Want to learn more about substrate? Check out these videos! How to Choose The Right Substrate: kzread.info/dash/bejne/oZqgs7CgqsvFYKw.html Best White Sand: kzread.info/dash/bejne/pYB4xruFkt2zfpc.html Best Sand Overall: kzread.info/dash/bejne/iWiit658eauwo5s.html How Substrate Color Impacts Fish Color: kzread.info/dash/bejne/q5WVurKIYNunfaQ.html Our new shirts can be found at: www.primetimeaquatics.com/merch For the latest in the fish room check us out on Instagram primetime_aquatics For more cool behind the scenes stuff consider becoming a member! kzread.info/dron/YVN7EN0ALL6CE4U7NpMUTA.htmljoin If you want to see all the cool stuff Joanna does with other types of scapes check out her channel! kzread.info/dron/PEZk1MpOTGiBVh6BtWjlRg.html

@dt4676

2 жыл бұрын

I'd buy plants or supplies or something from you guys if you sold them

For the first 19 years I had the natural river rock gravel...got do tired of it and changed to a tri color blues...made a huge difference and is easier to clean too. Love it 😀

Great video! Very informative for everyone. I've made too many mistakes myself. Now I go with natural substrate. You can go darker or lighter. At this point of my life I can't stand colored fake substrate.

I used the pea gravel from Home Depot. It looks really nice. It came with a mix of black, red, brown, white and lots of versus other colored rocks. Note: this needed lots of rinsing but it was worth it. :)

@TacticalJackalope

2 жыл бұрын

I used the same thing from Lowe's and when I cleaned the filter it was covered in that fine light brown dirt and this even after I had cleaned it...lol

@dt4676

2 жыл бұрын

Nice. I'm doing that when I renovate my tank.

@marypaigeflynn4512

2 жыл бұрын

I've used this too 👍🙌 Another great natural/inexpensive option!! I especially loved it in my tank I had my shrimp in.. it always looked clean and I had little shrimpies happily living safely amongst the fish😁🦐🌿🐟💚

@dt4676

2 жыл бұрын

@@marypaigeflynn4512 do you have any mystery snail breeding experience?

@marypaigeflynn4512

2 жыл бұрын

@@dt4676 I do not, but I can tell you somebody who you can definitely talk to....my friend Roxanne "Foxie's Fishes" 💕 She is getting ready to get me started with a project soon 😁

Totally helpful guys!! nice to see you and thank you for a super video!

Good timing! Getting ready to set up a 20L and I'm using 2-3 parts black coarse blasting sand mixed with the varying browns of Tractor Supply pea gravel. So far loving how it looks in the mixing tray, think I'm going to really like it in the tank with plants and wood. Happy Monday! 👍❤👍

Great video ! One of these days, some manufacturer is just going to make the product many want and call it what it is: “Poop Colored Sand,” guaranteed to hide what you are too lazy to clean and in a color that you can brag is natural. Thanks to both of you for the wisdom, Jim

@PrimeTimeAquatics

2 жыл бұрын

Now that would be something :-)

I just purchased a 20g to put in an old, already gutted console TV....I'll be using black background and black diamond coal for my substrate, I'll probably have 10-15 cardinal tetras, and one blue gourami ...this will be my first truly planted tank...I'm so excited to get it going!! Thank you for your videos, they're extremely helpful 🙂

I have gotten lots of complements on one of thr tanks featured on my channel. I do 2 or 3 parts black sand (BDBS) to 1 part "natural" colored pea gravel. Great info as always yall!

I like seachem fluorite Red clay it makes the tank look amazing especially when the lights are on and the green plants look amazing contrasted off it.👍

@PrimeTimeAquatics

2 жыл бұрын

I like that too!

@feralon9570

2 жыл бұрын

Oh, the nightmare that is the red clay... I bought a bag of flourite red and couldn't tell if it needed to be cleaned or if it was like the fluval stratum and could just be put into the tank. I dumped the bag in and set up my scape added water... THE NIGHTMARE! It took hours to clean that all out. LMAO It did have a beautiful desert look once I got it right.

@zsworld6609

2 жыл бұрын

I use that as well in one of my tanks. I have the brown in another and the black in another. Plants really benefit from it

@JohnYT278

2 жыл бұрын

I use red fluorite in my tank too. I had to rinse it for a long time before adding it though.

Interesting that this video showed up. My friend who helps me clean my tank and I were discussing this yesterday. We decided to change the gravel because he is no longer able to get it clean with suctioning so I need to pick a new substrate. Hadn't considered black until I saw your video. Need to give it some major consideration. Thanks.

I have used many different substrates over the years atm I'm using white sand and small white rocks it actually goes together nicely for me always clean aquarium floor and the color is very nice for mid light setting.

I chose white gravel for my 29 gallon... and it looked awesome for a while... but of course now, after 6 months, it's mostly gone green from algae growth. Maybe not the best choice.

When setting up a ten gallon tank, I thought the new dark gravel would look great with some light blue gravel I had leftover. I mixed it all together, added water and decor. I hated it, too busy looking. It took me months picking out most of the light blue gravel. I'll never make that mistake again! 😁 Great video, thank you!

@wilson9d71

7 ай бұрын

Just done the same lol😂

Hey J & J Always been a black sub straight and black background kinda guy. All male Peacock Cichlids really pop...

Happy Monday! I'm diggin' CaribSea Super Naturals sand for my light-colored tanks (the blue shrimps really Pop on this), it actually stays cleaner looking than the black 'Imagitarium' sand I use in the Pumpkin Shrimps tank. Lavender/Lilac is one of my fav colors, so I've got Amethyst chips/smooth stones in the Snail Solarium & it looks amazing w/the green guppy grass!

@PrimeTimeAquatics

2 жыл бұрын

That's one of my favorite brands as well!

Thanks for this video! Keep it up!

Great info as always

I have the opposite outcome with black/dark sand, I think it gets dirty quicker than my natural pool filter sand tank. It's to the point that I will not use it again. So maybe it has to do with fish? I only keep cichlids. Great vid as always. Best channel on KZread

You guys give the best advice! 🐠

Thanks for info guys. Hey Jason, your videos really do feel like being back in Biology class 👊🏽

@PrimeTimeAquatics

2 жыл бұрын

Thank you :-)

I started my 55 gal two years ago with organic dirt, pool sand, & pea gravel. I wanted a natural tank & that’s what a friend recommend for my plants to grow well. What he didn’t tell me & I didn’t realize was the tannins from the dirt would last FOREVER. I had orange water & felt it hid the colors of my fish. Last month I added a 55 to my collection & completely emptied that tank to start over. The original substrate was still interesting to look at, how the layers had combined, but the water wasn’t what I wanted. I put black seachem substrate in my cichlid tank & went with a brown seachem substrate in the community tank. Now all of my fish look beautiful.

Good info!

I put circa mexican pebbles which looks great, it is more darker small 1/8 pebbles but like you guys said darker will bring colors out more on practically anything in the tank and does keep the unsightly unsighted..😀 ..off topic, quick question, would putting a group of pygmy gourami aka sparkling gourami with 1 betta in 20g tank be ok or no no? Thanks for your help Jason & Joanna! Keep up the great work!

Love Caribsea especially now that PetSmart has many of the 50# on clearance for $19 with members $5 S/H or free shipping over $50. Great meeting you both at Aquashella Chicago!!

White sand..... blah! It stays white for two hours! It does look amazing that first two hours though! 🤣😂😫 Substrate is so much fun, just know when mixing substrates that different weights of sand, stone, soil... Sometimes you have that beautiful look that you wanted until you wake up and all the sand sunk under the fluval stratum... or those big pebbles you bought to accent that gorgeous black sand now live UNDER that sand.. 💚🧡

Funny thing I have been noticing is the tank I set up for my Panda Cory breeding tank ( three super reds in it also) with real sand from the bank up the road. Fish and plants seem to be out growing my grow out tank.

Good info! I use in my African cichlids tank caribe sea Sahara. It is a salt and pepper aragonite sand. It’s on the lighter side. Helps buffer the water too. It seems to hide the muck. I do use a black background I love the contrast

@luciancorvus9992

2 жыл бұрын

If I may ask ... what type/colour of rock display (if any) do you use? I'm planning to return (yet again) to the hobby, and being able to darken or lighten using this substrate as a base will offer versatility - especially with the seeding of the other (inevitable) tanks to follow. Cheers!

@brianp6180

2 жыл бұрын

I use dragon stone. It’s a darker color. I also paint the back of the aquarium black to darken it up. Plus I use some fake plants from Elite cichlids. They look natural.

@luciancorvus9992

2 жыл бұрын

@@brianp6180 - Thx so much ... especially for the artificial plants ref.! The slate base design looks to be extremely practical. In the past I've used dual image tank backing - black one side, rock wall grotto on the reverse.

Happy Monday. I prefer the look of lighter substrates, but I wish I knew how difficult it would be to keep clean. Any new setups now gets a much darker substrate 🤓

A lot of food for thought, switched to dark substrate and plants never grew as well, may need to-do some future testing :)

I've had ghost shrimp color up to red gravel. Also some cherry shrimp culls I turned green on light green gravel

My 7 year old has a glofish tank and the main colours are pink and purple. It's fun and suits her personality and kind of has that look of an underwater fairyland. We used to have a glowing mushroom house in there that really aided the look but the paint flaked off within months. We have it just outside the tank now as a sort of 'entrance' to the magical world. My tank has the riverbed-coloured gravel which has a mix of black, brown and pale stones. Getting realistic decor for tanks where I live is very hard to come by. It's all the purples, yellows and skulls and blues and pinks.

My favorite is grey sand from Michaels craft store or I also like the dark brown from Walmart. The grey sounds weird but it’s really pretty. I use it in the front with ada aquasoil in the back for the plants.

@dinkywinkydog1311

2 жыл бұрын

Also the sand from both places is bigger granules so it cleans easy and does not get sucked up by vacuum either, compared to aquarium sand that’s really fine.

light substrate looks great but you can see every speck of dirt inside it and after a few days it looks terrible especially with fish that have heavy bioload like snails, cichlids or plecos and as such i only recommend light substrate for understocked tanks with good filtration and frequent water changes. so i usually recommend darker substrate for most people.

@Aquadiction

2 жыл бұрын

Had this problem a few year back but then we got some coolie loach's and their activity during the nights sloshed up al the dirt so it was filtered out by a canister and went back to looking crystal white... Also found the amazon swords grew really well because the substrate was white, after switching to dark the plants never did as well for some reason, anyway sorry to but in just a few thoughts :)

I used the Top Fin 'classic beach' which is on average light to medium brown and a little coarser than the brightly colored gravels. My background was a re-use of the tank's insert and some double sided tape. It's got a stacked slate and plant look, although also tending towards light gray and blue - at least, I thought I was clever. Turbo the Wonder Snail didn't care, and I haven't seen any real changes in my powder blue dwarf gourami but I have only had her a couple of weeks.

Went with CaribSea Super Naturals Peace River and absolutely love it

I’m going to try dark aqua soil capped with white opals and red plants. I hope it works out.

I tend to go with the same sand colored substrate. I like it.

@PrimeTimeAquatics

2 жыл бұрын

Cool!

I just hated my aquasoil, because of the dust it gave when I (re)placed plants and because of the plants would never stay put. They would come loose very often. After one year I was so fed up with it that I changed to black, rounde shrimp gravel from Dennerle. Best switch ever and I wish I had known the dust aspect before buying the soil. It would have saved me a lot of work, frustration and money😆. Gerda 😘

@Ekster77

2 жыл бұрын

@@joshuagraham1265 hi, what do you mean by "cap"? I'm from Holland 😆.

I picked black gravel for my red & white betta, Monet. He looks good against it. Plus the green plants and white smooth larger stones look nice too.

@PrimeTimeAquatics

2 жыл бұрын

Cool!

I bet you don't know what my favorite and favorite color substrate is 🖤🤔🤣 I learned this too the hard way!! The first time around in the hobby I dreamed of colorful substrate and awesome plastic plants I carefully set up and decorated my tanks. I wanted my aquariums to look like the pet shops I had been in. For the time, early '90s, I had a fish room that looked like a 🌈 and I loved it🤣 and so did everyone else that came around 🤣 Then I found KZread and I started watching awesome channels like yours.. I had really never seen natural setups or even planted tanks like the aquascaping channels we're showing me and I fell in love. I remember thinking that I couldn't do it myself... Here I am A year later learning and being an official member of the #blacksandgang4life🖤🤣 Jason told me to get some hornwort and I decided I was an official aquascaper as well 🤣 Thank you Jason and Joanna for ALL of your videos and helping me, along with so many others, on our aquarium and fish keeping journeys 🥰 Great video and aways a big thumbs up!! I hope you all have a wonderful blessed day 🙏🌿🐟🌿💚

@PrimeTimeAquatics

2 жыл бұрын

There is a part of me that wants to go old school 80s and do a tank from that era :-)

Love you guy's, and aways looking forward to your videos,,your fan mg

Hello I have a Top fin aquarium that has a white filter and water fountain installed in the tank. That is white also. For the life of me I thought I could remove it. It is mounted in there. Since it is white I thought about clean lines and neutral substrate. Then it dawn on me the waste and algae will be so visible. What are your suggestions for this particular type of tank. 🤔

Joanna "link the video down below and up there somewhere"... that was super cute!! Jason, use the left hand and tell us up in the right like you always do!! Lots of love to you both and the boys too!! Yesterday I completed a 20 gallon tall, fish in, substrate change, from black gravel to white pool filter sand!! My goodness it was a process! But it all went down better than ever expected!! I made a check list of tasks needed to complete process.. wash sand, set up two small airstones on each side of tank, remove decor and drain/gravel vac 60% water, carefully scoop out gravel and add sand/spread, replaced decor, let the dust settle for 5-10 minutes, refill and treat my water!! IT LOOKS BETTER THAN EVER!! Fish for the 20 gallon- 4 bolivian rams (1M 3F), 4 H. Rasboras Unsexed, 6 guppies (2M 4F), 5 corys (2 pandas 2 albinos 1 emerald green), 1 albino bristlenose, 1 black loach, 1 african dwarf frog. Jason check your email.. i sent you/Joanna, John/Lisa, Kev @kavemanaquatics, and of course Cory @AquariumCoOp

Took me 4 times to watch this video lol very good tips. It was nice to see you guys at the gcca. All the fish are doing great we got from you lol we want more brilliant green rasaboras and the honey guaramis are stinking cute

@PrimeTimeAquatics

2 жыл бұрын

Good to hear! :-) Great seeing you guys as well.

Happy Monday.

I was going to get black gravel because I have glow-in-the-dark decor and it's really really pretty I think the black gravel would bring out the glow and my fish are going to be small I only have a 5 gallon

Also, just fyi, when I get the notion to 'change substrate'; I just lift up the plants, siphon out the old sand, and then siphon in the new color sand/gravel; it's easy-peasie; takes just a little bit longer than a usual water change, I don't break down the tank. Then I just replant & root-tab. I'll usually relocate plants/driftwood around at this time too because, why not? My tanks are heavily planted, snailed & shrimped as well as fish, and this still works great. My fish are always super happy w/new, clean substrate!

@PrimeTimeAquatics

2 жыл бұрын

That's a nice system!

@marypaigeflynn4512

2 жыл бұрын

Awesome Finn💪👍

Hi J&J! Great video, as always! I'm considering setting up a (mostly, maybe a pleco) species only pea puffer (maybe 6) 20 gallon high. I have blue,black, or frosted background and most of my tanks have pool filter sand. There will be wood and rocks and plants. I feel that I am scaping challenged. What would your set up look like?

Personally? I only use sand it's cheap and looks great, easy to clean and most importantly corydoras love it and if I don't have corydoras in a tank I wan't to have the option to move them there.

Wow, what is that gravel at 0:10 ? It’s incredible.

I keep African Cichlids. on a budget, pool filter sand is the way to go but you must give it a good rinse to remove dust and fine particles. The fish love moving it around and it is a natural colour

I use brown gravel and JBL Sansibar black sand in transparent trays to hold the substrate, so its easier to change but my corydoras have excavated 40-50% of it into the tank floor Still keep the trays in tho. Use the black sansibar on all my tanks

What's the name for of the fish at 0.6 sec on the right hand side?

You started mentioning how the darker substrate will hide waste and algae (like red algae). But it also means when you clean, you’ll miss these issues going on. If you have a dark gravel you won’t have a clue that you have a red algae breakout.

@PrimeTimeAquatics

2 жыл бұрын

I find it’s still easy to see on black substrate too.

I think if you have vibrant fish a dark or bright substrate will work. But like you said, bright substrate shows all debris clearly. So it’s a lot of maintenance, and in my experience it’s never perfect lol. Which is fine. But sometimes when I clean the tank I take old sand out and replace it with brand new sand because I have a bunch extra.

Im using aragonite sand for mbunas

Do you have any videos with tips on best ways to change out the substrate on an existing tank?

@PrimeTimeAquatics

2 жыл бұрын

It's basically a complete breakdown and reset. Wish I had better news.

cool I learn something. thx ! now is it easier sand or gravel ?

@PrimeTimeAquatics

2 жыл бұрын

Gravel is usually easier.

Happy Monday my guppies had babies today wow.so exciting. I'm guessing it's guppies and not the long tail Dalmatian Molly's or Micky mouse platy's. I'm totally a beginner not even a year in the hobby. Exciting ☺️

How do you feel about capping gravel with sand? I have a 5 gallon nano tank that has black gravel and I wanted to change it to a black sand. Should I take out the gravel or can I maybe mix it or cap the gravel? Thank you!

@PrimeTimeAquatics

2 жыл бұрын

Usually it just mixes together over time.

What color substrate would you recommend for a 75g African Cichlid aquarium with a black background? Thanks!

@PrimeTimeAquatics

Жыл бұрын

I like using black substrate with them.

tank depth is something I would consider too! A 55 gallon for example tends to look much better with black sand since it creates a greater feeling of depth. A tank with black sand feels more enclosed, and there is more focus on the plants themselves instead of the substrate. In a tank with more width (ex. 75 gal or 40 breeder) white sand would work great because you can build a feeling of depth with layers. A 55 gallon doesn't really let you do that

Any suggest for any kind of blue color cichild substrate? Dark or light?

@PrimeTimeAquatics

2 жыл бұрын

Most of the time dark works better

I always have a couple rules when setting up my tanks, the substrate has to be a natural color, set aside enough time to be able to layer/texture/mix/carefully place the substrate as needed/desired, always add the proper substrate for the species being placed in said tank. I tend to use floramax, fluorite, stratum, ada, contrasoil the most

I started out years ago with naturel pea gravel, but after a while, I thought it looked boring so I changed it to white instead, and that made the tank look bigger/brighter. BUT after about a month that pure white started to look a little brownish, so every 4/5 months I would use fish tank safe light bleach to clean the substrate and then put it back in the tank. Did that for YEARS and now i have black gravel, best decision EVER!😁😉

@PrimeTimeAquatics

Жыл бұрын

Ya, that’s a little easier to deal with. 😀

What kind of gravel do you recommend for tropical goldfish

@PrimeTimeAquatics

Жыл бұрын

I like keeping them on sand.

Can you have backgrounds on sides too to avoid algae? Will it be ok for plants

@PrimeTimeAquatics

2 ай бұрын

Sure, but it might not avoid algae. Might make it less visible though.

Tried white sand for the first time and hated it. Thought I hated my aqua scape, but switched out to black sand and replaced aqua scape and love it now

I had my golden nugget L81 pleco for 23 years so far mostly in a tank with black gravel. The beautiful yellow fins natural lose color with age and the fish was quite dark in color and not very impressive. And then I changed the gravel to include lots of white quartz. Now finally the L81's spots pop and the entire fish is pleasingly lighter. All due to gravel color.

I have blue gravel in my 55 gallon and want it to look more natural. I am in the process of changing out the cheesy (color bleached out) store bought decor. I have two bubbling decorations that I am replacing with sponge filters to assits with my cannister and water agitation. Is it worth the hassle to change the gravel for a different color? Is blue really that bad?

@PrimeTimeAquatics

2 жыл бұрын

If you like it that’s all that matters.

Someone got some sun hahaha. Keep up the great vids

What color gravel do you think is best to show off Jags iridescent colors?

@PrimeTimeAquatics

2 жыл бұрын

Black for sure

Musou Black oder Vantablack for backgroundcolor ? Cool ore Not Cool ?

I have a general question for my 20gal planted/ 5 small tiger barbs and 2 small plecos... everyone seems to be happy.. I’ve had the same tank setup for about 5 months with weekly 10-20% changes and monthly 50%... what I have noticed with testing my water before each water change is that my ammonia is high, nitrites zero and then high nitrates (which is why I change water so often)... so by watching a TON of your educational videos.. am I correct in assuming that I need better biological filtration to help my ammonia convert to nitrite? My water is crystal clear and I have no real algae problems.. and my fish appear happy and healthy... should I not worry about my nitrites as long as my nitrates are being controlled with water changes? But at the same time I am concerned about the ammonia... I’ve tested my baseline sink water (before conditioners) and it has low levels of nitrite.. however, after I add it to my tank, within a week my nitrites are back to zero, but the ammonia and nitrates are back up. Sorry this is so long, I’m just not sure why my nitrogen cycle is so weird... could it just be a simple bacterial-filtration issue?

@PrimeTimeAquatics

2 жыл бұрын

Good question - you could try adding more filter media (or increasing the flow in your tank in general). It might not be a bad idea to try a different testing strip (or solution) to make sure your ammonia test kit isn't bad.

I did not know Tina Fey knew so much about fish!!

Just added my EBA'S to a new 40 breeder with pool filter sand and a black background. I'm torn because I love the natural look but the fish would've looked better with black sand.

@tigercow

2 жыл бұрын

Noted

I see a lot of people like Black Diamond Black Blasting Sand from Tractor Supply. Do you think this is a good substrate? If not, I’d like a rich black medium weight sand. What brand would you recommend?

@PrimeTimeAquatics

2 жыл бұрын

I know a number of people who use it, but we haven’t tried it yet. We just use the Top Fin branded sand

You know I have brown sand in all my tanks which is just a little , just a little whiter than the fish waste so the poop blends in with the sand and doesn't make my tanks seem dirty , well until weekly maintenance of course.

Any suggestions for keeping guppy fry? Or they are fine as is in a 10 gallon?

@PrimeTimeAquatics

2 жыл бұрын

They're usually fine as long as they have some top cover.

can u keep bristlenose pleco with a jack dempsey cichlid

@PrimeTimeAquatics

2 жыл бұрын

Ya, I would give the BN some rock work to hide in and make sure the BN is larger then the Jack if they’re both small (or a full grown BN if the Jack is in the larger side).

I'm from India. So don't have much knowledge about South American biotope.. I've 2 Silver dollar from last 2 years, 2 Red Spotted Severum from the last 4 months, and a Common pleco from last 6 months...My tank size is 3.5 by 1.5 by 1.5 ft....and I only added 2 driftwoods,nothing else in this tank...I made background full black..and yeah my tank is bare bottom...I think they are doing perfect but sometimes a little curiosity comes whether they are perfect or not....So please suggest me something if I'm making any mistakes....Sorry to say I Can't upgrade a more larger tank right now because of not too much free space

I wish I had seen this prior to putting white 😢 do you have a video on how to change it?

@PrimeTimeAquatics

Ай бұрын

It’s basically a full tank break down.

Black or natural color gravel substrate for Gardneri Killifish? I've had the natural stone but think the Black might show them off better. Brand recommendations?

@PrimeTimeAquatics

Жыл бұрын

I think they look better on darker substrate. We just use whatever we find at Petsmart or petco.

@retroreddvintage1350

Жыл бұрын

@@PrimeTimeAquatics Ok thanks. I've read that some of the Black gravel fades badly; but I'll give it a shot. Your videos are so informative!

I got a blue and a Black tank., I don't get white for poop reason. My Orange fish and white. Look great.

I have dark grey in my tiger barbs tank.No hot pink LOL.

I’m kinda new at aquariums and have been using light colored sand because I like the natural look but also because I am worried about keeping poop out and rotting food. I love the look of black but I don’t think I could keep my water balance where it should be because I wouldn’t be able to clean as well as needed. Am I wrong on this?

@PrimeTimeAquatics

2 жыл бұрын

I think both are easy to clean.

@Jevababy25

2 жыл бұрын

Thanks. Is it risky to remove all my fish with water to change the substrate to black? Or what’s the best way you suggest?

Hi ! I'm the first person to see The Monday video!

@oinkmastersupremeforever

2 жыл бұрын

Sorry,my "always the first in the class to raise my hand nerd enthusiasm"to showing 🧠💭🤗😎😊

@PrimeTimeAquatics

2 жыл бұрын

Woohoo!

What type of Black substrate is used in this video?

@PrimeTimeAquatics

Жыл бұрын

It might have been Top Fin branded?

The color lover in me has always wanted bright colorful gravel. All the pretty colors! (Just not mixed!) The nature lover wants it to look natural. I decided…………..natural with colorful fish!

a bit pricier than generic black gravel for fishtanks. obsidian gravel. basically just very inert black lava glass. usually comes tumbled so it should be safe for fish in that regard as well. Fully black, through and through, so it won't lose colour over time, just.. it's fairly expensive in the quantities needed (in my area around 75 euro's a kilo). but it IS a very pretty deep glossy black.

Ever since I cycled my tank my ammonia, nitrite and nitrate are always at 0. 10 gal, 6 zebra danios, 3 mystery snails, 2 amano shrimp. My plants barely grow, what an I doing wrong?

@NWHSBL

2 жыл бұрын

Lots of possibilities here. Make sure lighting matches your plant types, not just the type of light but also placement and duration, use liquid ferts and root tabs in the right places, use the right substrate for your plants, don't plant things like anubias in the substrate, check if your plants require CO2 injection, etc.

@sagaracharekar7839

2 жыл бұрын

Also, you need to.have some nitrates because that's what the plants use as food. If your nitrates are 0 ppm then that means your tank most probably is not cycled...

Can I ask a question that has nothing to do with this video? I know y’all are in the Chicagoland area, I am too and am just now getting back into the hobby. With our water being pretty hard how do you keep fish like Cardinal tetras, Apistos etc?

@PrimeTimeAquatics

2 жыл бұрын

I have no luck with cardinals and marginal luck with apistos.

@yehoshuacirt8645

Жыл бұрын

Cardinal tetras never lasted in my hard alkaline water.

“It looked beautiful for a day and a half” 😂 I have white sand in my neolamprologus multifaciatus and pea puffer tanks. The rest are black sand and Eco Complete or other black planted tank substrate. Then bare bottom for the goldfish.

I'm interested in getting discus. I heard discus speckle with a dark substrate and background. Is this true?

@PrimeTimeAquatics

2 жыл бұрын

I haven't kept them in a long time so I'm not sure?

@zsworld6609

2 жыл бұрын

Yes, that's true. Discus really need a more neutral color and never use a dark background either. They really want to blend in and will change their colors to do so

@davidsenger7694

2 жыл бұрын

@@zsworld6609 thanks for the information Ryan

Ive heard it but i cant say ive ever noticed a difference in fish color with light or dark substrate tbh, but i do prefer black sand, but sand goes everywhere and black sand will fall on rocks and plants etc and makes it all look dirty lol, mind you i dont even like Backgrounds, i like my tanks open top and backgroundless with black sand.

Any time someone mentions a betta sick or dying (in my Facebook groups) the responses are always “the colored gravel is leaching toxins! Change it ASAP!” I find this to be so crazy and awful advise! Clearly something else is going on! Do you feel different about painted decor though? Having to plate dip first? (I realize you don’t use those decorations but wondering about your opinion on it) thanks 😊 love you guys 💕🐾🐾

@PrimeTimeAquatics

2 жыл бұрын

I don't use colored gravel (other than black), but I have never had a problem with black gravel.

Shouldnt your main concern be creating the appropriate habitat for the species in the tank?

@PrimeTimeAquatics

Жыл бұрын

That is always the primary concern.

what about keeping pigmy puffers

@PrimeTimeAquatics

2 ай бұрын

Sand is easier to clean up after them.

Best way too actually move fish into new tank with new substrate?

@PrimeTimeAquatics

2 жыл бұрын

It's basically a complete breakdown.