The WORST Fish Keeping MYTHS! Top 10 Aquarium LIES and MYTHS 

Definitely correct on the tank size. My 5 gallon nano tank requires maintenance about twice a week. Compared to my 75 that I do water changes on a twice a month schedule.

Yeah I panicked when I saw my first substrate bubble and nervously monitored my fish for 15 minutes. No change 🤷‍♀️ I mean it makes sense if you think about it, the gas bubble may contain compounds hazardous to the fish but it’s not dissipating into the water. It just goes right to the top in a big bubble and pops. If CO2 has to be dissolved with teeny tiny bubbles in order to diffuse, how much is one large bubble going to diffuse in the time it take to get to the surface? Idk I’m not a chemist but my fish have never died from a gas bubble coming up from the substrate. That being said, I feel like the sand bed in my 60g is a total disaster. I set it up about a year ago and for some reason I thought it was a good idea to make slopes using filter floss to build up the base. I was like “oh it’s lightweight, aquarium safe, and will allow water flow. Sounds good!” And then I put in a dirt layer and capped it with sand. I’m sure now that there’s all sorts of chemistry going on down there. And to top it off, I have a Kribensis and two banjo cats always digging in the sand! They’ve moved the silly slopes and flattened out the substrate anyways 🙄 There’s floss poking out in places and it drives me nuts. But the plants have grown in so I’d have to start over completely to fix it. Just making the best of it for now 🤷‍♀️

It’s really nice to get more information on the fish hobby, the substrate myth is my favorite lol also thanks for sharing all your knowledge it really helps 👍

I am so happy I watched this, thank you! I did learn and my favorite tip is adding a shrimp/prawn to the new aquarium to get it started. I thought the addition of plants for a couple months would start the cycle, but I was assuming. I am setting up a 29 gallon thank here in the states and expecting my gravel (eco complete) to arrive today. Then in a couple weeks order some plants.

Thank you! Such a good explanation for tank cycling for a beginners like me. Finally understand it!

Love this sort of content.. and yes definitely regret buying a 10G as my first aquarium, I thought it was huge, then I started to really regret it.. it was too small for 90% of fish out there that I wanted to get.. plus it gets stocked too fast.... wish id gone way bigger! Also noticed with a hospital tank im running at the moment, tiny little 2G, regret that too.. should have gone 5G minimum.. you have to be so careful on dosages and the temperature of water changes or heaters etc... everything is so delicate. The Aquarium Salt vs Medication is something id love to see more on!

Wow!!! Once again this is an amazing video! Some of those myths I haven’t heard of before, but they are most likely not true! I definitely agree with you about the cleaner fish myth! You had amazing info in this vid! It was really helpful and you edited it very well! Cool video! I really enjoyed it! Keep up the amazing work!!!👍

Great video.. Ireally appreciate all your tips and experience

I got a bristlenose pleco not because he was a cleaner fish, but because I saw a friend's and thought they looked super cool. I've always loved plecos and the bristlenose can live their full life happily in my tank vs the common plecos. I feed him algae wafers at least once a week, usually a few times per week, even though I only scrub algae off the front glass to make sure he has plenty to eat.

I love your videos! Incredibly informative! There are some videos like this. But to decipher their accents is next to impossible. Very digestible material.

Love you videos mate. 👏🏽👏🏽

Thanks for the info!

CONGRATS ! This video is 'Spot On '👌 Will be sharing a billion times over everywhere i can!

Thanks for your helpful videos. Very informative! I'm new to the hobby, so apologies for the noob question. But should I be concerned about a growing snail population in my tank? Thanks.

Great video and great tips

this is a very usefull and informative video

I took a sponge and coral bits from my 3 and 5 gal tanks and put them in a brand new filter for my ten. 4 days later consistent testing shows its fully cycled! I add snails initially once the scape is done as they are pretty hardy and big poopers.

I love your videos!

Hey, thankyou so much for making this video it was very informative and interesting!! Could you do a video on rescaping aquariums and how to go about maintaining as much beneficial bacteria as possible in this process? Thankyou again :)

First video I have every seen of yours and I really enjoyed it .Wish you told people about the importance of good quality media in the filter and not the size of the filter .A big filter with rubbish media isn't as effective as a smaller filter with correct/better media (biohome ultimate ) .Keep up the good work .

When I started my aquarium, I fed the aquarium like I had fish in there and added plants in the first month. It gave me something to do with the tank so I didn't get bored.

Great work that would help a lot of beginners.

I know your a lot older and own your own fish store. You are better than Father Fish and all the Americans. I have learned more from you and underwater documentary makes a guy want to visit Australia. Your content and production top notch. Your honesty , I have kept fish for decades throwing money at one show tank is one thing. A fish room that runs on air and water changes is another. You have shown how to do diy fish keeping Bravo Nick¡

I think the whole toxic bubbles thing is only true if you are adding substrate content that is rich in the chemicals anaerobic bacteria metabolize into toxic sulfides while not having a good amount of plants that root to clean them up, combined with heavy sand compaction. You'd probably be most likely to run into this if you're setting up a walstad tank with DEEP (2-3 inches) substrate for the first time.

Hey Dude😎 You can make Your aquarium video in background and diply explain one by one aquarium with fish and plants. Becuz your aquarium look like beautiful😍💓

Totally, it would take massive MASSIVE amounts of “toxic bubbles” to make any difference. I feel like this myth originated over the debate for/against deep sand beds

Hello, Thanks for the video and for sharing your information. I am sure you may have received other comments regarding the use of salt in an aquarium and as you know, there are varying opinions to its use i.e. some say it works and others say it does not. Just like you, I keep sensitive fish, loaches, snails, dwarf cory catfish, shrimp, exotic swordtails and guppies imported from China, and in my personal experience, salt performs exceptionally well as an alternative option when medicating fish. I have found when I use it, it actually cuts down on the amount of time needed to medicate my fish and they respond a lot better to the medications. Not sure if you have seen Cory, from Aquarium Co-Op's videos on salt or Dan's Fish? Both are other You-Tubers, and I follow their recommendations regarding treating your aquariums with salt. In my opinion, if you follow the correct dose of salt while medicating you can get tremendous results, and it can aid in eradicating certain ailments such as fungus, ich and certain bacterial diseases etc... I agree, I don't think salt will help to prevent fish from catching a disease or illness, but I would have to say (again, based off my experience) that it does aid or lend itself as a viable option when medicating or treating fish. I think everyone would have to try it out for themselves , but I would definitely not rule salt out as an option. Yes, salt does dehydrate the fish, hence, you must start out with 1 tbs per 3 gallons and observe....most fish, (in my experience or at least the ones that I keep) can tolerate up to 1 tbs per 1 gallon of salt. The dehydration causes the fish to produce more slime coat and the end goal is that the fungus or bacteria will loosen itself and/or be eradicated first before the fish is adversely affected. Again, using the proper does of salt and monitoring as Cory and Dan show in their videos is important, then if needed, based on how the fish are doing, you can add more salt. If not, you keep the 1 tbs per 3 gallons solution for the week as you medicate your tank. I even have heavily planted tanks (a few 75 gallons and 40 gallons) and my plants even survive the salt treatments but I will admit if I surpass two weeks of salt, then they do start to die off but typically all I need when I have to treat a tank is one week or maybe a week and a half. Thanks again for the video. I just wanted to share my own experience using salt. Thanks

*AGREED* with the entire video. There is sort of no 'hard & fast rule' with fishkeeping except the nitrogen cycle. I started my nitrogen cycles with a pinch of flaked fish food. *YES - SMALLER TANKS REQUIRE MORE CONSTANT OBSERVATION (work)* I love your content - good advice & presented in friendly easy to understand videos *THANK YOU* I have never disagreed with your content.

Thanks, Nick.

How's the neon tetra breeding going?

Love watching you. I have a hard time getting plants but have a pond can I put a Lilly in my tank. I have them in my pond?

Best fishkeeping channel on RU-vid

nice video! I wish you would've gotten into the biological filteration, chemical cycle, role of plants and wwater changes, etc. on the first myth though. mmisunderstanding of that is probably how the "big filter" myth got started.

Thanks for the salt one ❤

i took the easy route... i added some of my pee and live plants, driftwood, & lava rock with a used filter.... cycled super fast

Thank you

Best info dude. I have one questions for u. I m am beginner in fish hobby and I was not aware of cycling process so I directly introduced all the fishes in the tank. Now the situation is I lot all my fish in two months all I have is fries of guppy. I want to know what to do if we didn't do cycling of the tank? Plz suggest me.

I am listening this video on any available second, so could I like it twice

I love your videos nick

I did forget to mention that for my baby fry 10 gallon aquarium I did not put down any substrate I do have some rocks and artificial plants they love those little spongy things they're very soft plenty of room for them to hide around but after I got the water in the bottom looks like a mirror and you don't even see the wood that's under it I do use a bulb syringe in the evening and try to suck up any uneaten food from the bottom that I can get ahold of I hope I'm doing everything right I suppose it's normal to lose a few fish

I realize this is one of your older videos so no idea if you'll see this. I see the large tank next to floor level. I am wondering, how do you do water changes on it at that low level? Gavity can't work that close to the floor. I know there are tap enabled vacuumes and that might be your answer. If it isn't, I'd be curios :) Love your videos BTW.

nice

Just remember tho plecos can't just live on algae have to feed them too spirulina veggies. And blood worms as treats

I use NON IODISED salt to treat my fish if they have wounds. I have never used medications, (the exception being wormer for my discus, which I have done once). In fact, I think many fish keepers reach for medication too quickly and too often. I disagree with the practice of medicating fish that have just been placed in quarantine - If I see an issue I use lots of clean water and salt ONLY when there is a need to treat wounds or ich + increased water temp. Bacterial problems arise from poor water quality, a manky environment, fights/stress which lead to a compromised immune system. A healthy environment allows the fish to fend off most pathogens that are always present but kept in check by a healthy immune response in a balanced aquarium.

hello nick how r u? liked the video if we say that there is no benefical bacteria in the water,only on the surface of stuff.than it is not clear to me why it would be a problem to vacume the substrate??

It isn't rare for people to buy a 'cleaner' fish and they end up with a more carnivorous species that wont touch algae at all, or they want something fancy and get one of the more difficult to keep Loricariidae that later dies, even those who are top in the catfish world wont touch those species.

Trumpet snails help keep any issues of toxic pockets in the substrate.

In my experience I found that if you're just starting out it's better to go with two 10 gallon tanks than a single 20 gallon.

Hi do all aquarium plants need to have soil to grow?

I only use a canister filter for my 4 foot that has a peacock base and a 20 cm red Oscar and all my nano tanks are sponge breeding filters works perfectly

The bonus of a big filter is less cleaning of the filter combine it with a reactor filled with media to produce anaerobic bacteria to reduce nitrates and plant your tank you can do pretty well no water changes at all and still have healthy water.

Hey I live in brisbane too and aquarium shops you would recommend for cheap and quality products such as food, decor and chemicals like water conditioner?

The inch per gallon rule should be on here because it changes with what fish, how much food, filtration, and water changes...I could get away with 10 guppies(which are slightly over an inch) in a 10 gallon tank but a 10 inch Oscar could not even turn around in a 10 gallon

I think a lot of confusion about fish growing to the size of the aquarium comes from people that have fish that just stay smaller genetically. In a batch of fry there are going to be a certain percentage of runts. In nature they would just get eaten. But when breeding fish in captivity there's a much larger survival rate which means those runts have a better chance at making it into the pet trade.

A bigger Tank is always better than a smaller one. Some people think a Filter is like a black hole, what goes in is gone. Sadly that is NOT the case. Water changes and UVC CLEARER help alot but never change your water same Day as water changes and seriously consider getting a Reverse Osmosis or at least a Kation/Anion Unit and dont forget to Filter the water through activated charcoal if you use a Kation/Anion Unit since they dont remove Chloramine!! You can buy good Starter bacteria nowadays, better than a dead shrimp but it wont shorten the time you have to wait.

12:00 I know I have to be carefull with salt, but salt helped me over some wierd white parasites on my shrimp and in the shrimp tank. Idunno the name anymore and almost all shrimp died before we even found out what it was. We have 2 scarlet and 2 black tiger darios so we feed them live food, we think it came with one of the shrimp/fish or maybe the food. That doesn't matter anymore tho, right now some 2 months after the last death we have 4 or 5 big ones left and they already making a gazzilion babies again. After frequent(3x a week normally 1x a week) water changes and a little bit of salt the parasite is "gone". No shrimp that survived have it and the side of the aquarium has 0 little white parasites :). I used regular kitchen salt from holland and mixed a little bit in a cup of water and poured it in the tank. It didn't seem to affect the fish and shrimp but after 1,5 week the dario's had some spectacular collour which is now a bit faded again xD We have 4 males so 2 are subdominant, but then it looked like they were all dominant males. I'm curious about it but i'm not throwing in more salt to test some collour stuff xD Some context: Tank is about 1y old nano tank, 25litre planted, decorated with spiderwood, internal heater, internal filter that gets washed every week and it happened 3ish months ago. Fish were introduced 6 months ago, couple more shrimp later aswell... Idunno but salt is not all bad xD I didn't know about dehydration tho, Thanks for all the info!

Some good advice and some not so good. I say do what works for you. If I had seen this vid. first I would not have subscribed to your channel. Best of luck to you.

I can't agree on the bigger filter thing you've said. I can tell you that from my experience alone that it makes a huge difference. Both on the water clarity and algae presence. I had a very good internal filter with big sponge and some ceramics and I had lots of issues. Now I run 2 small cannisters (I don't have space for one bigger) and I cave crystal clear water, no algae issues (spare some green dust). Ppl who say that sponge filter is enough for everybody forget that filters don't only get rid of ammonia but also help decompose all dead matter in the system. If filtration is too low you get cloudy water and also you're tank's "inertia" for all the bad things that may happen is lower.

I just started the hobby with a 40 gallon

one of the last ones i would say the water helps ill add a few gallons generally when i start new 20's ill use the (used) water in conjunction with cycled media and a quick start too realy do it good sometimes adding ferts with the floating plants from other breeders the used water has the ammonia and no2+no3 so your bacteria colonys that you are starting and the ones you bring over have a good supply of food for those first few days before you start adding the bio load and the cycles food supply per say......but then again myths could be started by people like me doing nominally helpful things that wont cause any issues and making them habit and routine because we have seen success with doing them!

Can I ask where you buy your tanks from in Australia?

Methane gas and hydrogen sulfites escape the bottom in La Jolla Cove in So Cal with absolutely no effect on fish. I have seen this many times while scuba diving there. I don't entirely agree with you vis-a-vis regarding salt. I think it's effective with external parasites for a discrete period of time. You mentioned that salt accelerates the disease process in certain situations, I have never heard that before and would like to hear more about that.

the bubble myth is ridiculous. the amount of exposure of the gasses to the water in the 0.7 seconds they take to float up and dissipate is infinitesimal.

salt. i would not say myth but rather outdated. you know back in days when i started with fish 30 years ago, there was really no medicine available for fish and all we could do was raise temp, add salt and wait.

bro i had the air bubble thing from the substrate,, and it can be one or both things,, either is nitrogen gas released from the anoxic layer harmless, or is hydrogen sulfide being released ,, like you said they bubble up and they are gone.. infract Sulphur compounds are used in the US to remove nitrites from sewage water in the treatment of waste water. Now if you disturbed deep in your substrate an mix the anoxic layer with the aerobic layer that's bad ju ju dude. That layer remains out of reach for a reason.

I use a 5 gallon aquarium to quarantaine any problems whit that

Okay your talking about when you are using "tap water", which is normally treated with chlorine & fluoride ........what about when you use rain water? What is the cycling process there.......there is literally nothing that tells you about the cycling process when using rain water that I can find in Australia. I dont live in a town nor have town water........we have rain water & dam water. TIA

How about doing a light gravel cleaning with the syphon instead of not doing it at all. I really liked all the info in your video I don’t think I’m a 100% convinced about not syphoning at all 😏

okay let me marathon watch all your videos now goodbye sleepschedule

Woot.

What are you carpeting in the lower 55g?

I wish everyone know these points!

I’ve got a bristle nose pleco about 7-10cm in a 5 and 1/2 gallon tank with currently 5-7mm gravel. I’m wanting to change the substrate to a fine sand would this affect the pleco at all. Keeps the vids up great to see growing Australian youtubers

Hey I've heard that garlic boosts fishes immune system is this true? I just want to know before I do it

Well my Cory definitely cleans my Betta tank. I see it with my own eyes... so... the myth is not totally wrong. And it is true that the proper amount of salt to have in your tank is not actually known so that is why it is only used for giving the fish a dunk/bath for a limited amount of time. Like 20 mins with 3 table spoons of fine salt to one liter of water. The fish floats up on its side as a result of the saltwater but recovers after being placed back in fresh water. This done 2 or 3 times a week apart will cure fin rott in a long fin betta. That is a fact. Of course there are risk but if you can't get the meds it is a good option. Some countries have very strict laws that prohibit imports of some of the good meds used in the U.S and other countries.

I gravel vacuumed my old tank cause I couldn't get the nitrates down without doing so. The people that do this are probably heavy feeders.

lol number 7 learnt the hard way

What a pretty face 😍

I started with a 5 liter tank and yes it got dirty quickly, then got a 20 liter tank and it was ok but my goldfish got to big for it only after afew months, then ended up getting a 110 liter and this is the happiest my goldfish fidh have ever been then got lots of shrimp and it looks amazing.

Pls can u make a video when u r cleaning ur aquarium

Massive myth aquarium snails eat healthy plants and cause ammonia spikes. I have a 3 gallon heavily planted scaped tank with a betta and probably 30 snails if not more it is absolutely thriving. To add my betta fish which I rescued from petbarn and honestly I thought had a 50/50 chance of recovery is now nearly back to normal probably because the water is so clean it's practically invisible and parameters are so stable. Snails do not eat healthy plants and are a massive benefit to your tank the only reason not to have snails is aesthetics.

😎😎

I agreed with everything but the substrate. Rotting food, fish waste etc gets trapped in the gravel. Needs to be cleaned up for the health of the fish. That's just my 2 cents.

The tank will cycle by itself if it's dirted, because of the ammonia leached from the soil.

If the first myth was true, the "Nick's backyard" would be true!

number five KILLS ME. uuuuuugh.

bigger filters do work.

Many of these just seem like statements that are exaggerated or taken out of context

another myth : filter is not help your tank mature immediately... but bigger water surface of your aquarium will helps... (but filter is not helpless at all... at least you have bacteria deposite).. another myth season 2 : nitrification cycle is the phase 1 of mature tank... another phase you need heterotrophic bacteria which is the best nitrate predator... then you will follow RU-vid to not water change for years... if you just stop in the phase 1, yes its called the process of mature tank... but if no, it will be necessary to call your tank is mature... myth season 3 : nitrate in nitrification cycle is not eaten by your plant... actually your plant is ate NO3 through ammonium ion, which is ammonia in safest shape... so thats why your nitrate keep accumulate while you have "mature tank" with dense plants...

I wished I could get an answer you are my favorite guy to watch my black and gold mollies are so very pretty to me and when I noticed her getting fat I put her in the breeder box in the next morning we had fry I would guess 20 or more hard to count those fast swimming little fellows my husband went to Walmart and bought me a 10 gallon tank which was a way better deal the franchise stores PetSmart Petco I think it was around $37 and the filter it also had a setup packet that I could use tap water right away and some food I did have to go to PetSmart and get a heater which was on clearance $22 I had a sponge paint brush not used I was able to slice it down the sides wrap it around the intake valves of my filter with hair ties the elastic stretching bands to try to keep my fry out of the filtration now I did try to make tank water with yeast and after 48 hours I gave them a little bit they didn't seem interested after adding some lettuce and banana peel a little bit of oatmeal as I had seen on another Channel her smell was horrible I did try one syringe 10 mL they weren't one bit interested in it that all went down the garbage disposal I can't seem to find live food Frozen red worms they don't care anything about so I did crumble up the flakes in the pellets they do go after that but once it hits the bottom they won't pick around at it only when floating I decided to do a partial water change today because the water was so cloudy as I did I found three dead fish try also I think there was one in my polyester material that I put in behind my filter I almost cried I had about 20 fish I think the mother is carrying again already I want to be the best plant parent I can be I put this tank right beside my seat on my stand my husband bought me a board to put underneath it for stability I don't have any live plants in there I do have the test kit it's a pain to go through all the files but I will do this soon today I wish I were able to get to the store myself I've been home bound for several months due to my heart and knee surgery and hospitalization for dehydration and magnesium deficiency if I do too much I'm in AFib aneurysm on top of my heart aorta these fish have been a great diversion for me I also have a three and a half gallon tank with a betta I had a albino Cory in there with him but I did not remove the Corey when I did a water change and I stirred up this and then I learned about the gas pockets the next morning Corey was dead I hope to get a new one I know this is long I just can't seem to get my answers the fish stores aren't any help thank you for your program I wish I could afford to join but I do watch you every chance I can thank you so much

The bubbles are most likely just carbon dioxide resulting from decomposition.

i think your wrong about the salt .

Who else was triggered by that poor fish with the outgrown tank 😭

A myth is something that is commonly thought is true, but OBJECTIVELY is false. If you find yourself saying the words "in my opinion" then you aren't describing a myth you're just putting forward an opinion. Everything in this video you mentioned in conjunction with the words "in my opinion" was a misunderstanding of the advice in the hobby. There are two broad classes of bacteria in an aquarium, aerobic and anaerobic. Both live in your substrate, both are beneficial however they are not equal. The bubbles under the substrate are cO2 produced through respiration by aerobic bacteria. As long as bubbles escaping the substrate remain small and intact to the surface everything is fine. However, if the bubbles burst in the water column the cO2 dissolves and kills fish. This actually happens sometimes in nature, and there's even neen some incidents in Africa where the release was so large it killed villages living within a few kilometres of the water source. Recommended search, it's incredibly interesting. The larger the bubbles are the more unstable they are in the water column and thus more likely it becomes they will burst before making it to the surface. When people talk about sorting it out, what they really mean is you have too dense a cap on your substrate so larger bubbles become more likely. Small bubbles, 5c piece or smaller,; are ideal. You actively want those kinds of bubbles because you're going to have some bubbles from live substrate regardless so the goal is to keep them small. It's important to remember when making videos about aquariums in general that freshwater aquariums are not the same as marine ones. Vacuuming substrate to a 1cm depth comes from marine aquariums where this is a very necessary. It's not as necessary in freshwater tanks and does have the downsides you mentioned. But from experience I can tell you fail to do it in a marine tank and you're making an expensive mistake. There are many species of bacteria in an aquarium. Some species are in the substrate and on surfaces as you mentioned. However some species are indeed in the water column. There used to be channel here on RU-vid from the Netherlands called "life in jars" where he explored the bacteria and microorganisms in the water column. It's these kinds of bacteria that are cultured and sold as various forms of "bio boost" or "aquarium starter". It's just tank water in those bottles from a bacteria culture. Adding established tank water can absolutely be beneficial in starting a new tank. You should add in old filter media too, it's not an either or scenario because you're populating with different kinds of bacteria. There are indeed established specific gravity (SG) for salinity in different kinds of freshwater tanks to prevent disease. When we talk about adding salt to an aquarium we do not mean refined table salt. We're talking about aquarium salt which lacks the chloride molecule table salt has. DO NOT put table salt in your tank, but aquarium salt from petbarn, Paul's ponds or whatever. t. 25 years in the hobby keeping assorted freshwater and marines.

Am I the only one that started with a 50gallon tank :p

WAY TOO MUCH BACKGROUND NOISE!

dude what abou the apisto eggs?

Put two inches sand on your gravel, your fish will thank you ❤

Did anyone else know his name was Nick?

I can’t watch this guy, the arrogance is on another level!