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We have been a Fish Keeping Family since the 70's and during that time we never heard of "Cyling" and other words being thrown around these days. I remember my Father making an Aquarium, letting the silicone to cure for a day. Next day he would throw in the Substrate, plant the plants and also introduce fish into it. As far as water changes are concerned, I don't ever remember him doing any, he would only top up what has evaporated. I think if water didn't mix, we would still be having the original water used in 1970. We never lost any fish to sickness and the plants always did well. These days a few greedy people have turned this beautiful hobby into a nightmare, seems we all have to be mini scientists just to keep an Aquarium. Thank You Father Fish for trying to bring back Originality to the hobby.
I followed the FF method, got me interested, then watched more videos. Set up tank. Then learned i needed a chemistry set to monitor the tank. We had garden pond in the 70's, we just put in Fairground fish and lived for years, till some bird or cat eat them. I think you can have a gut feeling if the fish or tank not happy having watched my fish for a month.
Some things dare i say seem obvious, if water cloudy, change it. If fish sipping on the surface, i change water. They seem happy enough. Plants exploded growth in tank and babies everywhere!
@@flybobbie1449I wouldn't say it's snake oil, but definitely a more involved, harder, maybe even roundabout way of doing it. We have a lacking substrate, so we need to buy a fertilizer and fertilize the water. Then we have algae due to the highly nutrient rich water, so then we need to buy another product to kill the algae. Then the algae is gone but it keeps coming back due to the nutrients in the water. We also need to keep adding fertilizer. But also, we need to keep up with water changes due to an abundance and accumulation of nutrients in the water. So we constantly keep fiddling with the tank, until we stumble upon father fish and his method. Then comes peace
Father Fish. Your way of fish keeping at my age 73 had got me back into fish keeping after devastating loss of my 3 year 20 gallon due to after hurricane around our area water company dumped tons of clorimine in our water. Even with me putting in prime I’d needed to use tons for our power had been out 5 days. I was sick of water changes being the buckets are heavy coming and going. I found your channel 2 weeks ago with your scientific method bought supplies and plants from you and Wala a 5 gallon dirted betta tank with heater and sponge filter not over feeding. No testing. Got your leaves ,wood, and soil supplement package and 5 wonderful plants. You rock Father Fish. Thank you 💕🫶🥰
New subscriber here. I just think it's amazing what you've been able to do with this channel and growing a RU-vid channel based off what you're pationate about. Looking at someone who is older and has a growing youtube channel with their own community is so good to see.
@@horsey123 I didn't, I used a soil that's organic like he said in another video. Then used black diamond and capped the soil. Then I added tons of plants,some driftwoods and rocks I found by a creek along with some leaves from the bottom of the creek. My water is so clear!
I’m about to try this with my new 55 gallon tank. Mix of emotions since I’m still newer to the hobby so I’m nervous (only been at it 1.5 years with a 10 gallon) but also so excited to try this method!!❤ thank you father fish!
Amazing... really is.. I can't believe how well my tank is doing... with Father Fish wisdom.. My plants are looking really good... At just four weeks... Thanks Father Fish for your advice.. And of course my fish are doing brilliant...🙏
I took my twin boys (6 years) to the lake and creek today and we made resurrection jars. I have a few planted tanks but I just put together my first dirt/sand FF tank tonight. I think I have the substrate too thick but we will see. Thank you, father fish 🥰
Ohhhh perfect I'm planning on doing my dirted tank build in the next couple weeks if I can find the time. Gonna be a Beauty of a 20 long. Can't wait to take the father fish challenge. 💚💚💚
I have been keeping aquariums on and off for 30 years subscribing to the commercial way of keeping too many fish in too small of a set up always fighting high nitrates. Two months ago I started up again in the hobby. I have a 10 gallon with a small Fluval canister filter and a small HOB with a Pothos plant growing out of it. Before adding fish I came across your videos... removed the gravel and set up a dirted bottom with sand topping it off. Have some plants but need more and will be adding as funds become available. I added 5 glowlight tetras a month in only feeding every three days because they are eating the little white string worms that have populated the tank. Don't know what they are. After 3 weeks my nitrates went from 10 ppm to 0 ppm. I have never had this happen without large water changes in the past. The string algae has started to back off but I like the natural look of the tank. Thank you for the information to try a new way of keeping fish.
About a year and a half ago I got my very own first aquarium. I was already influenced by some channels with the planted aquarium approach and even managed to get some of the stuff you father Fish mention in all your videos. It's a 10-11 ish gallon aquarium and while I don't have that many plants, I do have a number of them, I also have a few corydoras that have done very well on their own, a small neocaridina shrimp population and a buck load of ramshorns snails. So far I've never done any water changes and just top water off every time I feel like the water level has gotten low. I've also experiemented with not even having a filter and right now I just have the filter working to make the water flow but without any filter media. For some reason I feel like when the water flows the tank feels much more lively. Everyone seems to be happier inside it. Of the things I didn't do well is that I put gravel instead of sand, though I was considering putting sand at the beggining, though I aultimately went with gravel at the end. So after this littel rant, would you Fater fish recomment reseting mt tank and change the sand for gravel or should I leave it like so? Or could I start introducing some sand little by little to improve the small ecosystem in my aquarium? Greetings from Mexico!
Hello from Athens, Greece! Thank you so much for all this information Father Fish. I read that the lights should be on 24/7 for the first week, and we can add fish on the second day. I'm wondering if the fish will be okay being exposed to light for almost a week continiously.
I've been into aquariums now over 8 years. After resealing 2 of my aquariums I set them up with a deep sand substrate. And started 4 more. All doing well, sufficient light being the key.
How do you know they needed resealing? I'm new to all this I was going to buy a tank off Craigslist or fb market now im rethinking should I just buy a new tank?
Its hard to wrap your mind around not doing water changes over the years ive learned to do less and less for years the aquarium hobby has brainwashed us in doing weekly waterchanges maybe a conspiracy started by the water company 😂😂😂😂😂😂😂
I don't know about what y'all doing there. it's the opposite in Asia, even kids here knows not to change the water, just add to it when it evaporates. 🤣
I have haven't done water over 2 years and father fish is right what he is saying if you got algae you dont have enough plants .I recently did a water change of 10 percent plants and fish are very healthy and active so much wonderful activity its amazing
@@akali6858in South Asia, people do alot of water changes, even if you go to buy fishes on store and you will ask about how to take care of tank, the first thing they told about fish is water changing😭, literally they don't even know a slightest thing about fish and they will recommend you about changing water. It's all about playing games with people, so that they can buy lot of expensive stuff. Filters, cleaners etc etc.
When, where, do you add the buffer/ I may have missed something. I really enjoy the simplistic approach. so many other sites, groups, really amke this a bit daunting. Thank You FF!
So happy I found you today Father Fish. Ive had my 16 gallon tank for about 2.5 years. It has gravel and a huge java fern, also other plants. I have platies and mollies. 7 altogether.I want to turn it into a natural tank with sand. Can I just add sand to it. What kind is best? Do I have to clean the sand before I add it?
A note about lights for others starting this style of tank as I've seen some others comment on getting algae with the 24/7 light schedule even with a lot of plants. I did a father fish tank and started low, 6 hrs/day. After a week I bumped up to 12 hours/day. I'm 1.5 months in and I only got brown diatome algae. I added 5 amanos and 8 malaysian trumpet snails in my 29gal two weeks ago and it's all under control. I also added 8 malaysian trumpet snails around the same time. I'm probably gonna keep doing 12 hour cycles from here on out as it seems to help a lot with plants. Some of my plants died, but the vast majority are growing and doing well. I'm sure on some level it depends on the lights you're using, but it may be safer to start low with lights then amp up, or at least start out with a cleanup crew in addition to the fish he suggests as a few hard working amanos and snails won't really add to the bio load much at all. My tank is not very old but it seems very healthy and I've had no problems at all with it. I'm feeling very optimistic about its development.
I was about to write something on this topic. The thing is that a lot of plug and play aquarium setups comes with poor lights, and when I say poor I really mean it, hardly enough to grow any plant but those completely undemanding. If you have really strong lights than no matter how much plants you have if you keep them on 24/7 the results will be algae. I did my firs dirt tank 15+years ago and had great success with it. I agree with other aspects that FatherFish talk about but lightning is complex aspect and its not really explained to great detail in this method. Lightning is very complex subject and it should really be approached individually to every tank. almost 20 years ago I started with my aquarium journey and I was interested in aquascaping (still am), they had rules about watt per litter/gallon or what not, ADA was promoting insanely strong lights and high tech aquariums were very popular just like today. But thankfully I like to think things through and try them out before I commit and that insane lightning, crazy fertilizing regime, co2 pumping and 50% or more water changes weekly just seemed bit to extreme to me. Amano was deity to aquascapers at the time, and his company was selling high quality but very overpriced products and trend in that aspect of hobby became more lights, more co2 more filtration, more expensive soil, "aquarium safe driftwoods and rocks"...First thing that really got me thinking is that accepted opinion that you can't have stones in aquarium that you collected in nature because they would melt in water and raise your water hardness (most likely) but than they were selling seiryu rocks that was also raising water hardness. What about lights than, do we really need that high lightning? I had 4 t5 lights on my 5 ft tank, I turned off 2, i reduced co2 and fertilizing, reduced water changes and noticed that plants were growing nicely, just bit slower but I had less issue with algae. So I thought to myself, companies sell products, its in their interest that you buy more lights, waste a lot of fertilizers, co2, buy expensive soils that last short time (if uncapped), sell some overpriced products that do next to nothing or you can buy cheep substitute outside specialized shops... So I decided to try dirty tank (not my only tank). And it worked like a charm. But I learned a lot of things along the way. One is that lighting is the most important thing in the aquarium. If you mess up with lightning aquarium wont work. You can have any kind of aquarium, with rich substrate, inert, with capped soil, aquasoil and everything can work if you adjust lighting to that specific tank needs. For instance you can have two tanks of same size and same substrate with same lightning. One one tank that lighting will be to strong and on other will be ideal, or even not enough. It all depends on distance of light from surface, plants that you have, do you have loads of floating plants, glass lid to stop evaporation.... So my advice is decide what plants you want and than adjust lighting accordingly. We already have substrate recipe so we only need to adjust the lights. Don't overdo with lights, start lower, you can always improve it later if need be. If there is option to get dimmable lights go for it, if not you can make everything work great with T5 or t8 lightning, even with led floodlights and all sort of diy combination but you will have to experiment. I am aquascaper and I know majority people are fish keeper but maybe someone will find this wall of text or part of it useful. One more thing for aquascapers dirt method, specially for those that likes to keep tanks running for long time and not rescape them every year. If your scape is flat than dirt method is great, if your scape is very sloped, or you have lots of ridges and levels of soil, like cascades or something than dirt tank is becoming complicated to use. It is still possible but very hard to execute it properly. In that case I recommend aquasoil but capped. Capped aquasoil will work great like dirt tank its just very expensive variation.
I mean yeah for plants more light the better jist loke growing pot in veg.stage uea it's good but isn't or wouldn't this be very stressful for what's living in it, never seeing dark ,which is major an natural , day am night, i mean i would think a fish would be very messed up in the head being under light 24/7???
Hi from across the pond England. I've just got my first tank 3 weeks ago and put my first fish in 2 weeks ago, I got 6 little tetras. they told me to put gravel in the tank and keep it clean, 3 of the fish have died sadly. So I took to the Internet and found you, I saw another one of your videos about rasing the temperature to 80 I also put a few leaves in from my local stream, and the 3 remaining fish are now vary active and alive thankyou for helping me save my fish. I would like to ask if it would be safe to replace the gravel now with the mud, sand and plants then put the fish Straight back in the tank, or would I need to let the tank settle for 2 days. Again thankyou for the videos you create.
Hello Father Fish, I wished I could've made your acquaintance 40 years ago. I totally am in agreement with your theories. i have studied fish keeping my whole life and came to almost the same conclusion on this hobby throughout my own studies. I have also found that a very large percentage of people fail at fish keeping because of what these big box pet stores tell their customers how to care for and manage an aquarium.. I'm without an aquarium at the moment(at the moment the longest stretch of my life without one). But my last one was a 55 fresh. I called it a freshwater reef tank. I'm guessing it went 8 years with no water change or fish death...... I just looked at it like a fish..... There is no such thing as a fish only river , lake, or ocean.... My theory is that I wanted to create a selfsastainining environment for the animals in an aquarium.....I figured that there was no water changes in natures bodies of waters or streams..... In theory I always advised people that if you wanted a successful aquarium then you need to supply that aquarium with all the tools that nature uses to sustain life, from plants to creatures that help clean as in snails or crustations, and certain fishes that do specific duties as in khuli loaches, plecos, and catfishes. I traded plants to 3 different fish stores for other goods and fish. I almost never put food in my tanks. Food that I put in was usually when I had house guest I would sprinkle a few flakes just to get everyone in the tank out so my guest can view them ... Almost all my fish procreated which was always fantastic natural food source for the tank .... I gonna try and upload you a photo of my last tank if I can. Thanks for your inspiration. No other person in my entire life has excited me over this hobby as you have.
Hello Father Fish, I have been following you for sometime and I love your videos. I am setting up a 40 gallons dirtied tank and I am gathering the ingredients you suggested. I have got potting mix, cow manure, solid iron, calcium, baking soda, Osmocote, epson salt, bone meal. Can I use coco peat as mulch? Also I can’t find blood meal. Would that be a problem? Thank you in advance
@@FatherFish Thank you, I really appreciate your help. I just found iron oxide. One last question: I have been suggested to add Gibberellic acid to the mix, as it makes plants stronger. Should I add it? Thank you again Father Fish
Love your content look Forward to your videos daily. New subscriber , but a long time watcher.I am in the process of getting a 9 foot by 40 inch deep by 30 inch high tank which was built for a showroom fish only display , but has a sloped bottom. I wanted to know if the sloped bottom would cause a problem with the dirt entering the water column due to the slanted bottom? Also it has reduced floor area due to the slant , could i just add more than 2 inches of dirt and deeper sand cap to make up the difference in surface area ? Thanks in advance for your reply.
Good afternoon father fish, I deeply admire your work and love witho fish. If I want to make a fishpound, what's your recommendation? Is it the same process of the natural aquarium? Thank you very much. Greetings from Colombia
Just curious what your thought on lighting and plant growth. You mentioned 24/7 lighting but I believe plants need a dark time to actually grow and use the stored sugars in the leaves. When I had a hydroponic garden back 20 years ago I always had something like 18 hours on and 6 off so they could grow immensely. And that applied to all plants I was keeping in there. Or does the 24/7 light help with the root growth and that’s why you propose that to be done in the first 2-4 weeks?
Hi thanks for sharing all your knowledge. I made your deep substrate tank bought a lot of plants,but some of the stem plants did not have roots yet. These ones are just turning the sand black and dying off. Would you recommend using rooted plants for success?
Wow! That's so much better than everything else I've read! I might even be able to give my turtle a planted tank, with fish, without worrying about it! Only 1 catch: I live in LA and there's no natural, non-polluted leaf litter or pond scum anywhere (bc they have destroyed the environment here completely). Wish I was back home, in my turtle's natural range, when I lived across the street from a big lake! Maybe I need to buy a plane ticket and bring a jar 😅
So the plants never suck all the nutrients out of the dirt and u never have to replace it or use some kind of brand of root tabs??? Love the vids, channel, discord. 💯🤙🏼❤️
Hello!! My aquarium is 230 liters, waiting for your supplement to arrive soon. How much should I add to the substrate? By the way, can I use the substrate that I have been using for over a year?
Currently have a 20 gallon tank with neon tetra and guppies it's planted with gravel and drift wood. Do I need to start over with substrate how you recommend? or can I top what I have with sand? Currently tank is good condition clear water plants are growing well fish are happy.
In a brand new tank that’s still cycling, should I remove the leaves that are starting to form a fuzzy maybe mold looking layer on them? Or leave them in there? Day 2 so no fish in the tank yet, still cloudy as well.
I have a ton of questions after watching this. How much buffer do you put in? Do you need more than one? And do you mix it together with the Peet moss and soil? Also what exactly do you mean by soil? Like potting mix soil? And sand? Could this also be screened top soil? I’m not a fan of white sand I want to use a dark sand. Thanks Father Fish hope you can help. I got a few tanks off the ground with just gravel and plants but it took a while for them to get going.
I’m starting another dirted tank (collecting the dead leaves from a local pond tomorrow)! I was wondering though how you avoid scum, that bio film on the surface of the water?
Unfortunately I found your channel after I put water in the tank. My first tank, but it's not too different from the FF system. .5" aquarium soil, 2" sand. Only difference is it's a blackwater riparium. There isn't a need for a super nutrient soil. I have a few submerged plants to soak up co2 in the water, but not much. Eventually the riparium plants will dig into the substrate. I have a small sub filter for gas exchange. The riparium planters with clay balls is my major biofilter. So far it's going swimmingly.
What is the level of decomposition that we want for gathering the humus? My options are maple and oak and in great quantity. Also, any tips on figuring out the ratio when working with fallen leaves for the humic portion of the soil? It's a little difficult to tell how much is present with full sized leaves.
I have have a planted Gravel tank. I want to convert it to the Father Fish method. Im considering starting fresh because i anway have to remove all the hardscape and trim the gravel down to 1 inch, because i dont want to start off with a very high substrate. (Its currently around 2 inches of gravel). So im considering mixing the existing gravel with compost/dirt from my backyard. Then putting 2 inches of sand on top etc. Will this method work?
Why the plants die if planted into the bottom layer? What's the difference when planting non aquatic plants right into straight soil? Thank you so much for your time!
It’s too much all at once for the delicate root systems, could burn them, he mentioned in a previous video that it’s best to allow the roots the find the nutritious layer and spread down to it over time
Mostly because of o2. The roots have to adapt before reaching into the anaerobic levels but; they will search for nutrients as the plant produces hormone.
Hello,dear sir,I live in New Zealand,I would like too ship some of your supplement here,would I need too shop directly from U.S.,or do you have a closer supplier,cheers.
Hi Father Fish, I just discovered your channel a few days ago and it's amazing! I am in the process of setting up my first aquarium since I was a child. It's around 32 gallon. I have two doubts, what filter to use, and can I add decorative gravel on top of sand?
I have a 5 gallon tank that’s 10 inches tall I feel like 1 inch of soil and 2 inches of sand will be too much. Any suggestions? I’d like more room in the tank.
I believe he said it at the end. It was more for his own piece of mind than the need. All you really need to do to get an answer is to not change the water and monitor it for a time with tests. If there isn't any negative change, you can stop changing water. Water will be changed anyway though, since you have to replace water that evaporate.
If you’re adding it to a new setup absolutely no need to rinse it. Just add something like a plate or saucer to absorb the impact so as not to disturb the sand.
I try to follow the method but I have 4 large angle fishes and 18 Denison barb in a 180 gallons But I feed them everyday, question then is should I do the water change every week still and how much?
Kept my eye open for a free aquarium and I found one and it is sitting on back porch to clean. It is 30 gal, with lid. It needs a good glass clean, looks like they let the water go pretty low, it was on marketplace four minutes said on curb come get it. So, my husband did. it looks brand new other than the scale built up on the tank glass. I found a filter and heater on marketplace for $7.00 for both, and I hope to get the stand on there for $30.00. I ordered a light, a simple white light it is either on or off. Got it for 19.00. So, for all of that I spent 56. The light is for an aquarium and for plants. Just not fancy. I find I do not use the multi lights on the hex one anyway. I have soil and compost, just have to get the sand. How does your plant ship? I live in Florida, so how long would it take? I think it is a good deal the package one. May not be enough but is a good start for me.
Hello Father Fish. What about smaller aquariums than 55 gallons ? is it possible to make this style aquarium in like about 10 gallon tank for example ? should I put also 1 inch in small aquarium mix of dirt, compost and soil ? and than 2 inch of sand ? also should I clean leaves before putting in the substrate?
I do recall him giving the list of the supplements… in the last two months-- sure you can find it go on DISCORD Father Fish Shoal and ask a “shark” - they are the ones that get this system and can help. Listen on Sundays if you can… 🙃
Hello father Fish, I am a new subscriber. I have been watching your videos for a few weeks now. And I have a few questions. The first question is I am going to be upsizing from a 10 gallon which I’ve had up and running since 2018 it’s planted with Eco complete substrate and I wanted to break that down and go up to a 20 gallon my question is, can I take some of this eco-complete substrate and add it to the dirt Before I top with sand. In question number two will I be able to add my five fish that I have currently in the 10 gallon into the tank? I know that you always say add just a few fish for the first week or two.
If my tank has soil and plants lots of floating ones the water has been clear for months and my fish are living do i have to add the sand and supplement? I feel like everything is happy as is already.
Hello Sir, I'm delighted to find your work and binged a lot of your videos. I am unable to join your discord server, the link has expired, there is a setting under your discord server invite which you can set to never-expiring links. If you could please change that, I'm sure it will help a lot of people like me who are just getting started as well. Thank you for taking the time the time and efforts to bring this knowledge to us. Happy Thanksgiving!
I’m really nervous. I’m planning on starting my first dirted tank. I’ve ordered the father fish dirt supplement. The soil I plan to use is Ocean Forest organic soil and peat moss and black cow along with the supplement covered with black sand. Then I plan to heavily plant. It’s a 125 gallon tank and I hope this works and doesn’t turn acidic. Any suggestion ?? TIA
Quick question ,if someone know and can answer. The buffers to control the soil acidity, are already in the Father Fish supplement mixture or we have to add?
Hello Father Fish..i got a5 Gallon betta tank running..can i stop using the sponge filter but leave the light on for 7hours only?.my tank is clear and full of plants with snails too and one betta only.i plan to add shrimps
I'm thinking about doing a tank design with a slanted substrate. So the front of the 40 gallon tank would the normal 1"mud + 2" sand. The mud would need to be slanted so by the time I reach the back of the tank the mud might be about 5" thick with 2" sand on top. Is this okay or should I just make it flat?
