What's THE BEST Aquarium Substrate? Substrate Basics (KFKFK) 

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7:46 “If sand gets into the impeller of your filter it can absolutely ruin it.” Me: *Laughs in sponge filters*

"I love the internet" that's a big mood 😂😂😂😂

Really great guys. Fifty five years ago I had several tanks and was even breading kribensis. Now it's unbelievable all the advancements that have been made. I should have my head examined but I am thinking about getting back into it and having a large tank with plants and discus (and even CO2!). Thanks for the great tips.

The quality of the backdrop in the video, amazing. Love the style your going with

We recently switched to a sand substrate in one of our tanks and I'm loving it. I find my plants don't grow as fast which means less trimming haha.

Hey KGtropicals, I’m a big fan in fact I spent an entire day watching your videos! Love them and I always learn something new! 🐡🐠🐟

Great information for beginners and those of us who feel ready to take the next step up from beginner😎 Thanks John and Lisa💕👍

Hi guys, I kept my goldfish and bottom feeders (loaches) on gravel for yeeeeears. One day I came home from work and my "big" g/fish (approx 6inches) was swimming around with his mouth open wide. It looked like he was "gasping for air" LOL. However, he had been shuffling around the bottom and got a piece of gravel stuck in his mouth! I carefully took him out and held him in a soft cloth and had to prise the stone out with a pair of tweezers. The long and short of this is that he was fine and seemed happy to have had the gravel stone removed....Just a little story.

Kg tropical you are the best. I have learnt so much from you guys.

I totally agree with your final choice. I started my first few tanks ever with gravel and have no regrets. So easy to clean, hides detritus, lots of surface area. After a few years I’ve slowly transitioned almost everything over to either pool filter sand or play sand, and have no regrets about that either (& probably won’t go back). Transitioned to sand for my corys and my rams and they are so much happier :) My low-tech plants have done great, too. Thanks for a great video, John and Lisa!

I AM buying an aquarium tomorrow!!!!! I'm so excited. I've watched a ton of your videos and I'm ready.

My first Aquarium in the 70's. We used to use a White Plastic Undergravel Filter with 2 Clear, Upright Plastic Tubes in the 2 Back Corners.! After putting the Gravel on top of the White Undergravel Filter, You then put 2 small Air Stones, connected to clear air tubing that was Connected to an Airpump, inside the 2 Upright Clear Plastic Tubes in the 2 Corners.! This Circulated the Water but when you took Out the Gravel, All the Sludge, over time, Collected Underneath the White Plastic Undergravel Filter.! Does Anyone else Remember these White Undergravel Filters.? 🤔

My wife and I love watching you guys and we've recently discovered our 6 mos. old little girl giggles and squeals every time Lisa comes on. 💜💜💜

Perfect timing! My tank was delivered today. Tomorrow I have an appointment at my lfs to get my scaping supplies.

Great video love how you give options and give people ideas for the future. Your videos are really helpful for beginners and experienced keepers.

My 2nd tank i set up was a dirted tank but i capped it with sand to contain the mess a bit. I have a plant substrate in my other tank and honestly i believe that the dirt makes for much more healthy and intricate root systems. Plants ive pulled out of my 55 gallon have had much finer and larger root systems then my 30 gallon. I believe dirt us the best and cheapest way to maintain an aquarium

Thanks once again you guys!!! I needed to learn about this!

Man I love you guys when I clean my tanks I here the ten things song in my head lol helps me get in my zone

I have several aquariums loaded up with smooth, natural gravel & Aquarium CO-OP plants. Great combination. 👍😎. Thanks John & Lisa for the nice video. 📺😉

John, Lisa, you are amazing at explaining things, and with a touch of humor. I started aquarium hobby about 8 months ago, and your videos is one of my sources to start researching. It feels so bad having a fish die and have no idea what happened, your videos and your work helped me understand a lot, so now I feel more confident. I started with a 10 gallon and before I knew I have 3 20 gallons and the 10 gallons is my breeder tank. Though I made mistakes in my first months, you guys kept me fishkeeping with all your hard work, because I understand a lot thanks to you guys. THANK YOU.

Wow. I have been scratching my head about what substrate I want for my 150 gallon aquarium that will be shipped to me next week. This video has helped reduce my confusion. I decided after watching this video....bare bottom or gravel. Great video.🐟👍

IV BEEN ON A DIRT SUBSTRATE THESE DAY PARTLY BECAUSE IM CHEAP AND PARTLY BECAUSE IT SEEMS TO KEEP A WELL BALANCED TANK

I came to the same conclusion as I started my first 20 gallon tank, it is very nice to hear my thoughts vindicated by an expert. Subscribed. :)

Just putting my first tank together following 5 years away....your information is giving me confidence in my decisions

I'm glad you made this video it's really helpful although it's 2 years later for me! I hope beginners find it helpfull

Again, amazingly detailed

I am so glad I found this channel, I just with that other new fish keepers find this channel before they make mistakes

You guys are the very reason why I love fish keeping

Thanks for giving info tailored for a NEW fish keeper. Very helpful! Thanks!

Thank you so much for this video Kgtropicals! I am helping my sister with her ten gallon Betta tank and this video will very much help.

Guys thanks for making your video so easy to understand in regards to gravel.

Thanks for the work you do to put out such great content. I have learned so much from all your videos.

My 65 is roughly half sand and half gravel. I like the way it looks, and it gives everybody a chance to explore the substrate they prefer.

TQ so much for the tips and advice.. it's very useful..and the explaination was very easy to understand..👍🤝

Thank you so much. This really helped. You two are stars.

One of your best videos. Highly useful. Thank you!

A practical (and cost effective) application beginners might consider about gravel (and sand as well) is that in addition to the biological aspects, gravel can also double down as mechanical filtration media. Many of us discovered this when the undergravel ("whutever boomer!") filters came about and found ourselves having to, at some point, vac the substrate. I eventually said to myself ... "SELF! - you've got tanks full of perfectly effective and continuously reusable filtration media!" There followed experimentation with gravel in different filters and combinations with floss - sponge - lava rock, and once on a seriously sphincter tight budget (tank filter or new strings for the Les Paul) just gravel in a 16oz plastic cup with a spare 1" lift tube driven by an old airstone for a 15g with zebra danios and a few cory's! As Eric Clapton once said ... "It's in the way that you use it!" - Hoping this was helpful - Cheers!

Thank you !! I am keeping fishes from 2012 but it was like my fishes were hardy enough to survive 5 years without using science on them . But now watching your videos are like god we didn't care about this that time and it is so important. Thank you once again to both of you for such a valuable info u provide.

I have a planted tank and love Eco-Complete mixed with fine black sand. Its atleast 3in thick. Thanks for the video! I always learn something new when watching you guys! 🧡🐠

In my 50+ years of keeping tropical fish, I've used just about every substrate imaginable and when I recently up my old 75g I decided to try some Eco-Complete, I am amazed, that stuff is great for a planted tank, its a bit pricey $20/20lb bag but it comes with active bacteria so you have a cycled tank right out of the bag. I also have a planted 55 for my shrimp and it is organic potting soil with a sand cap, its doing great but the Eco-Complete seems to be growing faster. For any other tank, its hard to beat good old fashioned general purpose construction sand that has a wide variety of particle sizes.

Im new in the Hobby, just started Last Dezember. But i did researches for over a year, Started with a 450 Liter Tank and Soil, gone Full Planted and since february i have Diskus in it. They do Perfect, dont have any Problems with algea or Something Else. Everything is working Fine, got a second Tank yesterday (450 Liter again) and this one will ne Sand for Sure, just to keep the second a bit simpler.

Great advice, just what I needed 🤓

I love some substrates better than others, great video

Along time ago I used cheap "plain" clay cat litter not the clumping kind about 2 inches deep. I added fertilizer tabs an covered it with about an inch of gravel. My plants loved it. The water was clear and the Cory cats did great. I read about it online.

I'm surprised they didn't mention anyting about colored gravel. I would stay away from it since the coating on the gravel After Time tends to break down getting into the water column. The Coatings may be non-toxic but why chance it.

I've done gravel, sand, organic potting soil, and now use coal slag blasting media. Love the blasting media!

I have some jet black gravel and I really love the look. My plants are doing pretty good also. I am planning on getting a ten gallon which I want to turn into a dirted tank with a carpet eventually. I am also interested in white clouds. Thanks for the education.

Excellent video thank you you have helped me make my decision

I have learnt so much from this video. Thanks for sharing

The landscaper store is perfect. I use pavers sand for all my tanks. I rinse the sand in a 30 liter bucket. Its a nice warm tan with bigger gravel in it. My shrimp have fun sifting it and my plants can easily root in it.

I like father fish deep substrate idea

have a tank with a nature look, as a stream. i use grey sand and small river rocks on top. i love it and so do my fish. after a few water siphons the sand and gravel mix together and look really good!i have sharks teeth, ray teeth, fossil Ammonite and various fossil shark/whale vertibrae in it. Glad i went this route. loaded with some cory cats, angel fish, gold/bluerams, guppies and sailfin mollies. Such an amazing community tank im proud of

thank you for the information it’s help us to decide what is good to put in the aquarium thanks again 🌹

SUPER ADVICE!THANKS SO MUCH TO MAKE RIGHT CHOISE

I'm a newb fish keeper.. and your videos help me a lot. Many thanks to you guys.. all love from philippines. 🇵🇭 Yeah, I went with gravel and you really cant go wrong with gravel.. 😁

Amazing video for me (an biginer)😊 the gravel i have allready bought but this video incurage me that i ve done the right decision. Thanks guys

Me and my partner started at the high level. Aquasoil in the first tank. Dirted tank in the second. Third... Walstead! Great video guys. I wish I'd seen this before I started haha!

I love that white betta in the background of the glo-tank. I have one too!

The best substrate for a planted tank is dirt capped off with either gravel or sand. I've done both and prefer gravel as the cap. The special designed aquarium plant substrates are very expensive considering a bag of organic dirt is dirt cheap.

You are the best! Thanks a lot

I have a dirted tank and am crazy ... how thoughtful of you. It was not difficult to set up, and went a year with very limited maintenance but I was looking to establish something alongside the Walsted Method, that leads to a self sustaining ecosystem... I have been running into problems recently but they have all centered around foreign elements making it into the tank.

My first tank was gravel, but now i use black sand with the aquarium planter boosting. Now I have a beautiful 29 gallon planted aquarium.

I love your videos Corey. You are so knowledgeable.i learn a lot from them. Please keep up the good work! :)

Nice information!

I just switched from old blue aquarium gravel to pea gravel in my 125g and I love it! It looks much more natural, it’s easy to gravel vac and I only paid $3 each for 50lb bags. I’m not a fan of sand, for all the cons mentioned.

Just to the point information ... choose whats easy to maintain as a beginer ... thanks buddies ❤️

Thank you guys ❤

Awesome video guys!!! I used tons of substrates from ADA, Eco-complete, Fluval Stratum, and regulator sand. Planted tank for beginners, I recommend Eco-complete, It's easy. My personal favorite is ADA for advanced users.

Excellent tutorial.

@KGTropicals - I've been in the hobby for about 55 years and still prefer aquarium gravel. Sand is a second runner up. Wish you touched base on the effects of substrate color has on the fish.

Blasting sand is amazing!! It makes your plants pop!

Thankyou, for explaining the subject of substrate.... As a beginner, it can be daunting. But, glad you made my decision much easier..... Gravel, it is ❤️🐠🦐🌿🌱🍃🍀

Hey John, yeah I had to be that person 😂🤣😎 I'm crazy and have had many dirted tanks in my nano (2.5 and 5 gal) tanks. My first tanks ever was dirted, told you I was crazy. 🤪🤪 I'm not too crazy cause I an not digging it up from my yard but buying MircaleGrow Potting Soil. Love what you and Lisa have done for the hobby and when you guys come up to visit API, stromboli and cheesesteaks on me.

You must also take into account what kind of fish will be in the tank. For example corydora catfish prefer sand, while goldfish could get a piece of gravel stuck because they are grazers.

Love my black gravel. Had it for over 15 years, and all 3 of my bettas throughout their lifespan looked great in the tank with it. Never had any motivation to move from it.

Ok, Gravel, thanks for the helpful information.

I love a very ruff gravel not only it provide that great bacteria too but i love it so baby guppy can hide between the grave and never get eaten by adults thanks for the video

@KGTropicals, you're the best, guys!!! Greetings from Bolivia and take care of covid19!

over the years of keeping planted tanks, one way what seems to work well for me is a layer of slightly bigger stones, topped with some clay balls, then a good layer of aquatic soil, then capped of with a good layer of natural lake gravel and use the clay balls every few months placed in to the gravel and that seems to work very well. so far the tank has been setup for 4 years now, but over the years ive added kg's of gravel to get it much deeper in places and of course the plant food and co2. after 4 years i could do with a empty and add new soil topped with gravel but so far it still seems o be doing well, just catching up on maintenance as done very little over the last year and bit and lot plants died, filters did not get changed very often, water changes monthly. mad thing is been right back at it over the last month, and still not got water clear, still full of bits, so decided the main big filter below the tank can catch the big bits, and will only then need doing every few months, and got a internal filter half the flow rate of my main one to hopefully clear the water. but plants i thought had died a few have come back after at least 6 months not seeing them so i feel im getting back on track. what helped me get away with it is i had a very heavy planted tank and gather the plants made a good difference for the water

I use black limpopo sand. Looks great and Cory's love it.

I recently just got back into the hobby after ~20 years. I started back up with sand. Regular gravel definitely would have been an easier substrate. Its a bit tougher to keep looking clean because of its smaller grain size and the inability to gravel-vac like you do with gravel. Overall it does look pretty cool, though.

I ended up buying finely ground gravel that’s a little tiny bit larger than sand, looks great too.

I am not even thinking about about buying an aquarium and fish, but this videos are actually kinda entertaining

Great information and i love all the info that you guys share. Question: My friend gave me the old planted aquarium substrate that he had used for 5 months, and then took them off the tank and it had been lying around his house for about a year now. is it still usable?

Not my first aquariam……but…..im old now and i want easy…..and simple…..and i love your advice…

Just ordered surfshark. Going to try it. I'll let you know how it works out for me. Keep up the great work!

I went with black blasting sand. It's kinda a middle ground between true sand and gravel, it's like a very coarse sand. And it looks great. Just make sure to clean it really well. 6 months in and no major issues with it and plants seem OK.

If you use specialty plant growth substrate make sure to use a polishing filter like the Marineland internal polishing filter charged with diatom powder, Seachem Purigen, and a filter media polishing pad to remove the near unavoidable initial cloudiness. They can be removed once the water is clear and and your plants are growing. No anaerobic substrate conditions with plant growth substrate like you can sometimes get with sand and gravel. Yes, they are initially easier but if they develop a problem in that area it's a doozy and your scape goes out the window as you start anew.

New in the fish Hobby thanks...😮

I like sand since my fish can dig around in it without hurting themselves and I dont have to worry about impaction. With a bit of fertilizer ive found my plants grow really well in it too

Cool I was the 1,000 like lol 🐟🐠🐡🦐🦀🦞🐙🦈🐬🐋🦑🐌🐚💙🌊 keep up the great work! Your fish are gorgeous!

Should do one on the overuse of aquarium treatments and cures.

I used gravel, because, well, undergravel filter. I used the Top Fin "Natural Beach" gravel, which is somewhat coarse, light to medium brown. I was using a HOB filter, but I dropped that filter into the tank when breaking it down to move it (saggy bookshelf is likely a bad place...) I was lucky I had an old UG filter and air pump in a box under the bed, as this happened between paychecks and I was trying to cycle the tank. I ran the UG filter for a couple weeks with the HOB cartridge clipped to the inside of the tank in the path of the lift tube.

Arowanas are looking amazing.

Thanks

I already have been using pool filter sand for many years in my 125 gallon fresh water community aqaurium. Id like to go back to gravel. Do You think I can put in a layer of the gravel on top of the pool filter sand?

Thanks for the information. I've had aquariums of all sizes off and on for about 40years now. I have a 55 gallon now. When I set it up I put sand in. For a year I tried hard to keep it clean, I couldn't. So now it's a bear bottom tank. Nothing wrong with sand, it's just I don't know what I was doing wrong. I'll be going back to gravel. Thank you, I've learned something

great timing. i am in the midst of cleaning my tank and changing my substrate. I think i wanna go for a dirted tank

I agree with Lanken H you guys are the best your fish are so pretty 😍