Aquatasy - Dangers Of A Bare Bottom Aquarium 

That right there, Glen, is my own personal issue with bare bottom aquariums and why they aren't a good fit for me, because I am not a carved in stone kind of guy. There are times when I am pulling 24-hour shifts to finish the visual effects shots for a project, or I get a call from a production asking if I can be on a plane in four hours. A bare bottom aquarium isn't going to wait patiently for me to be available to do the proper maintenance.

You have a busy life there, but your right bare bottom tanks are not your friend in your situation. One day when your retire and put your feet up in your recliner chair in front of the fish tanks your be able to set up any tank you want. At least I hope that for myself lol.

@@Aquatasy life over enjoyment hum hum hum hope things are changing for the better with your scheduled routine of having fish & doing what you gotta do.

@Chewy Ltd It can be rough if you're not home enough to do the regular maintenance. Before I started this channel I was almost completely out of this hobby because I was working long hours on crazy, time-consuming projects as a feature film visual effects artist. I had gotten down to one ridiculously overgrown 20 gallon tank with only three fish in it. But then my schedule changed (for the better), I discovered the fish tank community on RU-vid, and I became fired up again about fishkeeping.

Can I add a tiled bottom

My pleasure, Jean! Glad you enjoyed it.

That is exactly the vibe I was going for! Happy to know you enjoyed this. Hope you'll check out the other videos on this channel. Thank you for leaving a comment. I really appreciate it!

You're welcome, Irene! Happy to hear that you enjoyed this video. Hope you'll find the other videos on this channel as interesting. I do a mix of informational videos and humorous videos about the fishkeeping hobby. Thank you so much for watching and leaving a comment. Really appreciate it!

Sorry to hear this happened to you, Mauricia, but glad that this video helped you. Yes, even people who have been in the hobby for decades like me can accidentally mess up or have disasters befall them. You're not alone. If you're in the hobby for any length of time there's a chance that tragedy may strike. We just have to learn from it and move forward. Was this recently that this happened to you or a while ago? Either way I hope it hasn't soured you on fishkeeping. It's still one of the most rewarding pastimes I know of. Blessings to you!

YES! Thank you, Daniel! You're the first person to catch that joke. Finally!

That's the way to go. Plenty of surfaces for beneficial bacteria to live on the sponges, on the plants & wood, and in the HOB filter. Good job!

A bare bottom aquarium can definitely work out well for a quarantine tank if you set it up right and stay on top of the regular maintenance (which I know you will). As others have said here in the comments, adding some additional porous media to your filter can help tremendously to provide a good home to the beneficial bacteria colony. Good to hear from you!

Precisely! Clearly your aquarium had enough places for the beneficial bacteria to grow and thrive thanks to the substrate in your tank. I am by no means stating that bare bottom aquariums are wrong. The point of the video is that a tank with substrate (and other porous surfaces) Is going to be much more forgiving than one without. Your experience perfectly illustrates that. Thanks for watching and commenting!

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.

Great! Glad this was helpful to you. Hope you'll check out the other videos on this channel.

Don't panic. If your tank has been running well for five years without substrate, then obviously you are doing something right and your tank is balanced. No need for panic.

If you are looking to keep the pH in the alkaline range, then crushed coral can be quite effective. You could scatter it on the bottom of the tank (hmmm... guess it wouldn't be "bare bottom" then) or put some in with your filter media. If you want to go the other direction and aim for a an acid low pH, then you could try adding peat to your filter media.

Jose, that is the best argument I have heard yet in favor of using a substrate!

Aquatasy thanks!

So would a empty tank with about an inch of sand work well, so that its not entirely empty but still has a good filter with the beneficial bacteria?

I'm not familiar with those two particular medications, but whatever you are doing seems to be working. And I like that you are continuing the medication even after your fish appears to be better.

Thanks, Colin! Please do. I would love to see you do a series on this topic. I've just barely scratched the surface.

Who or What, is really maintaining your tank? 1) Can be solely by water changing. 2) Can be green water, solely by unicellular algae.. 3) Can be the beneficial nitrifying bacteria via circulating filtration. 4) Can be aquatic plants growing immersed or emersed. 5) Can be any combination of the above. Each method has it's own requirements.

Thank you! Glad you enjoyed it.

Thank you. Glad you liked this video.

Thank you! It's all about finding balance, and it is often difficult to maintain that balance without substrate. With substrate in place, we are mimicking a natural environment. A tank without substrate is so far removed from nature that it is incredibly dependent upon us to do so much maintenance. I now lean more towards various layers of substrate and a heavily planted tank to take care of most of the work. I am also currently switching from canister and hang-on-back filters to small internal filters with good water flow. Glad you enjoyed this video. More new videos coming soon!

@@Aquatasy Totally agree, im more peace of mind with substrate tank because maintenance is less than bare bottom. Now i understand why some old school fish store with almost 2-3 inches of substrate without even have a filter in it😅

Precisely!

You'd probably be okay with just canister filters, but having a couple of sponge filters too never hurts.

Discus will look really nice in a planted tank, and I know the fish will appreciate the plants.

You are very kind to say that. I've been an actor since I was 10 years old. I started off in theater then moved into film, television, commercials, games, and voice-over. That's why I appear so comfortable on camera. And you've got me pegged! I am indeed a teacher, lecturer, and publc speaker. I have a lot of interests in life and a multifaceted career as a result of that. I'm also a visual effects artist (Star Wars, Jurassic Park, Marvel films, etc.), animator, game designer, stand-up comedian, genuine Dark Lord of the Sith (Google me), writer, editor, and now a RU-vidr. But I have *always* been a fish fanatic. It's the hobby that keeps me sane in the crazy, high pressure world that is the rest of my career. So happy to hear that you enjoy my videos.

Clever! Great idea. Thank you for suggesting it here in the comments.

Thank you! Glad you liked this.

That's a great question, Mitchell. If you start seeing a big spike of the ammonia levels in your tank that is a big indicator that your beneficial bacteria colony is being overtaxed or has died off. Too much ammonia and not enough bacteria can overwhelm the colony. The first and most important thing is to diagnose the cause of the ammonia spike. Sometimes, as in my case, it is a lack of proper maintenance (I was away from home too much). It could be dead fish that go undiscovered without any scavengers to consume the carcass (snails, other fish, etc.). You could have imbalances in your water chemistry (pH, GH, KH) that are the underlying issue. Or as I had happen a while back, your water supply might have traces of ammonia in it without you realizing it. We hobbyists often test our tap water for pH and water hardness, but many of us neglect to test it for ammonia or nitrites before we do a water change. If it has been a long time since your local water district cleaned the reservoir or water tower that feeds your neighborhood then ammonia and nitrites can build up. I had to call my water district about it and get someone out to test the water in person before anything was done about it.

Glad you found this video useful, Gayle. Thanks for leaving a comment!

You do realise the 5ft tank had 2 ghost koi, a platinum ogon koi, a common carp, a mirror carp and 8 goldfish over 1ft long and 2 2ft plecos. All very high producing waste. All good say you had a 5ft tank, but what you missed was it was high stocked with high waste production fish.

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.

It looks like it's just an air stone placed in there to increase surface agitation and to help with oxygenation. That's a low-tech tank. No CO2 running on it. None of the plants in there would require supplementing with CO2. The air stone is probably there more for the health of the fish than for the health of the plants. Having said that, air stones are a great way to combat "blue-green algae" (cyanobacteria). Glad you enjoyed the video!

Thanks, Floyd, I appreciate it. Fortunately yes, I have this quarantine tank up and running again with a different strategy. A video about it is already in the works.

I think you should be perfectly fine with a setup like that. With both a canister filter and a sponge filter you will have plenty of places for your beneficial bacteria colony to grow and thrive. And if you are truly concerned about it you can always add some API Quick Start (bacteria in a bottle) each time you do a major water change. If you decide to add plants you could choose species like Hornwort, Water Sprite, or floating plants such as Water Lettuce, Salvinia, or Red Root Floaters that will consume excess nutrients or nitrate in the water.

@@Aquatasy thanks for your response very helpful information yes I will be adding plants as well its just working out best way to put them in a bare bottom tank

Well, adding floating plants is easy. LOL! For rooted plants you could put them in small pots and submerge the pots.

Nice to meet you too! I'm sad that the store is closing, but so thankful it has been around for so long. Hope you enjoy the Aquatasy channel. New videos coming very soon!

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.

The fake bamboos also work great but their roots may not be a pleasant sight for a tank

If you have rocks on a bare bottom tank do you need anything to distribute the weight to avoid pressure points on the glass?

@@kenney9120 what kind of stupid question is that 🤦‍♂️

@@Jhood2k13 A stupid question based in reality my friend. I don't know if heavy rocks (Say five or six inches across maybe) on the bare glass could damage the tank or not so asking is a useful way of learning what I do not know. I saw one fish keeper who put that plastic lighting diffuser under a large rock in her hill stream tank and wondered if it was to protect the bottom of the aqurium. Let me know if you still do not understand and I will be happy to explain further. Have a nice day. :)

@@kenney9120 Common sense would tell you they wouldn't make a tank that couldn't manage the weight of a aquarium rocks hence why its called an aquarium tank 🤦‍♂️ if the tank cant even handle the weight of the water being filled to full capacity then thats not an aquarium tank please note that a full tank out weighs a rock. The only way a rock could damage the tank is if you threw the rock at the glass 🙄🤦‍♂️ again it still a stupid questio this is mere common sense.

@@Jhood2k13 Common sense would also tell you to actually read a comment before responding. Do so and you will see I asked about pressure points created by rock on glass contact when you remove the substrate, not the weight itself which has a logical limit. Again, maybe an issue and maybe not.

The tank in this video is a standard Aqueon 10 gallon tank with an Aqueon Quiet Flow hang-on-back filter and fluorescent light. If you haven't seen the make-over of this quarantine/holding tank yet, you'll find it in this video... "The Ellis Island Project" ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-jJFBc4iJti4.html

Thank you for the compliment on my video. I am glad you enjoyed it. You certainly have enough mechanical filtration running on your aquarium which not only filters out any debris floating in the water, but also provides a good home for the beneficial bacteria. So your setup seems to be excellent. If weekly water changes are expensive for you, what I would recommend is to do your water changes every two weeks instead and see how it goes. Test your aquarium water weekly to make sure that the level of nitrates are not too high. If you find that the nitrates are spiking up you can try to compensate by adding floating live plants such as dwarf water lettuce what will help absorb some of the nitrates. I did this recently on one of my aquariums and was surprised to find that the plants I added brought the nitrates down to almost zero. I hope this helps you.

@@Aquatasy thank you brother for this quick reply ok I will do that , but how much water change I should do every 2 weeks ? Thanks for your suggestions.

Most people do 25% to 30% water changes. Keep testing the water quality and observe your fish to make sure that they are remaining healthy. From what I understand, Discus need their water to be very clean so you might need to do a slightly larger water change each time. I am not an expert on Discus.

@@Aquatasy thank you very much . For your reply. I will update you what happen. Thanks

Oh, I'm incredibly cool. The coolest of the cool. LOL! In all seriousness, thank you very much for the compliment. It's odd to be thought of as "cool", but I'll take it. Growing up I was the nerdy Drama class kid who collected comic books, made weird super 8 movies, could quote every line from every Star Wars film, and kept a dozen fish tanks. But I guess being a nerd is in these days. Now I'm a professional actor & visual effects artist who has worked on comic book inspired feature films, contributed to the Star Wars franchise, and *still* has a bunch of fish tanks. The geek shall inherit the earth! I'm so glad you enjoy these videos and thank you very much for subscribing. You humble me greatly. Blessings to you, Joe.

Absolutely! A sump is an excellent choice if you want to have a large bare bottom aquarium set up. In my case, however, it was a 10 gallon tank which due to its small size is not really suited for having a sump. For larger tanks, though, that would be a great option.

Brilliant idea about using a temporary location to force oneself into remembering that a quarantine is a temporary situation. Yes, spousal scrutiny is a good motivational tool. LOL! I'm glad you caught on to the music selection. That was very deliberate on my part. I always choose the music before I begin editing and use it to set the tone and the pacing of the video. What better music for a topic like this than the blues, right? I like your way of thinking with how you set up a quarantine tank with a little bit of substrate and some rock caves. Smart. Stay tuned to see what I've done with my quarantine tank!

Thank you for the compliments. This video was definitely aimed at people like your cousin who may be novices or intermediates to the hobby of fishkeeping. I hope he has great success with his first tank. And yes, you saw a bit of the Thailand Project in this video. More to come!

Thank you very much! I'm grateful to know you enjoyed this video.

I have a couple of bare bottom tanks and they require daily maintenance. You right on point about the tank crash.👍gotta be careful or just go with substrate.

I appreciate you backing me up on this. If you have to time to do the dailt maintenance then there are many benefits to having a bare bottom aquarium. (Sadly, I do not have a schedule that allows me to do that.)

Thanks, Jack!

Yes, it's definitely a lot of maintenance to keep that many tanks running smoothly as bare bottom aquariums. If you don't want to add substrate to all those tanks you could add extra filters. Putting a sponge filter inside each of your aquariums would increase the surface area for beneficial bacteria to grow.

I have sponges in two and i also use the plastic bio corner filters the ones with the substrate on the bottom and then a piece of charcoal filter pad etc. But iv'e decided that koi/goldfish hybrids are just a dirty fish.Don't get me wrong i luv them to death and they are really smart, but messy. I just need to find a way to cycle at least 2 more of the large tanks, the other 50 gal. Right now 3 or four of the tanks are used to move them to drain the water. but there getting so big so fast i'm going to have to split them up to. and there is to much compitition for food, and they do get plenty of food. Anyway time to start doing my fish. Thanks again. Lynn

I suppose that would work, but if you want to use sponge it is probably better to simply have a sponge filter running in your bare bottom tank.

That is an excellent suggestion! Thank you!

This is what I was thinking of doing it recently. Recently I put up another new 5 gallon tank as bare bottom, but has a large plant pot full of gravels with a lot of live plants in it. I was trying to experiment how well this tank can do in terms of having enough bacteria but wanted to also add a bag of gravels as well and curious how much adding a bag of gravels can help… did you try your idea after your post?

I'm curious to know as well.

@@Thankful456 Well I had some very small plastic containers i put gravel in. I also put some super washed/boiled (multiple sessions) of sea shells in a mesh bag and some charcoal in a mesh bag in my aquarium. I also crocheted some green yarn and put it in.

@@FusionDeveloper oh wow! Thanks for the reply. Love these ideas. Never thought about crocheted yarn! Let us know how well these serve your tank… I know everyone’s tank is different ( temp, starting local water quality, what fish, etc etc but still nice to learn from any success stories with these ideas☺️)

Now that's the right way to do a bare bottom aquarium! Sounds like you have everything under control. Not everybody (including me, sadly) are so prepared and are staying on top of their regular maintenance schedule. Kudos to you!

You are correct, Christopher. So glad you brought that up. I'm actually working on follow-up video about the benefits of a bare bottom aquarium and I'm going to discuss sumps in that video.

@@Aquatasy The problem is running a basic hang on back filter with no substrate.

@@jeffk464 Agreed. Bare bottom aquariums are much better suited to canister and sponge filters. I naively thought I could let the maintenance slide a bit on a bare bottom tank the way I can sometimes with a heavily planted tank that has sustrate. Nope. Certainly not with a 10 gallon aquarium and a small HOB filter. But I am willing to admit my failures if it helps me grow and helps others to avoid similar pitfalls. Now my quarantine/holding tank is fully scaped and planted. I thought about keeping it bare bottom and switching to sponge filters, but I couldn't help myself. I love to aquascape! I was smart, though, and made it a scape that I could easier access to catch the fish when it comes time to transfer them to their permanent aquariums.

so how does a sump filter work? I run bio wheel filters. there's 2 big 350 jn each of the two 50 gallon tanks. Have to clean them out at least once a week. and as for the filter pads they have to be cleaned daily. you could never let it run for 2 weeks to a month with these fish. Don't get me wrong their great but like i said theres 52 of them and one of me.

I have a 20g long bare bottom. I run 2 aquaclear 50’s with pond matrix and pre filters. Never any issues. Getting ready to set up a 75g peacock tank bare bottom. I will be running 2 Tidal 110’s HOB’s and a sponge filter. I will be using 2 liters of pond matrix which is good for 200 Gallons of water. It can be done with any filter if set up properly. I just prefer HOB’s as I think they are easier to maintain.

Usually they will take up residence in your mechanical filter. My problem was that I overtaxed my hang-on-back filter with the number of fish I had in the tank. Had I been using a large sponge filter or a sponge filter in combination with the HOB filter, then there would have been plenty of places for the beneficial bacteria to call home and the colony would not have died off.

See, now THAT'S the way to do it! Bravo! Well done, Kevin. Not everybody, though, who sets up a bare bottom tank knows how to do it right or puts in the effort to keep it running smoothy, which is why I wanted to make this video. How long have you had the 75 gallon tank up and running?

Aquatasy I had that tank up years ago but I probably had that tank for close to 10 years up and running.

Yes, with all that you should be just fine.

Guilty as charged! What better music to use than the blues?

That's actually an excellent idea for a bare bottom quarantine tank, and yes I can see how that would provide basically "instant" cycling for you. I chose to go a completely different route with the redo of this quarantine tank. I scaped it! I know, that sounds crazy, but there is a method to my madness. You can check out the video for the quarantine tank rescape here... ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-jJFBc4iJti4.html

Glad you enjoyed this.

I suppose you could, but it is a rather costly alternative. By doing that you are literally throwing money down the drain. A better solution would be to add more filtration such as an extra sponge filter in the tank, another hang-on-back filter behind the tank, or a larger canister filter with lots of filter media for the beneficial bacteria to take up residence. Or, as another viewer suggested, you could put some pieces of lava rock in your aquarium. The porous surfaces of the lava rock can provide additional areas for the bacteria to call home.

Thank you, I agree with all your statements. Bare bottom aquariums and those with substrate both have there place in this hobby. I never meant to suggest otherwise or that one was better than the other. My goal with this video was to shine a spotlight on one aspect of keeping bare bottom aquariums that some aquarists may not be aware of. I'm very happy that you liked this video and I appreciate your comment. Got plenty more videos in the works. Stay tuned!

go ahead I am avid in listening to great videos. Just wish you pay my channel a visit that's all, nothing to it.. just a visit! How about a discussion with me " water change or filtration which of the two is more import"? let me know what you think!

I have checked out your channel and have enjoyed the videos I've seen so far. You can count me as a new subscriber. I like the idea you proposed for a video collaboration. I'm a bit tied up on a project right now, but let's talk because I would definitely like to do a video like with you in the near future.

no problem, give me a link whenever you do have time, i promise it would not be long, email me at jamaicanaquarist@gmail.com

Will do!

You are absolutely correct, and that is precisely what I recommend to people who want to go without substrate and don't want to have sponge filters showing inside the tank. Either use multiple hang-on-back filters or use a canister filter that is rated for tanks larger than yours. Unfortunately I didn't have that in this situation. Great comment. Thanks!

So glad to hear that your fish is doing well! I would recommend keeping a close eye on him for the next month because Ich can sometimes flare up again. And keep up with the frequent water changes because that will help your fish feel healthier. Thanks for the good news!

Actually even he regained hes strength he still scratches hes body on the aquirium i really want to kill it. My next step is to eradicate all this ick any new recomendation my friend? Or only raising the water temprateure to 32 degress will completely kill the ich? Is their a possibility even raising the tempretarature to 32 degrees ick can still survive and flare up again? Wow i didnt know ick is not easy to kill hehe

32C degrees may be a little too high for your flowerhorn. It would definitely kill off the Ich parasites, but it might also harm your fish. If you can get the temperature up to 30C degrees and your fish doesn't show any signs of stress then that will stop the Ich from reproducing and it will run its course and die off. Other than that, keep doing what you are doing. Your fish is responding well and the Ich will eventually be gone.

Ok thank you andrew i will try 30 degress celcius for my flowerhorn and observe also if there is a sign of stress your so informative thank you so much for your help please make more videos hehe

Gorgeous baby doll😍😘

Use pots.

Excellent suggestion.

I came down here in the comments just to post this.

He literally recommended sponge filters for barebottomed tanks at the end

I did indeed.

Ikr 🤣🤣🤣

Lava rock

Thank you, D.J.! I appreciate you watching and leaving a comment.

Glad you enjoyed this. I figure even in a bad situation (like a terrifying death trap) you have to be able to laugh a little. Thanks for the comment!

Well thank you, Mark. I really appreciate the compliments. I think bare bottom aquariums have a place in this hobby. Certainly, as you mentioned, they work well as breeding or quarantine tanks when properly maintained (which clearly I didn't do with mine). But I'm with you. Bare bottom aquariums are aesthetically boring for me. Sure, to each their own. Some people like that look and only want to concentrate on the fish themselves. Other people like purple gravel and Spongebob decorations. That's fine. Personally, I'm all about aquascaping and planted aquariums. That's what appeals to me. Bare bottom tanks can be very useful, but with this video I wanted to point out some of the potential pitfalls of them. Thank you so very much for leaving a comment and fot subscribing. I truly appreciate it. By the way, if you want to see what became of the bare bottom tank in this video, check out another video I did entitled "The Ellis Island Project". I think you might like it.

@@Aquatasy thank you for the response. I've had a chance to look at a few of your video's and love them. One thing that I get a kick out of you is in the comments. When people disagree or knock something you did, you are so damn cool and cordial with them. Even the ones that are IMOjust plain rude. You're turning out to be easily one of my favorites

I'm just being me, Mark. I'm an easygoing guy. I don't get easily flustered, certainly not by RU-vid comments. 9 times out of 10 when you respond to a negative comment with positivity it humanizes things. The viewer is no longer commenting on a video, but having a dialogue with a real person (the video creator). At that point most people change their tone. They are no longer yelling at the television, so to speak. Also if I take their negative comment and make a joke of it (often in a self-deprecating way) then the negativity is nullified and the control shifts from the hatet to me. I guess this comes from my years of doing stand-up comedy and dealing with hecklers. You never win by fighting back and insulting. You win by taking their comments, running with it, and being funnier or wittier than the heckler or hater could ever hope to be. Also, when people disagree with me in the comments I want to learn why the disagree because perhaps they have a unique perspective that could enlighten me or help other viewers. Or I want to know why they disagree because there may be extenuating circumstances that they haven't mentioned that factor into the situation for them that may not be a factor for others reading their comment. For example maybe someone leaves a comment like, "You're an idiot about bare bottom aquariums because mine has been running for five years with no problems and I don't do anything special to help the bacteria colony." After I do little probing I might find out that they have four sponge filters and a hang-on-back filter running on their tank and they are doing daily water changes, but to them that's nothing special. So that's why I am the way I am in the comments. Besides, haters are merely fans in denial. ;-)

@@Aquatasy you definitely have a way of human "hugging " with words. Love your theory. Thank you. Now get making some fish vids.🤗

@@markhaunert5029 LOL! Sir, yes, sir! (New videos are in the works as we speak...er, um...type.)

Wise advice, Kenney. If I had kept up with the maintenance like you suggested then I never would have faced catastrophe.

@@Aquatasy I commented without watching the video. The lack of surface area was one detail I had not considered and will be mindful of.

That why he said more maintenance, duh.

You are absolutely correct. In my case I was running a stock hang-on-back filter with a standard filter cartridge. If I had been able to keep up with the routine water changes and maintenance everything would have been okay. Or, as you said, if I had put different filter medium in the filter things might have been fine. Of course the main point of the video is for people to consider all these things and make sure that if you are running a bare bottom tank you have sufficient filtration and enough textural surfaces in your filter (HOB/canister/sponge/etc.) to provide a home for a large beneficial bacteria colony. And speaking of beneficial bacteria, I like your idea of collaborating together on a video about that subject. Let's talk!

Aquatasy I see your point and I'm so sorry for your losses. This is a great video though. Love the awareness you're raising. I'll message you later on the collaboration.

Sounds good!

Agreed. If set up properly, it can work out very well for goldfish as long as you have good filtration.

I tend to agree with you. I think most fish would be happier having a substrate. Some species in particular will become unnerved without a substrate in their environment. But for other species I can see why fishkeeper want to ditch the substrate in order to focus on the fish themselves. I'm happy to hear you enjoyed this video. Thanks for dropping a comment!

Try growing out juvenile discus in a tank with substrate, then tell me bare is for the benefit of the fish keeper..

Good point. I have never had discus. 💦😁❤️💦

@@lastflea6986 I have grown our hundreds of discus with substrate. To me they grow into a calmer fish with deeper bodys and stronger colours.

It all depends upon what your goals are with your aquarium, the type of fish you want to keep, whether or not you wish to grow aquatic plants (and which species), and so on. Gravel, sand, and various kinds of aqua soil are all excellent substrates depending upon the circumstances, but in order to answer your question I need some specifics from you. What type of fish or invertebrates do you want to keep? Are you looking to grow aquatic plants? How big is your aquarium? What is your experience level with the aquarium hobby? And lastly, what is your budget?

@@Aquatasy Type of fish: Guppies & Goldfish Grow aquatic plants: No Aquarium size: 12 gallons Experience level (1-10): 4😅 Budget: Below $30

Well, first of all I would not combine guppies and goldfish in the same aquarium. Guppies are tropical fish, goldfish are cool water fish. Each species has its own special set of requirements. Plus, 12 gallons is really too small of an aquarium for goldfish. They produce a tremendous amount of waste and grow much too large for a 12 gallon tank. A 20 gallon aquarium is a appropriate for one (1) goldfish. On the other hand, a 12 gallon aquarium might work well for guppies...if you keep only males. Guppies breed easily and rapidly, quickly filling up your 12 gallon tank. If you want keep males & females and breed guppies then I strongly suggest a larger aquarium or be prepared to sell off or give away a good portion of the fry produced by them. Having said all that, the best substrate for goldfish is small smooth aquarium gravel. For guppies in an unplanted tank you can use aquarium, sand, or a combination of the two. I will say, though, that guppies appreciate some sort of vegetation in their tank. Even some simple floating plants like hornwort will give fry somewhere to hide as they grow large enough not to be eaten. (Assuming you want to breed your guppies.) I hope that helps.

@@Aquatasy yeah, just this morning I know that goldfish and guppies can't be together, i just want your opinion. And your advice lift my spirit to start new tank with only guppies... i also know that i might need sand for that but, of course much more opinion, much better results.... THANKS.... now, my experience level increase: 5😅 👋👋👋👋👋👋👋👋👋👋

I hope you will post a video of your guppy aquarium when it is all set up. I would like very much to see it.

Yes, I definitely could have done more to supplement the filter media and beef it up. I was running the HOB filter with only the standard filter insert which under normal circumstances would have sufficed...had I been able to stay on top of my regular maintenance. Unfortunately this was not the case. The good bacteria all died off. Not only was the nitrate level high, but there was an ammonia spike which I did not catch soon enough to save all the fish. By the way, even if you have smooth painted rocks/gravel you'd be surprised how much good bacteria can take up residence there in the crannies between rocks.

That's very smart. If I had done that I might not have had this problem.

This is true. In fact I mentioned sponge filters at the end of the video. All those things you listed would definitely help.

You are 100% right, and if I had been smart I would have done that. I realize it now of course.

I think that's great advice. I also think sumps are very underrated. A sump would be an excellent way to go if you are setting up a bare bottom aquarium for fancy goldfish or discus.

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!

That's what I thought too. I thought all those plants would have helped keep everything in control, but alas no. It's a 10 gallon tank and it had a much bigger bioload than it may have looked like in this video. There were a lot more fish in there than you could see in the clips I showed. Plus the species of plants I had floating in that tank (anubias, java fern, cyperus helferi, etc.) aren't the best at consuming ammonia. They do so at a much slower rate than say species of hygrophila, ludwigia, water sprite, and others. (Water sprite is amazing in that sense.) Because of time-consuming projects with crazy deadlines and because of travel, I fell behind on my water changes and cleanings. If there had been a bigger filter on the tank or more porous filter medium or different plants or some sort of substrate in the tank I might have had more wiggle room like I'm accustomed to with my fully scaped & planted tanks. The problem was definitely (as we used to say when I worked in game development) "operator error". I messed up. I could be wrong though. As you said, there may have been more going on than met my eye. Thanks for chiming in and leaving a comment. I truly appreciate it. Stay tuned for the rebirth of this tank!

Yes he wants to sell stones at his aquarium shop and get you to watch his videos clever guy

How strange. I wonder what was up with the new tank to cause that sort of reaction. I'm assuming you had cycled it and had it up and running for a while before you moved your betta into it. Very peculiar. As to his behavior now that he is back in his old tank and is fighting his own reflections, this is a common occurrence among some male bettas. What is out of the ordinary is that he didn't do it before when he was in the smaller tank. It may be that he is a little upset over the multiple moves and is feeling a bit unsure of himself so he lashes out at what he thinks are intruders (his own reflections). My guess is he will calm down before too long.

@@Aquatasy You're right. I'm actually rather new to keeping fish the right way. I've been doing my homework since before I got my betta, but some of the information I was told was wrong. I didn't realize how big a difference 8 gallons could make. I just finished setting up the 10-gal tank with gravel and a load of new props that were washed thoroughly. Seeker (my fish) is fine in the old, 2-gal filter-less tank and it's like nothing bad ever happened yesterday. He's not flaring anymore, and I don't blame him for being so stressed yesterday. Still made me feel bad. I added a filter this time and am letting it run for a while before adding Seeker back. I don't think I cycled the water, and maybe I didn't need to at the time. My problem was that there was nothing to absorb the toxins nor filter them out. I used only filtered water with stress-coat mixed in and the tank had been washed out very well beforehand. There were no signs of slowness until very late on the 6th day. I have the right tools now that I didn't have then; a large new bucket, glass wiper, gravel vacuum, and a bpa-free container to transfer him from one tank to the other. I think I know what I must do, but I'm still a little nervous and unsure about certain things. For example, should I clean the slime off props, or is that beneficial so long as there's no green? How often should I take everything out of the tank for cleaning including gravel and props? I have the vacuum, so I'll be doing that and I'll be looking up tutorials on water changes, but this is one freshwater fish. I don't want to keep him in that small 2-gal tank. I'd rather do my homework right. Thanks for your time by the way. I really appreciate it.

No worries, Keena. We all start out as novices. I've been keeping fish for decades since I was a kid, and it saddens me to see how much misinformation about this hobby is still being spread as the gospel truth, especially where bettas are concerned. I'm actually working on video to bust a bunch of these long-perpetuated myths. There are two things that are very important when setting up a new aquarium: conditioning the water and cycling the tank. Water conditioning refers to the process of removing harmful substances from the tap water you use to fill your aquarium with. Water conditioners such as Seachem's Prime, Kordon's AmQuel Plus, and others remove chlorine & chloramines from the tap water and help neutralize other toxins. Cycling is the formation of a biological filter, not to be confused with a mechanical filter. Mechanical filtration such as sponge filters, hang-on-back filters, and canister filters will physically catch and filter out particles such as dirt and waste found in the water. A biological filter or "biofilter" means the establishment of a beneficial (good, helpful) bacteria colony in your aquarium. Specifically, cycling refers to the Nitrogen Cycle. Assuming we have conditioned the water, our aquariums are a perfect pristine environment when we first set them up. But once we add fish to that environment waste is produced if the form of fish poop and uneaten food. This waste begins to break down and turn into ammonia which is quite harmful and, in high enough concentrations, deadly to fish. This is where the good bacteria comes into play. An establish colony of beneficial bacteria will feed on the ammonia produced by the waste and convert it into Nitrite. Nitrite is also poisonous to fish, but the bacteria will break it down further into much less harmful Nitrate. Nitrate is easier removed by doing weekly 25% water changes. Where does the good bacteria come from? It's all around us in the air we breathe. Most people when cycle their tanks will set them up, fill them with water, condition the water, start the mechanical filtration running, and then introduce some form of ammonia for the beneficial bacteria to feed on. The most common method is to add a pinch of fish food to the tank and let it break down in the water. In recent years, companies have begun selling beneficial bacteria in a bottle that can be added to your new tank right away to jump start the process. The bacteria will take up residence in the mechanical filter, among the nooks & crannies in your gravel, and anywhere else it can. During the cycling process we test our tank water with a freshwater test kit (API produces a good one) so that we can monitor the progress of the cycle. First there will be a spike in ammonia levels. Then as the bacteria begins to feed, the ammonia readings will go down and the nitrite levels will start to go up. Once the nitrite levels drop to zero and the nitrate levels rise you know your aquarium has finished cycling. This may all sound complicated, but it's not really. Here is a good video on the subject of cycling... "Cycling A Betta Fish Tank" by Life With Pets ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-Z6v6KJaqTKU.html I also highly recommend you get a copy of David E. Boruchowitz's excellent book "The Simple Guide to Freshwater Aquariums" (2nd Edition). It's the best book I know of for learning about how to set up a healthy tank. It's available on Amazon amzn.to/2kOSAQe and also at a lot of pet stores. Hope this info helps.

@@Aquatasy Thanks, you're very helpful! Any tips on decorations? I learned too late that plastic rocks may not be better than real ones. I don't know where I got the idea that real stones could leech harmful things into the water and that the plastic ones would always be BPA-free, as well as decorations. If a store-bought plastic decoration gets chipped, does it leech toxins into the water? I want my aquarium to look cool and not like a typical natural environment, but I don't want this to be hurting my little roommate.

Not everyone wants a natural looking environment for their aquarium and that is perfectly fine. As long as it is a healthy environment for your fish and is pleasing to your eye then that's all that really matters, right? Nearly all artificial plants and other decorations sold at reputable big box chain pet stores such as PectCo ans Petsmart are going to be safe for your fish. Most decorations are made with aquarium-safe resins. Even if they break (as long as that break doesn't leave a sharp edge) they will still be safe and will not poison the water. Many rocks (certainly those sold in pet stores) are safe to use in your aquarium. The same can be said for many rocks you find in your garden or on the beach or by a lake or stream. But, as you suspected, some rocks can break down over time and change the chemistry of your tank water, raising or lowering the pH or altering the water hardness. If you would like to go scavenging for your own rocks from nature there is an easy way to test to see if a rock or stone is aquarium safe. You can buy a bottle of "pH Down" or any similar product made to lower the pH of your aquarium's water. When you find a rock you like, clean it off a bit, make sure it is dry, and pour a little of the pH Down onto the rock. If it starts to fizz or bubble that means it is a rock that will break down over time and is unsuitable for aquarium use. If the pH Down has no effect on the rock then that stone can be considered safe. Granite, quartz, obsidian, basalt, slate, flint, sandstone, petrified wood, and lava rock are generally safe to use. Anything that is brittle and has a high calcium carbonate content such as limestone should be avoided. My first fish tank as a kid had black & pink gravel (it was the 1970s), big chunks of white quartz, and a small ceramic Japanese pagoda. Over time I began to shift more towards natural looking layouts. My current passion is to create natural environments based on real locations somewhere in the world (such as the mountain streams of Montana) and then pick a particular country (such as Thailand) and use only fish, plants, and invertebrates native to that country. It's a fun challenge for me. The bottom line is that no matter how you choose to decorate your aquarium if it is fun for you and healthy for the fish then it's a success. And rest assured, whether you choose real rocks (like those I've mentioned) or artificial decorations, there shouldn't be any worries about toxins leaching into the water. You should be fine.

That is definitely true if regular maintenance is not performed. For tanks with either gravel or sand I recommend weekly thorough vacuuming during water changes. For tanks with a soil type substrate thats a little harder to do, however if that tank is heavily planted (especially with carpeting plants) it will help a lot with keeping things from becoming toxic, assuming you are still performing regular water changes and siphoning up the waste you can seen. There are also substrate additives you can use (Aqua Design Amano makes some excellent additives) to promote good root growth on plants help prevent that deadly time bomb that you mentioned from going off. Personally, I like to keep Malaysian Trumpet Snails in my aquariums because of their burrowing habits which churns the substrate and reduces the chance of it going anaerobic. Of course they breed like rabbits, but I don't mind the trade off. I agree with you though that a bare bottom aquarium is potentially safer IF it is properly maintained and filtered.

You're welcome!

I couldn't have said it any better myself. You are doing it the right way. You have main it part of your routine and lifestyle so that it isn't a chore for you. Plus you have it down to a science so that there isn't any guess work. Bravo! My issue was that I became overtaxed in my daily life and was not able to maintain my bare bottom tank the way I should have, and I foolishly thought I could let it slide a bit like I can for a fully planted aquarium with substrate. But it became too much for the little hang-on-back filter to handle and there wasn't a large enough bacteria colony so the tank crashed. If I had put a couple of sponge filters in there it would have helped until I could get back to regular maintenance schedule. Great comment!! I really appreciate it and I hope others will read what you wrote.

@@Aquatasy Thanks for the unexpected praise. I have rung the changes on filtration and finally after wasting a lot of money I landed in the sponge corner. Some fish keepers find sponge filters or Matten filters to be aesthetically objectionable. For me they are the only way to go. Best to have two in tank and squeeze sparingly once a month. No such thing as too much beneficial bacteria. Besides, once cycled one of the two may be used to cycle a second tank used as a quarantine tank or holding tank for new fish.I personally like the large cell sponges. Too fine a sponge and it gets clogged.

I completely agree with you. If I were setting up a breeding tank or a quarantine / holding tank (especially if it's bare bottom) I would go with sponge filters every time. Easy maintenance and top notch efficiency, plus they are a fraction of the cost of other kinds of filters. And like you said, if you have two running on a tank you can transfer one to a new tank and basically cycle it overnight. What's not to love about that? Of course, being a visual effects artist & animator for film and television and games, I get caught up in esthetics so my show tanks all have either HOB or canister filters so as not to draw focus away from the aquascape. But for anything other than a show tank, I'm Team Sponge from now on. I really appreciate your comments. I hope you'll stick around and comment on other videos as well.

The best thing to do when you have high nitrates is to increase the number of water changes that you are doing. Not so much the amount of water for each water change, but the frequency of them. So let's say you are doing a 25% water change once a week, try doing a 25% water change twice a week and then maybe increase that after a while to three times a week. Once you get the nitrates down to a more acceptable level (such as 10 ppm or ideally 5 ppm) then you can reduce the frequency a little bit. If you are only doing monthly water changes that might explain why the nitrates are so high. There are several reasons why high nitrate levels occur. One is not enough water changes. Another reason is overfeeding. Yet another is overstocking (too many fish). Or it may be that your filter needs to be cleaned. I hope this helps.

@@Aquatasy thanks for your answer...i have another question, if the fish waste is caught up in the filter pad, for how long it will produce nitrates? Does it keep on producing until it's cleaned or it will stop producing after a day or two? Also my filter intake is a bit high so i see fish poop on the corner every night but in the morning its completely dissolved, so i think my fishes are making it dissolve by spitting out, in that case those waste are directly injected in to the water as nitrates right? Please clarify these two questions...

Fish waste trapped by your filter pad produces ammonia which is broken down by the beneficial bacteria in your tank and converted into nitrite. The nitrite, in turn, is further broken down into nitrate. The same fish waste does not keep producing ammonia/nitrite/nitrate indefinitely, *however* each day there is new fish waste produces by your fish and it gets trapped in the filter pad and it begins the process of turning into nitrate. As long as there are fish in the tank and they are consuming food and releasing waste there is going to be more nitrates produced. This is why we do frequent water changes. Uneaten fish food also breaks down and turns into ammonia and then nitrite and the nitrate. We tend to think of filters as the solution for all of this, but that isn't truly the case. Many of us fishkeepers think of water changes as something we do to supplement filtration, but in reality it's the other way around. Filtration is something we do to supplement water changes. It took a while for that idea to sink in with me when I started in this hobby. Once we make that adjustment to our thinking are fish will benefit from it greatly. In short, water changes are more important than filtration. Having said that, it is also important to clean out our filters on a regular basis. You don't need to replace your filter pads every time. You can rinse out that pad and reuse it. HERE'S THE CATCH: Rinse it out in the old tank water that you siphoned out as part of your water change. Don't rinse the filter pad in fresh tap water because you will kill off the beneficial bacterial colony living there, which would be disastrous in a bare bottom aquarium. In answer to your second question, the fish poop that accumulates in the corners of the tank where the filter intake tube doesn't reach dissolve because of the nitrifying bacteria breaking it down. Yes, your fish probably come poking along through it as well and probably suck some of it up and spit it out, but it is the beneficial bacteria that dissolves it and eventually turns it into nitrate. Again, another reason why water changers are so important.

@@Aquatasy thank you so much for taking time to reply... It clears my doubts... i actually have a mini pond setup outside where there is zero nitrates Bcoz of all the algae and the fish grows like crazy, whereas in the tank with any nitrates present the fish don't grow well... I also realised that in the wild fish live in fresh new water every second but we trap them in old water for weeks, i have a future plan to setup a tank with automatic siphoning the cornered waste every few hours and filling with new water immediately...

@@Aquatasy hi again, i have another question related to bare bottom, i recently setup a discus tank but my tank bottom is white in colour , even if i paint the other side it'll still look white Bcoz that white is inside that bottom glass, so my tank looks so bright and my discus seems to be skittish Bcoz of bright light, is this really a problem? Will they adapt or should i put black gravel?

Good, I'm grateful to know you enjoyed this video.

You're welcome! Bare bottom aquariums can work for shrimp if you use a couple of sponge filters in them and you keep the tank properly maintained. The key to setting up a shrimp tank is to let the aquarium mature before adding the shrimp. Personally I think a tank with substrate (and plants and other natural decor) is easier for keeping shrimp, but I have seen several people successfully house their shrimp in a bare bottom aquarium.

That is an excellent strategy, Brianna. Some people can't stand the sight of even a little bit of algae, but I have no problem with it (except on the front glass). I have always looked at it as the sign of a healthy aquarium. Glad you mentioned it!

Well said! I couldn't agree more.

You are correct. It will grow on any surface, but not in the same abundance.

@@Aquatasy true that’s why god made canister filters lol

@voctorfloud9341 Amen to that! LOL!

Well, you are doing it the absolute right way. All that driftwood provides more surfaces for the beneficial bacteria to call home. And you are staying on top of those all-important water changes. Well done. By the way, you are always welcome to agree or disagree with my on any of my videos. I completely encourage viewers to express their opinions and share their experiences here on the Aquatasy channel. That's how we all learn and grow. So I hope you will continue to watch and leave comments. Blessings to you!

Good, solid advice. You are so right about that.

That would definitely do the trick!

I didn't mean to imply that number of the free fish I received were added to the tank all at once. They weren't. But you're right that a sudden increase in the bioload would cause problems in *any* tank, bare bottom or not. My problem was simply that I assumed that since I had so many plants floating in the tank that I could let my bare bottom tank slide a bit and skip a water change or two while I was out of town (admittedly longer than I had planned to be) the same way I could with my heavily planted aquariums that are fully aquascaped. It was too much for the little hang-on-back filter to handle. If there had been a sponge filter running on that tank as well things would have been much better. How big is your arowana tank and what kind of filter do you have running on it? (I love arowanas.)

@@Aquatasy ok that makes sense. Right now my Arowanais in my old 135 gallon . With a dual sump. One being very very low flow and sealed to lower gas exchange and full of matrix media. Building a 500 gallon plywood right now for his next aquarium with acrylic front. Probably going to do tile bottom with same dual sump

No matter what, I totally blew it which is why I wanted to make this video. I'm always quick to admit my mistakes in this hobby if it will help others to avoid making the same mistakes. You'll find that I also encourage people to express their opinions in the comments even if they differ from my own. That's how we learn and grow in this hobby we all love so much. Sounds to me like you've got a great setup for your arowana. Do you have videos posted of this tank?

@@Aquatasy That's how I feel always best to listen to everyone. No I have never uploaded anything to RU-vid but I have really been thinking about it lately. I was thinking about filming my whole build and maybe uploading it

I would gladly watch that. Do it! :-)

It doesn't so much depend upon the fish as it does on the fishkeeper. The whole point of this video is to remind hobbyists that if you have a bare bottom aquarium you need to really keep up with your regular maintenance routine. You can't let the water changes and clean slide. The idea is not to over tax the beneficial bacteria colony. People with busy schedules and not much free time might do better to have substrate in their tanks. Arowanas are fantastic fish. You're right, most people keep Asian Arowanas have them in bare bottom aquariums. Then again, most Arowana owner stick to a strict maintenance schedule. In answer to your question, Asian Arowanas are legal in the United States. I know several people who have them. There are definitely advantages and disadvantages to having a bare bottom aquarium. I made this video to help point out some of the possible disadvantages that fishkeepers may not have thought about. I also believe it's important that if someone like me who is sharing their knowledge and expertise needs to also be willing to share their mistakes and failures. Thank you so much for your compliments and for watching. I truly appreciate it.

Ha! I hadn't thought about that, but you are absolutely right. I love it! Thank you for that comment.

Couldn't agree with you more, Harry. I have a tendency to over-filter all my tanks. This tank didn't get the treatment it deserved. It is now though. If you haven't seen it yet, check out the video I did called "The Ellis Island Project" which details my make-over of this aquarium. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-jJFBc4iJti4.html

@@Aquatasy nice scape . So often ideas are ' either , or ' . I'm mixing bare and covered in next scape . A little left of center (3/5s) I am using a stone shore to separate a sandy planted land to the right while using a soft blue plex as the flat bare water to the left . ( it's a design in progress)

I like the sound of that! Will you be posting a video of it?

@@Aquatasy , if all goes well I may

Yes, I guess you're right. Hadn't thought of it that way.

Walstad Method works like a charm. When I dismantled my Walstad Bowl, I found life in my tank that I didn't buy.

You bring up some excellent points, especially about sponge filters being very handy during power outages. I covered that briefly in another video on "How to Care For Your Fish When the Power Goes Out". Thank you for leaving such a great comment. I hope others will see it and glean from it.