Do you need to use treatments when setting up or water changing your fish tank? 

I’m a simple man. I see a new Fish Shop Matt video, I click.

For every project there are two main areas to consider. The aesthetics and the nuts and bolts. MD brought me to you through his aesthetics. I stayed for the nuts and bolts. You two are a perfect pair for the hobby. I am entertained by MD, but I go to school when I watch you. Love both you guys. Keep it up Professor Matt!! We need your knowledge, enthusiasm, and expertise!!

Hi Matt, I left the hobby for years because I wasn’t educated enough about it and made so many mistakes. 30 years later my tank is thriving because of videos like this. I’ve never enjoyed the hobby more so thank you and keep making educational content. It helps more than you know.😊

I love your information videos. Scaping is always enjoyable to watch, but your easy to understand and logical reasoning of issues is always appreciated. Happy Holidays, hope all is well for you and yours sir.

I am one of those lucky keepers with a well. I do not add chemicals to water for water changes. Their hasn't been any need to do so. I continue to test water at least monthly or when I begin to see the rare, plant or fish issue. Another thing to monitor is storms and seasons of the year as I have found delayed changes in the water quality. Another Great video Matt

Unreal looking scape, I love this natural look

Hi Matt. I'm 60 this year and have been in the hobby for 55 years. Like you, I always use tap water conditioner and filter start. I like Tetra Aqua safe and Interpet bacteria solution. I have two aquariums one tropical with Borus Maculatus and blue jelly shrimp and one fancy goldfish aquarium. I would love more aquariums but because of my age I keep it to two. Both heavily planted with real plants. Use Tropica Specialised Fertiliser. Love the hobby! Keep up the good video so.

Brilliant as always, thank you Matt.

Great videos, always useful information. Keep them coming.

Man, you guys are so great. Of all the aqua-art RU-vidrs out there, I always return to MD and yourself. You guys give the information needed, and add support for people who just want to do what they want to do. So many other influencers will flat out say, “Don’t do this. It’s wrong” While you and MD are like, wanna throw a castle in there? Throw a f*#ing castle in there. And for all the folks who haven’t had the pleasure of meeting these two lads and are hoping they’re as nice as they seem on screen…they absolutely are. Had the privilege of meeting them at aquashella in Daytona this year, and they’re the nicest guys you could ask for. I even bypassed MD to shake Matt’s hand and said, “Let me shake the man’s hand that does all the work” both laughed and carried on with being kind. I appreciate you guys and all you do. Thank you for your supportiveness in the hobby and all the information you provide us

As a child maybe 6 to 20 I kept various small aquariums, the largest was 20 gallons I never used these. I used town water. I kept guppies, neon tetras, angel fish, gouramis, algea eaters. The only problem I had was a huge over production of snails. Did not know I was supposed to treat water. This was 55 years ago too lol😊

New to the hobby and your videos are incredibly helpful! Getting my 1st tank in the coming week.

Matt! Your mini-rant (“rant” is too strong a word - perhaps “annoyed but still calm and professional sidetrack”?) about people giving bad advice, as well as another one about something similar (bad memory, sorry) in either your last video or the one before, have been SO good! I bet a lot of folks would love to hear some honest, unfiltered opinions from someone with experience in both the online fish community and the retail in-person side of things! Maybe once a month (or whenever you got the urge) you could do like a “Matt’s Musings” type of thing, maybe pick some user questions to get the ball rolling, and just sit by a tank and opine away! You’ve proven your knowledge and have the experience to back it up, and we trust you, so it would be fun to watch AND helpful to get the real scoop on these subjects! Keep being awesome, love your content and love seeing you on MD’s channel so often at your new gig!!

Looking at videos like these makes me even happier to live where I do. Here the tap water is extremely good, and the results from water tests are online, available for anyone to read for free. We talk about that in local fish groups sometimes, that none of us use these type of treatments. People say it's a "southern Europe" type of thing 😅 Then I might not think our tap water is perfect, but by starting off a new aquarium and wait a week before putting in any inhabitants and then not doing any real water changes (just fill up when needed, I don't use a lid), it stays fine. I have both shrimps and fish known for being sensitive, and they're all doing well. And still. If someone in the pet store asks me if it's needed, I often say the same as you: "Why not?". The only time I don't is when I talk to neighbors who get the same tap water as I do.

It is good be fish keepers in Iceland we are lucky to have very clean water so we do not need any chemicals water changes greetings to you Matt from Iceland

Thanks for this very useful information!

Beautiful tank. Am lucky enough to have a spring fed well here in the northeastern USA. My water is a bit high in calcium but otherwise is great. Do test it but since using it with no treatment my tanks have actually been better balanced. It is fairly hard water so I do keep that in mind when stocking.❤

Spot on advice. I believe if you’re going to care for fish these are essential tools for the kit.

Good simple advice 👍 I don’t normally use water conditioner/ager but I’m on rainwater which is soft and has little mineral content. At the moment I’m using it though because I had to buy a load of water which means it’s full of chemicals. I would never recommend people don’t use it and totally agree with you.

Great advice 👍

For my seasoned 3ft tank, 1 year. I don't use dechlorinator anymore, while doing like 20-30% water change every 3/5months...since its planted thrs plants to help, but also if nth is wrong don't change it. Beneficial bacteria is really magical especially for newly built scapes, enable you to keep fish immediately.

In an earlier video I saw your Tetras in this tank look like my Hemigrammus rubrostriatus. They occasionally nip when they get ‘hangry’ but otherwise I like the way they hang about. 🎉

Hi Matt. Good subject for discussion. Everyone who is on mains tap water should use a dechlorinator. Water companies do change the treatments they apply to their product, and they do make mistakes (remember Camelford?). I use a water reservoir with a heater in it, and because my supply is chloraminated (found out the hard way) I use Tetra Aquasafe in fresh water because it deals with chloramine. The pH of my treated water used to be 7.6 after 24h, and I used to buffer it down to 6.5. Several months ago I noticed that the pH in my tanks was falling to below 6.0. A chat with an analyst at WW revealed that they had changed the buffer they were using, and this contained phosphate. My plants assimilated the phosphate leaving an excess of hydrogen ions which acidified the water. An algal bloom had also appeared in the reservoir, lowering the pH before I carried out my changes. I now use a phosphate removal agent and carefully monitor my water every time. I've never had to use a bacteria booster because all my filters are fully mature, and unless you are dealing with a new set-up, or consistently get ammonia or nitrite readings, there should be no need to add bacterial boosters. After all, you are removing water which should ordinarily only contain nitrate as the waste nitrogenous compound. However, I can appreciate the insecurity of some fish keepers. In my case this would be money down the drain.

Great vid

Heres an important finding i have discovered regarding about chloramines in city tap water. The part where you said to degass the new tap water is cruicial. I have done tons of water changes straight from the tap and the fish gets stressed due to the reasons you mentioned. Since last year I have bought a food grade 55 gallon blue barrel to do so for $5. Was used for organic lip balm company for glycerin. I have also found out that my local water municipal uses chloramine, so i have to treat it with a dechlorinator such as prime. In doing so it separates into ammonia and chlorine. I was reading 2 ppm ammonia or more from tap water. I have tried just degassing it for a week with dechlorinator and an airstone and it stayed 2 ppm ammonia. I have tried degassing and using zeolite to absorb the ammonia, only to converting it to 2 ppm nitrite after 1 week which is worse as theres no other chemical media removes nitrite in our hobby thats available. And can be expensive in the long run. So after multiple brainstorming ideas,factoring budget, so i tried a cycled sponge filter and that did the job converting ammonia into nitrate in just 3 days. So I have been aging my water with a cycled sponge filter for at least 1 week and refilling my barrel between water changes. I would do about 80% water change every 1 to 2 week in my 75 gallon aquarium. And fish can tell the water is cleaner and they are not stressed at all even at 80%. So test your tap water for ammonia and nitrite also. I use API test kit using tap water, cycled fish water and ro/di water for confirmation of the results. I dont heat the water up in my barrel. I have 5 koi ranging from 8 to 12 incher in size and i feed a lot and they poop alot thats why i change that much and that frequently. I have plants in my sump and canopy to help some. In the summer i use the fish water to store and water my garden in my backyard. Also bacteria booster is just a waste of money. You shouldn't need to use that product unless its a new tank or you treated the tank with antibiotic.

Nematobrycon lacortei ARE SO BEAUTIFUL OMG. I so need a decent size tank with 100+ of them. Growing up in southwestern Sweden adding dechlorinator feels strange as I never encountered it before. Now I live in northern Sweden and my tap water company don't even add chlorine, they just UV sterilize it. I've even done sourdough culture with my water straight from the tap no issue, and the chlorine I can test for is the same as it is down by the river in my village. I guess the real answer is always "if you need it then you really need it, if you don't then you don't" but if you do reasonable amounts I guess it doesn't hurt either way.

great thing to say matt i be a fish keeper for about 20 years ,the water can change in area , i under welsh water company and now severrn trent water company ,which makes it difficult to change ,now it fine i use api aqua essential or api stress coat with quick start , so it was good of to say matt

HOWDT from TEXAS Mathew !

the same thing with fert, especially those who said tht they dont use any kind of fert just fish poop and/or other stuff. the thing is newbie and inexperienced hobbyist tend to take the advice head on because of low tech, low budget and minimum effort. the thing that newbie hard to understand is aquascaping and maintaining planted tank is a lifetime process of learning

I have just found your channel after seeing you on some of MD's videos. Loved the two beginner's videos. I have also been to your shop in Wellington and can honestly say it's like visiting an actual Aquarium! Amazing amount of fish and such a delight just to wander about in. Congrats on that. I shall visit again soon. I'm looking for a bit of advice. I have been running an Aqua One AR 620 tank for a few years now but have just been given an Aqua One 230 which I am in the process of setting up. It may sound a bit of a stupid question but what is the easiest way to get water into a tank of that size without the backward and forwards with a bucket. Also, I want to get as much of the aquascaping done pre-water fill and always found a bucket can disturb a bit of what you have already done. Is there a quicker way to do this? Many thanks 🙂

Where I live now I don't need it, but in my previous home without these two products you had no chance.

Well said Matt👏👏

20 litre container - add water treatments etc then fill with water then pour in the tank is how i do it. The welfare of the fish should come before the cost of a bottle of water treatment. Thanks for the great video's as always 🤪✌️💜 p.s Loved the little rant 😂

In the UK you can download or view water analysis data sheets at your local authority website.

Love your videos buddy always a great watch. Also can you tell MD to get some Xmas Dec's in the studio lol

Ive noticed that since you started working with MD that he treats his water butt now, rather than allowing it to 'gas off'.

I´m lucky to live in The Netherlands where tap water is quite clean and doesn´t contain chlorine (it's not permitted). But I still add some water conditioner like aqua start or immunity booster just to be sure and support the fish.

He matt funny thing, In the netherlands ( holland ) we dont need all off those products because the tap water is safe for fish in the whole netherlands.

Yay! Up in time for the start🙂🐟💙 Another great vid Matt! Does accuclear bind to and remove the good bacteria you put in after a water change?

I use seachem Prime and also auto dose Aquaforest NP pro into my 900l planted Discus / South American tank. The water parameters remain very stable and it’s worth every Penny to give the fish optimum water quality.

I nearly gave up keeping fish/shrimp because everything in my tank kept dying, including plants, and I didn't know why. I was using chemicals to make my tap water safe and regularly checking my tank parameters but everything was in rage. One day I did another water change and it killed my whole tank. I looked online and checked the water company and they had made changes to the water. I didn't know what and I even tested my tap water but there was nothing weird in the readings. I swapped to bottled water (as I have a small tank), since that day have had no problems or deaths within my tank. My shrimp are thriving really well since and my plants look amazing. Is scary to think that my tap water is stated as "safe to drink".

I only use seachem safe and cichlid lake Malawi salt, not sure I see the benefits of the salt but I’d like to think it will make their life a little better

👍🏻👍🏻

So funny I saw this video! I just watched the new video and was wondering about water changes and using product for them and I saw this video!!!! I just got my first 5.5 gallon I'm going to set up for a betta! I'm excited! Where I I've there aren't many places to get aquascaping stuff so I have to collect all the bits and bobs and then build it!!!! Im wondering though if I can or should use any cleanup crew to help with algea though!?!?

Thank you for posting! How long did it take your beautiful Crypts to mature?

❤

Always used dechlorinator at every water change, just not worth the potential harm to the fish. Where I live here in the UK, our tap water is barely drinkable with all the stuff they dump in it. Once a tank is cycled though, I generally don't mess with it - consistency in water quality is more important than chasing pH, hardness values etc in my view - even (supposedly) finicky fish like discus will breed quite happily in water that is slightly on the alkaline side provided the rest of the environment is good.

Seachem Prime is the best declorinator, in my opinion. It's not the cheapest, but it's super concentrated, a bottle lasts forever. I find Seachem products in general are just a step above the brands you find in most big box aquarium shops. They all seem tied into like 3 or 4 brands that aren't necessarily the best.

Hi Matt Is there a general universal medicine that can be used in quarantine tank to treat fish, as a precautionary measure to prevent a wide range of diseases, bacterium and parasites , before introducing the fish into your expensive community tank?

I change 20% (ish) every other week (ish) and don’t put nothing in chemical wise and never had a issue, and I clean my filters in boiling water to clean them properly and NEVER had any issue

Can you explain how a bacteria booster can survive on the shelf for years and months while we are talking about basically feeding the bacteria as soon as it gets into the aquarium so it does not die off? I don't really get it! 😅

Great video mate. Btw I found your brother. He has a youtube channel called Beau of the fifth column.

I just grab any tap safe stuff I can find as it is a minefield with all the diff types out there 😮 At least I only use tap to put minerals back into the water as use RO mostly as tap is way too hard.

Hi Matt, Great video as always ! What products do you use at Maidenhead Aquatics for all your new fish arrivals to 'clean them' of all possible health issues before they are ready to sell on ?

I 100% use a declorinator. I swear by Prime, also use pure aquarium balls that i also think makes a difference.

Advice please. I am wanting to live feed and was looking at Father Fish resurrection jar to start with. But, would this introduce problems whether it’s bacteria or other pollutants. Could you do a video on live feeding perhaps? Love your content btw.

I'm new to fish keeping. I have two 29 gallon tanks with 30 fish total. I do use a decloranator. However I have never heard of the bacterial booster. I have my fish tank planted by way of the Father Fish method. Would you suggest that I still use a bacteria booster? Thanks for the good videos.

Thanks for this video. I've been using dechlrorinator but not bacteria boost on water changes, so I'm going to start using both now! I completely agree with your point about fish being living animals too (which some fishkeepers seem to somehow forget). If we're going to keep fish, I think the priority should always be giving them the best possible environment and care, just like any other animal.

Festivums are looking mint

Hi Matt Is there a general universal medicine that can be used in quarantine tank to treat fish, purely as a precautionary measure to prevent a wide range of diseases, bacterium and parasites , before introducing the new fish into your expensive and healthy community tank?

Chlorinated tapwater is against the law here in Denmark, and has been so the last 20 years. I believe that reservoir water has only been used a couple of times due to that. It’s all a thing of the past now, and the only water we have in the tap are from wells. Obviously there’s geographical diffencies in the water values. Where I live it has a Ph of 7 and a Kh of 10.

I don’t know what the water is like in England. I’m in Sydney, drinking water straight out of the tap where I am, is like drinking out of a swimming pool. Water comes out of the tap now at ph 6.7…..

How long could I go without having to do maintenace to a shrimp tank, I want to know if i could go on vacation if i have shrimp. Also great video, keep it up.👍

I live in Florida and my water out of the tap has a PH of 8 that drops to 6 over night in a tank and a gh and kh that almost do not even register on the test strips. I have been reading about adding crushed coral to my tanks to increase the gh and kh and stabilize the ph. Do you have any suggestions. I lost a few guppies within a day of getting them after cycling my tank and discovered my issue with the water. Im a noob. I have 2 to gallon tanks. Any advice from the "MAN" is greatly appreciated. Thank you.

I should add that you should take the time to look at your fish whenever you change water. Or at least test for chrorine. I made the mistake of thinking i added the water conditioner but actually did not. I immediately noticed my fish acting weird so I immediately added the conditioners. They were all fine and even are breeding now. What if I was in a hurry and didn't take the tie to look at them, turned off the lights and iscover dead fish in the morning?

I bought a small fluval tank that had been up an running for months with 7 neons, 2 chunky albino corys, lots of snails & algae off of FB marketplace for £30. First tank I’ve had as an adult. Very much a beginner and very much terrified of killing the new fish / plants that I’ve added. Any tips or advice? I would eventually like to rescape it to my own taste but… scared.

Matthew you like a man who has a multimeter around would love to see something about induced current classed as normal and if you've ever experienced that shock on a cut. Do you think the stray voltage affects fish? or any thoughts about it.

im digging the new theme music

Matt, apologies if it's been asked already/you've answered it already, but what are your thoughts when setting up a new tank, filter, media etc and using ammonia to get things right before adding fish?

Those treatment bottles are $25 - $60 in NZ lol

What about how shelf stable -or not- bacteria in a bottle is? Last time I looked into it, after a certain amount of time, you've just got dead bacteria in a bottle, so you're not really buying anything. Even the better b in a b has a short lifespan. And that's depending on the time it took for the bottle to ship, and how long it sat on the shelf. I use b in a b as a supplement for different staring of bacteria when I'm cycling, but I dose ammonia and test until I have a stable tank built up. I don't think I'd ever use it routinely. Me personally.

I always used bacteria booster after a W/C, but then I thought to myself, they bottle it then send it out to retailers where it could be sitting in a warehouse for weeks, so by the time I get it the bacteria in that bottle is probably dead, and if it isn't, it will be by the time I use the full bottle, and what is the bacteria in that bottle feeding on to stay alive anyway, That's if the bacteria in it was ever alive to begin with, coz there's no way of actually testing it to see if it's alive or not, to cut a long story short I've not used it for over 3 years and I've not had any problems with any of my tanks, Ok rant over!

Sachem prime and Goop.

A tap safe additive is a must but bacteria boost is optional, I don't use any as I don't do huge water changes in one go, eg. I did a 60% water change today but it was in fact 6 lots of 10% water changes, remove 10% of the water, add 10% fresh water to the tank and then do that another 5 more times, that way there's no big dramatic change to the water parameters but then again I was only doing a water change because the tanin levels were too high, it's not like the tank needed it for any other reason.

I always use declorinator but haven't used bacterial booster since my tank cycled.

I question the bottled bacteria products. Unless those are refrigerated, whats the guarantee that those bacteria are still alive? And most of the beneficial bacteria want want are aerobic. A closed bottle will quickly deplete oxygen so again, how do we know that they are still alive when we add them into our tanks?

nice crypts

I am lucky to have well water. I like to keep a bottle of bacteria on hand all the time, I have over cleaned my filter media a few times! lol

Will you please build a planted aqua scape, with real catfish and 200 galaxy rasbora’s?

I don't use any of the chemicals, apart from dechlorinator when I originally filled the tank 6 months ago.have multiple father fish tanks, zero water changes and have perfect water and extremely happy fish! You need to try it Matt, please!!!

What about when ypu are just doing a top

Who would add chloramines to tapwater? They are poisonous. Chloramines would form of there is amonia in the water though. Also I live in Sweden and we have among the purest tap water in the world and I have never used dechlorinators or watersafe and I haven't lost any fish because of it. I've lost fish due to aggression or amoniaspikes but not for a new setup or waterchange. But then again it's different in different parts of the world.

Hi Matt love the video ❤

I fill my tanks straight from the tap aways have never had any issues.(south west England ) good luck with being sponsored by NT labs

dechlorinate yeas, Benefiel bacteria no, just be patient.

Md friend 🍃🌿

gg

Do I need to use chemicals? There certainly are days when I feel like I do, but then I go look at the fish tank and I feel much better.

If im putting in less then 10% of the water, I don't add any declhorinators. This is for convenience reasons only. My local water company uses chrloramine. The reason is that the organic matter will neutralize the chrlorine enough. With that said, I'll still recommend you use them because there is this thing called a chlorine pulse that your local water company will do sometimes to clear out the pipes since chloramine isn't as good as chlorine in preventing biofilm build up. When i do use an dechlorinator, i use up to 5 times as much for this reason. I also just mix my own dechlorinator by buying sodium triosulphate in bulk and mix my own. This further reduces the cost to literal partial of pennies per dosage.

If you don't want to kill your tanks microflora then yes

When I taught Horticulture classes, my favorite answer was always "It depends." And if for no other reason to use those chemicals - it's like chicken soup. "It couldn't hurt." 🙂

anybody with any experience who asks that question trying to save a few pounds should not be keeping fish.

Water changes don’t remove bacteria , the bacteria isn’t free floating .

NT Labs Liquid Filter is god awful. Water clarity never clears unless water is changed & thats evem after a good few days. Probably the worst NT Lab product. Ashame as every other product is great !