As soon as I stopped swimming in my tank the odor went away . LOL . As you said , feed your fish every few days and this does wonders for the biological system. Thank you Father fish . God bless you brother.
Much respect to you Sir. I had practiced your methods for more than 20 years which I developed using common sense and built on experience. Visitors and friends are in disbelief when they see my tank have no filtration and aeration x years, only lots of healthy growing plants are fish's best friends. I have been keeping tanks since 11 and I am 69. I wish I had your wisdom from the start. Subscribed!
Before i have a clear water and more artificial plants in my aquarium., not until i watch more than 10 videos of father fish, i rebuild my aqurium, i replace all the artificial plants. I put deep substrate,sands,grabel a little dritfwood and more plants in my aquarium, and now i have a healty and happy fish in my little eco system. Thanks to father fish.❤❤❤
After 15 years without a fish, I just started a new tank inspired by you. Mud, sand, plants, fish and light from the sky. That's great. Thanks for knowledge and philosophy
@mememe84 just soil from my garden. Then water to the same level of this soil. It will turn into a mud that is easy to work with. I made this inside of the aquarium
Both of my aquariums smell like a POND and I LOVE IT!!!!!!!!! I've followed your method and I'll tell you what, OH MY GOODNESS! Never again will I do the PetStore way of having fish. GO NATURE LOL!
I moved to Cambodia couple of years ago, every weekend I go fishing and bring back home some of the fish from the Mekong river, but also from road-side ditches, rice fields, puddles, and ponds. Every time I bring fish with me I also bring bucket of sand, mud and plants from the spot, that way fish don't even need to acclimate to my conditions I'm bringing piece of their habitat with them, at this moment I have collected around 30 different species, some of which are pretty unique local variations or even possibly undescribed species. Thing is I used to be afraid to let a whole bunch of plant matter to decompose right there in the tank, but with heavy planting and sand cap that's not an issue at all, that's one advice I adopted from Father Fish, I already had an idea but here I saw practical and methodical way of doing it, it's also very helpful in terms of feeding micro-predators such as bumblebee gobies, boraras and such, which could be quite a challenge to provide with daily portion of cultured food such as brine shrimps.
As for the smell, sometimes water at the location can be quite stinky (mix of rotten egg smell and bit of ammonia bite) especially during the dry season, in which case I would simply add some rain water to the mix and no additional fish food for a couple of days, and it clears up on it's own, no filter, no running water, just sand and leaf litter, I also like to add couple of corals to buffer the acidic reaction of tannins, although sand as a mix of all types of rocks and broken shells can already have the same function
Excellent practices. I would love to do an interview with you. Please join us on the Wednesday Show and Tell. That should be early in the morning for you.
thanks Father Fish for your advices . i am from 10 years old to aquariums but never had good success in planted aquariums I was hi tech with filters every week changes and measurements . now with your method deep substrate and not much flow in filters or water changes after 2 months of the new setup of my aquarium the plants growing well happy fishes and water with tests is ok and crystal clear with minimum filter flow and only a bit feeding as you recommend . cheers from sunny Greece
I applied the tips of Father Fish "do nothing" and it worked, I was cleaning too much the gravels and the plants had not enough to eat even with the special soil. Now the gravels have somekind of dirt in them and the plants grew up more in a month than in a year, that's crazy, and without CO2. Before that I had algaes on the glass in 3 days, now it's still ok after 2 weeks, the tank stabilized in like a week. I was changing 15% of water each week as I thought I had too much nitrates, but this apparently was too much for the water stability and the effect was negative. I also feed the fish every 3 days instead of everyday.
I ran into this with a couple of my tanks that had gravel only so i started researching and found father fish. They now smell great capped with sand and my mystery snail immediately laid three egg clutches! Best thing i did was find father fish. So incredibly helpful!
Watching your videos brings back memories of Mr. Rogers except you talk about deep substrates 😊. You are such a great teacher and so patient with people. Every video is educational and so informative. Keep up the great work! Love you!
Like father fish said, mom just needs to become interested in fish!! That's what I did😂 when I was in 8th-9th grade, I collected bettas & had an ENTIRE wall loaded with shelving & 3 dozen betta bowls. My mom didn't even know!! She went in my room one day looking for the dogs leash & was mad when she saw all the fish, UNTIL, She saw the colors 😂 within 5 min, she just wanted to know where we could setup another tank in the house
I have an old aquarium (60x30x30cm) and I intend to set it up according to your instructions. I was fascinated by your approach, which, for me, makes perfect sense. I'm currently gathering the materials and buying the plants in stages (it's expensive to buy them all at once...), to set up the aquarium that I'm looking forward to! I will just add a sponge filter to promote water circulation. I'll give you news! Thank you very much for your teachings!
Why buy when its out there for FREE. I would suggest you to visit a near by pond or creek, you will find a wide variety of plants. Take your own time to choose. A gift from Nature!
@@darimarisnani7880 Yes you can but don't plant it right into the substrate unless you have the stem long enough to peak out of the water column. Lucky bamboo is not an aquatic plant. If you are just having short shoots then just immerse the root and stem part. Don't immerse the whole plant inside the water.
Yeah the pet stores try to push a lot of stuff on you but in reality you don't need it .and I love your method set up your tank in a way where nature can take over! So simple and that's what I have done in a 7 gallon for my betta and he loves it it's like a jungle in there so it really brings out his Natural Instincts for hunting and he does he loves hunting
I have 40gal tank running for two months already and recently watched the deep substrate setup. I want to copy it but I have the fear of tearing it down, resetting my tank, and putting mud at the bottom. But you mentioned @ 6:20 that it'll be just fine if I have gravel at the bottom and just add at least 2 inches of sand. I think I'll just go with that to skip the tedious job of resetting. Thank you, FF, what a relief! ♥
you know what i needed to hear that warning about how bare water and fish will eventually fail, I am making the goal to change my tank to natural it is scary but i look at my tank and recognize i want the natural piece of nature i know works
Gracias Father Fish por sus consejos. Aunque ya lo he dicho varias veces siempre pero siempre agradezco la delicadeza de poner a disposición mía en sus vídeos los subtítulos ya que me ayudan mucho por mi poca capacidad de entender el inglés. Muchas Gracias amigo aprendo mucho con usted.
I recently had a problem with a stinky tank, due to rotting leaves. When I first set it up 6 months ago, I put in a LOT of plants. With time, some of them started to win over others in access to light, and some plants started dying. Once I took out the rotting leaves, the smell went away.
@@ChickenStrip22 im not sure, I think yes, to an extent, however for me it became too much, but I only skimmed dead leaves from the surface and took out like three dead plants.
You either remove most of the dead plants or changing the tank water to remove those excessive nutrients. One of my betta almost died because I did not do anything mentioned above 😂
The alternative to chlorinated and chloramine tap water is simple rain water. The stuff that falls from the sky which helps fill and dilute rivers ponds and streams where fish also live. Simple and free. I've been doing it for many years. Collect it and use it.
I have a deep well and my fish seem to do really good in the water from it. Even the sand in my tank was taken off of my own property. I live about an hour from Myrtle Beach, so I have no shortage of sand. I can dig down a couple of feet and find really nice sand in my yard. It takes alot to get it clean, but it is beautiful white sand. And it’s soft. My Cory Cats love it. It’s not spread evenly throughout my tank either. The fish move it around. My Pleco loves to bury itself in it sometimes. I have 4 kinds of aquatic plants in it, and one house plant on top. The house plants roots hang down into the water. Before I put the plants and sand in it, it would stay cloudy or green. I was doing 50%-80% water changes every week or two. It’s literally stayed clear ever since, and I haven’t done but one water change. It’s crazy how much of a difference it made. I also put some lava rocks from my koi pond in it to help move it along. I’m hoping it introduced a bunch of beneficial bacteria.
Hello father fish, greetings, my sand is a little thin. I would like to make a thicker layer as you recommend. I can add my sand with my aquarium set up.
Love you Father Fish, thanks to sharing your knowledge and wisdom with us ❤❤❤.My first aquarium ever and is just perfect , i just fallow your advice and omg what a gorgeous little environment i have. Thanks so much
Hello... Good day sir. I have a question... Can I use a combination of river clay and aqua soil for my planted aquarium? And is it okay if I don't cap it with sand. I mean base layer is river clay and then top it with aqua soil. Is it okay? I have got fresh river mud and clay. Please reply... Namaste from India.
Hello Father Fish. After watching your channel I set up my 1st dirted tank a couple months ago. I've done it with soil from near a local pond, some pond muck, peat moss and capped it with sand. Loaded up with plants and decaying leaf litter to get the micro-organisms a head start. Lately I've been noticing more and more bubbles being released from the substrate. I'm sure it's not trapped bubbles from being set up as I've actually watched some develop at the front glass. Just wonder what's going on here and if it's anything I should be concerned about. I've heard you speak of the substrate as a CO2 machine. Is that what it's doing? Other than that I couldn't be happier with the tank and the fish and shrimp love it too. I've learnt more about fishkeeping from you in the last 6mth than I have in the previous 40yrs and have changed the way I've gone about things since.
Hahahah..'I say the same thing in different ways": That is so true. May God bless you Fr. Fish with long life and good health!!! Thanks so much for your advice on fishkeeping, it works.
@Father Fish I'm trying to grow red plants. Even when i order them red and put them in my tank, they start growing green. I kicked up the lighting and used a bright RBG light, still most of them grow green. And i fight green water because the lighting is too much. How do i get plants to grow red? Do i have to break down and add CO2?
@@FatherFish Yep. I sure do! The tanks is 2 years old 3 inches of dirt and 2 inches of sand from the beach. I've even tried root tabs and no change. Some plants only get red when they grow tall and the tops turn red as they get closer to the light, But the light is bright. I've tried red rotala and other common red plants....they start growing green, never stay red.
I found that a simple cheap seed starting light does the trick. I bought a full spectrum seed starting light for my plant growing obsession last year and found that it keeps red plants red. I don't use any fertilizers in the water coloumn. I had aquasoil on hand and capped it with sand two months ago, before I discovered father fish. It was my only tank set up that way and it is thriving.
I have been following your advice for a while and I just recently noticed that my tank doesn't have a "fish stink". It actually smells like fresh grass kind of. Thank you so much Father Fish.
Recently my natural tank stank bad and I found out it was a dead snail because once I took it out and added rainwater since the water was low the smell went away
Thankyou for the educational videos on maintaining a natural tank the natural way. I needed reasurance on what to do and not to do. Eg. No chemicals are beneficial, water evaporation and topping off tank, adding vitamin C to remove chemicals in tap water. 😊 Please keep reasuring us as the pet shop push water changes for high nitrite levels every 2 days and adding store chemicals. I didnt, i added more plants. Is there any benefit in testing your water? If so what do you test for in a father fish method tank?
Question; I am wanting to grow lucky bamboo in my tanks, what is your advise for this. .I have planting substrate of one inch and 2 inches of sand, (20 gallon tank,,) and I have not noticed any bamboo in your tanks, so I thought i best ask for advise. thank you. hagd.
Great video, as always. I've been noticing a smell only at night when lights are off. It's a heavily planted tank with a deep substrate and cap. It's been running really well for about 2 years now and going strong! However, the nighttime smell started about 2 months ago, and I even noticed when puncturing the soil bubbles arrise. Any advice on how to support the anaerobic bacteria without causing a smell or on avoiding this happening each night? I do not add any chemicals or extras in the tank. Thank you for any advice.
Thank you for sharing your knowledge . Substrates (for example tropica aquarium substrate) that is commercially available can be used as the supplement?
Whats your opinion on leeches, hydra, and a couple of the other classic "pests" that usually hitch rides on wild found plants? Trying yo get my own little mini ecosystem going but not sure what critters should stay or go conpared to a traditional aquarium
Hey father fish, I have a question that has nothing to do with this video. My tank is about 3-4 weeks old and I noticed a snail inside. I’ve never introduced any snails to my knowledge. Any ides how it could have got there? I’ve used nice pieces of wood from a tree I cut down from outside and river rock from my yard as well ass diet from my back yard.
How do you clean your water from clorine ? What do you use ? Or should I not use any chemicals for it ? I want to set up a natural tank but I still have lots of questions about it. Thanks
algae are also plants, things with the large surface area, like wood logs, crushed corals, and even leaf litter and sand act as a surface area for algae to grow, I had a similar problem with some voracious herbivores, but this seem to solve the problem, I still toss a bunch of duckweed daily but it gets eaten in matter of hours
Father Fish, I have a 75 gal of peacock cichlids that are fairly large and have destroyed every kind of plant I have put in the tank (excluding water lettuce). Do you think I could use fake plants to acclimate them and train them to get used to having plants in the tank without destroying them? I can slowly replace fake with real over time. Does this sound like a method that will work?
I do not think you can trick them. lol The best way to do this is a 2 step system. First begin feeding them greel leafy vegetables daily. Secong plant a significant number of parge plants like val and sword, not a few but a lot.
Can someone help? I tried to do ff method and reset and bought lots of plants then went for a walk to my local woods and put lots of dead leaves and sticks in my tank, a day later fish were gasping and dying!?
Yes. "Lots of" is the incorrect approach. You overwhelmend the biology rather than let it grow slowly. A little bit at a time works wonderfully. A few leaves a week.
@FatherFish I meant all of the accumulated stuff at the bottom waste is waste even if the bacteria breaks it down Eventually will rise to the top shouldn't there be atleast a 1 month Maybe 10% water changes?
I sat up a tank using your supercharged dirt with a sand cap. I get bubbles that come up through the sand fairly frequently that smell like raw sewage. It is so bad my wife is making me move the tank this weekend. Found this video looking for a solution but what is going on is nothing you speak of here is what is going on.
@@FatherFish not sure what your email is. I will try to find it. Also not sure what in the world that last sentence was as apparently my device changed what I actually wrote and I didn’t catch it before posting 🤣 Tank smells awful.
I've always been really critical of your channel but this is one of my favourite videos and really interesting about the vitamin c I thought it would be too acidic if not in a huge system what is the effect on say 40galons ? per 1000mg? I think that your whole method is the ideal method by far. but why wouldn't you remove the chlorine and chloramine first to avoid wiping out any of the biome in your tank or doesn't it matter when it's so diluted? I have 2 tropical tanks and I'm the same they were setup the only time I've done a water change was when I was moving house. I always top up with rodi so I don't raise the tds above natural levels and have shrimp substrate and coral bone for minerals and a plant on top to take up any excess nutrients. my tanks look as clean as any other. only need to clean the algae off once a year. been running like this for over 5 years. it has never ever seen any medication same with any of the materials inside.
TDS is variable based on plant absorption of dissolved minerals. I never add rodi water to insure tds is not lowered. Vit C has marginal effect on Ph. Chloramine is sufficiently low that immediate reduction reduces impact on living oganisms to a negligable level. Really critical? Really?
@FatherFish very interesting I might try the vitamin c. the only reason I used rodi is it is on hand and when water evaporates the dissolved solids remain its only pure h²o leaving the tank so I am just replenishing that as the rain does. I also only keep shrimp snails and plants in my freshwater setups currently. I also don't test my tds even though I really should especially to see how much the plants are consuming. would you recommend treating the water with vitamin c before adding it to be on the safe side or would it make no difference on a small water change? it does remind me of topping up straight from the tap when working in aquariums only one pretreated the water but that was a highend store and everything was heated in barrels beforehand as well. and yeah I have been in the past because at first I thought it was purely old thinking and carelessness until I watched multiple videos and your right watching 10 of your videos despite being the same message really shows that it's so much more tbh. less so on the saltwater tank even though it's ideal it just hurt a bit as a reef keeper but after that I decided to collect sand from the bottom of a rockpool and add to one of my reef tanks and they amount of microscopic life that added is incredible. the tank was at the point of being shut down because of dinoflagellates there appears to be some type of worm feasting on them which if that's the case it would be an incredible breakthrough as far as treating dinoflagellates goes if they outpace them
Father fish i have 155gallon fish tank and i am keeping single oscar in it but why is my fish always hungry asking for food when ever i walk near tank it swims aggressively asking for food what should i do i feed him twice a day??
As soon as I stopped swimming in my tank the odor went away . LOL . As you said , feed your fish every few days and this does wonders for the biological system. Thank you Father fish . God bless you brother.
Much respect to you Sir. I had practiced your methods for more than 20 years which I developed using common sense and built on experience. Visitors and friends are in disbelief when they see my tank have no filtration and aeration x years, only lots of healthy growing plants are fish's best friends. I have been keeping tanks since 11 and I am 69. I wish I had your wisdom from the start. Subscribed!
Before i have a clear water and more artificial plants in my aquarium., not until i watch more than 10 videos of father fish, i rebuild my aqurium, i replace all the artificial plants.
I put deep substrate,sands,grabel a little dritfwood and more plants in my aquarium, and now i have a healty and happy fish in my little eco system.
Thanks to father fish.❤❤❤
So happy that you chat with us. Preach it Father!
After 15 years without a fish, I just started a new tank inspired by you. Mud, sand, plants, fish and light from the sky. That's great. Thanks for knowledge and philosophy
how did you put mud? didn't it get murky like swamp?
@mememe84 just soil from my garden. Then water to the same level of this soil. It will turn into a mud that is easy to work with. I made this inside of the aquarium
Both of my aquariums smell like a POND and I LOVE IT!!!!!!!!! I've followed your method and I'll tell you what, OH MY GOODNESS! Never again will I do the PetStore way of having fish. GO NATURE LOL!
I love all the nature sounds you have going on it really throws it all together having your birds in the background I love it
I moved to Cambodia couple of years ago, every weekend I go fishing and bring back home some of the fish from the Mekong river, but also from road-side ditches, rice fields, puddles, and ponds. Every time I bring fish with me I also bring bucket of sand, mud and plants from the spot, that way fish don't even need to acclimate to my conditions I'm bringing piece of their habitat with them, at this moment I have collected around 30 different species, some of which are pretty unique local variations or even possibly undescribed species. Thing is I used to be afraid to let a whole bunch of plant matter to decompose right there in the tank, but with heavy planting and sand cap that's not an issue at all, that's one advice I adopted from Father Fish, I already had an idea but here I saw practical and methodical way of doing it, it's also very helpful in terms of feeding micro-predators such as bumblebee gobies, boraras and such, which could be quite a challenge to provide with daily portion of cultured food such as brine shrimps.
As for the smell, sometimes water at the location can be quite stinky (mix of rotten egg smell and bit of ammonia bite) especially during the dry season, in which case I would simply add some rain water to the mix and no additional fish food for a couple of days, and it clears up on it's own, no filter, no running water, just sand and leaf litter, I also like to add couple of corals to buffer the acidic reaction of tannins, although sand as a mix of all types of rocks and broken shells can already have the same function
Excellent practices. I would love to do an interview with you. Please join us on the Wednesday Show and Tell. That should be early in the morning for you.
@@dejannisic9770 incredible
thanks Father Fish for your advices . i am from 10 years old to aquariums but never had good success in planted aquariums I was hi tech with filters every week changes and measurements . now with your method deep substrate and not much flow in filters or water changes after 2 months of the new setup of my aquarium the plants growing well happy fishes and water with tests is ok and crystal clear with minimum filter flow and only a bit feeding as you recommend . cheers from sunny Greece
I applied the tips of Father Fish "do nothing" and it worked, I was cleaning too much the gravels and the plants had not enough to eat even with the special soil. Now the gravels have somekind of dirt in them and the plants grew up more in a month than in a year, that's crazy, and without CO2. Before that I had algaes on the glass in 3 days, now it's still ok after 2 weeks, the tank stabilized in like a week. I was changing 15% of water each week as I thought I had too much nitrates, but this apparently was too much for the water stability and the effect was negative. I also feed the fish every 3 days instead of everyday.
Thank you father fish
I ran into this with a couple of my tanks that had gravel only so i started researching and found father fish. They now smell great capped with sand and my mystery snail immediately laid three egg clutches! Best thing i did was find father fish. So incredibly helpful!
Watching your videos brings back memories of Mr. Rogers except you talk about deep substrates 😊. You are such a great teacher and so patient with people. Every video is educational and so informative. Keep up the great work! Love you!
Thanks for the knowledge father fish
I watched all ur videos but now I have ten tanks and an angry mom!
Take your mom to the fish store. When she finds a fish she likes help her set up a tank with her favorite fish.
Hahaha that's awesome. Your comment made my day.
Thanks for awesome comment
Like father fish said, mom just needs to become interested in fish!! That's what I did😂 when I was in 8th-9th grade, I collected bettas & had an ENTIRE wall loaded with shelving & 3 dozen betta bowls. My mom didn't even know!! She went in my room one day looking for the dogs leash & was mad when she saw all the fish, UNTIL, She saw the colors 😂 within 5 min, she just wanted to know where we could setup another tank in the house
Sounds like me n I wife 😂
Yellowish water can come from leafs,wood tannins or just type of light! Greets from a french guy in Austria! Love your videos!
I have an old aquarium (60x30x30cm) and I intend to set it up according to your instructions. I was fascinated by your approach, which, for me, makes perfect sense. I'm currently gathering the materials and buying the plants in stages (it's expensive to buy them all at once...), to set up the aquarium that I'm looking forward to! I will just add a sponge filter to promote water circulation. I'll give you news! Thank you very much for your teachings!
Why buy when its out there for FREE. I would suggest you to visit a near by pond or creek, you will find a wide variety of plants. Take your own time to choose. A gift from Nature!
@@NatureInTankHi! Just want to ask if I can put lucky bamboo in my tank?
@@darimarisnani7880 Yes you can but don't plant it right into the substrate unless you have the stem long enough to peak out of the water column. Lucky bamboo is not an aquatic plant. If you are just having short shoots then just immerse the root and stem part. Don't immerse the whole plant inside the water.
Yeah the pet stores try to push a lot of stuff on you but in reality you don't need it .and I love your method set up your tank in a way where nature can take over! So simple and that's what I have done in a 7 gallon for my betta and he loves it it's like a jungle in there so it really brings out his Natural Instincts for hunting and he does he loves hunting
I have 40gal tank running for two months already and recently watched the deep substrate setup. I want to copy it but I have the fear of tearing it down, resetting my tank, and putting mud at the bottom. But you mentioned @ 6:20 that it'll be just fine if I have gravel at the bottom and just add at least 2 inches of sand. I think I'll just go with that to skip the tedious job of resetting. Thank you, FF, what a relief! ♥
Then add a food web.
you know what i needed to hear that warning about how bare water and fish will eventually fail, I am making the goal to change my tank to natural it is scary but i look at my tank and recognize i want the natural piece of nature i know works
I miss having a canary! they're so calming!
I like your way when you explain these information sir.. Thanks a bunch
Thank you for sharing your knowledge!
Thank you Father Fish for another fabulous video, bless you ❤️.
Your dedication to the hobby is infectious. Appreciate your words. Thank you Sir!
Ty Father Fish for all of the time and thoughtful and most importanty clear fish keeping advice. Have a great weekend 💖🐠
Love all your educational videos keep up the good work and keep spreading the good word on how to run a tank naturally
Gracias Father Fish por sus consejos. Aunque ya lo he dicho varias veces siempre pero siempre agradezco la delicadeza de poner a disposición mía en sus vídeos los subtítulos ya que me ayudan mucho por mi poca capacidad de entender el inglés. Muchas Gracias amigo aprendo mucho con usted.
I like that you readdress concepts from different angles in your videos I think it's a good system.
I recently had a problem with a stinky tank, due to rotting leaves. When I first set it up 6 months ago, I put in a LOT of plants. With time, some of them started to win over others in access to light, and some plants started dying. Once I took out the rotting leaves, the smell went away.
Does FF recommend to keep dying plants in?
@@ChickenStrip22 im not sure, I think yes, to an extent, however for me it became too much, but I only skimmed dead leaves from the surface and took out like three dead plants.
You either remove most of the dead plants or changing the tank water to remove those excessive nutrients. One of my betta almost died because I did not do anything mentioned above 😂
The alternative to chlorinated and chloramine tap water is simple rain water. The stuff that falls from the sky which helps fill and dilute rivers ponds and streams where fish also live. Simple and free. I've been doing it for many years. Collect it and use it.
critical to add food web and dirted deep substrate to rain water.
I got plants in pots .the pots are just under the water and I have grow lights on the plants.
I rectly set up new tank with Father Fish drep substrate formula. Almost a month from now... Plants and fish thriving ... ❤ From India
Yep over feeding. Makes stinky.
Va salut din Romania! Si multumesc pentru sfaturi…
I have a deep well and my fish seem to do really good in the water from it. Even the sand in my tank was taken off of my own property. I live about an hour from Myrtle Beach, so I have no shortage of sand. I can dig down a couple of feet and find really nice sand in my yard. It takes alot to get it clean, but it is beautiful white sand. And it’s soft. My Cory Cats love it. It’s not spread evenly throughout my tank either. The fish move it around. My Pleco loves to bury itself in it sometimes. I have 4 kinds of aquatic plants in it, and one house plant on top. The house plants roots hang down into the water. Before I put the plants and sand in it, it would stay cloudy or green. I was doing 50%-80% water changes every week or two. It’s literally stayed clear ever since, and I haven’t done but one water change. It’s crazy how much of a difference it made. I also put some lava rocks from my koi pond in it to help move it along. I’m hoping it introduced a bunch of beneficial bacteria.
Sounds wonderfl. Add some leaf material fro a local pond and then feed it dry leaves. Just a bit at a time.
Hello father fish, greetings, my sand is a little thin. I would like to make a thicker layer as you recommend. I can add my sand with my aquarium set up.
Love you Father Fish, thanks to sharing your knowledge and wisdom with us ❤❤❤.My first aquarium ever and is just perfect , i just fallow your advice and omg what a gorgeous little environment i have. Thanks so much
I plan to get more plants and cut way back on feeding. But my water seems brown since adding my resurrection jar.
Hello... Good day sir. I have a question...
Can I use a combination of river clay and aqua soil for my planted aquarium? And is it okay if I don't cap it with sand. I mean base layer is river clay and then top it with aqua soil. Is it okay? I have got fresh river mud and clay.
Please reply... Namaste from India.
Hello Father Fish.
After watching your channel I set up my 1st dirted tank a couple months ago.
I've done it with soil from near a local pond, some pond muck, peat moss and capped it with sand.
Loaded up with plants and decaying leaf litter to get the micro-organisms a head start.
Lately I've been noticing more and more bubbles being released from the substrate.
I'm sure it's not trapped bubbles from being set up as I've actually watched some develop at the front glass.
Just wonder what's going on here and if it's anything I should be concerned about.
I've heard you speak of the substrate as a CO2 machine.
Is that what it's doing?
Other than that I couldn't be happier with the tank and the fish and shrimp love it too.
I've learnt more about fishkeeping from you in the last 6mth than I have in the previous 40yrs and have changed the way I've gone about things since.
The gs is nitrogen and probably also CO2. Nothing to worry about.
Thanks for all. Great person!!
I learned something new today THANKYOU❗❗❗ This is why I'm always watching so grateful and thankful to you always love you so much❣❣❣
Hahahah..'I say the same thing in different ways": That is so true. May God bless you Fr. Fish with long life and good health!!! Thanks so much for your advice on fishkeeping, it works.
Baba Tüm vidyolarını tekrar tekrar izleyerek bilgilerini tazeliyorum .Çünki her bilgin doğru ve eğitici .İyiki varsın .
I’m getting ready to set up a tank so this information was very helpful. TY!
Another Master Class on aquarium ecosystems. Thank you Father. Be well from the fish eyed foo's in Michigan :)
I watch your videos from the Middle East, thank you
@Father Fish
I'm trying to grow red plants. Even when i order them red and put them in my tank, they start growing green. I kicked up the lighting and used a bright RBG light, still most of them grow green. And i fight green water because the lighting is too much. How do i get plants to grow red? Do i have to break down and add CO2?
CO2 will not make them red. Nutrients in the substrate is the key. Do you have a deep substrate> A food web?
@@FatherFish
Yep. I sure do! The tanks is 2 years old 3 inches of dirt and 2 inches of sand from the beach. I've even tried root tabs and no change. Some plants only get red when they grow tall and the tops turn red as they get closer to the light, But the light is bright. I've tried red rotala and other common red plants....they start growing green, never stay red.
I found that a simple cheap seed starting light does the trick. I bought a full spectrum seed starting light for my plant growing obsession last year and found that it keeps red plants red. I don't use any fertilizers in the water coloumn. I had aquasoil on hand and capped it with sand two months ago, before I discovered father fish. It was my only tank set up that way and it is thriving.
I used your method, but there are many particles and algae on the plants. Do I need to increase the water flow?
Perhaps. Join us in the SHOAL to diagnose the issue.
I have been following your advice for a while and I just recently noticed that my tank doesn't have a "fish stink". It actually smells like fresh grass kind of. Thank you so much Father Fish.
Great information 👍👍👍
Right now battling algae in my small 5 gallon. Cut back the light and now waiting to see. Plants loaded up but went a bit hard at beginning
What vitamin c tablets do you recommend?
1000U any brand
What substrate will have in goldfish tank ? I found stinky under stones !!! And now brown algae!!
Do you already have it in Portugal?
Recently my natural tank stank bad and I found out it was a dead snail because once I took it out and added rainwater since the water was low the smell went away
Where do you buy vitamin c tablets, drug store, fish store
Thankyou for the educational videos on maintaining a natural tank the natural way.
I needed reasurance on what to do and not to do. Eg. No chemicals are beneficial, water evaporation and topping off tank, adding vitamin C to remove chemicals in tap water.
😊 Please keep reasuring us as the pet shop push water changes for high nitrite levels every 2 days and adding store chemicals. I didnt, i added more plants.
Is there any benefit in testing your water? If so what do you test for in a father fish method tank?
I test to know what my Ph is coming out of the tap. I test nothing else.
Aussie here!!! Love it
Question; I am wanting to grow lucky bamboo in my tanks, what is your advise for this. .I have planting substrate of one inch and 2 inches of sand, (20 gallon tank,,) and I have not noticed any bamboo in your tanks, so I thought i best ask for advise. thank you. hagd.
It is a bog plant that has its feet in the water and its branches in the air.
Great video, as always. I've been noticing a smell only at night when lights are off. It's a heavily planted tank with a deep substrate and cap. It's been running really well for about 2 years now and going strong! However, the nighttime smell started about 2 months ago, and I even noticed when puncturing the soil bubbles arrise. Any advice on how to support the anaerobic bacteria without causing a smell or on avoiding this happening each night? I do not add any chemicals or extras in the tank. Thank you for any advice.
Add an inch of sand. that should help.
What is the formula for a 75 gal aquarium?
I havent done a water change since jan. Just top off with water from the creek
Your discord team is one of the 👌 10/10 ❤
A very helpful team🤝
Can you put the vit c tablet right in tank?
yes
@0.25 look at the substrate maxing going on here...
Thanks from India👍👍👍👍👍🙏🙏🙏🙏
Hi I'm new ISH to this thankyou again love your knowledge and thankyou kindly for your vidios so helpful 😊😊😊
I am trying to promote the deep substrate method in Poland, but it is difficult
What's your opinion on weekly water changes please and why ? Thanks from the UK
No Stinky Tank, just a Stinky Gov.
Not now!
Thank you for sharing your knowledge . Substrates (for example tropica aquarium substrate) that is commercially available can be used as the supplement?
As part of it, yes. It still needs organics - peat and coposted material.
Do you leave all the smelly gunk in the gravel and just top off with sand?
yes
Whats your opinion on leeches, hydra, and a couple of the other classic "pests" that usually hitch rides on wild found plants? Trying yo get my own little mini ecosystem going but not sure what critters should stay or go conpared to a traditional aquarium
Small fish eat these pests.
Hey father fish, I have a question that has nothing to do with this video. My tank is about 3-4 weeks old and I noticed a snail inside. I’ve never introduced any snails to my knowledge. Any ides how it could have got there? I’ve used nice pieces of wood from a tree I cut down from outside and river rock from my yard as well ass diet from my back yard.
And something from another tank....
How do you clean your water from clorine ? What do you use ? Or should I not use any chemicals for it ? I want to set up a natural tank but I still have lots of questions about it.
Thanks
If you use vitamin C to remove chlorine the result is a beneficial biological compound.
I use charcoal
And matrix seachem. And sponge
Great video! I think I’m going to upload a video of my tank soon on my channel.
thanks for this information father fish
How would you maintain an overstocked African cichlids tank and keep it natural? they usually destroy the plant
Find the balance
algae are also plants, things with the large surface area, like wood logs, crushed corals, and even leaf litter and sand act as a surface area for algae to grow, I had a similar problem with some voracious herbivores, but this seem to solve the problem, I still toss a bunch of duckweed daily but it gets eaten in matter of hours
Absolutely correct Algae is a natural food source for Mbuna cichlids. They even have special teeth to remove algae from rocks.
No smelly tanks here! All my tanks(8) remind me of mountain streams in the woods after a rain shower. Moist and earthy😁☮❤🐠🦐🪴🪴🪴🪴🪴🪴🪴
Father Fish, I have a 75 gal of peacock cichlids that are fairly large and have destroyed every kind of plant I have put in the tank (excluding water lettuce). Do you think I could use fake plants to acclimate them and train them to get used to having plants in the tank without destroying them? I can slowly replace fake with real over time. Does this sound like a method that will work?
I do not think you can trick them. lol The best way to do this is a 2 step system. First begin feeding them greel leafy vegetables daily. Secong plant a significant number of parge plants like val and sword, not a few but a lot.
@@FatherFish Thank you very much. I have those plants in abundance.
Hello FF, What type of sand do I buy for my aquarium? Is it aquatic sand that I need or any type of sand? Thankyou 🙌
Any sand is fine
Can someone help? I tried to do ff method and reset and bought lots of plants then went for a walk to my local woods and put lots of dead leaves and sticks in my tank, a day later fish were gasping and dying!?
Maybe it's better to add leaves and sticks progressively, only a few at a time.
Yes. "Lots of" is the incorrect approach. You overwhelmend the biology rather than let it grow slowly. A little bit at a time works wonderfully. A few leaves a week.
How do you keep the red plants red and alive in a natural tank?
LOTS of light
Sir Which type water use you your aquarium two days old water exit chlorine and choramine
Tap water, Add vitamin C 1 1000U tab per 5 gallons removes chloramine.
@@FatherFish FF, what brand of Vitamin do you use? The ones I find in my country are orange flavored and have sugar.
Blessings
In nature, the water drains below the earth and refilled by rain. There has to be a timeframe for this setup or atleast some water changed.
top offs achieve this
@FatherFish I meant all of the accumulated stuff at the bottom waste is waste even if the bacteria breaks it down Eventually will rise to the top shouldn't there be atleast a 1 month Maybe 10% water changes?
Hello father fish! What if I already have a tank set up and I have not used mud in the bottom do I need to empty my 40 gallon tank to add mud
No need. Cap it with saand and build a food web.
I sat up a tank using your supercharged dirt with a sand cap. I get bubbles that come up through the sand fairly frequently that smell like raw sewage. It is so bad my wife is making me move the tank this weekend.
Found this video looking for a solution but what is going on is nothing you speak of here is what is going on.
contact me by email please. This should not be happening.
@@FatherFish not sure what your email is. I will try to find it. Also not sure what in the world that last sentence was as apparently my device changed what I actually wrote and I didn’t catch it before posting 🤣
Tank smells awful.
@@FatherFishI am unable to find an email address to reach you
Sir how can I get the organisms which convert waste into energy, as stated by you
Can i put dead corals in my dirted freshwater aquarium ?
Thank you 😊 i love your videos 💕
I put indian almond leaf on my aba aba tank want to change that leaf in week if its decomposing?😊 1
No. Decomposing is microfauna eating it.
I've always been really critical of your channel but this is one of my favourite videos and really interesting about the vitamin c I thought it would be too acidic if not in a huge system what is the effect on say 40galons ? per 1000mg? I think that your whole method is the ideal method by far. but why wouldn't you remove the chlorine and chloramine first to avoid wiping out any of the biome in your tank or doesn't it matter when it's so diluted? I have 2 tropical tanks and I'm the same they were setup the only time I've done a water change was when I was moving house. I always top up with rodi so I don't raise the tds above natural levels and have shrimp substrate and coral bone for minerals and a plant on top to take up any excess nutrients. my tanks look as clean as any other. only need to clean the algae off once a year. been running like this for over 5 years. it has never ever seen any medication same with any of the materials inside.
TDS is variable based on plant absorption of dissolved minerals. I never add rodi water to insure tds is not lowered. Vit C has marginal effect on Ph. Chloramine is sufficiently low that immediate reduction reduces impact on living oganisms to a negligable level.
Really critical? Really?
@FatherFish very interesting I might try the vitamin c. the only reason I used rodi is it is on hand and when water evaporates the dissolved solids remain its only pure h²o leaving the tank so I am just replenishing that as the rain does. I also only keep shrimp snails and plants in my freshwater setups currently. I also don't test my tds even though I really should especially to see how much the plants are consuming. would you recommend treating the water with vitamin c before adding it to be on the safe side or would it make no difference on a small water change? it does remind me of topping up straight from the tap when working in aquariums only one pretreated the water but that was a highend store and everything was heated in barrels beforehand as well.
and yeah I have been in the past because at first I thought it was purely old thinking and carelessness until I watched multiple videos and your right watching 10 of your videos despite being the same message really shows that it's so much more tbh. less so on the saltwater tank even though it's ideal it just hurt a bit as a reef keeper but after that I decided to collect sand from the bottom of a rockpool and add to one of my reef tanks and they amount of microscopic life that added is incredible. the tank was at the point of being shut down because of dinoflagellates there appears to be some type of worm feasting on them which if that's the case it would be an incredible breakthrough as far as treating dinoflagellates goes if they outpace them
Can i use some other soil instead of the one that you're selling. I'm not from USA so i can't get one. Same question with the sand
yes
@@FatherFish like some top soil from forest or garden?
I have some black beard in my tank on some leaves on plants >>>>what should i do for ?
add more plants
@@FatherFish Thanks a lot
My ff tank is 4 months old. I feed 3 times a week and it’s just now starting to stink. Don’t know what to do.
stop feeding add plants. Siphon the bottom. Do a 10% water change.
@@FatherFish thank you.
Your the best, thanks for your help
Is putting salt in the tank is vital?
no
Father fish i have 155gallon fish tank and i am keeping single oscar in it but why is my fish always hungry asking for food when ever i walk near tank it swims aggressively asking for food what should i do i feed him twice a day??
Nah feed it once a month