom with sand added to the top of the litter added water planted w/ some pond plants and put some rooting plants my mother had ( a spider plant and some Ivy) on to the back wall. Got a couple of little blue gills and a small 3" bill head and saved up for 'fancy' gold fish from the local dept store. The only time I every had an issue was if I over stocked the tank. That was the only time I had to do water changes.No pumps or air stones only a cheap lighting and that's it. Once the system was balanced the only maintenance is to top off water. The old KISS systems are the simplest and most tried and true. In the 80's under gravel filters were the rage,in the 90's Every one wanted the clean look so we moved our deep beds and bunches of plants and external filtration to the sump and ran an off set lighting schedule and circulation pump and called it a refugium. Back in the 70's I didn't know squat. I figured that if it was good enough for real life/ nature why wouldn't it work in a tank.
I don't know if you agree with this but I have heard that the comet goldfish are closer to the wild type of the species and that fantails are basically a comet goldfish with longer fins and are still quite hardy. Also I have read quite often in the literature of the fishkeeping hobby that goldfish will not breed in our temperate climate. I know this to not be true. About 20 years ago I went with a friend to purchase some comet goldfish for her backyard pond that had no fish in it. we got the very cheap fish that I believe are sold for feeders. Over the years the original 10 or so fish have increased to about 100 and in late summer is when I start to see the current season's new fish appear at about the size of a quarter. Also...about my friends pond...when they moved into the house the pond was probably overstocked with a dozen or so large Koi. We cared for them as well as we were able and they seemed to do ok. A few years later at the end of winter, when we were cleaning up the pond we find NO KOI! We ultimately assumed that raccoons from nearby woods had hunted them out and dragged them off to the woods because there was no trace of them in or around the pond.
Hah! I have a story about the ponds in Tower Grove Park... several years ago I saw some kids using a length of phone cord with a piece of hot dog tied on to it and they had caught a bucket full of crayfish this way.
My thoughts on clay is it tends to swallow up or encapsulate whatever comes in contact with it. I want to say that maybe it is bacteria in the clay that the goldfish knows it needs. Just my thoughts only when dealing with it when I bought a 3 acre lot to build a home on. Clay is horrible for good grass and gardening. But some things will grow in it. When water stands on top of clay it will smell when it drains. Good video Dr. Novak. Have a great evening 🐠 And I love your goldfish!
is there a place , video, website on how to make a Anoxic filter build? I agree completely with you
Did you find out?
Dr. Novak, thank you so much for making all of these videos and sharing your knowledge with us. I too like fancy goldfish. I got frustrated with my fish dying, so I sold my last aquarium over ten years ago. I've now got the itch to try again. Thanks to your videos, I'm hoping that I can keep my fancy goldfish happy and healthy this time. I just bought a 75 gallon aquarium, but haven't set it up yet. I need to build a nice stand and canopy for it. Originally, I was planning on putting a traditional undergravel filter like the Lee Premium 75/90 gallon on it. Now, I'm going to make a plenum and slow the flow through the substrate with the short lift tube. Would the anoxic filtration work if I put a short lift tube on either side in the back corners of the 48 inch wide base with an airline attached to both? Then, I would add all the substrate like you have shown us. Another question that I have and I didn't remember you talking about in any of your videos that I have watched is, are we still supposed to vacuum the gravel? Using a gravel vac would mix all the layers above the plenum up. I just subscribed to your channel today. Thanks again.
I have had goldfish for years. I have hanging filters, I start with feeder fish, that within a year are 7-8" long and I move them successfully to an outdoor pond. I add a scope of food grade diatomaceous earth everytime I add water, I don't have sick or dying fish. I now have fancy and orandas, also with no issues. I also add DE to my fish pond. This has worked for me for over 20 years 🤷
I'm making some bcb bags for my pond and my tank. I previously used nitrate filter and it did work well. I am going to try this woth the bcb bags for now until I can make a system
If you use nitrate filters and they worked well, why would you not continue using a product that works and performs the way you would like it to?
@anoxicfiltrationplenums I think I will continue the nitrate filter someone on a Facebook group said they didn't work for them. I have an aquarium inside that isn't working great I will try bcbs for. Should ph be 7 or is 6.5 okay someone told me 6.5 is too low?
Plenumn systems have been extensively studied in the saltwater aquarium hobby. I had a saltwater tank that had very good growth and kept an assortment of corals and clownfish in it that used the plenum system. You need to set up your microaerohilic area, an undergravel aquarium that you seal off works fine. Then you add 7 inches of aragonite sand (for saltwater don't use that for freshwater) and then you keep the top of the sand as clear as you can to allow water flow so you don't get hydrogen sulfide pockets. You want microaerophilic, not anarobic is why you keep the top as clear as possible. This allows large amounts of bacteria to grow and clean you water (in saltwater you have to seed it with what they call live rock). This system will keep the water very clean but at night your oxygen levels will drop. To combat this you also need a refugium with cheato (a marine algae in freshwater you can add plants) with a light on at night or 24/7. If you do all this it is an expensive set up but it saves you money in the long run because you can keep your fish healthy. My main tank was a 75 gallon aquarium and my refugium was a 55 gallon aquarium. I also added more live rock to the refugium and when I broke the tank down there were sponges growing all over them, it was beautiful. Unfortunately I was military at the time and sold everything when I moved. Now I have discoverd ranchu goldfish and will start up a similar system for them soon...but planning on moving in about a year or two.
yep. even shaqs pond has one. tested...and proven good.
Thank you for the video. I will try this on my goldfish tank as they are not going as well as they could
I'm sure there are thousands of people, wear their goldfish tanks aren't doing that great watching UA-cam videos.
You should do a shorter "how to video" showing how to set up the tank with the sand and nutrients, and the canister & filters you are talking about. Those are gorgeous fish btw
I did exactly that by redoing the whole goldfish aquarium, and replacing the substrate.
when do you talk about what an Anoxic filter is??
Good points! Im extremely curious. im not currently using any clay i have a 75 gallon with hang on back filter and several sponge filters black sand and tons of live plants ! Im going to do more home work
We try so hard to keep our beautiful fish alive but the truth is that they keep us alive too.
Thank you very much for sharing very useful goldfish, this is the first video that I see, I will watch your other videos in turn, wish you always be safe and happy! 21_08_2022
So nice of you
Be safe? Are goldfish vicious to humans??
Quick question sir. Can i recreate something similar than what you have in your tank but in the sump. I mean to add 4" of dirt and gravel and keep my main display bare bottom? Will i still have the benefit of anoxic filtration. Thx in advance. Happy new year!!
Yes you can
@anoxicfiltrationplenums Im an expert now. I've watch almost all your videos this weekend :)
Thanks for soo much info.🙏
Hi Dr! Quick question can i add it to my eheim filter how should i stack it? Thx in advance
Sir is that hornwort plant in your tank?
Yes it is.
@@anoxicfiltrationplenums wow so can I have hornwort in my goldfish tank?
Hi sir. I've 15 ranchus divided in 3 bare bottom tanks. I'm interested in copying what you did with yours. May I please kindly ask in detail what exactly are the things you used in your tank,I.e.sand, clay (what kind) and whatnot? And may I also ask what pcp basket is? Thanks a heap!:)
Thank you for making excellent videos. I appreciate the time you put into sharing your knowledge. Cheers
My pleasure!
Hi! I'm so excited to have discovered your channel/video today. I have 3 Orandas currently infected with the parasite Anchorworms. I have been fighting this for 4 months and have not had success killing it off completely. This last round I used Cyropro at double recommended strength for the required 3 weeks/3 doses with 90% plus water changes with each weekly dose. I'm getting to the point of giving up but would really like to save these little guys. Can you advise? Seems Cypropro failed, at regular strength and 2x strength, and the first meds I tried failed.....have you had anchorworm and can you please help me? Any advise would be so appreciated, thank you! Cara
It gives much beauty in your house
Dear Dr. Novak.
I do not usually comment on YT but I have to share here that after watching most of your videos and the fact that they make sense to me, I installed yesterday night a plenum under my aquarium substrate.
I have 15+ years of this hobby, most of it keeping discus, and they died on me, not a lot, but they did. My work life made me switch to what I thought would be less maintenance and I now keep orandas. Boy I was wrong. Although I never had high NH3, I felt I needed to do something cause I from time to time I had to add salt as the fish were moving funny. I wanted to go fluidized sand filter, but it was not and easy install in my setup and when I read about your plenum and anoxic filter. It made complete sense to me. All that substrate put to work as a bio filter. The aquarium I keep now is a display of 155L custom made (around 40G) where I had 1” pool filter sand and very simple hard scape. Big pothos above the lids.
Whoever is afraid of the switch is 100% wrong. I gathered the supplies, installed the UGF, refilled the tank in less than 2 hours, filter and fish din not even noticed. I had prepared the UGF with fine mesh and short exit pipe, soaked ¾ of my kitty litter in Seachem Stability and ¼ in Seachem Iron the night before. I capped the kitty litter with my old pool sand and added more coarse natural color sand on top. Most of the time was filling back up. As soon as the water level reached the Fluval FX5 intake (yes FX5 for 150L tank, flow is tamed down of course), I turned it back on. When the tank was full, water was already getting clear. Now I have an average of 4 to 5 inch of substrate with UGF running. The next morning (today) water is crystal or as you say, gin clear. I don´t recall ever see the fish swimming so peacefully.
Hope to come back in 5 years and say I still have all my fish. Thank you for sharing your experience.
I hope you do come back in five years and tell me everything is just fine
@@anoxicfiltrationplenums I would much appreciate if you could give me your opinion on two questions I have.
How much time do you think it can take to fully establish the anoxic filtration with the setup I presented above?
What is your point of view on relation between water changes and growth of orandas fish. is it absolutely mandatory to make massive water changes to get fully grown orandas. I´ve eared of hormones inhibiting growth of tank mates produces by the fish. I would love to ear from you on this, maybe in a video!
For people that may be wondering. I have tested my plenum on one of my tanks by adding in DR Tims ammonia solution to achieve a reading of 1ppm, I waited 4hrs tested the water and ammonia was 0. Plenum has been up for 8 months so indeed using a plenum and bcb basket/ bags definitely works. :) I only use a plenum on this tank as it will be for a betta when I get one.
My greatest recommendation for rookies is never blind pick your goldfish. Never trust online sellers. Go in store and observe the fish for a good while to learn all its characteristics to see if it's healthy or not. Learn about the fish you are buying and learn what a super healthy fish looks like. Its better to start off with a healthy fish than a sick one. Many many people who knows nothing buy sick fish and blame themselves when the fish dies. For online purchasing, a 30 second video doesn't show anything. Call the online shop and have them do a in person chat and see how the fish is doing.
I used to watch religiously the Solid Gold Aquatics videos, it was very sad when Jenny left the hobby. I’m also in this same boat, I had 7 very expensive Dandy Orandas goldfish and just like you said I did everything right… after 5 years and in a span of 12 months they all died…. 1 from SBD and the other Dropsy… and I really tried to bring them back from the disease so each of them was an agonizing battle until I had to take them out of their suffering. I’m resetting my 120 with a plenum and BCB bags in the sump. I almost left the hobby until I saw your videos. I still have one king Koi and Golfish one that has kept me on the fence. Now to the question: I wanted to go plant less, but after this vid, what plant should I get for the fish to munch on (aside from duckweed) ?
The longest living goldfish I ever had came from a breeder right here in America. They lived for over 15 to 17 years and they were all Lion Heads. Seems like the overseas goldfish from China and Thailand. Just don't live as long and aren't as healthy as hobbies would like them to be. Yet they carry a very high price tag.
How big of your fish tank? I see you have 6 fishes, beautiful!
I'd like to know how to set up from start to finish
Where are these goldfish now? Can you make video if it’s actually works ?
💥💥💥 Hello. I'm a long time fish guy. I've just seen this video 2 years after you posted it so I may be a bit late in trying to help you understand what's going on in your aquarium. Are you using a good quality carbon or charcoal in your filter ? Bentonite clay is also used to help to detoxify human bodies. Now if you stay up on the 3 types of filtration (mechanical, chemical and biological) you should not have problems. Also keep up on water changes, (a lot). The red streaks in your gold fishes fins means poor water quality and are having kidney problems. Use Erythromycin.
Can you BCB bags without plants, plenum, or substrate, or are they necessary for an anoxic filtration system? I know goldfish are known for devouring any and all plants they tend to be surrounded with. Thank you for any advice.
You feed your goldfish worms once a year? Hmm guess I have some red wigglers in my compost pile. I might give em a treat.
So i have to use canister or plenum or both for goldfish?
You can use both but for goldfish it is advisable because of how messy they are.
@@anoxicfiltrationplenums thank you Dr. Novak! Is bcb applicable to sumps as well or i really need a canister filter?
How would I set one up in a canister filter?
Do i need coral and oyster shell for stabilized PH?
They use that a lot in ponds to stabilize pH because of the Koi fish waste. There's no reason you can't use it in an aquarium if it's needed.
Lol i just received my 2 kirin baby ranchus. Ans my toddler niece out a handful of sinking hikari sinking pellets 😂 I had to siphon vacuum them
That sounds like a fun time with your niece!
With fancy goldfish so many people use sponge filters. Lets say for a 20 to 40 gallon need 2 canisters filters and once aweek water change halfway. I keep mine in a pond with koi style filters.
I have a lady who has two goldfish tank with 10 goldfish in each tank using a Plenum and anoxic filter and that's it. I will do a video on her very soon. Ammonia levels are zero, nitrite levels are zero and nitrate levels are zero. All the goldfish she has are super fancy beautiful fish.
@anoxicfiltrationplenums nice awesome to see. I have some monster ranchu and friendly, you said yours were the same i wonder if I need to run some wire across my pond. Depth wise they can't get them. But early morning when they come to eat looking for me could be a easy target.
Are they still alive in 2042?
Kevin could you please explain why you started the plenum with a layer of gravel. Why not just start with the litter and laterite and then top with gravel/sand?
I started out mine with sand and gravel and then I put down the aqua soil and then on top of that I put the kitty litter then laterite, because the Laterite is a very fine powder and I did not want to seep into the Plenum itself.
Thank you so much
just a question Dr. Kevin. Goldfish release hormones that stunt the growth of other fishes, and if the hormones become too concentrated, they'll also stunt their own growth. The basic solution for this is just more frequent water changes to make sure they don't stunt their own growth. I compete in grow out contests so I do partial water changes everyday.
my question:
would the anoxic filtration be able to solve this problem of every day water change? are there any other alternatives to avoid the stunting of growth of my goldfish other than more frequent water changes?
thanks! very great video as always.
To answer your question absolutely. My pond which had 17 Koi in the main pond and about 15 goldfish in the anoxic filter. My fish were just as large as people who had Ponds 5 to 7 times larger than my pond of 1200 gallons. The anoxic filtration system and size of the container that the fish were in did not hinder the animals growth.
@@anoxicfiltrationplenums wow. i see. thank you very much Dr. Kevin. i currently only have aquariums but i might try not water changing just for an experiment to see if the goldfish's hormones do or do no get concentrated enough to hinder their growth with the anoxic filtration.
@@scatz4994 maybe do a test with two tanks of fish to grow out - one with a lot of water changes and one with just weekly water changes and see which fish do the best with their growth; of course you should keep the anoxic filtration the same for both tanks.
Can I use bcb bags in a sump filter? Can’t seem to locate any laterite can in use the sea chem flourish red amd does not have to be in the middle of the bbc bag or can I mix it with the litter? As my gold fish collection gets bigger I seem to have more issues in my tanks. Your goldfish tank in this video look so healthy. I have multiple 40g breeders for my fish.
Yes you can. If you can't find Laterite then when you add Iron to the tank the BCB bag will also be absorbing the Iron too.
Solid Gold! Beautiful, not bright ;)
I’m intrigued by the “kitty litter” in the substrate how and why please?
I have many videos in my archives that explain why you would use kitty litter. But in the short, it attracts positive ions out of the aquarium water. The water in our aquarium is basically positively charged, and the kitty litter is negatively charge. As you know, opposites attract, and this makes a food source for bacteria do utilize along with taking ammonia directly out of the aquarium before it is processed.
Sponge filters are for me a hospital tank thing.
Besutiful ranchu. Where are they from?
They came from Thailand, and I ordered them from a place in California.
@@anoxicfiltrationplenums good to know they are still breeding buffalos in thailand and exporting. In Hong Kong they are saying the Thai farmers are giving up on the buffalo heads and ranchus in general as they are hard to breed and they make better profits with Orandas.
Second video I watched now. First, about the food, couldn't get a close look really. I'm in Australia. Now, there are no links, to anything I can use in relation to this video. My neighbour's goldfish survived for 5 years, with the minimal care that I provided for them, sponge filter, carbon insert in the filter, infrequent water changes, depending on when the neighbour gave me access. They survived for 5 years, now I'm the new owner, neighbour died, and all of a sudden I am bombarded with information that would have assured their demise years ago. Is it all just a lot of BS?
The Biohome ultimate was put in my plenum by the way
I absolutely love this video. I have been a lover of goldfish for a long time but run into the same heartbreak. After a four-year break from goldfish, I decided to try it again with a tank twice the size 125 gal this time, thinking that might be the solution. having already purchase the tank and researching the best way to set it up for them, I stumbled across your video. You have given me hope . in the past I have had canisters fail. ( my husband would not be thrilled with the idea) My question is would it be possible to have these results with just the platinum and not the canister filter? Would it be possible to use the bags in a large HOB filter?
Love this. Thank you!
Thanks. Re: Clay Plant eating mammals eat clay to neutralize toxins in the plants in their diet. It maybe that gold fish who eat large amounts of plant matter are similar.
Hi I am setting up 40 gal tank exactly the same as you have done.
Will you have to move the fish you have into a bigger tank later due to their growth or will your tank set up handle it .
Thank you
I have a pond with 3 fancy golds and i have 2 in a tank sick a moor and a oranda. The oranda is upside down now for a year. I had wen removable surgery on him and still upside down. He eats everyday but im not giving up. I have tried everything to cure him. Im here for a new idea. Hope i get one.
So you have the plenum. With clay litter, laterite , a layer of aqua soil, then gravel then sand or smaller gravel. Then an additional canister filter with more litter and laterite. That gets rinsed occasionally but not replaced. Is this correct.
Yes, you're absolutely correct. I do replace the water once a week and I use that to water my plants that are in the lanai. And it has worked out very well for me..
@@anoxicfiltrationplenums I have high iron in my well water. It became a problem with my first tank which is deep substrate. I went out today and bought everything to build your system. I just am not sure about this special kitty litter. I sampled a bit and rinsed it a lot. Is this normal and what to expect? Just lots and lots of rinses.
@@anoxicfiltrationplenums should I use my well water again once everything is set up or continue with the spring water. I fill about 60 gallons a week… good exercise🤣.
Sir, can I keep common goldfish in 5x2x2 feet aquarium?
yes. why not? Just do it right.
In that tank you can probably keep an Arowana!
I have seen people have bare bottom aquariums for goldfish and my thinking is they are not good.A goldfish has natural instincts to forage in substrate and when that is taken away I think it shortens their lives.
Doc can I use regular window screen for the top of the plenum if using sand?
yes, that is what I use in the Goldfish 40-gal
@@anoxicfiltrationplenums thanks Doc you have been a blessing to many of us hobbyist’s!
I would like to have goldfish but have been scared after watching the video of the lady you mentioned. How do I set up an anoxic filter? I am a beginner, I had a betta fish when I was a child, but I fell in love with the ranchus and orandas. So trying to do some research before getting one
Watch the videos
@@anoxicfiltrationplenums I think I found the video. Part 4 series on how to set-up the 40 gallon tank for goldfish. Thanks!
@@anoxicfiltrationplenums I just put together my plenum today. Ended up having my under gravel tube a bit taller than I wanted, since I couldn't cut it more down, but added the eco-complete, kitty gravel and sand/aquasoil. Will it work?
Can i ask if i have acidic water will this filtration system be a good option?
Or work in very hard water are very acidic water it doesn't matter
Hi do I have to use cat litter and laterite or can I just use substrate on the plenum will it still work.?
adding the cat litter and laterite is the best way if you want the substate to work on removing negative stuff from your tank
So the secret is from koi clay, and kitty litter huh? 🤔
I have a critique of your videos. You never really explain in simple terms what your plenum is. What exactly is it made of? Is it cat liter clay, is it latrite, (what ratio)? I'm also confused because in an older video, with the antique aquarium, it looked like you were just putting gravel on top of the the UG filter (was that true, or did it also have something below the gravel? In this video, it looks like you have a darker layer of something below the gravel. What is the darker layer? Does this tank even have a UG filter? You don't say. You also keep using the word Redox, but don't define it or say how to measure it, or even if it's necessary to measure it.
I would like a short 5-10 min video on a simple UG filter set up. What is the best way to layer the substrate?
My archives videos, explain and quite detail, how plenums work, and how a BCB basket works.
Funny I've been doing everything opposite of what he said and mine is thriving still since a baby 5 yrs ago. And always in just glass bowels with no gravel,filter,plants etc.
Did make a statement that it was a baby we are the ones I have were just about full grown. I know for a fact that young goldfish can acclimate a little better than older goldfish.
Japanese goldfish so adorable and koi goldfish so swimming at house and pond and your families
Hi Kevin. ...Ok so 3rd attempt on a plenum in my small experiment tank. .. Crushed volcanic rock base layer with some washed kitty litter ( catsan pink ( in uk )), smattering of pre matured mixed substrate ( to seed filtering ), one inch black under gravel filter plates ( the same type as you ), covered in new extra fine nylon netting ( from a fabric shop online, to stop any substrate migrating into the under gravel plenum space) all topped with mixed gravel ( again pre matured ( with a fish less cycle and ammonia solution ), topped with 200g of duplarit latterite, all topped off with black shot blasting sand ( not pre washed ) all attatched to a single uplift tube running an eheim 100 air pump , running 10 min per hour x 8 times consecutively on a digital timer. No fish . No sump . No canister filter. No sponge filter . No heater. No light . No plants . One drop of ammonia solution per day to feed the cycle . Room temp . No liquid fertilisers . No co2 . Very soft water here in Manchester uk . De chlorinated tap water . Just have to wait and see !!
WOW! It seems like you're having a lot of problems when I just go ahead and set mine up and it works. Sorry to hear that you're having so much problems special especially since I get all kinds of emails from Thailand and other countries where people are having very great success.
@@anoxicfiltrationplenums hi kevin... just followed your more recent video and I now feel this is the best version I can create , will let you know if it works for me . I suppose you learn the most by getting it wrong ! If I can make it work in a small tank then it's a revolutionary method. I am never going back to putting a substrate on the bottom of my tank ever again ! Bye for now . John .
I’m also starting a brand new tank, and from what I’ve found in my research, you need 2ppm of ammonia to get it started. I used the Fritz Fishless Fuel (ammonia solution) and the Fritz Turbo Start. My tank just cycled and it took forever. I have the brown algae that’s common for tanks starting from scratch, just trying to get my pH a bit higher. I mistakenly used filtered water, and it stripped all the minerals out.
Why are you only running the air pump only 10 minutes an hour? Dr. Novak said he runs the air pump lower (with a valve on it, along with the short tube to only pull small amounts of water out). He did say in a past video that you can turn the air off at night though.
I have seen people with sponge filters running 90Gal tanks with 15+ Year old golf fish
I've had KOI for over 30+ years that were 31-years old and still living today, Goldfish 17-years old being run with an anoxic filter. So what is your point?
Dr Novak can aquarium gravel itself add phosphate and or absorb and release?
Turns out in 2024. We can just add water conditioner at the same time we’re adding new tap water 🤷 In the old ways, we would wait 15 minutes and stir the water conditioner and wait ☝️ But you have to know and read what the bottle says. API requires 1 teaspoon per 10 gallons.
And it is different for
Other conditioners
That’s a great reminder! Always check the instructions and be sure to follow them.
Great video!
My question is-- I have a 160 gallons tank with 2 strong Nu-Clear canister filters. Can I put BCB bags in the canisters, or I should do that and redue my gravel also to make plenum???
Thank you!
What did you end up doing?
I don’t get why some people after ther fish dies they like do buy again without doing re search why there fish are dying ther like huh that weird let me get another one
Fish can die for many reasons as I have found out. When my goldfish died from dropsy and they all seem to get dropsy that send a red flag to me of what's going on in my aquarium or what's going on with the fish. It's funny that the fish that were raised in United States did not have this problem. It's the same thing with the copies. I tried several times to have Guppy's and they died. I even had Guppy's sent to me from other states and they died but now somebody from where I live here in Florida, gave me some Guppys and they are doing just fine and multiplying like rabbits. Guess what I'm saying is I never gave up on this fish just because they died. I always try to figure out why they died and then try to find a way so they would not perish after only a few weeks..
how do I get high redox in my goldfish tank?
Do you know what your redox is right now? Usually I have found that using a Plenum and B should be baskets will raise the redox.
@@anoxicfiltrationplenums my redox right now 211. I build my plenum 2 month ago, I have bcb bags in the HOB filter.
Dr. Novak you won’t believe it but my redox read 488 this morning, I started thinking did I do something wrong 😑? the only thing I did different was putting Biohome ultimate 80 to be exact, but everything else I followed to a T so maybe the biohome has made my redox so high, my question? Is this too high Dr. Novak?
The only thing you have to watch is to make sure that your animals do not become to stress if redox goes that high.
@@anoxicfiltrationplenums Do you have a video about how to test the redox and with what tool and also what readings are the best for your fish? Thanks!
At what depth, diameter or thickness does a BCB actually go anoxic?
Negative charges in the cat litter in the baskets begin to attract molecules of ammonia (NH4) towards its centre. As these molecules pass through zone A nitrifying bacteria (nitrogen cycle bugs) will grab one ammonia molecule and four oxygen molecules; they will then excrete one nitrate molecule. The ammonia level in zone A will have dropped a little and the nitrate level will have risen by roughly the same amount but the oxygen level will have dropped considerably, (just over four times as much as the reduction in the ammonia level).There is now far less oxygen but there will still be enough for the nitrogen cycle to continue so we will continue to journey with the ammonia molecules into zone B.
As more and more ammonia is converted to nitrate, the ammonia level drops even more and the nitrate level rises. So much oxygen has been used in the process that this area can no longer be called truly aerobic, (oxygen rich), but there is still a little oxygen left to sustain some nitrifying bacteria so we will follow the remaining ammonia as it journeys into zone C. In practice these two zones are only a few millimeters thick before nearly all the oxygen has been exhausted.
FEW MILLIMETERS!
I made a south American cichlid tank roughly 3 months ago(75gal). I have a fx-6 for mechanical filtration, and a ehiem canister with a bcb basket in it. I have brown diatom algae and can't seem to get rid of it with normal maintenance. Been testing nitrates frequently and it's seems to be a steady 5.0ppm. I feel it's my phosphates being too high but I don't have a tester for it. How would to lower phosphates without the use of plants?
I thought that in some of Kevin's videos that he said that a BCB will remove phosphates
@@jonisolis9645 that takes around 3/4 months.
I'm pretty sure I know what lady you are addressing with with video, and it is a shame she basically quit the hobby the way she did. I hope she stumbles on this video when she decides to give it another try.
I'm interested in keeping goldfish in an aquarium myself (I'm mostly attracted to the comets), but the reccommended tank size for even 1 of those is not realistic for me ( 'The internet' reccommends at least a 55g/250L for 1 comet). Does an anoxic filtration change this? I assume that the tank size is mostly based on waste management, but that is always unclear to me.
That's a very good question to bring up. In fact that same question is brought up in Ponds. Do you know in a pond they recommend at least 500 gallons of water per Koi? But nobody who owns a pond sticks to that rule of thumb.
Here's the answer I'm going to give you: filtration is the key element of keeping goldfish. If you stick to a conventional filtration system then you get what you asked for. I have a 40 gallon tank, you saw how many fish I have in it, that's because I'm using an anoxic filtration system different on how others set up their tanks and is different the way it works in completing the nitrogen cycle in its whole. Watch my last video that I made and see the fish I have in that 40 gallon breeder because the anoxic filter is a game changer.