A No Cost Salt Water Tank

[@FatherFish]

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[@MichaelClark-uw7ex]

A friend of mine started a saltwater tank and used natural seawater, he ended up with all kinds of really cool and wierd stuff growing in it.

[@Greencloud8]

Ohhhhh I love it ❤!!
How often does he have to go get more seawater to add!
I am so lucky to live by the ocean 🌊

[@Greencloud8]

When I can I wanna do salt water we have plenty of space in my parents house but they won’t let me and my room is kind of no room i already have a fresh water tank and some furniture and a queen bed
I think it be so damn cool if my parents let me put salt water in the living room

[@JoeyPierce]

Did you ever do a follow-up to this tank? I'm interested to know if & how you managed to provide nutrients to the macroalgae over time? That's my problem having set-up the same tank. I couldn't find anything on discord. In the future I'd like to get corals too. I wonder how they get their nutrition in the sea.

[@kathrynwhelbourn2140]

Hi father fish, i want to thank you. I had a struggling marine tank for a few years ( i incorporated algea back then to) and i watched you set up that marine tank on the older video. You only did 1 update and had a mandarin in it. Anyway i drove 2 hours to my beach got salt water and seaweed and some rocks and put them in. 99.9% of the seaweed died as it was from the atlantic but it was a massive success i have noticed my coral had longer polyps and overall looked healthy and my new macro algea grew in stronger. I just placed a new coral order due to the results. I have more copepods than ever and i feed my clown fish once a week if that. I am now planning a 120 gallon tank using your method. I am so pleased, greatful and thankful.
Sincerely Kathryn

[@FatherFish]

Thank you for the update Kathryn. These are amazingly simple tanks to et up and maintain.

[@Michael-qw9kg]

Please keep us updated on the progress, more videos on these simple saltwater setups would be great!

[@FatherFish]

Will do!

[@ryanrogers8211]

That’s a cool little tank! I didn’t know you could do that with salt water tanks 😮

[@challenger516]

A lot of people do this with salt water tank, where have you been? LOL

[@ryanrogers8211]

@@challenger516 I was taught that to keep a saltwater tank you must be a chemist practically.

[@fieldmarshaljoe]

@@ryanrogers8211 ignore him, whoever gave you that advice: whilst not exactly correct, they’re more on track than that guy is..
Notice how he caught all the livestock in the same radius that he took the sand, water & plants.
Salinity, PH, nitrate levels etc, are all different depending where in the ocean you are. The most important factor is probably waste in this case. The bay he showed us on the map where he is collecting this habitat, has a high traffic of boats passing through, therefore lots of oil/contaminants in the water. It’s on the shoreline so other contaminants are in high concentration. If you dropped let’s say, a clown fish into this tank: I doubt it would fair too well.
Basically, any aquatic life living in the area you took the water from will do well, if you want to use natural salt water for more exotic marine life, then you would need to take a boat out to sea and get “cleaner” salt water, even then if would still be advisable to filter the water before adding to the tank.

[@ryanrogers8211]

@@fieldmarshaljoe thanks for the tips

[@fieldmarshaljoe]

@@ryanrogers8211 no worries, you could always collect a sample of water from your local beach and use some test kits to see how healthy the water is. But like I said, there will be contaminants not on your average test kits that could be harmful to your fish. Not to say it’s not do-able, but then that’s when it goes back to what your friend said “you need to be a chemist” because you will need a lot of chemicals to balance out the water, it’s just much easier to buy RODI/RO/distilled water and mix it with salt

[@sacks7448]

My wife and i always get strange looks while collecting specimens down in Daytona and Pensacola, glad to see others out there collecting just like we do. Much love father fish, learned most everything I know from you.

[@Slawsers]

That macro algae is a pretty plant, also must be really cool to catch dwarf shrimps out in the wild.

[@huldu]

I've always been terrified of keeping a saltwater tank. Growing up I heard so many things about it, how hard it was to keep and expensive, let alone the fish. It was very disheartening. You made it look so easy!

[@FatherFish]

You can do it! So simple it is stupid.

[@absolutelyunepic3072]

I felt the same way, but I started a native salt tank and that was much less expensive and difficult

[@MLR-jw5em]

What about the salt content getting too high?

[@jmc2491]

These videos you give to us will be around teaching people the right way to keep fish for decades to come. Thank you.

[@Twinkley1981]

That tank looks so natural I love it. I want to do one myself now 😊

[@hypanusamericanus9058]

The centerpiece macroalgae is Codium (likely Codium fragile), not Caulerpa. It is not as fast of a grower, but it is definitely a gorgeous species nonetheless! I have some Codium growing in my own marine aquarium under high lighting and very high nitrates/phosphates and it has developed some nice branches that my micro brittle stars love to hide within.
Edit: whoops, looks like someone already pointed out the misidentification in the comments.

[@FatherFish]

Yes! Thank you. My error. I have yet to find caulerpa in local water.. Lots of Codium, however. It is a nice algae.

[@saltwaterinmyveins]

Awesome! I did the same thing as a kid. My Dad was a shrimper so I searched the by catch for critters. A knobbed whelk killed everything within first day.

[@GlassBoxHero]

If I lived near a beach, my saltwater tank would already be complete.

[@AquaticDomain]

So inspiring. I am going to do something similar from my local pond and streams. I used to live near the ocean but we moved a few years ago. Can’t wait to see how it progresses.

[@LordDRockMusic]

Can we get an update on this tank? It seems tried and true that your methods work for freshwater, but this is the first saltwater project I've seen of yours and id LOVE to get more confirmation on how well it works, differences in care, etc. Thanks!

[@JoeyPierce]

Binned all the plastic plants in my 118 gallons tank & planted loads of live plants in the sand (no dirt underneath sadly) that I've been running for 6 years. I swear my angel fish, corys, plecos & rainbow shark are happier, they appear more active. Stopped water changes too. I'll top up the water when I clean my filters every so often. Hope I can have a complete substrate setup some day.
I'm keen to set up a saltwater tank, I can do it from the other side of the Atlantic from England 😀

[@ThatDollLoopie]

We're planning on making our own natural salt water rock pool in the garden of our house by the coast. It's a few years before we can actually do it but this video has been incredible insightful. Can't wait to see how it turns out

[@seannunes2041]

Very nice FF. Love all the macro algae, becareful of the culerpra grows like weeds. So colorful and great use of live sand and natural sea water ❤.

[@FatherFish]

Thanks for the tips sean!

[@Simplyflyit]

this is very interesting for me, i don't live anywhere near the ocean.. I live in a land of lakes...so I figured that I would use the sand, and the water to a degree, from the lakes in my area. I take samples from a few lakes and streams, so that I can assure a varied culture in the water column. I took sand from below the water line, in areas that are not well traveled. Thanks Father Fish !

[@gregoryhorn]

Nice looking forward to seeing some updates on the tank progress

[@dwarfhernandez6636]

My high school boyfriends grandmother used to live at Slaughter Beach, DE. We used to go collect grass shrimp in the reeds to sell to local aquarium shops! Lol

[@miguelroldao6939]

Just a couple of corrections for anybody watching: 1-The large macro algae is not Caulerpa. It is from the Codium genus. 2-The "killifish" seem to be a species of mullet which can grow a couple of feet and will need rehoming.

[@FatherFish]

The plant is a codium. Correct. The fish are a killie, however, not a mullet.

[@EuroGupper]

Natural, simple, and yet beautiful

[@BunzSudz]

I love that! How wonderful. I'm excited to see how it goes over the next months! Keep us posted!!

[@nhansme]

Love that little piece of nature you created 😍😍👍👍

[@JStankXPlays]

I am really enjoying watching you build these tanks!

[@kdr1048]

How fun! I never set up a saltwater aquarium but maybe in the future ❤

[@marymendez4178]

I did enjoy seen the fishtank put together, gosh a windy day and she's out gathering items. Goodbye for now, love you Fatherfish.

[@Guppy_Girl]

For anyone thinking of collecting live animals and seaweed from the beach check your state laws first. It’s not worth the fine you have to pay if you get caught.

[@FatherFish]

I do not know of a state where this is illegal.

[@Guppy_Girl]

@@FatherFish I know it is illegal to take sand and certain types of seaweeds from Florida beaches. I’m sure every state has different laws. Researching it doesn’t hurt.

[@markfranklin8831]

Oh i forgot please keep us updated on this journey. Thanks for sharing 💯💗👍✌️

[@FatherFish]

Will do!!

[@harrytruax5195]

Cool! If I knew you when I was a kid, I would have been glued by your side! Cheers!

[@LRBaquatics]

Great video! Absolutely loved this!

[@hydrostream76]

The Best
Thank you Father Fish !

[@rdred8693]

I live on Cape Cod, going to try this someday!

[@user-zc9rc9jk5s]

Very well done FF,,,,,!❤

[@jaidevsingh2913]

was waiting to see one from you and here it is. very nice one.

[@FatherFish]

Glad you liked it!

[@sammyvh11]

Totally cool tank

[@leonardbarron6967]

Wild green sailfin molly's would convert to saltwater, I have mine in a brackish tank but considering on setting up a salt water tank and move a few over to it.

[@osmanndong4879]

Thank you Father Fish !

[@Andreas-gh6is]

Some additional notes: You need reverse Osmosis water to top off the tank. Just using tap water or new ocean water will throw off the concentrations of all the elements. Of course, this tank can't sustain corals, but even the macro algae will consume some of that. Not sure how well they do with just the fish waste for fertilization. So the occasional water change with ocean water may not be the worst idea...

[@ryanrogers8211]

How could topping off with ocean water be bad?

[@Andreas-gh6is]

@@ryanrogers8211 salt doesn't evaporate... refilling with ocean water would therefor increase the salt concentration.

[@ryanrogers8211]

@@Andreas-gh6is do the plants consume any of the salt?

[@Andreas-gh6is]

@@ryanrogers8211 off the top of my hat I don't think so... at least not a lot. They probably enclose SOME salt in their tissue, and then you remove the plant matter when it grows to big eventually.... Anyway there are people on youtube popularizing macroalgae tanks, I think they have to replenish lots of things....

[@ryanrogers8211]

@@Andreas-gh6is interesting

[@tessw9744]

Hahaha I live half a block from the Atlantic ocean! Father Fish, you're killing me! Since watching you I've already started a few natural tanks in the last month. Now I feel like I gotta do this! 😆
I'd like to see an update, because I'm wondering how you would maintain the water balance and salinity, before I try.

[@FatherFish]

Go for it. Learn from your own experience.

[@tessw9744]

@@FatherFish
Once I collected 5 hermit crabs from the ocean. I put them in ocean water in a tupperware. They only lasted about 3 days before dying, even tho I had them in ocean water and sand....so that's why I'm a bit leary of doing a tank.
I watched them for hours tho. Those hermit crabs are funny fellas! They would get out of their shells and pull another crab from their shell and steal the home! 😂
But they died after a few days. If I only knew how to keep the water healthy, they would have been excellent in a tank.

[@FatherFish]

@@tessw9744 Follow our lead here. We are all about making this happen.

[@chickensyndrome1465]

I think I'll be moving out on the west coast soon, I'll definitely have to try this :D

[@Les-OZZYTHEOSCAR]

Love this as you never know what's going to turn up in there. Real interesting

[@mappsvilleboi]

Yessssss, found it!

[@markfranklin8831]

Awesome awesome awesome i love it. Im wanting to do the same thing. Thanks for sharing 💯💗👍✌️

[@andyrussell5177]

Love this guy. Just happen on his channel and ive aready gone out gotten mud rocks leaves and started a lil aquarium. I looks awesome to me

[@DawidSL407]

Wow nice, in my country it's illegal to take sand from the beach ( you need to pay for the permit) but nice tank ! And can't wait for an update with new fish

[@FatherFish]

Sand occurs in many places, not just beaches. The law is arrogant.

[@Darren4032]

Very nice tank.

[@pennypiper5857]

Thanks for sharing:)

[@BrodysBettas]

Well, you got me interested now! I'm in Hampton, VA right next to the beach, too!

[@FatherFish]

Have fun!

[@EVERYTHINGGUY226]

Nice video buddy

[@ShadowMasta]

Great informative video Father Fish. So how can you sustain a saltwater tank like freshwater since freshwater has plants to filter ammonia.

[@FatherFish]

salt water has algae and bacteria to exchange the ammonia.

[@ShadowMasta]

@@FatherFish Can you pleeaaase make another video and elaborate how one can run a saltwater tank without the need of a water change. Is its the same principle on the video “Saltwater tank from the Sea” with mindfulness of feeding, Father Fish?

[@maryglover8283]

Interesting

[@andyrussell5177]

I thought about this but wondered how I would maintain it as time went on.

[@misha-elministries5246]

Very nice . Please do some follow up videos as You know I am a marine aquarium enthusiast also . Thank you for the video .

[@FatherFish]

Will do

[@JoeyPierce]

I did this a month ago, still going strong, gobies, silver fish, not sure what they are, they look like neon tetras but silver & obviously not freshwater. And I got a baby starfish that was on the macroalgae 😊

[@Yessirrrsz]

Very cool

[@gordonissocoollike]

Caulerpa is different type of sea algae but I’m like your ideas

[@JoeyPierce]

I'm exactly the same, you have to have clownfish in a saltwater tank. I have a locally caught goby 😊

[@gerlandkent6377]

[great, finds]👍

[@totamaurice6585]

Mould and clam can clean gallons of water every day.

[@bruceevans3476]

No water changes? Just top up with collected sea water?
Awesome video.👍

[@gerlandkent6377]

[thank, you for you're video father fish this is what I would like to get in to next salt water fish. I'm on the Chesapeake bay on the virginia side and next beside the Potomac river]

[@FatherFish]

I am further up the shore, in Cambridge ,and would love to collect in and around the lower Potomac.

[@K3Y_D1SAGR33]

I did make something like this, except with less seaweed and few critters (living in the West Coast btw).

[@K3Y_D1SAGR33]

I only collect anything that is not in a marine protected area

[@danmaltby3271]

I love. Astetique FF, to be a lifeguard nearby at Fenwick Island in the summer of 1991., my son and I have four fish tanks and one to transition to a saltwater tank and you’re my guy when it comes to substrate man you like open the whole world to us so I’m checking out what to do I need to go to Belmar in New Jersey and get some actual salt water or can I do it with tapwater

[@Greencloud8]

How often do you need to return to the ocean to add water to the tank

[@MrLeavemikealone]

Nice! I haven't done a salt tank since the 80's. I lost interest when my anemone swallowed a clown fish. Nobody at the local shop believed me but, I watched it happen.

[@FatherFish]

I have had the same experience. Especially the Atlantic pink tip with its large mouth,. Baby nemos build up immunity. Fish grown in captivity have none.

[@Boogerboys1990]

Cant wait to try my FF salt water setup. Im in michigan so ill have to source everything from shops. Any tips for the substrate??? Thanks FF u are a blessing to the hobby and my life!!!!!

[@FatherFish]

live sand, about 4"

[@dltguitar6532]

an update on this tank would be great

[@FatherFish]

Sunday live stream

[@hurricanevolf7165]

If I ever do a salt water thak I want to do it like this one!

[@theamjadjamousable]

Nice , finally a saltwater tank .

[@PepeCoinMania]

you can start a tank like that and later on start buying some soft corals and put some fish if you want. you can save a lot of money if you can do it

[@LFCWATP]

Wonderful natural approach as always father fish. Does the sand not go bad tho without soil underneath in a contained tank? I remember the first tank i set up i used sand only snd it went off with a foul smell presumably cause there was no oxygen getting through it.
How often do you have to replace this salt water. Or like your natural approach to fresh water do you not change it?

[@Michael-qw9kg]

You want your deep substrate to be oxygen deprived in order to create an environment to break down nitrates.
As long as excessive food isn’t added, water shouldn’t be replaced, just topped off with RO as salinity won’t change.

[@FatherFish]

Good answers Michael. The sand is not dug up to determine if it smells.

[@oakmaiden2133]

Now I’m jelly, no beaches near me.

[@leonardbarron6967]

How about a update video, curious to see its outcome.

[@andrewderksen3342]

I was just thinking about asking you about this lol

[@Purwapada]

very nice!

[@theariumguy]

Do you do water changes on your tank? Because I would like to try 😉

[@kanedadry7642]

I’m really curious about evolution of the tank

[@FatherFish]

It is amazing to watch.

[@davidlawlor4317]

Amazing! We are blessed to live on the coastline with access to 40+ beaches within 40 mins drive. I wonder what a Belfast/ Strangford Lough saltwater aquarium would look like?

[@FatherFish]

You MUST do it and see!

[@andri7493]

what if we put some anemons or live corals ?
and what about the filtration ?

[@FatherFish]

I avoid most anemones. Deep substrate is adequate filtration. Several powerheads are critical.

[@tractorjordan4730]

Hi father fish should I do a dirt layer under the sand for my saltwater aquarium or just sand like the one in the video?

[@tractorjordan4730]

In a video from 2 years ago called “salt water simple natural easy perfect” I watched you set up two tanks both were previously freshwater aquariums. In one tank you left the dirt and sand substrate in from the previous freshwater aquarium and capped it with more sand and the other you took the substrate out entirely and replaced it with just sand. I am curious how the tank with dirt did versus the tank with just sand. Thanks for all the videos so helpful and inspiring!

[@FatherFish]

the one with soil did not do as well.The sand was live from under water in the Bay.

[@tractorjordan4730]

@@FatherFish Thank you!

[@doesnotexist6524]

I've wanted to do a combined corals + macro algae tank for a while. Are you planning to add any corals or anemones to this?

[@MARKET_GARDNERI]

Yay let's goooooo!

[@rozzer666]

About time.

[@FatherFish]

I think so too!

[@Rodrigo-xe9ij]

How will you replace the water that evaporates sir?

[@augustobh1]

Hey Father Fish. I'm setting up a 70x35x35cm tank with 1cm of dirt and 4cm of pool filter sand. The hardscape will feature guava branches and dragon stones, moderately planted. I'm thinking of putting some neocaridinas, 4 corydoras, 3 pairs of endlers and 20 rasbora galaxies, in addition to another 20 tetra neons. Will the tank support this fauna? This will be my first tank... Hugs from Brazil.

[@FatherFish]

30 gal sounds great.

[@JTTRNaturalAquarium]

Holy cow, I want to make an salt water aquarium tank. If only there a beach near ND 😅

[@FatherFish]

go north young man

[@biggusdickus2166]

im in ontario canada so this isnt an option for me. I made a natural freshwater tank populated with the local diving beetles and its doing great so far. They are like small turtle pirahnas. put an earthworm in there and they swarm.

[@JTTRNaturalAquarium]

@@FatherFish If I keep going north, I'll reach Canada in 2 hours 😅

[@Zanuvar]

When collecting at a beach please be mindful of local laws! Some places don't allow beach sand to be taken, or anything like that.

[@FatherFish]

true.
This is bay side, not subject to the same laws.

[@gerlandkent6377]

[it's, a lot of wild life from the salt water]

[@AngryMonkey227]

Don’t mind me asking is sea salt safe for crabs because I have a European green crab and I want to give it the best life but I have no experience with saltwater tanks but for now it’s just living in a tank with natural seawater so I just want to sea if sea salt is safe for them

[@absolutelyunepic3072]

I set one of these up (a 40g) and i had a lot of stuf like the seaweed die. Also I had a lot of my fish except for the killis of course, die during a really hot day. I take it that those fish can't handle high summer temps, but im still not sure exactly what did that to them.

[@FatherFish]

important to feed rarely, only live, and limit algae growth early on. Heat can be a killer.

[@katrinabond7974]

How would you top off water for evaporation? Just run and grab more ocean water? Do you think it would mess up the system if topped off with chemically treated tap?

[@FatherFish]

RO or distilled water is best.

[@marinusch]

​@@FatherFishdoes that not mess up the salinity? Or does the salt not eveporate with the water?

[@Daniele63]

@@marinusch If you try to boil salt water, what remains after the water evaporated ? Salt. Same thing here, the salt won't go anywhere once it's in

[@Daniele63]

@@FatherFish What about topping with rainwater ? I would think it's fine since that's what happens in the ocean

[@StormCaller5]

Am I understanding the science right? The evaporated water can be replaced with regular fresh water, because salt doesn't evaporate?

[@Purwapada]

RO DI water probably and some microelement dosing

[@kathrynwhelbourn2140]

Hi! Sort of I have a marine tank and I thought that but then realized the salt and nutrients get absorbed by the plants/corals as my salt concentration would stay the same with less water so I periodically have to replace mine with saltwater. I don't do a water change though I typically just add more salt water and check the salt concentration. Hope this helps..

[@FatherFish]

This is my exprience as well. Over an extended period of 50 years or so replacement with salt water would become a problem. Unless there is extensive evaporation replacement with salt water is acceptable.

[@pamelaferry1797]

Hello Father Fish I have a question about saltwater tank... my question is ... what do you use to treat well water to start your saltwater tank ?

[@FatherFish]

an RO system

[@philmarsh3024]

I don’t live near ocean. What do I do for base? Do I simply put in 6” deep sand bed for base or something different? Thanks!

[@FatherFish]

You can use a 3” sand substrate, just get the sand from above the wave line.

[@lebianitadc7572]

🎉🎉🎉

[@enkeledamolla1390]

Can u get water from e pond for fresh water tank?

[@FatherFish]

yes. absolutely.

[@enkeledamolla1390]

@FatherFish I got a pond behind my house I took your videos 1 by 1 and set up my aquarium very easy I just put the plants on a small terracota from the pond All perfect The elements for the dirt I already have it from my garden work

[@MLR-jw5em]

What about heater?

[@FatherFish]

I use them in all my tanks

[@ChrisVi25]

How could we make a stable, live saltwater aquarium without any tachnical equipment ( filter and pump)?

[@FatherFish]

Got a few vids on just that topic.

[@ChrisVi25]

@@FatherFish Thank you! Could you please send a link, cause I cannot find them.