As earlier stated it’s hard to break free from all the years of really doing what you thought was right only to discover you had no idea it was this natural,easy and cost effective. At 70 learning is still possible. If I hadn’t discovered Father Fish I would still be in the dark. Hard to believe this man in his 80’s is still changing the way we enjoy the hobby. His dedication to the cause can’t be understated. Thanks for all you do sir.
Hello I’ve been following father fish. I haven’t done water changes in three months in three different tanks. Parameters are perfect. Plants are healthy guppies are on their second batch of fry. I just set up a 20 gallon long dirted my first one I had to see what all the hype is about so I painted black background I went 1 inch organic potting soil mix with topsoil from the local farm 2 inches sand maybe 2 1/4 inches sand my son, and I went to a local dirt road grabbed crushed gravel and used his beach strainers for the sand lol we rinsed it white sand looks awesome I let the mud mixture sit wet for 48 hours before capping and adding water I topped a couple plants from a different tank grab some water spangles from a different tank added them with a good light put are betta in with a small filter oh yeah, I did seed it from an established set up it’s been 24 hours parameters are zero fingers crossed hopefully no ammonia Hope this helps. thank you father fish!
@@moomoon1410up to 1 inch potting soil with plant supplements added into it and compost. Then covered up with 2 inches minimum of sand. Plants go in 1” deep and then the rest is history. Lots of videos on this channel explain everything in great depth
I’be been following you for a while now. My tank is fully planted but not dirtied, but it is a deep substrate. I’m going to start it again as a dirtied tank, I’m in the UK so can’t get your mix of goodness for the soil, what am I best putting in there to help the soil stay good.
Thank you for clarifying this. My FF tank is about 1 month old now. Everyone seems happy and even have a few babies already. Bought a bunch of your products and have been very pleased. Recently checked the levels and the ammonia was high and was searching for the answer. Thank you!!!
Bacteria will change the soil,which is not bad. The deep substrate will eventually be anaerobic which is what is supposed to happen. Plant plants into just the sand layer until everything becomes balanced (about a years time).
never had issues with ammonia, early on my problems were mostly related to being unable to grow rooted plants as well as fish compatibility with my water perimeters. Turns out mollies are not possible to keep in my water without adding minerals in some way, other livebearers fair better but not well. The rooted plant issue eventually solved itself since i just happened to end up making a deep substrate, its about half gravel and half sand at about 4 inches so eventually it gathered enough nutrients that the Vallisneria that had been barely growing for 2 years took off. The only time I had an issue with disease was a mysterious cherry barb die off, out of 8 cherry barbs only one lived while the others died off over the course of a month for a reason I still am unsure of why since the cherry barbs where the only fish effected while the neons, gourami, the rams, and everything else didnt seem to be having any issues.
@@ryanrogers8211 yeah i know about that now, its just i didn't at the time. I can keep just about any fish I want now but back in 2016 I didn't know anything. I would consider myself intermediate currently, I know how things work but its not like ive kept everything under the sun like some people and I still make mistakes with new species. My original 29 is still up and running, its beautiful, the scape is pretty bad but I've compensated with lush plants. I've also gotten over my cherry barb trauma and Im working on breeding them. Oh and if you are wondering what type of plants im into Bolbitis or african ferns are my favorite aquarium plant currently, its great for tall aquariums since it fills up space so well. Bolbitis ferns are like java fern on steroids in a way and I just love how it looks once it get growing. I also hate most stem plants since the trimming is a hassle and if you dont they look bad after a while.
@@ryanrogers8211 only downsides are they are slow growers and get big, also like java fern they cant have the rhizome berried but if planted so the roots can grow into the substrate on their own they will grow a lot faster. Great for breeding and the dark green colour stands out from other plants like amazon swords. id say a 9/10 plant, there are some downsides but mostly the same ones as java fern plus they get bigger so id suggest a large tank.
New tanks with High PH water may have more problems, and should test water if fish are stressed. Test for Ammonia (just NH3), not Total Ammonia which includes Ammonium. There are vids on this PH issue. Cheers and blessings to Father Fish and all of you!
I'm wanting to start a 32 gallon aquarium, with 5 flavatra claws... but I'm afraid, I don't know if I should start the cycle by incorporating them on the 2nd day after starting the cycle. or after a month and a half after cycling. . They informed me they should be introduced into an aquarium that is already mature... Father Fish, what would you do to start an aquarium with flavatra claws? I don't want to start this project and be disappointed with the loss of the fish so soon.
I think I'll will what u said, to have 1inch of organic soil and 2 of sand or fine gravel. And start the cycle. I have the doubt of when and how many to introduce to the aquarium
The lethality of ammonia depends on the pH of the water. Ammonia becomes lethal for fish when the pH goes up; but it seldom kills fish immediately. Chlorine is 1000x more lethal than ammonia.
? The entire point of his ingredients added to the dirt is maintaining a high Ph to prevent acidic water. His words. My tap water even comes out at 8.2 so what then?
@@otallono When pH is high (> 8.5) ammonia becomes toxic; when pH is low (< 6.0) nitrite becomes very toxic. Fish hobbyists should not be obsessed with pH because it is not very important, because fish in the wild live in water that has pH varies from 6.5 to 8.5. Carbon dioxide is acidic. The level of carbon dioxide in an aquarium varies on an hourly basis. So it is just a very fruitless pursuit to try and achieve an “ideal” pH. And many think that fish must be kept in a very stable pH or temperature and that rapid changes are detrimental to the fish. This is yet another myth. So if your pH is below 8.5 you typically don't need to bring it down for most fish. Even black water Amazonian fish do well at anything lower than 8.5 pH. If you really want to bring down the pH, you can try to add RO water or distilled water in the store and add some salt back into the water; or use rainwater which is a perfect source of soft water.
shallow substrate can be okay in a tank with a big filter and plenty of epiphytes (anubias and Java ferns) and floating/emersed plants that is well established, but it needs to be cycled very well
I set 50 MG/ltr. for myself. But in a not idioticlybstocked and fed tank with plenty of plants i actually have only seen it happen if something large died.... Heavily planted reasonably stocked carefully fed. Having too litle of it in your sytem is in mybexperience at least much more likely
Some ammonia is healthy I agree, but if you have any you should always keep a close eye on it and try to know what the cause is, it’s not the presence of ammonia that worries me, it’s the source of it.
@@FatherFish but where is it? What kind of waste is it? Sometimes strange stuff can happen in an aquarium. I personally just like to stay on top of it even if it isn’t as dangerous as people think, it is good for my plants but it can easily spike if you make a mistake. It never hurts to be safe, but it does hurt to assume it will just be fine. If ammonia is one day zero and the next day it’s gone up still in safe levels but it went up, you need to find out the exact cause and fix it, once that’s done you can let it be for the most part. At the end of the day I think it’s more down to personal preference, I hate seeing my fish uncomfortable so I micromanage my tanks, and because I enjoy micromanaging them 🤣
@@FatherFish yeah I learned that the hard way once upon a time, but now I have a lot of plants and an under stocked tank so ammonia shouldn’t be an issue at all.
Ammonia can be deadly and completely wipe out 3/4ths of someones fish when they havent set up a proper cycle yet. What you described is the nitrogen cycle its what all good aquariums need. Substrate like sand especially if its deep can form ammonia pockets when first setting up a tank (because new tanks don't have a working cycle yet some ammonia hangs around) these ammonia pockets when the sand is stirred can be DEADLY to your aquarium, you know when your fishtanks cycle is complete when there is zero presence of ammonia. Be careful what you're teaching people because even some basic petstores will refuse to sell to you if you say you don't have a cycle already established in a tank
@@shineOn_75 I was talking about sand. I've run deep substrate dirt aquariums but I'm only talking about ammonia pockets that form in deep sand. When I was a beginner I was told things like this video and more than half my fish died sadly due to ammonia pockets. Nobody even told me about this and actively told me not to worry about it and then it became too late. I know now after a decade the truth is to use half dirt and half sand and not too deep on the sand in a new aquarium, I'm just trying to spread this knowledge and hope it catches on because I really needed it back then.
@@blackdragonwolve8317 Understood. I do remember in a previous video and I think it's a recent release where FF addresses this very subject. Come to his Discord channel. You'll get almost instant responses/answers and lots of discussion. I am sorry I missed your point earlier.
Ammonia does not form pockets. It breaks down instantly based on the bacteria in the substrate. Any ammonia released into the water column is absorbed by plants. Deep substrate and heavy planting convert ammonia very quickly.
@@FatherFish There were deadly gas pockets in my sand before though which killed my fish rather quickly when I went in with a gravel vacuum attached to a chop stick for stirring, I was told these were ammonia pockets but if they weren't what type of gas could it have been?
As earlier stated it’s hard to break free from all the years of really doing what you thought was right only to discover you had no idea it was this natural,easy and cost effective. At 70 learning is still possible. If I hadn’t discovered Father Fish I would still be in the dark. Hard to believe this man in his 80’s is still changing the way we enjoy the hobby. His dedication to the cause can’t be understated. Thanks for all you do sir.
You’re right! Father fish has taught me a lot through his videos and livestream. I am grateful for his dedication and sharing all that with us. 😊
I definitely respect him and his fishkeeping abilities, and he’s taught me a lot, but sometimes I don’t always agree.
Thank you for taking away my worries regarding this. It’s hard to break out of the old thinking about things.
That is an amazing sorority you have there
Hello I’ve been following father fish. I haven’t done water changes in three months in three different tanks. Parameters are perfect. Plants are healthy guppies are on their second batch of fry. I just set up a 20 gallon long dirted my first one I had to see what all the hype is about so I painted black background I went 1 inch organic potting soil mix with topsoil from the local farm 2 inches sand maybe 2 1/4 inches sand my son, and I went to a local dirt road grabbed crushed gravel and used his beach strainers for the sand lol we rinsed it white sand looks awesome I let the mud mixture sit wet for 48 hours before capping and adding water I topped a couple plants from a different tank grab some water spangles from a different tank added them with a good light put are betta in with a small filter oh yeah, I did seed it from an established set up it’s been 24 hours parameters are zero fingers crossed hopefully no ammonia Hope this helps. thank you father fish!
Crazy how clean my tank is
Always deep substrate great fact
And what does it exactly mean please?
@@moomoon1410up to 1 inch potting soil with plant supplements added into it and compost. Then covered up with 2 inches minimum of sand. Plants go in 1” deep and then the rest is history. Lots of videos on this channel explain everything in great depth
@@ryanrogers8211 thanks for the explanation!! Appreciated.
Yay, I made it in another @fatherfish video! Thanks!
I’be been following you for a while now. My tank is fully planted but not dirtied, but it is a deep substrate. I’m going to start it again as a dirtied tank, I’m in the UK so can’t get your mix of goodness for the soil, what am I best putting in there to help the soil stay good.
Thank you for clarifying this. My FF tank is about 1 month old now. Everyone seems happy and even have a few babies already. Bought a bunch of your products and have been very pleased. Recently checked the levels and the ammonia was high and was searching for the answer. Thank you!!!
Plants are controlling the ammonia.
Tnx father for sharing worries answerd❤❤❤
This is very interesting!!
Spot on !
I'm trying the natural tank. My dirt is Turing orange and my white sand has black streaks along the sides
Bacteria will change the soil,which is not bad. The deep substrate will eventually be anaerobic which is what is supposed to happen. Plant plants into just the sand layer until everything becomes balanced (about a years time).
never had issues with ammonia, early on my problems were mostly related to being unable to grow rooted plants as well as fish compatibility with my water perimeters. Turns out mollies are not possible to keep in my water without adding minerals in some way, other livebearers fair better but not well.
The rooted plant issue eventually solved itself since i just happened to end up making a deep substrate, its about half gravel and half sand at about 4 inches so eventually it gathered enough nutrients that the Vallisneria that had been barely growing for 2 years took off.
The only time I had an issue with disease was a mysterious cherry barb die off, out of 8 cherry barbs only one lived while the others died off over the course of a month for a reason I still am unsure of why since the cherry barbs where the only fish effected while the neons, gourami, the rams, and everything else didnt seem to be having any issues.
Have you tried adding crushed up sea shells or coral to the bottom for minerals?
@@ryanrogers8211 yeah i know about that now, its just i didn't at the time. I can keep just about any fish I want now but back in 2016 I didn't know anything. I would consider myself intermediate currently, I know how things work but its not like ive kept everything under the sun like some people and I still make mistakes with new species.
My original 29 is still up and running, its beautiful, the scape is pretty bad but I've compensated with lush plants. I've also gotten over my cherry barb trauma and Im working on breeding them.
Oh and if you are wondering what type of plants im into Bolbitis or african ferns are my favorite aquarium plant currently, its great for tall aquariums since it fills up space so well. Bolbitis ferns are like java fern on steroids in a way and I just love how it looks once it get growing. I also hate most stem plants since the trimming is a hassle and if you dont they look bad after a while.
@@Exquailibur wow I’ll look into those ferns!
@@ryanrogers8211 only downsides are they are slow growers and get big, also like java fern they cant have the rhizome berried but if planted so the roots can grow into the substrate on their own they will grow a lot faster. Great for breeding and the dark green colour stands out from other plants like amazon swords. id say a 9/10 plant, there are some downsides but mostly the same ones as java fern plus they get bigger so id suggest a large tank.
@@Exquailibur ok some day when I get a 100+ gallon tank to set up with plants I’ll keep this plant to be part of it.
Also not only deep substrate, but also bare bottom tank which is well cycled, Ammonia is fine
My tank is at .50ppm ammonia but normally switches between 0-.25ppm. I don’t know if that is an acceptable range?
If you have substantial plantings the ammonia will be taken up by plants.
@@FatherFish I have a poly hygro, elodea, water wisteria, temple, bacopa and milfoil and still my ammonia is at .25ppm almost every day 🤦♂️
FF, can i put freshwater mussels in my aquarium tank?
a few
I always do natuural and biological filteration in all of my tank both marine and freshwater
This is great stuff, but is it actually possible to set up a deep substrate tank with a tank already set up with small gravel and full of fish?
I ask because I've tried about 4inches of sand on top, and plenty of material from the local brook, but I'm still seeing high ammonia. 😢
You may need more plants and less nutrients.
@@FatherFish so even without the layer of dirt etc under the sand, I could still get away with no water changes?
I loved this one ….. another problem solved ❤
Hence ghost feeding tanks.
New tanks with High PH water may have more problems, and should test water if fish are stressed.
Test for Ammonia (just NH3), not Total Ammonia which includes Ammonium. There are vids on this PH issue.
Cheers and blessings to Father Fish and all of you!
I'm wanting to start a 32 gallon aquarium, with 5 flavatra claws...
but I'm afraid, I don't know if I should start the cycle by incorporating them on the 2nd day after starting the cycle.
or after a month and a half after cycling.
.
They informed me they should be introduced into an aquarium that is already mature...
Father Fish, what would you do to start an aquarium with flavatra claws? I don't want to start this project and be disappointed with the loss of the fish so soon.
I think I'll will what u said, to have 1inch of organic soil and 2 of sand or fine gravel.
And start the cycle.
I have the doubt of when and how many to introduce to the aquarium
You need to learn how to do this. discord.gg/G4fkAE6qNw
garras can be sensitive. I would never introduce sensitive fish in a newe tank.
@@FatherFish thank you very much Fater ✨🤝✨
How do you get the water so clear? Mine always has a green tint.
What is your substrate?
The lethality of ammonia depends on the pH of the water. Ammonia becomes lethal for fish when the pH goes up; but it seldom kills fish immediately. Chlorine is 1000x more lethal than ammonia.
? The entire point of his ingredients added to the dirt is maintaining a high Ph to prevent acidic water. His words. My tap water even comes out at 8.2 so what then?
@@otallono When pH is high (> 8.5) ammonia becomes toxic; when pH is low (< 6.0) nitrite becomes very toxic. Fish hobbyists should not be obsessed with pH because it is not very important, because fish in the wild live in water that has pH varies from 6.5 to 8.5.
Carbon dioxide is acidic. The level of carbon dioxide in an aquarium varies on an hourly basis. So it is just a very fruitless pursuit to try and achieve an “ideal” pH. And many think that fish must be kept in a very stable pH or temperature and that rapid changes are detrimental to the fish. This is yet another myth. So if your pH is below 8.5 you typically don't need to bring it down for most fish. Even black water Amazonian fish do well at anything lower than 8.5 pH. If you really want to bring down the pH, you can try to add RO water or distilled water in the store and add some salt back into the water; or use rainwater which is a perfect source of soft water.
Wild timing. I just stocked my 1st dirted/planted tank and my ammonia test was off the charts toxic. All my fish are fine though…thoughts?
no thoughts. Stop paying attention to chemical testing.
shallow substrate can be okay in a tank with a big filter and plenty of epiphytes (anubias and Java ferns) and floating/emersed plants that is well established, but it needs to be cycled very well
Anythong is possible
What about nitrite? What’s the worry point when setting up?
There is none.
@@FatherFish think I need more plants then I’m getting some in 3 day old tank
I set 50 MG/ltr. for myself. But in a not idioticlybstocked and fed tank with plenty of plants i actually have only seen it happen if something large died.... Heavily planted reasonably stocked carefully fed. Having too litle of it in your sytem is in mybexperience at least much more likely
How in the heck are those bettas getting along-
They are shoal mates. doing fine. Siblings rarely more than squabble.
Man how do you have Bettas living together
They grew up together
How much substrate makes for deep enough substrate in a 29 gal
FF rules states 1- 1 1/2inches dirt and 2 inches of sand
1 inch dirt with a 2" to 2 1/2" sand cap.
lots of ball parking here. 1" of mixed dirt and 2" of sand.
And when you guys refer to dirt you mean organic dirt you can buy from home depo??
@@BlakeCunningham-tm6tn watch this FF video to get the entire formula: th-cam.com/video/hR6lp78cr4k/w-d-xo.html
How deep is deep?
✌🏽
100th comment... Thank you
Some ammonia is healthy I agree, but if you have any you should always keep a close eye on it and try to know what the cause is, it’s not the presence of ammonia that worries me, it’s the source of it.
We know the source… waste
@@FatherFish but where is it? What kind of waste is it? Sometimes strange stuff can happen in an aquarium. I personally just like to stay on top of it even if it isn’t as dangerous as people think, it is good for my plants but it can easily spike if you make a mistake. It never hurts to be safe, but it does hurt to assume it will just be fine. If ammonia is one day zero and the next day it’s gone up still in safe levels but it went up, you need to find out the exact cause and fix it, once that’s done you can let it be for the most part. At the end of the day I think it’s more down to personal preference, I hate seeing my fish uncomfortable so I micromanage my tanks, and because I enjoy micromanaging them 🤣
Feeding your fish too much and not having enough plants are two of the main reasons
@@FatherFish yeah I learned that the hard way once upon a time, but now I have a lot of plants and an under stocked tank so ammonia shouldn’t be an issue at all.
I have a 4 day old newly planted FF tank, some leaf melt but when I decided to check ammonia, it comes in at 2.0; should I be concerned?
not with enough plants
Stinky tank. Do as people in south east Asia. Remove gravel
th-cam.com/video/XPB_GDg9qnk/w-d-xo.html
This movie had me in tears. Stay on the narrow path of life with Jesus Christ ❤
Did you mispost your comment?
@@FatherFish no Sir, I wanted to share this movie with you. It’s a much needed depiction in this day and time.
Ammonia can be deadly and completely wipe out 3/4ths of someones fish when they havent set up a proper cycle yet. What you described is the nitrogen cycle its what all good aquariums need. Substrate like sand especially if its deep can form ammonia pockets when first setting up a tank (because new tanks don't have a working cycle yet some ammonia hangs around) these ammonia pockets when the sand is stirred can be DEADLY to your aquarium, you know when your fishtanks cycle is complete when there is zero presence of ammonia. Be careful what you're teaching people because even some basic petstores will refuse to sell to you if you say you don't have a cycle already established in a tank
True - for tanks that don't have a deep substrate.
You don't understand a dirted tank with a deep substrate. Read up and watch some FF videos.
@@shineOn_75 I was talking about sand. I've run deep substrate dirt aquariums but I'm only talking about ammonia pockets that form in deep sand. When I was a beginner I was told things like this video and more than half my fish died sadly due to ammonia pockets. Nobody even told me about this and actively told me not to worry about it and then it became too late. I know now after a decade the truth is to use half dirt and half sand and not too deep on the sand in a new aquarium, I'm just trying to spread this knowledge and hope it catches on because I really needed it back then.
@@blackdragonwolve8317 Understood. I do remember in a previous video and I think it's a recent release where FF addresses this very subject. Come to his Discord channel. You'll get almost instant responses/answers and lots of discussion. I am sorry I missed your point earlier.
Ammonia does not form pockets. It breaks down instantly based on the bacteria in the substrate. Any ammonia released into the water column is absorbed by plants. Deep substrate and heavy planting convert ammonia very quickly.
@@FatherFish There were deadly gas pockets in my sand before though which killed my fish rather quickly when I went in with a gravel vacuum attached to a chop stick for stirring, I was told these were ammonia pockets but if they weren't what type of gas could it have been?
simple solution, stop feeding your fish!
stop OVER feeding