Everything I'm using for these experiments (affiliate links) Tank: 30C all in one US: bit.ly/3Xd4MhK EU: bit.ly/4ceo4YB Light: Chihiros A301 US: bit.ly/3KB39D2 EU: bit.ly/3RmBGJ9 LIQUID FERT bit.ly/3tIVFsv USE CODE MJAQUA FOR 15% OFF APT SKY RO MINERALS bit.ly/3Ujs43X USE CODE MJAQUA FOR 15% OFF FOAM LEVELING MAT EU: amzn.to/3uZ0sa2 US: amzn.to/3GJrPY6 BASE LAYER SUBSTRATE EU: bit.ly/48H90kD US: bit.ly/3D7RAB1 Aquasoil EU: bit.ly/3qhHDt4 US: bit.ly/3Rea86F Super glue Liquid EU: bit.ly/3rC0rY3 US: amzn.to/408UAqi Super glue Gel EU: amzn.to/46B3L52 US: amzn.to/3J2owwM Super glue Precision Tips US: amzn.to/3yT0diu EU: amzn.to/3X82dxB PLANTS USED: Darf Hair Grass bit.ly/3VsJIR5 Helanthium Tenellum Broad Leaf bit.ly/480YzbM Eriocaulon Cinereum bit.ly/3VhX0kj Echinodorus (Helanthium) Tenellus bit.ly/45dBDnx Anubias Nana Petite bit.ly/3QtSfDa Juncus Repens bit.ly/3yyJjmo Cryptocoryne Lutea bit.ly/3yBGDo7 Hygrophila Pinnatifida bit.ly/3QquprP 🚨Watch this next!🚨 Inspiration playlist! • Build Videos CO2 buying guide! • BEST CO2 SYSTEM FOR BEGINNERS?🤔 CO2 S... How to SETUP your CO2! • EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO KNOW TO SETUP ... Simple fertilizer dosing! • SIMPLE AQUARIUM PLANT LIQUID FERTILIZ... 👉🏻10% DISCOUNT on CO2Art with code: Amsterdam 👉🏻15% off 2hraquarist.com with code: MJAQUA 👉🏻Be sure to SUBSCRIBE to my UA-cam channel: / mjaquascaping #plantedtank #aquascape #mjaquascaping
The people that run "no water change" tanks usually don't use an aquasoil but if they do the cap it with a couple inches of sand to prevent nutrients from leeching into the water column and causing excess algae.
I’ve seen this done a lot, I have a current aqua soil tank (fluval stratum) and I haven’t done a water change in about 9 or 10 months, very clear, all my lil guys are happy, it is heavily planted though I feel that the plants and shrimp help a lot
Just to say that I like your way of thinking, always questioning things politely, trying to apply common sense and experimenting a lot to build your own take away!
I have a 105 liter(75 gallon) tank with cruched lava rocks as base and fluval stratum as the top medium. It's a really thick layer of substrate and it's heavily planted with chrypt, awards, stem plants and a mix of floating plants. I do about 30% water changes every other/third month and scoop out quite a lot of floaters. Three small filters dotted about behind plants. Almost no algae. But that is a 4 year old tank. Love your channel.
I always love these experiments you do. I am following for more! Hoping next you'd do: High light, short period (±6 hrs) vs Low light, long period (±10 hrs)
The Walstad method of adding a break between two photoperiods (e.g. 4 hours morning/break/4 hours evening) is also quite popular as a way to combat algae. Super curious to see how they perform against each other!
Most no water change folks generally cap the aqua soil with an inert sand which traps nutrients and prevents them from getting into the water column and reduces the algae growth. I don’t use any of the fancy treated aqua soils and only use an inert substrate (I like a course natural looking sand) and I add my nutrients with Flourish root tabs in the areas where I put plants. I also add in beneficial bacteria (like Fritzyme 7) or I use seeded filter media from a filter on an established tank, so my new tanks start off cycled (I still do water tests as I want to make sure everything is stable, and in new tanks it is smart to test regularly, even daily). I then add quite a few of plants (plants are the best water filters you can have), including floating plants, and Ramshorn snails. After my new tank is a week or so old, I start adding the rest of my clean up crew, less any shrimp. I only add my shrimp after my tank is at least a month old. I do this because shrimp are more sensitive to any water changes in a tank. So in the first few months of a new tank I generally do small water changes maybe once every 2 or 3 weeks. Once established I still like to do a periodic water change. The way I think of it is I want to mimic the natural environment, so top offs in my tank mimic the short light rain showers, and the 20% or so water changes mimic the heavy rainstorms or floods. The natural environment introduces new water to the pond, river, etc and we want to do the same. Also, some fish need that water change to get them to spawn (Cory’s, plecos both like a big water change to spawn). So, that alone, in my opinion, is a good indicator that fish need water changes once in a while. Maybe not weekly, but periodically throwing a water change in is healthy.
@@thomascrohan7810 I use a course sand which is courser than the pool sand. I was using one by Caribsea, but more recently I have used Aqua Natural Prairie Sand 10lb Substrate. Prairie sand is the natural coloring, but they also have black, and white. It is cleaned and kiln dried. It also does not have sharp sides. I really like it. I keep a variety of Cory’s and plecos in all my tanks, and they have done well on it too. I always worry about my bottom dwelling fish on whatever substrate I get. I prefer this courser sand as it doesn’t get into your filter and mess it up. Some sands are easy to suck up into filters through the intake, and will destroy the motor. Every time I build a new tank, I think about using pool sand, but I seem to always come back to this one. Even though it says it doesn’t need to be rinsed, I still rinse it.
Hi MJ your end conclusion is spot on: do them frequently in the beginning and along time reduce them. My 325 liter is now exactly 1 year and I do once a month a 50% now. And Ramshorn snails, Amano’s, Otto’s plus 65! Rummy nose tetra’s. But most importantly plants, plants and plants 😊 I am successful thanks to your videos, thanks.
Try it with a deep substrate. Compost capped with sand. Very little hardscape and LOTS of plants and few fish. Mby a spatiphyllum emersed. Then you dont need water changes
@@Raphael.P. algae isn't a bad thing, and reduce the lighting. If you have sufficient plants you'll never get algae. If you have algae, you don't have enough plants (unless your clean-up crew isn't adequate).
i can add to this with my experience: i only do water changes... maby once a year on most of my tanks unless i see a problem like alot of fish suddenly dying, which is very rare. or if i see too much fish poop building up. i used to do water changes alot, but after about 6 months i stopped. i think after a tank finds stability, you dont really need to very frequently anymore especially if you have alot of plants. i do still remove floating plants and over grown stems like once a month though.
I have a 100 liter aquarium and I usually do partial water changes once a week, I only do 10% and following this routine, I never needed to clean the aquarium glass again and the plants are growing well.
MJ aquascaping, I love your video's! and I also was concerning about waterchanges. I saw multiple aquarist who never did a water chance and I was stunned about the beautiful tanks. I think an aquarium is a micro ecosystem and if you have a full a autonomic ecosystem in you aquarium you won't to do any waterchances or at least not so often as most people do. I have a algea free aquarium and last water change was a half a year ago. the water is fully clear. Just a lot of plants, wood and some lavarocks, not to much light (6 hours a day) a community of fish balance between ground orientated fish, midlevel and toplevel fish, also shrimps. My tank is 260 liters (juwel vision 260). Filter is combined between mechanical and bio. little more bio (60%) then mechanical. I use two Jbl crstial profi filters e902 and e702. which I clean once a month/ once in two months each. Ps: as flooring I have mixed aquasoil and substrate with aqua sand (40/50/10) and on the top filtersand. soil/substrate is 70% top is 30% only Co2 in the beginning (first 6 months for the plants to grow faster).
I have almost algae in my no water change tank. (Only a tiny bit of green on my white rock hardscape where the light hits it.) I used organic planting soil in mesh bags and capped with sand. I used a ton of plants and duck weed to dominate any nutrients in water column. The duck weed also mutes some of the light making it harder for algae to grow. I run a few shrimp and snails as a clean up crew and feed about every other day. For clean up, I never have had to clean the glass. I do get a bit of dead duck weed build up at the bottom. Not an issue really, but since I have white sand it stands out. I use a turkey baster to suck out the large clumps to improve aesthetics. I top off with untreated water; typically leaving the water sit for a few days in a container to let the chlorine evaporate naturally and to stabilize in temp. I have good levels on all my water tests and have no fish issues. However, my water does have a green hue to it, more noticeable when the light is off, which may bother some people.
Cap the aquasoil with sand. My algae free tanks all had one thing in common, capped aquasoil, low light plants, easy stem plants, deeper substrate, and botanicals. Also, in a new setup, you still need to do waterchanges in the beginning. There will still be some nutrient leaching, diatoms, etc. Once the sytem is stable, you do occasional water changes and top up the tank. Its not like you never do water changes, just fewer waterchanges. Eventually, the tank matures. You end up with a little eco sytem, fun layers of bacteria in your substrate, microscopic critters, and a tank that requires occasional waterchanges. This can take a long time though.
Great video! I appreciate the comparison between tanks with and without water changes. However, there's an important aspect to consider when aiming for a self-sustaining aquarium ecosystem that may help control algae growth more effectively. For a truly balanced setup, a deep substrate covered with sand is beneficial as it creates anaerobic zones that support beneficial bacteria. These bacteria help break down waste and recycle nutrients, making them less available for algae. Using a diverse range of plants is also crucial. Incorporating root feeders (like Amazon swords and crypts), water column feeders (like hornwort and water sprite), and floating plants (like duckweed and frogbit) ensures that nutrients are absorbed from different parts of the tank, creating a more stable ecosystem. Introducing a small cleanup crew day 2 in the setup can help manage waste and control algae from the start. Shrimp, such as Amano shrimp, snails like mystery snails and nerite snails, and algae-eating fish like Otocinclus catfish play key roles in maintaining cleanliness and balance. Combining these strategies can significantly reduce the need for water changes while keeping algae in check, or eliminate the need for them at all potentially. Thank you for sharing your insights and inspiring thoughtful discussion on aquascaping!
The method I use, the Father Fish method, uses a modified walstad method. Using sand you trap the nutrients in the substrate. In a 30cm cube you would do about 1/2 inch of soil and 1 1/2 - 2 inches of sand, then everything else the same. The reason is the sand creates a cap that's prevents the excess nutrients from entering the water column, allowing the water to stay pristine longer. The fish don't need the nutrients. The sand also serves the purpose of creating a sift for waste to filter through. Over time that waste replaces the lost nutrients in the soil. This is meant to be a tank that will last 20+ years, and many people using this method have had their tanks for that long without the use of fertilizers. Father Fish explains it decently well here. ua-cam.com/video/DHdFIdzD6qI/v-deo.htmlsi=oZBn4qveiTN8h8T- We also use tap water, because RO doesn't contain enough hard water minerals for the plants. We obviously use something to remove chloramines if necessary.
Sooo many Thanks for that Father Fish link!! It explains his understanding and success beautifully. I’ve seen his vids before and knew he had it going on, but it wasn’t until THIS edit, did it all come together perfectly. 🫶🏻
I suppose father fish never kept any tiny little plants such as glosso, montecarlo, cuba or utricularia. If you cap soil with (nutrient deficient) sand in a layer as big as 5cm (2 inches) the plants might have died until they reached some nutrients.
@@detlefh.7090 yep, no one method is universal. The global environments being so diverse. Some organisms require boiling sulfur hydro carbons to thrive. It appears majority of plants do well with his system
@@bdmenne You are right, the aquarist should know the limits of each method which he cannot jump beyond using only one particular set of parameters or advice.
Congratulations here from Brazil. Everything very well? You know what would be amazing? see you riding a Dutchman (45p) and explaining each step of the process and everything that went right and wrong in a few months. Explaining everything chosen lighting, substrate and plants and external filter and the weekly progress of the aquarium. what do you think? Do you accept the challenge?
I have a similar cube setup with HOB filter and as described in the video I am NOT USING AQUA SOIL. In my case at least 20% of the water in the aquarium evaporates in 10 to 15 days due to the weather conditions, which I will top up and I stopped doing water changes, BUT occasionally I will scrape the glass and change the water. With minimal bio load it can be achievable but not in all cases
I have a tank that hasn't had its water changed for 5 months since changing the water on the first week, and the results are amazing, the plants grow lush and healthy, the fish are healthy without any disease. I only added water because it was reduced due to evaporation. That's the method I use for all the tanks I have
Hi MJ! I'm a relative beginner, but I have some experience on the subject. I have a 30C aquarium full of slow growing plants and floating plants that I set up for CRS shrimps. A little bit of aquasoil capped with cosmetic sand. It only has an Oase BioCompact 25 internal filter. Since I only had 2 shrimp left from a previous project, and one of them just had babies after a couple of weeks, I thought I wouldn't change the water for 1-2 weeks, so that they don't die due to the change in water parameters. It's been several months, but since then the aquarium is in such good condition that I didn't even change the water, I just refilled the evaporated water. At the top, sometimes a few green hairalgae appears along the glass, but it can be easily removed. Right now this setup is working fine, but if I'm going to put some nanofish too, I'll probably need to change the water from time to time. I think it is difficult to draw a general rule, every aquarium is different. Thanks for the video, I learned a lot from your channel!
In my experiencie with or without water changes the best way with algea is cleaning , i don't do water changes and my scapes are iwagumis all 4 of them each with diferent plant . I dont use ferts , i don't use co2 , chihiros lighting and i have great results .
I have some aquariums and usually prefer aquasoil. I change water twice a week on new setups. once the soil has fully leeched out, I switch to root tabs and monthly waterchanges, as long as nothing strange happens like sudden problems with plants or algae growth beyond normal or strange behaving fish, shrimps or snails. I always use bacter 100 and mironecuton and lots of plants. I forgot to change water on a newly set up tank and all my plants melted away. I guess it was an ammonia peak and after that an insane nitrite level. It normalized after 2 full waterchanges and most plants recovered. My precious bucephalandras had it the worst. I had to buy new ones.
I have 4 heavily planted tanks with shrimps,fish communities including kuhli loaches and otocinclus and never did a water change.The tanks are clean but I also do not overfeed with food
cool experiment MJ! I stopped doing water changes after 1 month stabilization, no issues with algae, perfect water parameters. Also, my aquasoil is capped with 1.5-2" of sand. I find capping the nutrients helps lower the algae issues at the start
If you cap your aqua soil with sand you won’t have too many nutrients in the water column, resulting in way less algae. I cap my aqua soil with sand and do very little water changes in most of my aquariums, it works great for me!
I think it boils down to two scenarios: 1. Nitrates increase every week OR you don't have RO water for top offs -> Do water changes to keep nitrates in check and water hardness stable 2. No nitrates increase every week AND access to RO water ? -> It's ok to do rare water changes or none at all; although fish hormone concentration is probably a thing... ua-cam.com/video/NOhFkvTnSHg/v-deo.html
It's interesting that the plants in the no water change tank grew a little more. They also look a little greener/healthier too, although it could just look that way through the camera.
I have amazing success with no water changes, you need to cap the substrate with sand otherwise you're destined to fail.. Also, add a few small fish on day two (why would you wait two weeks?), do Not add any chemicals, filter material from an old tank will help, but not essential. Father Fish explains it all.
Aquasoil leaches ammonia, especially in the first two weeks. Adding fish immediately would kill them. Capping aquasoil makes it less effective but most people who adopt the "no waterchange method" are using some version of the 'Walstad method' (dirt and sand).
@@nicholasdykes3095 I understand, all my tanks have never had a water change. I said he should've capped the substrate(soil, aquasoil etc) with sand. Then you could add a small amount of fish on day two.
idk why people think they need to buy fancy things. it's our culture I guess. We only use certain fertilizer products because companies make money, we only "cycle" a tank because companies get rich selling such scam products that don't even work. Put a seeded filter in and it's instantly cycled. And this special soil, you could just make your own.. or I just use sand on it's own and my plants grow great. I used to make my own root tabs but I realized I didn't need them. and it's crazy to see there are still people who think you can never change the water even though so many people have these tanks and are pristine. and without filters too. yet another thing companies make a lot of money pushing.
A tank I’ve setup now running for 9 months no water changes. Dirted tank topped with 2 cm aquasoil. Plenty of plants and plenty of shrimps in a 40 liter tank. Fast growing plants, shrimps and snails are key
my plants grow great with sand alone. only plant ive had a problem with is swords, they need a lot of time to adjust for some reason. yes always have lots of snails.
Have you tried a dark start before you make no water change set ups? If you make a long dark start with no water changes the tank is cycled ready for no water changes setups. This works even for no filter & no water change setups if there is enough dirt (real earth) under/ in the nutritions layer (covered with a thin layer of sand to lock it from coming throug the soil ) to do it without filter and water changes.. Afterv the dark start if you have planted the tank. Do not add animals for several month or half a year until everything is very stable and than only add a fery few animals (if there is no filter and no water changes) ...
In freshwater tanks im not against water changes since it is an natural thing, but i avoid doing them in saltwater since its basically a waste of salt. The only reason for me to do a water change in saltwater is to remove possible toxic minerals that might accumulate from fish food.
Personally i don't use aquasoil I make mixe of sand crushed lava rocks and garden compost Then i tape it with peat moss and then a sand and i get amazing result every time
Should also use a 2 additional tanks with aquasoil covered with sand to see the results, im just testing that method and it seems to work wonders in my 3rd tank, but lets see in 1 week.
I'm literally in the process of setting up a tank with no water changes. Aquasoil, not capped. The tank volume is around 300 L. It's summer here, and water is a precious resource, hence the need to avoid water changes considering the large tank size. The big difference is that I did one month of dark-start. So, the setup process was after hardscaping and putting in the substrate and filing up the tank, I left it as is for a month with the filter running with media, and ghost-feeding the tank every once in a while. In that month there was a bacterial die-off almost immediately, and a diatom bloom, but I only observed and didn't change a thing, and the tank cleared up pretty quickly. One month later tests showed that the tank was cycled, so I knew there was no excess nutrients to cause massive algae problems. Then I turned on the lights and planted it somewhat heavily. The plants ensured that the nutrients were near zero, but the lights did cause some light algae. Then I added some clean-up crew - ottos and shrimp. It's been 3 weeks since I did that, and the tank is near spotless. Other than the one time I've cleaned the canister filter and lost that volume of water, I've never done a water change, and have only topped up the tank to compensate for evaporation losses. Near zero algae, 10-11hours light daily, no C02, pretty light bio-load still, but heavily planted. I think the big difference is that I did the dark start, which let the tank cycle before I did anything else.
I personally do not do water changes unless there is a major issue. When the appropriate amount of fish and plants are used, there is no need to do water changes. Every major issue I have had was due to water changes. One of the biggest factors is fish food. If you are using flakes or pellets or anything store bought, really, you are essentially poisoning your tank. Just stick with nature and keep your tank as natural as possible.
The positive of a nano tank being water changes only take 10 - 15 mins. You can create beautiful aquascapes without investing too much time on ongoing maintenance.
Hehe ya, i have one big size tank of 800liter water 😅, filling it half with Ro takes ages haha. Aquasoil and some sand. Light can be a trigger or to much fertilizer next to co2. Ones it runs u dont need that much of water changes if everything is stable anouch. Only cutting plants and window cleaning and so on ✌🏻
@stripypjs Yep so true! And you can easily sell without hassle, new owner just squeezes it under his arm and off he goes. Just don't think you can make money by selling any tank unless you call yourself George Farmer. 😉
Hi MJ. I'm a big fan of you. I always ţry to keep notes on the plants you use that I really like. Do you have the name of the plant that is growing on the right side of the rock? It has a stem growing vertical from the leafs and looks like it has a flower maby coming from the top of the stem? I really like it. Also do you ever share the plants used In your builds somwhere other than in the video, similar to the links you have on what tools you use or endorse?
I use a big CO2 canister + regulator that feeds all the tanks on the shelf. But if it's just one tank I would go for something like this amzn.to/4fr6D9J
Interesting results with the types of algae that appeared. I've found the sweet spot for no water changes starts after about 3/4 months with new aquasoil. Before that 50% every 2 weeks seems to be enough to keep things fairly stable.
I started a new tank in 3 weeks' dark start. After that do water changes 2 times a week and can not beat black beard for 1.5 months. Have the same problem in an older tank and it's gone after 2-3 water changes...
You overfertilized the no-water-change aquarium. Fertilized aquasoil and liquid fertilizer is overkill since no nutrient export is occurring. I’m glad that you only used RO water in the tank, not tap water.
You are both, right in that the no WC tank holds too much fertilizer (lacking water changes and using soil) and wrong since Mark did not ad any fertilizer to the water column in either tank.
If you ask 10 aquarium experts what to do, you'll get 24 answers and they will all be based on experiences they had with setups that are nothing like what you have. It would be more helpfull (to me, at least) if they just explained what a particular thing does to the tank. Water changes obviously carry away whatever was in the water and replace it with whatever was in the tap. If that helps for your setup then there must be something in your setup that you don't want to be in there. *THAT* is what I want to know. What is in the old water that's doing the damage? A waterchange probably also removes a lot of stuff that you don't want to get rid of and it introduces new stuff you might not want in there. What if a waterchange removes 50% of the bad stuff and replaces it with 40% other bad stuff? You'd see a 10% improvement but betting rid of 20% of the bad stuff without a waterchange would be 10% better still. I'm not keen on changing how I run my little underwater hellscape on the off-chance that it might grow a little faster, I want a lot more testable facts.
If you have decent and stable water quality from your municipality, I don't think this is a concern, or at least it's something out of your control, unless you go with RO water and re-mineralization. I think it boils down to two scenarios: 1. Nitrates increase every week OR you don't have RO water for top offs -> Do water changes to keep nitrates in check and water hardness stable 2. No nitrates increase every week AND access to RO water ? -> It's ok to do rare water changes or none at all; although fish hormone concentration is probably a thing... ua-cam.com/video/NOhFkvTnSHg/v-deo.html
What's the take away from this experiment? - doing a no wc soil based tank serves for a massive outbreak of green algae, at least during the very first couple weeks provided you are using RO water (the outcome might have been completely different with water holding minerals). We knew this already. -plant growth increases with nutients not only in the substrate but also in the water column which we knew already also. Big thanks to Mark for verification.
Ending the test after 5 weeks makes the test nearly useless. The interesting part begins after… Also, it would have been interesting to see how the tank with no water change develops when being cleaned as regularly as the other one.
I have had experience with no water change tank like these and yes you got it all right MJ. Didn't use aquasoil, used some garden potting soil instead and followed master George Farmers theory of water changes! DAILY once for the first week, alternate days for the second, once after 2 days the third week and so on. In 2 months time, the tank got established and then stopped water changes! Please Keep these experiment videos coming 😊
I just add a tiger lotus, that thing grows amazingly and is vibrant. Lots of cool plants out there that don't need co2. ... or you could run co2, it's a personal choice
definitely agree with you on the aquasoil, when I set up a dirted cube with extremely heavy planting (4 kinds of stems, dwarf sag, moss, and floaters) I blasted 2000 lumens from day 1 for 10 hours a day and the plants grew extremely fast and there was no algae in sight. I did maybe 3 water changes on that tank in the first month and the parameters stayed stabled the entire time with bladder snails keeping the glass clean of any green dust. I wish I had a drop checker in that tank at the time, im sure the levels were above blue even without injecting it.
Very interesting results.... I have a few observations 1. If you are not dosing the water column, aquasoil runs low on nutrients pretty fast. 2. Nitrates were a bit low probably on the right one so it got hair algae... could be Co2 also. 3. Plants love water changes and so does the livestock. Water changes are the closest way to mimic nature as there's always fresh water coming in with water flows
The man who enjoys water changes - MJ Let me clarify that my fish tank is quite far from water source and drainage. So i have to bring a mop holding basket and make multiple trips up and down the stairs with said basket filled with water both trips. I have multiple tanks in my bedroom 😓
I love your videos! But this was not helpful at all. You should let the project run for more than 6 months…that’s when you can see the real differences. It takes a while for an aquarium to stabilize and in that short period you will only see the cycling process with all its ups and downs. And, by the way, even if a person don’t do water changes…there are some maintenance to be done. Scraping algae from the glass one top off with water to compensate the water that vapors. Thanks for a super nice UA-cam channel!
No water changes with CO2 will always be failure (and there is too much light), actually CO2 causes unhealty plant growth and eventually the tank will be collapsed...
why does there need to be an experiment for something that thousands of people already proved. if such an experiment encounters a problem, it looks bad. But what matters is experience. It's better to get advice from people who have been doing this for decades and know how to fix issues if there are any. I've made several tanks that never need water change and the water is always absolutely pristine. It is also impossible to detect ammonia no matter how long the tanks age, because of the plants, making testing a non necessity. On the other hand you could have an algae problem and water changes wouldn't fix it. There is no correlation between the two. If there is a problem in the water, there is some kind of imbalance that needs to be corrected. Usually they fix themselves in time. And such an experiment doesn't take that in to account.
Everything I'm using for these experiments (affiliate links)
Tank: 30C all in one
US: bit.ly/3Xd4MhK
EU: bit.ly/4ceo4YB
Light: Chihiros A301
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EU: bit.ly/3RmBGJ9
LIQUID FERT
bit.ly/3tIVFsv USE CODE MJAQUA FOR 15% OFF
APT SKY RO MINERALS
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FOAM LEVELING MAT
EU: amzn.to/3uZ0sa2
US: amzn.to/3GJrPY6
BASE LAYER SUBSTRATE
EU: bit.ly/48H90kD
US: bit.ly/3D7RAB1
Aquasoil
EU: bit.ly/3qhHDt4
US: bit.ly/3Rea86F
Super glue Liquid
EU: bit.ly/3rC0rY3
US: amzn.to/408UAqi
Super glue Gel
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US: amzn.to/3J2owwM
Super glue Precision Tips
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EU: amzn.to/3X82dxB
PLANTS USED:
Darf Hair Grass bit.ly/3VsJIR5
Helanthium Tenellum Broad Leaf bit.ly/480YzbM
Eriocaulon Cinereum bit.ly/3VhX0kj
Echinodorus (Helanthium) Tenellus bit.ly/45dBDnx
Anubias Nana Petite bit.ly/3QtSfDa
Juncus Repens bit.ly/3yyJjmo
Cryptocoryne Lutea bit.ly/3yBGDo7
Hygrophila Pinnatifida bit.ly/3QquprP
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Next experiment: Ferts and no Ferts
The people that run "no water change" tanks usually don't use an aquasoil but if they do the cap it with a couple inches of sand to prevent nutrients from leeching into the water column and causing excess algae.
Exactly
This is the way.
That how it work
Exactly, this is what i did now so far it works amazing but im still changing water just less frequently and literally 0 algae in tank
I’ve seen this done a lot, I have a current aqua soil tank (fluval stratum) and I haven’t done a water change in about 9 or 10 months, very clear, all my lil guys are happy, it is heavily planted though I feel that the plants and shrimp help a lot
Just to say that I like your way of thinking, always questioning things politely, trying to apply common sense and experimenting a lot to build your own take away!
I'd love to see a comparison of an expensive light vs a cheap LED floodlight of equivalent wattage.
I have a 105 liter(75 gallon) tank with cruched lava rocks as base and fluval stratum as the top medium. It's a really thick layer of substrate and it's heavily planted with chrypt, awards, stem plants and a mix of floating plants. I do about 30% water changes every other/third month and scoop out quite a lot of floaters. Three small filters dotted about behind plants. Almost no algae. But that is a 4 year old tank.
Love your channel.
I always love these experiments you do. I am following for more!
Hoping next you'd do:
High light, short period (±6 hrs)
vs
Low light, long period (±10 hrs)
Yes, I'd really like to see a light experiment like this.
The Walstad method of adding a break between two photoperiods (e.g. 4 hours morning/break/4 hours evening) is also quite popular as a way to combat algae. Super curious to see how they perform against each other!
yeah i would love to see this as well
Most no water change folks generally cap the aqua soil with an inert sand which traps nutrients and prevents them from getting into the water column and reduces the algae growth. I don’t use any of the fancy treated aqua soils and only use an inert substrate (I like a course natural looking sand) and I add my nutrients with Flourish root tabs in the areas where I put plants. I also add in beneficial bacteria (like Fritzyme 7) or I use seeded filter media from a filter on an established tank, so my new tanks start off cycled (I still do water tests as I want to make sure everything is stable, and in new tanks it is smart to test regularly, even daily). I then add quite a few of plants (plants are the best water filters you can have), including floating plants, and Ramshorn snails. After my new tank is a week or so old, I start adding the rest of my clean up crew, less any shrimp. I only add my shrimp after my tank is at least a month old. I do this because shrimp are more sensitive to any water changes in a tank. So in the first few months of a new tank I generally do small water changes maybe once every 2 or 3 weeks. Once established I still like to do a periodic water change.
The way I think of it is I want to mimic the natural environment, so top offs in my tank mimic the short light rain showers, and the 20% or so water changes mimic the heavy rainstorms or floods. The natural environment introduces new water to the pond, river, etc and we want to do the same. Also, some fish need that water change to get them to spawn (Cory’s, plecos both like a big water change to spawn). So, that alone, in my opinion, is a good indicator that fish need water changes once in a while. Maybe not weekly, but periodically throwing a water change in is healthy.
Good points 👍🏻
I use cheap pond soil with a gravel cap.
What type of sand do you use? I’ve heard pool filter sand recommended a lot
@@thomascrohan7810 I use a course sand which is courser than the pool sand. I was using one by Caribsea, but more recently I have used Aqua Natural Prairie Sand 10lb Substrate. Prairie sand is the natural coloring, but they also have black, and white. It is cleaned and kiln dried. It also does not have sharp sides. I really like it. I keep a variety of Cory’s and plecos in all my tanks, and they have done well on it too. I always worry about my bottom dwelling fish on whatever substrate I get. I prefer this courser sand as it doesn’t get into your filter and mess it up. Some sands are easy to suck up into filters through the intake, and will destroy the motor. Every time I build a new tank, I think about using pool sand, but I seem to always come back to this one. Even though it says it doesn’t need to be rinsed, I still rinse it.
@@BTQ410 thanks!
Hi MJ your end conclusion is spot on: do them frequently in the beginning and along time reduce them. My 325 liter is now exactly 1 year and I do once a month a 50% now. And Ramshorn snails, Amano’s, Otto’s plus 65! Rummy nose tetra’s. But most importantly plants, plants and plants 😊 I am successful thanks to your videos, thanks.
Try it with a deep substrate. Compost capped with sand. Very little hardscape and LOTS of plants and few fish.
Mby a spatiphyllum emersed.
Then you dont need water changes
Hardscape is fine, you can still aquascape a deep substrate system.
(Sincerely, big father fish fan)
@@Giftig--Daniel-P depends on the lighting level.
If your lighting is very high you will get algae on that hardscape
@@Raphael.P. algae isn't a bad thing, and reduce the lighting. If you have sufficient plants you'll never get algae. If you have algae, you don't have enough plants (unless your clean-up crew isn't adequate).
@@Giftig--Daniel-P no its not bad, but most people don't want it xd
Ok thank you for your comment^^
Now i see why your name is "giftig"🤣
@@Raphael.P. I don't get it
i can add to this with my experience: i only do water changes... maby once a year on most of my tanks unless i see a problem like alot of fish suddenly dying, which is very rare. or if i see too much fish poop building up. i used to do water changes alot, but after about 6 months i stopped. i think after a tank finds stability, you dont really need to very frequently anymore especially if you have alot of plants. i do still remove floating plants and over grown stems like once a month though.
I have a 100 liter aquarium and I usually do partial water changes once a week, I only do 10% and following this routine, I never needed to clean the aquarium glass again and the plants are growing well.
MJ aquascaping, I love your video's! and I also was concerning about waterchanges. I saw multiple aquarist who never did a water chance and I was stunned about the beautiful tanks. I think an aquarium is a micro ecosystem and if you have a full a autonomic ecosystem in you aquarium you won't to do any waterchances or at least not so often as most people do. I have a algea free aquarium and last water change was a half a year ago. the water is fully clear. Just a lot of plants, wood and some lavarocks, not to much light (6 hours a day) a community of fish balance between ground orientated fish, midlevel and toplevel fish, also shrimps. My tank is 260 liters (juwel vision 260). Filter is combined between mechanical and bio. little more bio (60%) then mechanical. I use two Jbl crstial profi filters e902 and e702. which I clean once a month/ once in two months each.
Ps: as flooring I have mixed aquasoil and substrate with aqua sand (40/50/10) and on the top filtersand. soil/substrate is 70% top is 30% only Co2 in the beginning (first 6 months for the plants to grow faster).
Love the experiment. thanks!
I have almost algae in my no water change tank. (Only a tiny bit of green on my white rock hardscape where the light hits it.) I used organic planting soil in mesh bags and capped with sand. I used a ton of plants and duck weed to dominate any nutrients in water column. The duck weed also mutes some of the light making it harder for algae to grow. I run a few shrimp and snails as a clean up crew and feed about every other day. For clean up, I never have had to clean the glass. I do get a bit of dead duck weed build up at the bottom. Not an issue really, but since I have white sand it stands out. I use a turkey baster to suck out the large clumps to improve aesthetics. I top off with untreated water; typically leaving the water sit for a few days in a container to let the chlorine evaporate naturally and to stabilize in temp. I have good levels on all my water tests and have no fish issues. However, my water does have a green hue to it, more noticeable when the light is off, which may bother some people.
Cap the aquasoil with sand. My algae free tanks all had one thing in common, capped aquasoil, low light plants, easy stem plants, deeper substrate, and botanicals.
Also, in a new setup, you still need to do waterchanges in the beginning. There will still be some nutrient leaching, diatoms, etc.
Once the sytem is stable, you do occasional water changes and top up the tank. Its not like you never do water changes, just fewer waterchanges.
Eventually, the tank matures. You end up with a little eco sytem, fun layers of bacteria in your substrate, microscopic critters, and a tank that requires occasional waterchanges. This can take a long time though.
It is interesting to show wather parameters with test strips. NO3,NO2,PH, GH, KH...
Great video! I appreciate the comparison between tanks with and without water changes. However, there's an important aspect to consider when aiming for a self-sustaining aquarium ecosystem that may help control algae growth more effectively.
For a truly balanced setup, a deep substrate covered with sand is beneficial as it creates anaerobic zones that support beneficial bacteria. These bacteria help break down waste and recycle nutrients, making them less available for algae.
Using a diverse range of plants is also crucial. Incorporating root feeders (like Amazon swords and crypts), water column feeders (like hornwort and water sprite), and floating plants (like duckweed and frogbit) ensures that nutrients are absorbed from different parts of the tank, creating a more stable ecosystem.
Introducing a small cleanup crew day 2 in the setup can help manage waste and control algae from the start. Shrimp, such as Amano shrimp, snails like mystery snails and nerite snails, and algae-eating fish like Otocinclus catfish play key roles in maintaining cleanliness and balance.
Combining these strategies can significantly reduce the need for water changes while keeping algae in check, or eliminate the need for them at all potentially. Thank you for sharing your insights and inspiring thoughtful discussion on aquascaping!
The method I use, the Father Fish method, uses a modified walstad method. Using sand you trap the nutrients in the substrate. In a 30cm cube you would do about 1/2 inch of soil and 1 1/2 - 2 inches of sand, then everything else the same. The reason is the sand creates a cap that's prevents the excess nutrients from entering the water column, allowing the water to stay pristine longer. The fish don't need the nutrients. The sand also serves the purpose of creating a sift for waste to filter through. Over time that waste replaces the lost nutrients in the soil.
This is meant to be a tank that will last 20+ years, and many people using this method have had their tanks for that long without the use of fertilizers.
Father Fish explains it decently well here.
ua-cam.com/video/DHdFIdzD6qI/v-deo.htmlsi=oZBn4qveiTN8h8T-
We also use tap water, because RO doesn't contain enough hard water minerals for the plants. We obviously use something to remove chloramines if necessary.
Good summary
Sooo many Thanks for that Father Fish link!!
It explains his understanding and success beautifully.
I’ve seen his vids before and knew he had it going on, but it wasn’t until THIS edit, did it all come together perfectly.
🫶🏻
I suppose father fish never kept any tiny little plants such as glosso, montecarlo, cuba or utricularia. If you cap soil with (nutrient deficient) sand in a layer as big as 5cm (2 inches) the plants might have died until they reached some nutrients.
@@detlefh.7090 yep, no one method is universal. The global environments being so diverse. Some organisms require boiling sulfur hydro carbons to thrive.
It appears majority of plants do well with his system
@@bdmenne
You are right, the aquarist should know the limits of each method which he cannot jump beyond using only one particular set of parameters or advice.
Congratulations here from Brazil. Everything very well? You know what would be amazing? see you riding a Dutchman (45p) and explaining each step of the process and everything that went right and wrong in a few months. Explaining everything chosen lighting, substrate and plants and external filter and the weekly progress of the aquarium. what do you think? Do you accept the challenge?
I have a similar cube setup with HOB filter and as described in the video I am NOT USING AQUA SOIL. In my case at least 20% of the water in the aquarium evaporates in 10 to 15 days due to the weather conditions, which I will top up and I stopped doing water changes, BUT occasionally I will scrape the glass and change the water. With minimal bio load it can be achievable but not in all cases
I have a tank that hasn't had its water changed for 5 months since changing the water on the first week, and the results are amazing, the plants grow lush and healthy, the fish are healthy without any disease. I only added water because it was reduced due to evaporation. That's the method I use for all the tanks I have
Hi MJ!
I'm a relative beginner, but I have some experience on the subject. I have a 30C aquarium full of slow growing plants and floating plants that I set up for CRS shrimps. A little bit of aquasoil capped with cosmetic sand. It only has an Oase BioCompact 25 internal filter.
Since I only had 2 shrimp left from a previous project, and one of them just had babies after a couple of weeks, I thought I wouldn't change the water for 1-2 weeks, so that they don't die due to the change in water parameters.
It's been several months, but since then the aquarium is in such good condition that I didn't even change the water, I just refilled the evaporated water.
At the top, sometimes a few green hairalgae appears along the glass, but it can be easily removed.
Right now this setup is working fine, but if I'm going to put some nanofish too, I'll probably need to change the water from time to time.
I think it is difficult to draw a general rule, every aquarium is different.
Thanks for the video, I learned a lot from your channel!
In my experiencie with or without water changes the best way with algea is cleaning , i don't do water changes and my scapes are iwagumis all 4 of them each with diferent plant . I dont use ferts , i don't use co2 , chihiros lighting and i have great results .
I have some aquariums and usually prefer aquasoil. I change water twice a week on new setups. once the soil has fully leeched out, I switch to root tabs and monthly waterchanges, as long as nothing strange happens like sudden problems with plants or algae growth beyond normal or strange behaving fish, shrimps or snails.
I always use bacter 100 and mironecuton and lots of plants.
I forgot to change water on a newly set up tank and all my plants melted away. I guess it was an ammonia peak and after that an insane nitrite level. It normalized after 2 full waterchanges and most plants recovered.
My precious bucephalandras had it the worst. I had to buy new ones.
I have 4 heavily planted tanks with shrimps,fish communities including kuhli loaches and otocinclus and never did a water change.The tanks are clean but I also do not overfeed with food
cool experiment MJ! I stopped doing water changes after 1 month stabilization, no issues with algae, perfect water parameters. Also, my aquasoil is capped with 1.5-2" of sand. I find capping the nutrients helps lower the algae issues at the start
If you cap your aqua soil with sand you won’t have too many nutrients in the water column, resulting in way less algae. I cap my aqua soil with sand and do very little water changes in most of my aquariums, it works great for me!
I think it boils down to two scenarios:
1. Nitrates increase every week OR you don't have RO water for top offs -> Do water changes to keep nitrates in check and water hardness stable
2. No nitrates increase every week AND access to RO water ? -> It's ok to do rare water changes or none at all; although fish hormone concentration is probably a thing... ua-cam.com/video/NOhFkvTnSHg/v-deo.html
Nice experiment, and it proves that the best algae cleaner is the owner, not the livestock
It's interesting that the plants in the no water change tank grew a little more. They also look a little greener/healthier too, although it could just look that way through the camera.
4:19 he mentioned it
What is also interesting is that the hardscape looks almost identical 😅
I have amazing success with no water changes, you need to cap the substrate with sand otherwise you're destined to fail..
Also, add a few small fish on day two (why would you wait two weeks?), do Not add any chemicals, filter material from an old tank will help, but not essential. Father Fish explains it all.
Aquasoil leaches ammonia, especially in the first two weeks. Adding fish immediately would kill them. Capping aquasoil makes it less effective but most people who adopt the "no waterchange method" are using some version of the 'Walstad method' (dirt and sand).
@@nicholasdykes3095 I understand, all my tanks have never had a water change. I said he should've capped the substrate(soil, aquasoil etc) with sand. Then you could add a small amount of fish on day two.
idk why people think they need to buy fancy things. it's our culture I guess. We only use certain fertilizer products because companies make money, we only "cycle" a tank because companies get rich selling such scam products that don't even work. Put a seeded filter in and it's instantly cycled. And this special soil, you could just make your own.. or I just use sand on it's own and my plants grow great. I used to make my own root tabs but I realized I didn't need them. and it's crazy to see there are still people who think you can never change the water even though so many people have these tanks and are pristine. and without filters too. yet another thing companies make a lot of money pushing.
A tank I’ve setup now running for 9 months no water changes. Dirted tank topped with 2 cm aquasoil. Plenty of plants and plenty of shrimps in a 40 liter tank. Fast growing plants, shrimps and snails are key
my plants grow great with sand alone. only plant ive had a problem with is swords, they need a lot of time to adjust for some reason. yes always have lots of snails.
Great experiment. Thanks MJ
Have you tried a dark start before you make no water change set ups? If you make a long dark start with no water changes the tank is cycled ready for no water changes setups. This works even for no filter & no water change setups if there is enough dirt (real earth) under/ in the nutritions layer (covered with a thin layer of sand to lock it from coming throug the soil ) to do it without filter and water changes.. Afterv the dark start if you have planted the tank. Do not add animals for several month or half a year until everything is very stable and than only add a fery few animals (if there is no filter and no water changes) ...
Love these side by side experiments that you do ❤
In freshwater tanks im not against water changes since it is an natural thing, but i avoid doing them in saltwater since its basically a waste of salt. The only reason for me to do a water change in saltwater is to remove possible toxic minerals that might accumulate from fish food.
Thank you very helpful
those snails looked cute
Very interresting. Thank you.
Personally i don't use aquasoil
I make mixe of sand crushed lava rocks and garden compost
Then i tape it with peat moss and then a sand and i get amazing result every time
Should also use a 2 additional tanks with aquasoil covered with sand to see the results, im just testing that method and it seems to work wonders in my 3rd tank, but lets see in 1 week.
this is really helpful, thank you!
have you considered "old tank syndrome"?
I'm literally in the process of setting up a tank with no water changes. Aquasoil, not capped. The tank volume is around 300 L. It's summer here, and water is a precious resource, hence the need to avoid water changes considering the large tank size. The big difference is that I did one month of dark-start.
So, the setup process was after hardscaping and putting in the substrate and filing up the tank, I left it as is for a month with the filter running with media, and ghost-feeding the tank every once in a while. In that month there was a bacterial die-off almost immediately, and a diatom bloom, but I only observed and didn't change a thing, and the tank cleared up pretty quickly. One month later tests showed that the tank was cycled, so I knew there was no excess nutrients to cause massive algae problems. Then I turned on the lights and planted it somewhat heavily. The plants ensured that the nutrients were near zero, but the lights did cause some light algae. Then I added some clean-up crew - ottos and shrimp. It's been 3 weeks since I did that, and the tank is near spotless.
Other than the one time I've cleaned the canister filter and lost that volume of water, I've never done a water change, and have only topped up the tank to compensate for evaporation losses. Near zero algae, 10-11hours light daily, no C02, pretty light bio-load still, but heavily planted. I think the big difference is that I did the dark start, which let the tank cycle before I did anything else.
Definitely needs to be done in a capped tank, the aqua soil would (or should not) not be used in a no water change system uncapped
You should do this again just capping the soil with sand and not adding co2 since that is how 99% of these tanks are done. Love the experiments
I personally do not do water changes unless there is a major issue.
When the appropriate amount of fish and plants are used, there is no need to do water changes. Every major issue I have had was due to water changes.
One of the biggest factors is fish food. If you are using flakes or pellets or anything store bought, really, you are essentially poisoning your tank.
Just stick with nature and keep your tank as natural as possible.
The positive of a nano tank being water changes only take 10 - 15 mins. You can create beautiful aquascapes without investing too much time on ongoing maintenance.
Hehe ya, i have one big size tank of 800liter water 😅, filling it half with Ro takes ages haha. Aquasoil and some sand. Light can be a trigger or to much fertilizer next to co2. Ones it runs u dont need that much of water changes if everything is stable anouch. Only cutting plants and window cleaning and so on ✌🏻
@stripypjs
Yep so true! And you can easily sell without hassle, new owner just squeezes it under his arm and off he goes. Just don't think you can make money by selling any tank unless you call yourself George Farmer. 😉
Hi MJ. I'm a big fan of you. I always ţry to keep notes on the plants you use that I really like. Do you have the name of the plant that is growing on the right side of the rock? It has a stem growing vertical from the leafs and looks like it has a flower maby coming from the top of the stem? I really like it. Also do you ever share the plants used In your builds somwhere other than in the video, similar to the links you have on what tools you use or endorse?
Hello, I would like to make a suggestion for a new test on the twinscape tanks dry start vs dark start test, to see algae control and plant health

For that particular aquarium 30x30x30 what CO2 system do you recommend or used?
I use a big CO2 canister + regulator that feeds all the tanks on the shelf. But if it's just one tank I would go for something like this amzn.to/4fr6D9J
@@MJAquascaping thanks
It was a nice sharing, my friend. Regards.
Interesting results with the types of algae that appeared.
I've found the sweet spot for no water changes starts after about 3/4 months with new aquasoil.
Before that 50% every 2 weeks seems to be enough to keep things fairly stable.
could you do a siesta duel lighting period experiment
I started a new tank in 3 weeks' dark start. After that do water changes 2 times a week and can not beat black beard for 1.5 months. Have the same problem in an older tank and it's gone after 2-3 water changes...
What is the plant called with the top ball looking ends
You overfertilized the no-water-change aquarium. Fertilized aquasoil and liquid fertilizer is overkill since no nutrient export is occurring. I’m glad that you only used RO water in the tank, not tap water.
You are both, right in that the no WC tank holds too much fertilizer (lacking water changes and using soil) and wrong since Mark did not ad any fertilizer to the water column in either tank.
@@detlefh.7090 Okay, I just assumed he did because he has a "what I used" list in the description.
If you ask 10 aquarium experts what to do, you'll get 24 answers and they will all be based on experiences they had with setups that are nothing like what you have.
It would be more helpfull (to me, at least) if they just explained what a particular thing does to the tank.
Water changes obviously carry away whatever was in the water and replace it with whatever was in the tap. If that helps for your setup then there must be something in your setup that you don't want to be in there. *THAT* is what I want to know. What is in the old water that's doing the damage? A waterchange probably also removes a lot of stuff that you don't want to get rid of and it introduces new stuff you might not want in there. What if a waterchange removes 50% of the bad stuff and replaces it with 40% other bad stuff? You'd see a 10% improvement but betting rid of 20% of the bad stuff without a waterchange would be 10% better still.
I'm not keen on changing how I run my little underwater hellscape on the off-chance that it might grow a little faster, I want a lot more testable facts.
If you have decent and stable water quality from your municipality, I don't think this is a concern, or at least it's something out of your control, unless you go with RO water and re-mineralization.
I think it boils down to two scenarios:
1. Nitrates increase every week OR you don't have RO water for top offs -> Do water changes to keep nitrates in check and water hardness stable
2. No nitrates increase every week AND access to RO water ? -> It's ok to do rare water changes or none at all; although fish hormone concentration is probably a thing... ua-cam.com/video/NOhFkvTnSHg/v-deo.html
Have you tried the hermit all in one lily pipe yet had mine months now
What's the take away from this experiment?
- doing a no wc soil based tank serves for a massive outbreak of green algae, at least during the very first couple weeks provided you are using RO water (the outcome might have been completely different with water holding minerals).
We knew this already.
-plant growth increases with nutients not only in the substrate but also in the water column which we knew already also.
Big thanks to Mark for verification.
Ending the test after 5 weeks makes the test nearly useless. The interesting part begins after…
Also, it would have been interesting to see how the tank with no water change develops when being cleaned as regularly as the other one.
This is kind of unfair. You should make that test without soil.
I have had experience with no water change tank like these and yes you got it all right MJ. Didn't use aquasoil, used some garden potting soil instead and followed master George Farmers theory of water changes! DAILY once for the first week, alternate days for the second, once after 2 days the third week and so on. In 2 months time, the tank got established and then stopped water changes! Please Keep these experiment videos coming 😊
Most people who do no water change systems don’t run co2
I just add a tiger lotus, that thing grows amazingly and is vibrant. Lots of cool plants out there that don't need co2. ... or you could run co2, it's a personal choice
I have green dust algae, I’ll try to get rid of it, but it’s back very fast. You have method. Help me plz
How about using daphnia? They will eat it all, and then your fish can eat them
definitely agree with you on the aquasoil, when I set up a dirted cube with extremely heavy planting (4 kinds of stems, dwarf sag, moss, and floaters) I blasted 2000 lumens from day 1 for 10 hours a day and the plants grew extremely fast and there was no algae in sight. I did maybe 3 water changes on that tank in the first month and the parameters stayed stabled the entire time with bladder snails keeping the glass clean of any green dust. I wish I had a drop checker in that tank at the time, im sure the levels were above blue even without injecting it.
What kind of fish are those?
Very interesting results....
I have a few observations
1. If you are not dosing the water column, aquasoil runs low on nutrients pretty fast.
2. Nitrates were a bit low probably on the right one so it got hair algae... could be Co2 also.
3. Plants love water changes and so does the livestock. Water changes are the closest way to mimic nature as there's always fresh water coming in with water flows
Nice water change
The man who enjoys water changes - MJ
Let me clarify that my fish tank is quite far from water source and drainage. So i have to bring a mop holding basket and make multiple trips up and down the stairs with said basket filled with water both trips. I have multiple tanks in my bedroom 😓
Actually I like doing wc also. But I only maintain a tiny 30L tank right now. :)
You're supposed to.. it should be a therapeutic and peaceful part of real aquascaping.
Best video
What do the cats think about this experiment?😂
Man i have one question. What you do for living?😀
hi mj aquascaping
Never clicked so fast
I like the experiment videos. I learn a lot from them.
I love your videos! But this was not helpful at all. You should let the project run for more than 6 months…that’s when you can see the real differences. It takes a while for an aquarium to stabilize and in that short period you will only see the cycling process with all its ups and downs. And, by the way, even if a person don’t do water changes…there are some maintenance to be done. Scraping algae from the glass one top off with water to compensate the water that vapors.
Thanks for a super nice UA-cam channel!
No water changes with CO2 will always be failure (and there is too much light), actually CO2 causes unhealty plant growth and eventually the tank will be collapsed...
why does there need to be an experiment for something that thousands of people already proved. if such an experiment encounters a problem, it looks bad. But what matters is experience. It's better to get advice from people who have been doing this for decades and know how to fix issues if there are any. I've made several tanks that never need water change and the water is always absolutely pristine. It is also impossible to detect ammonia no matter how long the tanks age, because of the plants, making testing a non necessity. On the other hand you could have an algae problem and water changes wouldn't fix it. There is no correlation between the two. If there is a problem in the water, there is some kind of imbalance that needs to be corrected. Usually they fix themselves in time. And such an experiment doesn't take that in to account.
Running co2 in a no water change tank? Of course alge is going to b a problem. I do change water but only about 25% a month.
sand. heard of it?
Dude! No capping layer of anything!! Ofc no water change ain't gonna work!!
You should try the Father Fish recipe for substrate!
🌿🌱💚
:)
FIRST
Early!!