Please forgive me if i missed anything here. I was only able to film and edit this video today. (been a BUSY week!) Here is my fan page: facebook.com/UaruJoey Here is a video where i go more in depth about rays and bare bottom tanks: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-UhGWKDI8qn8.html
+The king of DIY Thank you for your Videos!! This inspired me to enter the hobby last 2 years ago and gravitate me to get my first dicus soon!! All the love xx
I love bare bottom tanks. I have both a planted tank and 2 bare bottom. The bare bottom tanks are sooooo much cheaper to upkeep!!! And I love love love the way they look in my living room. The fish are easily visible and the tank isn't overwhelmed with decor, gravel, and plants. Very modern look that goes well with just about any room you decide to put it in.
I think some fish are smarter than others. My goldfish got depressed when it's tank mate passed away. My daughter had picked up the fish at the country fair. It even laid next it the other fish when it was dying. The last fish stopped eating and got skiddish. Had to have my daughter go get another goldfish from a friend who had the same fish from the fair to keep the remaining fish company.
love the videos man every time i try something new for my tanks i go right for your channel I've learned allot built lol and on my budget it's important i really appreciate what you do
love the vids joey. I can tell you put a lot of hard work and thought into them. their very informative and full of great tips and how 2s , I also really like your newer vids with the family....its fun watching your hobby tastes evolving over time.........keep it up king of diy
I never really had the reason of having a bare bottom tank explained to me. I love the aqua-scaped look but to be honest I personally like the large 1 fish or 2 fish tanks bare. It really emphasizes the focus on the fish and gives it more of a stage affect. Thanks for putting up this great informative video!
do you have an episode on the acrylic thickness etc? what im seeing online available local to me is maybe 1/4 inch at most. awesome channel. I am somewhat new to this hobby and you are definitely motivating me to do my own stuff.
Gravels play a very important role for the development of the beneficial bacteria colony in a fish tank which on long run does most of the job of cleaning/ detoxifying ammonia- nitrite . For bare bottom aquarium it's mostly depends on the fish keeper to do more frequent and regular water changes where as with a highly built beneficial bacteria colony with all those gravels the aquarium does most of the work itself.
I’ve had a bare bottom tank for 2 years and only do a water change when I need to put water bakk in the tank You don’t have to do a lot of Water changes
You are awesome dude. Just starting a new 520 L tank and want Ray's. Bare bottom, you've given me a lot to think about. Building my sump thanks to you and am very pleased with it so far. Keep up the good work.
I just switched to a bear bottom. I have a 55 gal, tank and I can’t keep up with it. Everything was getting out of control. So I broke it down and started from scratch. Much easier to maintain now. The fish didn’t complain about it yet lol.
I have bare bottom aquariums. They are soooooooo much easier to maintain. I started out with black sand bottoms. They always housed extensive amounts of fish feces and extra food that would dissolve into the water leading to poor water quality. Since I switched to bare bottom tanks, it's been 100 times easier to maintain.
Joey I have a question hopefully you can answer, my favorite fish is a Colombian Catfish. The minute I saw it in Walmart I fell in love with it so I decided to do a research about the fish. I cannot conclude if I should put one in a complete salt water or a brackish water tank, I would love if you could answer this question and help me clarify as I love how these fish look
Great video , and I totally agree. I do it for the main reason of less maintenance . That's really a matter of opinion on which looks better. Personally I do not think it looks better at all and I had gravel for years in my tanks. I got tired of the vacuuming and it just doesn't look nearly as good as the years go by . I got gravel because that's what people do when they first get a tank , when I would be interested in doing is putting flooring in possibly. I think it looks great regardless. I do decorate it . You also have more room in the tank gravel takes up a lot of volume.
Hi I have malawi cichlids in a 5ft tank I'm about to purchase a 8ft I love the black back and sides with the dark tiles is this something I can do with these fish I do have the ocean rock witch I can use as well just want to know if this or the tile aquarium will work with them as I know they like digging let me k ow thank you
hi I currently stock 1 Oscar and a severum but I'm thinking about moving them on so I can start with discus what would u suggest me doing with tank keep it running after theve gone or scrub the tank clean ready for discus how would you do it and i might go bare bottom tank can you get back to me pls.
I just put my betta in a ten gallon tank recently with a filter and heater. I made sure the filter is above the water enough to agitate the water like a waterfall so that the surface stays moving. The bottom of the tank is lightly strewn with glass beads of mixed colors so that the bottom of the glass tank shows through. I really like the look of it being like a mirror on the bottom peeking through gems. I find it mysterious actually. It was done by accident because of how they move easily around sliding on the bottom and because I just didn't have the right amount to cover the bottom completely. Then there's the decorative items because kids lol. Not a lot but we have a sunken ship, Spongebob himself and his home, a shark, and a diver looking at a treasure chest. I might take out a couple items though because even that's too much. He's real happy coming from a temporary three gallon I had him in and then finally into a ten gallon now with lots of stuff to look at. I'm so proud because I really wanted to do better by him. He's a pleasant fish and I appreciate his company in my home. It's the least I can do to give back lol.
Hi Joey, have you ever thought about giving the bottoms of your tanks a background like on the back of a tank? Blue, frosted, some attempt at making a sand-look or whatnot? Seems like it might look really cool, while retaining the benefits of the bare bottom.
From a purely tank husbandry standpoint bare bottom is superior (Unless you have fish that forage) because dirt cannot build up. One video complained about your tank looking dirty and having to work harder, but the dirt is always there,,,you just can't ignore it now,,out of sight out of mind. You can siphon out all of the debris and use a magnetic algae scraper to prevent build up like with the sides. As far as appearance goes you can spray paint the bottom, use ceramic tile or even use a sheet that looks like gravel
Great video! A bare bottom tank sounds very appealing due to maintenance. Everything in my aquarium is currently covered in brown algae. How will removing the decorations and the substrate affect the biofilter? I have a hob filter.
I have a black piranha and was going to keep the bottom bare because easier to clean. Should I keep the whole tank empty tho? Like no plants, bog wood, decorations etc.
All I needed to know it’s OK if it’s OK to make a bare bottom aquarium because I’m planning on getting a gram just for Molly and I feel like it would just be easier to clean the tank if it was bare bottom and now I know it’s OK that’s all I need to know
Reasons for me in keeping a bare bottom tank is due to the fish I keep, Goldfish, as they are very messy. Maintenance is a snap as others have mentioned. Hospital / Quarantine tanks should never have any substrate as it provides cover for any diseases that the fish is carrying. And then there is the time spent sanitizing it after use. The fewer stuff to clean, the better.
I have sea sand in mine that I washed over 10 times looks like the sea but in my fry tenk nothing but two plants to hide in but love bear bottom tenks because you can see where all the dirt lies and clean it more effectively then with gravel it also scratches the glass
So Im keeping smaller, MUCH smaller tanks then youself because Im not good at building, but Ive heard that nitrites/nitrates get higher in bare bottom tanks because there is more bacteria in substrated tank for the N cycle. Like you could probably go longer without water changes if you have substrate. Now Ive just got guppies/BN plecos breeding, and im curious to your thought.
I went bare bottom but I painted under the bottom of the glass with very light beige and created a spackle effect so now it looks like there is sand at the bottom of the tank . I do miss the mirror effect .
can my medium size goldfish live healthy in a bare bottom 2ft tank ? a have a huge sponge filter and some plastic plants and an airstone blowing decent amount of bubbles
I think that bare bottom tanks are clean classy and puts the focus on the fish. Aside from a planted, flooded forest tanks, and African cichlid tanks, bare is the way to go
Hey joey have you ever seen a 3D background on the floor of the aquarium. Because that’s what I’m getting ready to do. A thin universal rocks background on the floor and a rock wall on the back. What do you think?👍🏼👍🏼
I've never seen a bare bottom tank I liked until I saw your arowana tank-great minimalist aesthetic, everything is black except the fish. Can't see the edges or corners or anything behind the tank... it's great! I'd be temped to do similar one for discus if I had the space.
I guess for me, it all depends on the tank. I've seen a handful of Asian arowanas in my time, and every single one of them has been in a big, open, empty, bare-bottomed tank. I think they'd look odd in anything else. Big showy cichlids, like flowerhorns as an example, just destroy aquascaping anyway, and it's not really worth it to invest the time in painstakingly scaping it just to have some big lumbering oscar wreck it all. But for fish like angels, discus, and dwarf cichlids(because at heart, I am a South American cichlid guy), I like seeing some aquascaping. I want to see the shy little Apistogramma species spying on me through some plants, or the Crenicichla making his home under that piece of driftwood. The only species of fish I have any interest at all in keeping that I'm on the fence about is freshwater rays. I really appreciate the ease of cleaning that comes with bare bottoms, but because my eye would be drawn to the bottom anyway and watching rays flit about in the sand is so interesting, I think I would get more enjoyment out of keeping them on a bed of soft sand, maybe with a few large rounded boulders for interest.
Hello, So I was recently watching a youtube video of a breeder using 55 gallon food grade barrels as grow out tanks for his juvenile African Cichlids. He had quite a few of these on a central filtration system. What are the downsides to this? Could food safe barrels be used as isolation or medical tanks?
+Lazarus Gaming I think they could be great for medical isolation tanks. the sides aren't clear, so its more relaxing to the fish, its plenty big so if multiple fish have the same disease, you would have no issues hospitalizing therm in the same barrel. my only suggestion is to keep filtration isolated to one barrel, as to not spread disease from barrel to barrel.
Job well done Joey, I watch your videos all the time and I guess I never actually realized that you were bare bottomed all of that time. I guess you are keeping better stock than I am. I usually have something in the tank, just to help the beneficial bacteria have a home other than a filter. I've had to many filter failures to risk crashing a tank.
This was the truth you preached here Joey. I just transitioned from a Dirted Planted Aquarium to a bare bottom, and I am LOVING it!!! My filters are almost always clean, water changes and maintenance are a breeze, and my discus can reach all the food that falls to the bottom of the tank. They couldn't do that before with the carpeting dwarf sag I had. I think all my discus set ups are now destined to be bare bottom, however, I may keep 1 display planted tank. Great video on a touchy subject Joey
Italian Supreme I started off with a planted discus tank, with much success, but lately I just got bored of it and tore it down. Check out some of my vids and you'll see
yo.. i successly re seal my aquarium and made a new one using window glass, just a litlle one for sump, but it was a big success for beggining and make me want to build more, everytime i go now i look for a neglected glass on the yard .. haha,. (the sump) i have to re-glue it because it was leaking on the first try, but the reseal aquarium is was succes from the first water filling test. just like to let you know i am following you guys.. diy life style inspired and mentored by the king of diy... i planed to keep big pet fish and plants on different tank so i can learn both world aquascape and fishkeeping. i life in south east asia btw.. cheers
One of my bettas isn't doing good in a divided tank chewing his fins to pieces, but did really well in my 2 gallon hospital tank. So we're going to try out a bare bottom tank to see if he improves.
What about for eels? I have three baby fire eels and planning to put them in a 75 gal, do they need substance. Because they prefer to lived inside caves, Mainly my dragon statue decor than in the sand.
I love bare tank keeping. but over the years I started to appreciate tanks with substrate. and also light colored substrate in my black colored tanks will brighten up better than black base.
For SW tanks...BB is the only way to go. You take a lot longer to go through the uglies but once Coralline Algae starts to grow on the bottom its not bad at all. Maintenance on a BB is so much easier and quicker. Since I am a SPS Junkie and my tanks require high flow, its very rare I have to vacuum crude off the bottom in a low flow area.
My bottom is bare bottom (no substrate) but I have plants standing on rocks (in a rectangular transparent case)... also some wood for Anubias (but not too many) I also have a 3D background and I still think that all I have in it looks good ! I can still keep a Iow maintance aq. and even if it doesn't look great (as others do).. it's not bad either !
What about beneficial bacteria? I've heard some keepers say that bare bottom tanks can have issues with water quality, because there are fewer surfaces available for nitryfying bacteria to grow on, and that having substrate greatly increases the amount of good bacteria in the tank. Is this true?
@@danielcrespo802 Of course you do, the question is whether it's going to be sufficient to handle the tank's bioload, especially with an internal filter where the surface of the media is quite small.
Morganna Well a think it depends the needs of each tank, for example, I have 3 goldfish on a bare bottom tank And my filter is a canister so I have a lot of space in it for biological filtration and it works well for me, I haven’t had any issues.
I recall a friend who had a big, mostly white and grey, calico fantail goldfish in a tank with an undergravel filter. He did not know about canisters and sumps and probably couldn't have afforded one anyway. Anyhow, this setup was okay most of the time, but the fish was constantly pushing the sand around as goldfish will, looking for food. Every few weeks, this fish would push all of the gravel over to one side of the tank or the other. This would cause the water flow to bypass his biological filter and he would get a huge ammonia spike causing red streaks to appear in the fishes fins. Then he would panic and call me over to move the gravel back do heavy water changes to get rid of the excess ammonia. I didn't know it at the time, but if that fish had been in a bare tank with a sponge or an external biological filter, we would have no problems and the fish would have had a much happier life. What I am trying to say is that for some fish, a bare tank is the best choice. For others, substrates and planting is a better choice. You have to decide based on the needs of the fish that you chose to keep.
Do you have a problem keeping good levels of BB in a bare tank? How do you makeup for not having media to grow BB in without substrate? Is the filter media enough?
Joe, sometimes the substrate is used also to keep the PH high as for a African Cichlids tank, using crushed corals or specific african cichlids substrate. So how could I have for instance an African Cichlids tank with bare bottom and keep a high PH?
I do 8 out of 14 tanks bare bottom just for the fact I keep very messy fish. A range of goldfish (commons, comets, shubunkins, sarasa, wakins, moors, fantails, ryukin, oranda). Only reasons I went bare bottoms with them is 1: gravel is ugly and 2: the fish kept eating the sand. They actually started to poop sand. Besides the odd breeding mop I toss in the tanks are bare. Even one of my bettas has bare a bottom. Just because I rather his coloring and features be the focus. He does have a cave and some plants but other than that nothing else in there. The common plecos, yoyo loaches, cory cats and tetras all have sand but I hate the sand as well. Plecos keep playing in it which throws it into the filter. Cories don't look all that great against it. Yoyos need it to feel safe.
Great topic Joey. Is there a difference to doing a live stream on Facebook then RU-vid. I've heard a lot of people have problems on doing live stream on RU-vid. Thanks for sharing.
1phat phish most really like bigger boulders and caves. Some like to move around gravel to set up territories, mbwana prefer sand to make holes everywhere. I switched to a soil substrate for better plant quality but they don't seem as into it
Sorry if I missed the answer to this elsewhere, but I was curious if your Asian Arowana likes plants? I guess I just feel as if the fish would want something to swim through and/or a little something to look at and interact with. I understand the possible dangers of harder decorations such as driftwood, just curious about plants that may be native to this fish's natural habitat in the wild. Love your videos by the way and I enjoy the interesting things I learn :)
