Right!?!?… thanks so much for the comment. The tiny world beyond the fish has always captivated my attention. I will soon organize my videos into playlists. This is going to be a good one.
It works you should try it and watch father fish he is awesome and mr Phillips got his flow .i have same tank setup i dont change water now going on 2 years fish healthy plants growing out of control these guys changed the fish industry.
Father Fish just got me into fish tanks. Gone pot soil, sand, pebbles, fine grit, planted various. Have peace lily roots at top. Some leaves and pond water, need more leaves. My six platies and 4 babies and snails all seem happy.
I am a new convert from Father Fish and have been taking care of my husbands tank (because he forgets) and since finding this natural way I am SO EXCITED to get mine planted. I got plants from FF yesterday and am trying to decide if I stick with our 10 gallon or upgrade to the 20 gallon like you have here.
This is a great video that takes what Father Fish teaches and streamlines it. I bought the same plants and they did go through a transition and had some leaves melt and die off but also got tons of new growth, it’s now been a few months and my tank is a jungle that I’ve trimmed back and even gave some cuttings away.
@@phillipsfishworkswould be awesome to see this tank now. Thanks to you kind Sir. FatherFish speaking highly of you and your business. Blessings y'all Crawford out 🙏🏼🔥⚒️🧙🏼
I made a similar tank & put a thin layer of our deep red, clay on the bottom, then the potting soil & compost, then sand & finally the decorative gravel. Those layers make things pop too which I like. ^^
Ty for making this video, I been following father Fish and have learned to enjoy this hobby even more. I shared this video with our RU-vid channel. I hope you get much more attention from our fish keeping community.
This is how I'm going to set up my 10 gallon aquarium. My 20 isn't leaking yet but I don't want to take any chance. I have a spare 20 I'm going to build with my center piece of driftwood. Love your scape! I'm just waiting for my iron to arrive. I also add dried, diced banana peels and finely ground egg shells. This will be my second and third soiled aquarium. As soon as everything is settled I'm going to order scuds and daphnia.
Instead of the limestone, ( I find in my ponds once it’s coated with algae or slime it won’t dissolve as much. I like using Aragonite. (Pure calcium carbonate) must rinse multiple times, easier in smaller batches in a bucket. It comes in fine or gravel like, more surface area for bacteria etc. it does not keep my aquariums at 8.5 like it says, so don’t be scared. I use gravel too, but always have this as well. Give it a try sometime. I also save some of the cleaned sand when it’s dry to add in occasionally to freshen the calcium carbonate in the tank.
I have pretty much switched to aragonite exclusively now... Very useful and gets the job done... I've actually got an update on this tank coming out soon. It was more or less put on the back burner after it crashed and has since rebounded into a little jungle rubble tank teeming with life... Along with some other issues I had a mechanical failure on the water fill barrels located above this tank that overflowed cold filtered tap water into the aquarium for literally 8 hours straight. One heck of a mass but did not kill the scuds and shrimp. 🤣🤣🤣
Thank you for sharing your experiences. I also recently set up a FF Tank. The pool filter sand I bought was very "dusty." Water looked bad for 18 hours.
Thanks for the comment!… luckily I have not run into dusty pool filter sand. If I disturb it a lot at 1st it does cloud up the water more. What you didn't see in the video was the hose slid off the bubble wrap a second and dug into the sand. That's why it was so clear for the 1st few inches then the next shot it was cloudy 🤣🤣🤣.
I am a new convert from Father Fish and have been taking care of my husbands tank (because he forgets) and since finding this natural way I am SO EXCITED to get mine planted. I got plants from FF yesterday and am trying to decide if I stick with our 10 gallon or upgrade to the 20 gallon like you have here. And when do you add fish?
This video hit the spot. I love that you used the Raised Bed Soil. Exactly what I used. I am only a couple weeks in but plants are doing good. How did this 20 gallon experiment turn out? Be ordering Bugs soon:)
Love the videos. I have another order being shipped on Monday, can't wait. First time doing a microworm culture. I'm also getting ready to set up a new 60G Breeder tank, going all natural. My 14G Rimless with the Thai Micro Crabs and Snowball Neocaradina Shrimp is my nature tank with substrate from the local streams. My 40G is using a fully Anoxic system from Dr. Novak. Now the 60G is going to be all natural using materials from the river, as well as from Father Fish, Father Fish style. Trying all different things. ;) Once I get the 60G set up, will be making another order of Bugs in a Bag and other items. ;)
Microworms are very easy! You can start a new culture and within 3 days be harvesting. Sounds like you have a lot going on 😁 They look awesome from the videos I've seen! I would always encourage everyone to try everything. Lots of experimenting.... We really appreciate the repeated orders! Your support and everyone else's has been amazing!
@@phillipsfishworks Does anyone ever get any fish babies in any of the bags from you? I got this critter in my 40G, not sure where it came from. Was thinking either from you, or maybe the driftwood I got from the river here locally. Not exactly sure what it is. Looks like a cory cat, but I don't think there's cories here in the Columbia River. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-hKfJtemxr_g.html
Sorry I missed your comment… no definitely not from me. Most of the material I send out comes out of fish less systems but not all... If it was from me it would be a platy, guppy or a swordtail lol
Can't blame you there haha! I love rocks... got a few cool pieces of wood I've always wanted to use. Will have to definitely do that someday! Thanks for the comment and view!
i’m doing a dirted tank. this is my first time. it’s a 40 gallon. I’ve got the dirt in and it’s wetted down. It’s sitting for 24 hours and I just really need to know (if I’m going to use a sponge filter) if I should cap with gravel or sand. it looks like you’re using a canister filter? I don’t have one and I want to cycle my tank for like three or four weeks before adding the fish. A father fish video suggested that I layer the gravel so I would have to add an quarter inch here and there rather than vacuum it..so if I use gravel that’s what I’ll do.
Make u video of the bag of leafs under the microscope i think we will all like that we engage more in the things the human eye cant see beside what we see beside just a bag of leaf litter..... JOHNNY 5 NEEDS INPUT.... THANKS
Wandering what it looks like when i ordered ur bag of leafs under a microscope video exactly to see what life looks like beside just seen a bag of leafs...... with the naked eye ..... dont u agree
As far as the cycle, there will be beneficial bacteria on the material that came in the microfauna culture bags I added. But it will take time to become established and mature. You would not have to feed anything but I like to put in some veggie scraps or a little fish food to get the organisms booming... You have to go easy though or you'll create big bacteria blooms. Too much food will fowl the water quickly in a new tank!... The microfauna will break down and eat off the leaves and repreduce at their own pace. Feeding a little can speed that up but overfeeding will quickly create lots of problems. Maybe a slice of cucumber or strawberry... In a brand new tank there's no biofilm built up on anything. The rocks and sand went in dry so it's kind of a clean slate. It takes time to build-up the food source in the system... Thanks for watching and the comment!
@@phillipsfishworks Ty for explaining that. I got a resurrection jar going with pond culture but it seems you are way ahead. Which is very good. I was wondering if you test your water during the first few weeks on a new tank to see if it is ready for a few fish. I know we don’t want to overload the system. I’m happy to have found your channel. Really elaborates more of the food web.
@@genesis1_20 Thank you for the comment! I appreciate your interest… as far as testing the water, depends how I'm starting the system. If I'm using lots of material that comes out of existing tanks like seeded sponge filters and sand and what not, I would be less concerned about testing... If it's an experiment like the one I have going on in this tank you might want to test a little especially in the beginning till you have a feel for the ecosystem that's growing... Now what you do with the information from the test is where people usually go wrong. Lots of premature manipulation usually does more harm than good. Also, the food Web does a lot more than just feed your fish. That aspect is a byproduct of its existence. The most important job of the food Web is to decompose the dead organic material. The more variety in creatures at the microscopic level, the better at consuming and converting death into life. In other words they convert large dead organic material into micro elements that are then available for use by plants and other organisms. The more diversity in the population of microorganisms, the faster and more complete the decomposing process is... One more thing. I've been talking like there's a food Web and then the fish. As if there are 2 separate things. But really the fish are just as much part of the food Web as everything else. It's all connected. You can't exclude large groups of organisms and think you understand how all those relationships work. Thanks again for the comment! Keep going and experimenting!
Didn't see any cherry shrimp or cyclops on my bag of bugs. Had a handful of skuds, a ram's horn snail, and what looked a bit like Malaysian Trumpet Snail. Didn't match the malaysians I have thought. Bit thicker of a shell. Watching em settle in l did see what l think was a seed shrimp. Water parameters have hardly shifted from day one, so squeezeing a sponge from my 40 gallon seems to have left things stable enough. I'll have to wait and see what else i spot.
I understand where you're coming from and enjoy those types of setups... When I'm referring to a natural aquarium, I'm mostly talking about the material inside of the "glass box". Setting up things in such a way to promote microorganism growth and not fixing water issues with chemicals... I know there are many definitions out there of what a natural ecosystem or aquarium looks like. Personally I'm not too concerned with following other's rules. I respect and really appreciate systems like you're referring to with no gadgets. Are they "more natural" than what I have going on here? That solely depends on definitions of words and the ideas of who's observing. Thanks for the engagement!
@PhillipsFishWorks I heard you mention keeping soil layer to 1 inch on 20 gallon and less on 10 gallon. Is there a particular reasoning for this? I have heard others mention that the "deeper" the substrate the better. Any advice is greatly appreciated. Thanks.
Deeper substrate is a good thing. But that's referring to the overall substrate depth. You want that soil capped with sand or something. Too much soil in the bottom can create all kinds of problems. Like extreme excess nutrients in the water. Keep the soil layer thin and the sand on top thicker. For example a 1" of soil and 2" of sand... Hope that clears it up a bit. Thanks for the comment!
Honestly Hydra is no big deal. It is unavoidable unless you're sterilizing everything which I wouldn't recommend. It always shows up especially in new tanks. Sometimes it will bloom big for awhile but usually fades out with time and balance. Contrary to hype Hydra will not kill all of your baby fish and shrimp... good luck and thanks!!! 😁😁😁
Yes, they will be fine with any type of filter. Many of them can pass through filters without harm and will even colonize filter media pads. Thanks for the comment!
@@phillipsfishworks yep Have seen a lot advice against using heavy hardscapes especially in a dirted tank. Since the rock compresses the sand soo much there isn't any circulation/oxygen supply there which leads to anerobic bacteria which produces sulphides which can kill livestock as well as plants I guess
I know exactly what you're talking about. There will probably be that build-up underneath those rocks as well as under coarse gravel or a very thick leaf litter. I have seen that build-up in layers of sand with nothing on top of them at all. Especially in new dirted tanks. So we have to ask ourselves is that really an issue? I have heard and read these warnings before. I know many people get very concerned with toxic gas building up and being released out of the substrate. So far in my experiences I have not been able to relate that to any issues I've had. I have had tanks set up long term with large rocks in them... And the beautiful part of all of this is we are going to find out together. I plan on hiding nothing. As updates come out with this tank I will show the good, bad and ugly. We are all learning together. I find so much information out there is 2nd hand information. People pass things along over and over again many times not experiencing it themselves. And if they did experience it themselves sometimes it's misinterpreted anyways. I love to experiment and try new things. I also love big rocks in my aquariums. Thank you so much for the concern and as always thanks for the comment and watching!
@@phillipsfishworks hey thanks man that's really reassuring. I'm just doing a lot of research before getting my first tank right. Really appreciate the work you are doing for the community. Looking forward to seeing this tank mature. Cheers
Doing a research is definitely a great idea but at a point you've gotta take the leap of faith. If you look long enough you'll find contradictions to every single piece of information you'll read. I know my message is certainly controversial in many fish keeping groups... Go slow and keep an open mind. If you have to have 100% success right off the bat you probably ought to not start 🤣 Good luck and keep watching. Lots more to come... Thanks again for the conversation.
