THE MIRACLE OF A DEEP SUBSTRATE
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 3 ส.ค. 2024
- THE MIRACLE OF A DEEP SUBSTRATE
The deep substrate aquarium will provide years of natural fish keeping with little effort. It achieves a balanced state in which plants, fish, sand, and water exist in perfect harmony.
An aquarium with a deep substrate composed of soil and sand is a slice of nature doing what nature does best. The aquarium will thrive year after year with little more than some food and some light. Plants and fish in this deeply stable environment will thrive.
This state of harmony can be achieved with minimum effort, It does not benefit from constant mucking about. Left to its natural wonder, a dirted aquarium is a window looking out at the miracle of nature.
I love hearing the parakeets going crazy in the background 😂 crazy little birds 😊
And this is exactly why you are Father Fish great video.
Father Fish, how are you pulling up deep rooted established plants to sell on a regular basis in your deep sand dirted tanks without causing problems in the water column? Would love to see a video showing and explaining this.
Every discussion I've ever seen on deep sand beds prior to your videos says they only work if you never mess with it...ever. Yet here you are running an Aquatics store selling rooted plants out of your tanks...constantly changing things...pulling up and planting new ones.
Thank you a million times over for all the knowledge you so freely share in a way that's understandable and makes sense.
Plants that are deeply rooted in dirted substrate are typically left alone. More shallow rooted plants with only a month or so of growth are more easily uprooted.
I am careful to "jiggle" the plants as I uproot them to ensure the soil is not pulled up with the roots. It is a technique I have developed over the years that prevents soil disturbance.
Obviously with large, deeply rooted plants this is problematic. I am able to remove such plants with a minimum of disturbance by very slowly jiggling these plants. Typically I add sand to the area to increase the cap depth prior to puling them out.
I have, on occasion removed undesirable plants by simply cutting them off just above the crown and leaving the roots in the substrate. Typically these plants have regrown.
Every tank looks really fantastic and lush and full of life...thanks for all your knowledge father fish,🙏🙏🙏
Thank you, Father Fish ! Now I feel less guilty about skipping some water changes... It is great the way you explain things and the way to show how to maintain a beautiful aquarium without a ton off the work. I have a few dirted deep substrate aquariums and now I am going to add more substrate to those that don't as well. Thanks again and keep m coming... All the best from The Netherlands.
Thank you for sharing your experience. I wish I had been able to shop at that store! It was amazing!😍
Thanks, Mr. Father Fish for the knowledge dropped, and the lessons taught. Peace and Blessings. ✌💕
I've just created a dirt base aquarium capped with sand and planted. I have an external filter that was already running (5 years now) it has a built in filter. So my take from this video is I won't need to clean that filter for about 6 months & a small water change about the same time.
I love your "ignored" tanks.
That's what I consider a good tank.
👍
Nature, the mother of us all 🤗.
So true!
Awesome to see natural tanks.
Thank You. Father Fish.
This is truly miraculous for sure! This system and the way it helps self-sustain the aquariums is fascinating .
Thank you for explaining your overflow system in your videos. It is definitely Incredible expertise! Thank you for sharing 🙏🌱🐟🌿
Glad you enjoyed it! I am delighted to share woth those who enjoy.
Great looking store, thanks for sharing FF..
TY
Great video father fish
Glad you enjoyed it
I had difficulty setting up a dirted tank, but I ended up with a bit of a hybrid: I wanted the gravel on top but i used aquasoil as dirt. After about a month now the tank is nearly overgrown with no CO2 whatsoever
Incredible Father Fish incredible I used to set up aquariums using soil and sand like you back in 1984 back in 1984 I would add different compounds like Epsom salt ,calcium
Red clay. Also I would add frist to the bare bottom of the tank a dusting of all purpose fertilizer
Then the soil.
Thanks for sharing all this knowledge
🙏🙏🙏🙏
👍
That cichlid tank is fascinating. How much and how often do you feed them? Why the water changes? Wouldn't plants do best in a crowded tank like that?
Thanks for another great vid Father Fish 💕👍
👍
Love the jumping from one tank to another. 😂😂
I'm trying to learn how to naturally balance fish tanks, and your videos are so informative! I've only had my first fosh tank going on two years, and I've had so many failures. -_-' perhaps with your knowledge I'll finally build my best tank.
Great video FF, I cant wait to setup my next 30 gallon with a deep sand bed :) Very encouraging ^^
You can do it!
Whatup new friend, refered to you by Precious Tranquility. Great natural tank man, thats the way it should be!
Great lady. Happy to have you aboard.
Luv your work!
Love your support.
Malawi is crazy diggers I don’t know much about others cichlids but still with this setups Amazon sword should thrive I don’t see why not
I am so looking forward to purchasing your mixture on getgills. Hope it is available soon as I’m getting a new tank soon and plan to finally get the courage under your tutelage to do a dirted tank.
Once you go dirted you stop killing plants....
Great video, I enjoyed seeing some of your tanks.
TY
I appreciate your videos and how helpful they are! Would you add a sand cap to tanks that have eco complete or Fluval plant substrate? I would think the sand would settle down through and not remain a cap. Thanks!
Yes. Absolutely. It will allow the dirt to become anaerobic.
Horseshoe Crabs can be used to clean the bottoms of your tank in an ecosystem efficient manner. Great video!
OK Stryker505 - why are you talking about horseshoe crabs?
Father Fish Because they’re relevant to maintenance of an aquarium
@@stryker5055 They are a salt water animal that grows VERY large. They require a deep substrate where they bury. I have had many of them. Collect them here in FL as babies and sell to salt water aquarists.
I have never assumed they were paticularly relevant to the maintenance of an aquarium.
water enthusiasts. Have you used them to do maintenance?
I see you keep Mts snails...my fave all-time cleanup crew
Yes we do
Father Fish! Thank you for sharing your knowledge and love of fish keeping! I have 5 planted tanks with deep substrate. I wish I had found your channel first as it would have simplified the while process. I used Black Flourite capped with black sand. My substrates run about 4-5" deep. My tanks are usually over run with plants and fish are healthy.
Question. I am setting up an unplanted cichlid tank with a sand substrate, driftwood, rock and some pothos growing down the wood into the tank. Since the tank will NOT be planted, can I achieve the same balanced system without using dirt and just 4" of sand? Should I add MTS to keep the substrate turned over?
Just sand at 4"+ will balance the system. Snails will only cultivate the top inch.
Father Fish - okay, just set up a 7.5 gallon nano tank. I used the plant/shrimp substrate that came with it. After watching your videos, I added potting soil, and then capped it with about 2" sand, then added plants. Then, after a couple of days and after watching more videos, I went out and got a little leaves, mud, and small rocks from the creek in my backyard and poured that into the aquarium as well. Is that okay to do? Am I ready to add fish now that I have the creek substances in the tank?
Yes, add a few fish. A week later add a few more. Doing great Brian
@@FatherFish should I wait till the weather warms up to get some “wild water” from the river or should it be ok being cold
Sir, The dirted tank with plants.. Nice tanks and i am so happy to see them
1) i was under impression that dirted tank would work for a year or two and then have to be redone... and i see so many tanks not touched for long long times.. leave alone redone...
2) donot see use of CO2 either
3) Do you provide any fertilizers ? liquid or some other?
4) I liked that you not using or talking about any commercial products and i thought i cannot have a beautifull eco stable tank without using commerical available things
Watch my videos on creating dirted tank. The ingredients are ahown.
Ok...👍👈
When a system is all connected, when does a "water change" make any sense?
9 Months
once sets dirt aquarium with sand capping, usually how much time it will take to complete nitrogen cycle??? so we can add fish safely one by one
Thank you Father Fish for imparting your knowledge. With a deep bed substrate does the anaerobic process reducing the nitrate level and sustaining the aquarium continue for ever. How long does it last for? Is it an everlasting natural process? Thanks for any advice you have.
I add mierals to the substrate to prolong its viability until a balance can be achieved, usually 3-5 years, after which the system continues indefinitely.
Brilliant information mate !!!! Just for interests sake what is the nitrate reading on that cichlid tank?
tank is long gone. Good question. Do not remember. Sorry, old man's memory.
Hello father fish I see your tank you’re right you don’t use so2 your right
First fish here. Almost 1k.
🏆🙂🙂
Father Fish, I have two questions. The first one: Is it possible to grow ground covering plants in these type of tanks? Do the roots of these tiny plants penetrate deep enough to get enough nutrients? The second one: If I run a dirted tank with a sand cap, but there are a lot of big stones on top of it, would it still work? Thanks in advance.
Excellent questions. To grow ground cover in a new dirted tank they need to be grown either emersed or with CO2. A well established tank will do well without either. Plants will grow well with a rock cover if their roots are in the sand.
Father fish do you know if shrimp would be fine with a deep substrate I have all deep substrate tanks and my plants love it but was wondering about 🦐 shrimp
Thanks for the information. How many pounds of sand would you put in a tank with 48" by 15" footprint? Only sand. Thanks.
If there is no other element in the substrate it will require 75lbs of sand to create a depth of 2.5" in a tank with ha base of 48" x 15" I would use 2 50 lb bags of sand for this installation.
Father fish I’m new in this awesome hobby, but I’m honest, I’m afraid to my tank get stinky , because my family do not like it help me please love you Chanel very much ❤
Erick tell your family if gravel and plastic plant will be stinky. If dirt and sand will never be stinky. True story
😎🙏
Do you keep any shrimp in these tanks? And what are your opinions on keeping shrimp in tanks like yours?
Depends on the shrimp. Caradina require soft water, not good in my tanks. Neocardina do well in hard water. They are good in my tanks.
What are your thoughts of pros and cons on including a plenum only or using an under gravel filter (with or without dirt) along with a deep substrate. I am firm believer in deep substate but UGF adds a layer of filtering and prefer over canister, hang on back or sponge filters in the tank for low cost and low maintenance. A slow moving water flow through UGF and deep substrate should continue to allow root growth and prevent any rotting. A potential side effect is nutrients if dirted would flow into water column more so than without UGF.
We like to prevent nutrients from entering the water column. In addition, a UGF prevents the deep substrate from becoming anaerobic, a vital factor in breaking down waste for plant root production.
@@FatherFish thanks. What do you think of using an UGF for only part of the tank substrate? Would that still allow anaerobic conditions for part without an UGF?
Hi Father Fish. I love dirted tank. But i got a few questions. I want to setup a tank that will have a carpeting plant on it, Like hemianthus cuba. Tank is 60cm. How thick should my soil and sand be? Do you think it will work with carpeting plants? Thanks!
How do you take plants in and out of your tanks without kicking up a bunch of dirt and I would think propagating is more difficult too.
slowly and gently
👍🦈🍀
ty Oscar.
Did you used to own a tropical fish store in Baltimore long ago?
No but I founded the National Aquarium. Does that count?
Hello,
1)How to add dirt or river sand to an existing tank with fish?
2)Also how does the circulation in a deep sand bed work without plants?
I've collected 20 kilograms of river sand and planning to add it to an inch of gravel in my corydora tank making it four inches.
The aquarium has two small power heads with sponge in it and a top filter with sponge and ceramic rings.Planning to replace some of the ceramic rings with clay balls to make it more compact
But if planted is better then i will add soil to the gravel and then cap it with river sand.
Which one would you advice
Thanks again Father Fish
Amazing tanks
Since your tank s already running with gravel you only need to add 2" of sand to the gravel. DO NOT sterilize the sand. It has beneficial bacterial growing on it that will help your tank.
@@FatherFish Oh no i boiled it a couple of times..Guess i got to get some more tomorrow ?Got it in the cleaner part on the banks of the river but sometimes dogs,wild animals(forest area) and elephants come in that area so i sterilized it.this was dry sand but little wet as i dug little deeper
oh man broke my back cycling with all that sand.i also got a large piece of wood nearly 20 kgs along a stream in the shaded area of a forest .how would i go about it.thank you
@@Rjmjojo Just use it
What's the purpose of the air stone if they're self-sustained?
water movement
African cichlids are digger, don't they digg the substrate and mase with sand?
Did you used soil under the sand bad in cichlids tank as well, if yes than how thick is soil layer and sand layer? In your sump what type of bio media you use? Thanks for answers in advance father fish.
i Have some systems 8" deep with 6" of sand capping soil. Other systems for Africans are only deep sand that develops nutrition over several months. For large Centreal American cichlids I never use soil but make the sand bed very deep, at least 5".
Love Father Fish and all of your advice. I have a 55-gallon tank that was purchased to house an angel which had been under-housed. I have 2 Electric blue acara and one bristlenose in the tank. The two Acara were purchased 2 weeks apart from same tank but the second appeared to bring ich in after a week of being transplanted from the quarantine tank. I thought fish would be clear after a 2-week quarantine. Anyhow, I am slowly raising temp to 86, I am at 80 now. What signs should I look for regarding any distress from the temp raising. Also, my ph is incredibly high and my water source is hard. I have read and learned from you that quickly lowering this is not good for the fish. Should I place some driftwood in the tank, which I need to do for the pleco anyhow and see if that helps or will my carbon filter render that useless? What about tannins in a bottle, do they also slowly lower the ph and hardness? Finally, do you have a Twitch channel I can subscribe to?
i currently do not Twitch. But will get naresh on it. Lots of questions. Come on the Discord channel for tons of advice.
Father Fish, how long can the soil last in the aquarium? Must we add fertilizer periodically when the nutrients in soil are depleted?
With supplements added at the beginning the substrate is permanent. It will never need ferts.
What do you recommend? If you don’t have all the ingredients to add it into the dirt can you just put potting soil with Sand on top?
Do the best you can. I sell the supplement at www.father.fish.
How deep do you recommend a 29 gallon tank; and a 20 gallon high? Thx!!
Best one inch of soil and 2" of sand.
i only have gravels in one of my fish tank right now as substrate and no live plants in the bottom(only got some floaters and hornwrots)
So can i add a layer of sugar sand over the gravels ? will it do any benefit at all since i dont have any soil ?
plz reply as i m pretty new to this
Is there a significant discrepancy in the Ph of your water and the fish store?
@@FatherFish no , not really
What's your opinion on under gravel filters and plenums Father Fish?
They asre counterproductive
@@FatherFish How so?
Father Fish, when you set up a dirted blackwater leaf tank / like you spoke about on project piaba, do you have any type of filtration a bottom sponge filter, or a low volume hang on back, I want to set up a leaf litter dark water tank but not sure about having a still water tank or low level water movement, I would think a no movement tank might smell or turn stagnant, I understand about not going over 1" in substrate & 2" of sand, and not feeding tank, letting everything feed on natural food web, but I haven't seen or heard about weither no water movement or a small amout of movement, I have all your planted tank ingredients, I also located some blue clay from a warm springs in Georgia, and ordered 5lbs of dry powdered clay from Israel a dry out ocean bed, plus all the other suppliments on your dirted tank substrate, got worm castings at home Depot, I'm fixing to set up 2 37 gallon tanks, one heavy planted the other a leaf litter blackwater tank, thanks so much for all your videos & help, I've learned more in 2 months than 50 years of sterial tank systems, I had been using before, your videos brought me back to the hobby, Leonard Barron
Thank you Barron. I typically use sponge filters when I set up new systems. Join us on DISCORD and share pics and discussion of your tanks. discord.gg/yyGKtsyq
Do u have an email or something father fish?
I have a 300L fancy gold fish.
Sand at bottom... before I learned from u. With heaps of plants :) growing great. I used root tabs. The water is always stable. I test weekly. I would love to set it up as dirted as u teach... I would have to start from scratch correct? Will this disturb cycle or keep my canister running...
Also with just the sand and water stable. (2 yrs) are u saying that I don't necessarily have to do weekly water changes also... or this is only for deep sub...?? Agh. So many question...
Best way to contact me is here. If you need a longer conversation call me at 941/266-9998, Father Fish Aquarium.
Since water changes are few so may I request you father to make a water change video?
Great. Will plan a water change video in 2022. lol😇
Father Fish, how do you keep Scats with plants? I thought they destroyed all plants?
Anubias and jungle val do not seem to be palatable. These are hungry fish (and healthy fish) They seem disinterested in plants.
Hello father fish You have me sold on the dirt tank my 80 gal has 4in of sand no dirt Ive always only done sand vac 1/2 in down my tank is crystal clear minimal maintenance and I always thought it was because of the algae fix chemicals that I use half dosage of what they say on the bottle I’ve never liked chemicals are use crushed coral to increase the pH of my well water I’m trying to go chemical free I do not know what kind of dirt to use dirt from my backyard? Potting soil? I think probably clean soil in bags from the depot?
Watch some videos from my TH-cam page about the dirt.
FF, my 6 gallon is not dirted but amazonia substrate(1") . Can i cap with 2" sand also?
Yes. Absolutely.
@@FatherFish Thanks for replying. Merry Christmas and stay safe, stay healthy. God bless you FF.
If you didn’t have plants in you’re tank would the dirted not work. Have a nice day Father Fish
No the dirt would still work because of anaerobic denitrification. Nitrates are turned into nitrogen gas which simply escapes into the atmosphere. As you see in the video, the tank with all the aggressive cichlids contains very few plants.
AcrylDame what about setting up a dirted tank from scratch is it a case of letting the tank cycle just like any other tank?
@@alistairburr2345 Diana Walstad suggests adding the fish the next day but I've always cycled my tanks and used a starter since it's not expensive and seemed less risky.
The dirted tank still works even without plants. It creates gasses that are released through the water column and into the air.
Excellent AcrylDame
Hello father fish , i have doubt about the TDs in water ,change by the river sand , if I add a RO water with TDs 70 ppm the sand changes into 450 ppm , in this condition i can't grow a moss and also shrimp
I do not understand. Sand is inert, It is not able to change anything.
Thank u father fish , once I rechange all the water in my tank , this time it doesn't happen. now i understood TDs is change because of the old water in my tank. You are right . Thank u
Hi father fish, what kind of sand do you use? You've mentioned green sand in another video
I have used many different kinds of sand. My favorite is pool filter sand. It is clean, uniform, inexpensive, and easy to use
Thank you
really confused about this inch conversion to cm. 8 inches equal to 20.5 cm but that looks like 10 cm bottom which is about 4 inches.
Appearences can be deceiving.
do you sell aquatic soil
I sell the additive on GetGills.com
What's your favourite plant father fish!!???
All aponogetons