A fresh look at the hobby of fish keeping from a humorous & cinematic perspective by visual effects artist, animator, actor, and comedian C. Andrew Nelson.
It's easy to overthink something like this. It looks so scary that the immediate feeling is, "I gotta take drastic action here!" Glad this video helped you.
I agree. It can be pretty awful. This is one of the reasons I have planted tanks. In a heavily planted aquarium with good water flow and water circulation, most of the fish waste will filter down into the substrate and be used as nutrients by the plants' roots. I used to be of the mindset of "I'm gonna set up this beautiful aquascape and maintain it forever," which is unrealistic. It eventually becomes a hideous mess, especially the substrate, despite our best efforts. Now I look at each scape I do as sort of a temporary art exhibit. I keep it for 9 months to a year, break it down, and start over again fresh. Thank you so much for watching and leaving a comment. New videos coming soon!
Well I have to say I really loved your video and it was so informative. After losing a goldfish I had for many years I decided to go with a tank of mostly Tetras. I have neon, red eye, Rosie minnows, black neon, two Panda Corys and one you didn't mention is Dwarf Powder Blue Gourami. Beautiful fish and interesting to watch. Thanks and i will subscribe. 14:03
I'm sorry to hear about the passing of your goldfish. I'm happy, though, that you've continued on with the hobby and are trying your hand at keeping other kinds of fish. Thank you so much for watching, leaving a comment, and subscribing. There will be new videos coming soon. I have plenty of them already shot and am working on getting them edited. Blessings to you!
I do enjoy bare-bottom tanks when it comes to maintenance. I go on work trips all the time, and I've had to adjust to ensure that my tanks can push through most small catastrophic events. For one, I keep my tanks highly understocked, and run a small pump to circulate the water. My biological filter is on the decor and rocks themselves. Even in a power outage, I don't have dying bacterial populations in my filter and substrate. My water also stays clearer in general.
See? That's the way to do it! Clearly, that wasn't how I was maintaining my tank back then. If I had been following your example, then I would never have suffered the losses that I did. I'm wiser now. Thanks for watching and commenting. I hope you'll stick around and share your thoughts on other Aquatasy videos.
LOL! You wouldn't be the first to say that! I'm sorry the music was not to your liking. I appreciate the feedback. Hopefully, you will find the music in my other Aquatasy videos to be better than this one was.
I am so sorry you feel that way about the music. Some people have said they liked it, and others share your opinion. Trust me, I have kept this in mind since this video was made and have tried to keep the music more subdued. I hope you will check out some of the other Aquatasy videos. Blessings to you.
Glass has green tint to it due to high iron. You can look for low iron glass tanks or get them custom made woth low iron glass. So it will be ultra clear. The green glass itself may not even be noticeable. If you have like a 10, 20 maybe 30 gallon tank. but I do know for a fact that when you get a 55 gallon tank starts to distort what you see and it gets really bad. It might even make you dizzy. In some instances, I get headaches if i look at my my 55 gallon tank. I was getting vertigo the first few weeks until my eyes adjusted. Because if you look at the fish and then you look slightly to your left or right. The glass gets thicker and bends light, everything warps and looks stretched, if anything your tank may have a nice depth (short width) but everylooks half the size because of the way the glass makes everything look scrunched up. Everything you see is bended so unless you're literally Looking dead straight through the glass, you'll be fine, but if you PAN around with your eyes standing from one area, you'll get dizzy Most likely, so it is not recommended. You can purchase a low iron tank. Even get it custom made but it can get expensive this one place was charging me 400 for a 55 gal tank ultra clear glass on 3 sides only. But the delivery is another 400 lol im leaving out some change i think it came out to 900 something. But if your furtunate enough to find a glass low iron tank then your fine. Acrylic will scratch and youl go crazy looking at those scratches. The viewing quality is nice but the scratches is very very high maintance. And a fish tank alreay requires alot so adding the scratches is just annoying.
Fantastic! It really is a great aquarium kit from Aqueon. My son has enjoyed having it in his room. He has since moved on from having goldfish as not long ago we did a rescape of his 36 gallon bowfront tank. Here's a link to that video for you to check out... ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-zbMVDhR1p0s.htmlsi=gisX1UiaY0LW2qr8 Glad to know you're enjoying your 36 gallon bowfront setup. If you have any videos posted of it I'd love to see it.
The costs opinion is only valid in the US. While here in UK, it's the opposite, building a glass aquarium will cost you a fortune, while acrylic it's way way cheaper and easier to build. It's 2024, people are not using glass anymore.
How interesting! I did not realize that about the UK. I assumed it was sort of 50/50 split there in popularity. I know that the Superfish aquarium kits are widely available throughout the United Kingdom and that they are glass tanks. On this side of the pond, glass aquariums still seem to be the standard. So far in my travels I have only been to one UK fish shop (video forthcoming). I'm hoping to visit more on my next trip.
@@Aquatasy sand is heavily bought by construction firms here even when not needed encase of shortages, so the demand is high driving glass price up compared to acrylic. I do wonder why they don't add a film on the acrylic much like they have for smart phones to protect fro scratches which solves the main issue
Watch Aquarium Co-Op's video he uploaded on 2/20/2024. RU-vid title "HUGE Fish Wholesaler with Millions of Shrimp, Rare Fish, & Turtles" The wholesaler's over 200 tanks all are bare bottom.
Yep, because they did it the right way. I did it the wrong way, which was the point of my video. Many people attempt to do bare bottom aquariums in a wrong manner without taking various factors into consideration. I wanted to share my mistakes, make people aware of certain aspects of having a bare bottom tank, and offer some solutions as to how to do it properly as to avoid the same fate that befell me.
That's great! Clearly they are doing things right, everything is balanced regarding filtration & bioload, and the beneficial bacteria isn't being over taxed. If I had had different filtration and/or less fish in the tank shown in this video I might not have experienced the problems I encountered. The main point of the video was to let people know how important it is to find a balance.
I am delighted and blessed to have you as a new subscriber. I've been a bit tied up the past couple of weeks, but there are new videos coming very soon (and plenty of past videos). I hope you will continue to enjoy the channel.
Thanks, man. i picked some of it off with a set of tongs, just so it isn't noticeable. i swear setting up tanks is all about trusting the process, but not too much, lol
That is so, so true! It really is about trusting the process and having patience. Believe me, after a while that white fungus will turn brown and then dissolve away. One thing I did not mention in the video us that Siamese Algae Eaters seem to find this fungus rather tasty, especially after it "ripens". I added an SAE to the tank in this video and it polished off that fungus is a short amount of time. What type of wood is in your tank's layout?
I apologize if I disappointed or offended you with the stock footage used in this video. As much as I would love to, I can't keep every species of fish and so I end having to use some footage from others (always with permission, of course). As for the connecting stock footage & images, that's there for visual interest. I assure you though that not all my videos are stock footage. Plenty of them were shot entirely be me. I hope you'll give this channel another look. Blessings to you.
I was literally in a Petsmart a week ago. My wife and I noticed ich in one of the tanks. We kindly alerted the staff, and then watched as the worker went over and starting netting the fish with notable ich cysts out. Yeah, that is how you take care of that problem on a multi-tank system. Sad.
Hello, Mr. C. Andrew Nelson! Not sure if you remember me or not, but this is Trey, formerly of Order 66 toys in north Texas. I have had the privilege of meeting you a couple of times when you came to sign for us. I was curious as to what the Episode I poster is that you can see hanging in your (presumed) office, next to the Galaxy Quest poster?! Sorry if my enquiry isn't appropriate for the Aquatasy channel comments, but what is a Star Wars nerd to do?! Anyhow, loved the video. Entertaining and funny, as always! Thanks so much for everything you do!
Of course I remember you, Trey! Nice to hear from you. Happy to know you enjoyed this video. When I was working at Industrial Light & Magic on the effects for Ep1 they gave the whole VFX crew that one-sheet poster from the film. We then proceeded to sign each other's posters. You probably wouldn't know most of the names (other than mine) except for VFX supervisor Dennis Muren. He was kind enough to sign my poster, and he was a blast to work for. Incidentally, my wife Veronica Loud also has her signature on the poster. She was a VFX photographer who shot a lot of the cloud photos that we used in the matte paintings to create the backgrounds for the ground battle on Naboo. Couldn't have finished the movie without her help. She really saved us.
@@Aquatasy Nice to hear from you, as well. That is very neat! I do, indeed, know who Dennis Muren is. I really enjoyed learning more about him in the ILM documentary that released not too long on Disney+. I have always greatly appreciated how they made the magic in the original trilogy. Not that there isn't magic in the VFX in Episode I. It is super-cool that your wife was also involved and has her signature on the poster! You know what they say about the family that VFX together...well, uh, no, no i don't, either. lol. I appreciate the response and I greatly look forward to the next Aquatasy video! Take care.
Who'd of known that Lord Vader cares so much about his fisheys?! Love the video. Great information, in a simple, straightforward manner. Hope all is well, Mr. Nelson.
"Search your feelings...you know it to be true!" LOL! Yes, even Sith lords need a hobby. I'm delighted to know that you enjoyed this video. It was a long time in the making. That straightforward manner was important. I try to do that with all my videos because it is too easy to freak out over our fish and over-complicate things. As for me, I'm doing well. I'm blessed. Hope you are too.
I have always done two weeks away without feeding without issues. Never been away longer. Trusting feeding blocks, non aquarist friends or feeding machines just scares me. Great vid🙂👍
I hear you. I think you are right. Most fish species will be okay without feeding for two weeks. In the video I broke it down so that "Long-term" was one week or more because I figured the average person would still freakout if I said that their fish would be fine for up to two weeks. Glad you liked the video. So are you, as your channel name implies, from Sweden? That is a country that I have always wanted to visit (since my great-grandparents were from Stockholm).
@@Aquatasy Yes, I am on the other side of Sweden. Gothenburg arcipelago. Been i keeping fish for 40 years, both as professional and as a hobby. Currently just keeping koi in a pond. But have started the setup for my first indoor aquarium for 10 years. 🙂👍
I don't know, Colin. Seems to be happening with a lot of channels lately. You might try turning off notifications and then turning them back on again to see if that jumpstarts things. I may not be getting all my notifications from your channel either. Hmmm...
Excellent question. White algae can grow on any surface. The fungus I profiled in this video only grows on wood. Spiderwood seems to be more prone to growing this fungus than almost any other type of aquarium wood. If you have this growing on wood in your aquarium and you decide to just leave it and let it run its course, it will start to turn brown and eventually dissolve away.
Such great advice Andrew, and I'm sure that if I am ever fortunate enough to go on a holiday I will implement them. To ease my anxiety over my aquatic darlings while I'm at work, I invested in a wifi temperature gauge for the fish room. After coaxing, cajoling and eventually bribing my kids to show me how to use it, I can check on the room temp from anywhere. I believe that Inkbird now make their controllers wifi also. Hawaii seems to be a long way to go to gawk at some chickens...
Our friend Peter is a funny guy. Seriously, though, he and his sister did see a town on one of the islands where the chickens rule the streets. That wifi temperature gauge sounds like a handy device. I may have to look into that.
@AussieAquatic "Not fitter... fetta. Not thnn. " Is it true Colin that at the cockfighs in New Zulund, the roosters perform a haka just prior to getting stuck into each other?
Excellent video. You hit on pretty much every important key point while you're away. The only thing I can add is if you live in an area with cold winter months. As another level of protection, if you are away this time of year, set your house thermostat to at least the minimum temperature needed for your tropical fish to stay safe and healthy, especially if you have many aquariums like myself. 73 degrees is safe and comfortable for all my fish here and is nearly your basic room temperature. You just need to set your house temperature for what works for your fish. Sometimes, even that second heater can fail, unfortunately.
Glad you liked the video. Been planning to make a video like this for a very long time. That's excellent advice that you offer regarding the thermostat. I did a video a while back called "How to Brave the Cold" which covered a number of ways to protect your fish during cold weather. Your tip would have been perfect for that. Perhaps I'll do an updated version of it. If yoi haven't seen that video, you can find it here... ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-LLHD5buu_dU.htmlsi=tGMUoQY3ZvkMI3yE
Amazing video! I did not ever think of the second heater and I go on weekend trips a lot. I mainly send friends over to my house in the summer because even with the heaters disconnected, sometimes the tank will overheat and i need that checked on.
Thank you for the compliment! This video was a long time in the making, believe me. A lot of people never think about running two heaters on their tanks when they go out of town. I think the immediate psychological response we all have is, "Are you crazy?? I'll overheat my tank!" But thanks to built in thermostats on aquarium heaters, that is virtually impossible unless one of those thermostats develops a mind of its own. So assuming your heaters weren't made by SkyNet your fish should be fine. It is much more likely that an aquarium heater will fail to turn on than fail to turn off, hence the idea of running dual heaters when you are away from home.
They might, but maybe not right away. If you leave the fungus alone it eventually turns brown (like overly ripened fruit) and ultimately dissolves away. I think the shrimp are most likely to eat it after it has turned brown. Your best bet if you want to let a "clean-up crew" take care of it is to use Bristlenose Plecos, Siamese Algae Eaters, or Otocinclus. Or simply let it all dissolve away on its own. It looks ugly for a bit, but after a while it will completely disappear.
