STEM PLANTS BUNDLE SALE - Over 75 plants - 15 Species for $59! Limited Time OFFER so HURRY! father-fish-aquarium.myshopify.com/ For Special Soil Supplements, Plants, FIsh & Merch in your country: fatherfish.fish/

This is great. Thanks Father Fish! My 20gal FF heavily planted tank is doing fantastic at 2-3 months. All the plants are thriving. Everything is in balance. I'm 62 and have almost always has aquariums. NEVER in my life has fishkeeping been so easy! And your talk about pH is good too. I havent looked at my test kit in 3 years. My husband was getting all worried , but like you said, i had a handle on it and fish were great. Now, its even better thanks to your methods!

Thank you Father Fish! When i found your channel all my constant worries about the water quality in my Betta fish tank went away. My fish is happy and less stressed since i started listening to you and not all the others. Fishy and plants are healthy and thriving. ❤🎉❤🎉❤🎉❤🎉❤ May God overtake your life with unimaginable blessings from this day forward AMEN!

@ken-mb5cp

6 ай бұрын

Yes nature knows best. We shouldn’t interfere so much. Father Fish is very wise.

Baba benimde 60 yıllık tecrübemle sana katılılıyor ve yeni hobiye başlayanlara 75 yılda edindiğin MUHTEŞEM bilgilerinle bu güne kadar izlediğim tüm viyolarında onların hata yapmadan bu hobiden zevk almalarını sağladığın için sana tüm kalbimle çok , çok teşekkür ederim .

It's so true... Ten years ago I kept fish..I lost them so i stopped...I over fed..I used all the different chemicals...since i found Father Fish..I got a new tank...and its brilliant..I have just recently created a food web...and to see the fish... loving it is really great...it gives me so much pleasure... Once again..Thank you Father Fish for your wisdom... and bringing me back to something I really love.. 🙏

@DashDrones

6 ай бұрын

Yay👍

Agreed, throw that test kit away, once you have an FF natural aquarium, just watch your fish. You'll know if there's an issue(probably overfeeding), otherwise leave it alone👍 All the best from Ireland

Ive been feeling like I want to do more in my fishtanks, I've done planted tanks in "aquarium soils" sold in places like petsmart and stuff like that, I've done the nano shrimp tanks and the monster tanks but they always left a spot that didn't feel quite complete in a way, finding your channel has made me want to go out around where I live and pick what I can from my surroundings and building an ecosystem rather than an art piece, when spring comes I'm definitely doing a spring cleaning and doing a hard reset the right way with all my tanks, all thanks to you man, God bless

@AzulaisQueen743

3 ай бұрын

Absolutely this! Everything in my tank (minus substrate and terracotta pots for my blood parrot) came from nearby nature. I use branches from my mulberry trees in my tank and let the leaves dissolve into the water. I'm now three years no water change and proud of it

Whilst I understand the "no testing" philosophy and agree that a plethora of test kits is not always required to keep healthy aquaria, I have over the years come across plenty of circumstances where a test kit would have averted an aquarium or pond disaster. Not everyone is blessed with tap water that is ideal for fish keeping, and not everyone sets up a tank that runs itself perfectly from day one. For those of us who have to battle with the stuff that comes out of our taps, test kits are an indispensable part of our hobby. My own experience might act as an example. I moved 200 miles into an area where a different water utility supplied the tap water. Initial tests revealed that the water was slightly acidic, pH 6.9, with nitrates below 10mg.L, and a hardness of 4°DH. Which was OK, because I happen to like keeping fishes from South America which prefer parameters not unlike these. Everything was fine until 2 years ago when I noticed my wood shrimps dashing about and lost some days later. The pH in their tank, which had shell gravel in, had fallen to 5,25. Speaking to the water company, I learnt they had changed their buffer to keep the pH nearer to 7.4. They didn't tell me which buffer they were using, but it was clearly unstable or easily depleted in my tanks. They were sorry (!) but there was nothing they could do. Without my test kits, I would have been stumped to find the cause of my problem. I have come across people who own every test kit and treatment available, and I have attended to call-outs where the client was unaware of the need for testing. I know many experienced aquarists who are confident of their water quality and who have largely dispensed with testing, but not everyone is as canny as they are. I would urge caution here and advise novices and experienced aquarists not to discard their test kits, but to hold on to them, use them when they have good reason to do so, until they have garnered sufficient experience to a point when they can tell the state of their tanks "by eye". I think it is all too easy for those of us with over 20 years of experience to say to others, "This is what I do, and you should do this too." It takes a lot to learn the dynamics that go on in an aquarium, and for a lot of aquarists, their test kit is a valuable tool in the toolbox.

@pendlera2959

6 ай бұрын

Agree 100%. I think people freak out over pH too much, but a test kit is just a tool that gives you information. It's irresponsible to tell people to ditch their test kits entirely. Rather, people should learn how to use them as the tools they are and how to apply the information they provide.

@TheWatchernator

6 ай бұрын

can you buy RO water? Use that, and mix it with water from a lake or river. Or, if there's no heavy factories or a nuclear waste facility next to the lake, pond or river, then just use that water.

@majorbruster5916

6 ай бұрын

@TheWatchernator I don't need to buy RO water, I have an RO unit. I also have lots of small streams and a river near my house, but I wouldn't collect water from them because I don't know if a farmer upstream of me has sprayed his fields for ragwort (as I spray mine) or if he has heavily fertilised his grass with high nitrate and phosphate fertiliser. Around here, they do that in order to get 2 cuts for haylage - I used to feed my horses lots of it during the winter. But that's not the point; for a lot of aquarists, test kits are an invaluable tool for ascertaining what is happening with the chemistry going on in their tank. They give them more control and can give advance indication of perturbations in water quality. Father Fish has a lot of insight into what is going on in his tanks - some have been running for 22 years - something that few others have achieved. For those who don't have his years of experience or his intuition, test kits are an alternative means of water quality diagnosis.

@freckledbeef

6 ай бұрын

If you knew you did a water change right before the fish went crazy, wouldn’t that have been an indicator without a test strip? At that point though even FF would say it’s great to use a test. He’s not totally anti-testing, he just doesn’t recommend constantly checking and rechecking.

@TaijaT76

6 ай бұрын

I learned to never trust tap water, all of the sudden gh and kh dropped near to zero in my tap water and it has stayed that way since. My fish started dying or getting sick for no reason until I learned the importance of testing your water regularly. Now I remineralize it. My ph swang wildly to 4.5 until I learned the importance of remineralization. I lost 2 bettas and it was traumatizing. They suffered greatly and I was going mad didn’t see initially what was going on.

I have been observing my fish tanks, observing the behavior before and after everything, the state of the plants, the light too strong or too soft, the smell of the water, are the fish energetic or are they stressed, are they panting, the gills are looking good, are they not moving, what reaction they have when I'm close, when I'm far away, when it's time to eat, when i skip food day, water got cloudy? ok lets do a little change of water, next day everything is stable again or not. the 2 biggest changes was stop using soft water, my fish behavior and plants improved A LOT after using hard water and add stuff from natural sources, those dried leaf, dirt, etc, since im studying to be a chef all those visual and smell changes are very important and im using those skills in this hobby, i will keep trying to learn and become a better fish owner

I didn't add anything other than crushed corral and some old baked clay substrate (in place of dirt) under my inert sand on my bedroom tank (setup this year). Testing for TDS, ph, and calcium let me know I didn't have much else other than calcium (and some nitrates and phosphates) in the water. Adding some potassium sulfate and trace elements (dry ferts mixed in water) has taken a tank that had algae dominant enough that it was killing the plants, to a place where the plants are thriving. Sometimes that test kit helps. I could see the problems, but didn't know the source. Next time I'll set the tank up right (Father Fish method with amendments) and I shouldn't have to worry about it. Still, the kit can confirm things (like whether a tank can have Neocaradina or Caradina shrimp) rather than tossing life in a poison bucket.

Hi Father Fish -- I read Great reviews on your Bundle of Aquarium Plants - I ordered a few plants a couple days ago but am going to go put in an order for your Bundle Package Deal. Thanks for all the Great Videos -- this will be my 1st time trying to set up an Aquarium this way. 🐟🐠🐡

Got my plants today and it arrived fast and one day early. Already planted them. They look great. That is a lot of plants for very little money. Thank you for the great deal. It is my Christmas present. Had my water set up for about a week. Now will wait a week with plants and buy two fish. That is a really good deal on the plants, so many and a variety. I hope you do make some kind of profit off it, I feel like I took advantage of you. I am thankful for the deal though. I am leaving the light on for the week like you said. I am having the hardest time deciding what fish to do. Wonder if you can recommend a book or fish to put in it. I love them all. I know the pet store is thinking something is wrong with me because I go to look at the fish all the time. Anyway, I just want to let you know I got the plants, and they are really nice and a lot of them. I was surprised by it. Looks good in my tank too. Again, Thank you! My husband and I love you and my son too. He has a ten gallon. He wants a bigger tank but will have to wait until he gets a bigger house. You're a Blessing to us all. Sharing your gift with us. I just shared your channel with the girl at the eye doctors, who helped me with glasses. Her sister has a tank and loves it but does the fish store set up and is getting tired of the water changes all the time. Peace!

I had some well established aquariums that I had to move to a new house and it resulted is a lot of like lighting and the hole tank turned super green I couldn't even see my hand in it but I left it alone for a few months and it stabilized and looms very nice now with deep sand on gravel with a lot of different plants. I only had neocaridina shrimp and guppies with pond and rams horn snails with a lot of micro fauna and flora

The horror on the face of the lady at the local fish store when she asked what substrate I was using/going to buy.... and I said that i was quite tempted to go get a bag of pond soil and sand...... she was like, well, that's called a dirted tank, it's very advanced, it's not for a 10 gallon tank. She could be right for the average person in the store, because their goals are to have as many fish as possible in a tank. They are not thinking about creating an ecosystem. I will say, I'm going to set up a tank such as this, this coming weekend.... but I'm kind of a blended person at the moment. I don't blame the people at the fish stores! Think of it: a few years ago i decided to do a smallish water feature on my patio, I got a vessel, about 30 gallons, i planted some dirt, I got three different water plants from the nursery, and stuck a hoya vine in there, and then was plagued by bugs. I was told to get some fish to eat the mosquito larvae. I went to the same LFS and they sold me fish for my small pond. They also sell koi, for ponds. So, why the panic about planted aquariums? They were fine talking about the same fish, in my water feature outside!

Got my first tank two weeks ago and have been discovering lots of youtube channels! Had to go back and get more tanks. Anyway, I'm remembering back to when i was a kid in the 80s and my mom set up a tank. She would never buy anything fancier than a feeder guppy because everything would die in short order. She was also religious about cleaning and changing the water in that plastic planted, rainbow rocked fish hellscape. Meanwhile my brother and i would be feeding them constantly. Sorry fishies. This time will be different!

I basically agree. But take care with open tanks and very hard tap water, it is perfectly possible with high levels of evaporation to create a very, very hard water tank if top ups are only tap water and water changes are minimal. My tank looses at least a gallon a week in evaporation and my tap water is like concrete so I do have to top up with low hardness water from a filter jug and zero hardness water from my condensing tumble drier, that way I can keep the total dissolved solids relatively stable for long periods without water changes. Test kits can be useful, my tap water towards the end of the summer can be very high in Nitrates which means if I do a big water change I get algae problems within a few days. I discovered this seasonal pattern in the quality of my tap water only through testing over many years. But the dip strip tests are not in my experience very accurate at all, the test tube types are not of a professional scientific standard but are more than adequate for amateur fish keepers. Thanks again for interesting and useful content.

@arnicamoana7861

5 ай бұрын

Very important info keepers with hard water! My water is VERY hard and semi-regular testing is important for me!

I agree that pH isn't something you should worry about, but ammonia and nitrite often don't show symptoms until they've done permanent damage to fish. When I bought a ton of new fish all at once for my tank (online so I wanted to save on shipping), I had no clue how my (fully cycled) tank would handle it. I used tests to figure out when I needed to do water changes. Tests also help to determine if your tank needs fertilization or if you are close to overstocking. I always had so many plants that even being overstocked the nitrate would regularly hit zero and I needed to add more ferts.

@Calebsfish23

6 ай бұрын

Nitrates are not fertilizer so not a good indication. Plant’s eat ammonia. I recommend reading diana walstad nitrogen upkeep in planted aquarium’s. There was only a small group of plants that didn’t uptake ammonia. Many popular aquatic plants from duckweed to water lettuce and so on uptake ammonia before nitrates or nitrites.

Thank you Father Fish you are the best!!!

My test kit is a mason jar. I dip some water out and if its clear and odorless its fine. I use coral and basalt sand in building my substrate and crushed lava cinder and crushhed coral in the filters to add some hardness and increase the ph of the rainwater I use. Ive found that if you create healthy water that any fish can adapt to it. The fish store doesn't keep lake Malawi water in their cichlid tanks and special Japanese water in their goldfish tanks nor do they try and recreate it. Only fish keepers try and do that after they buy the fish and I dont understand why. I've been able to keep African cichlids, turtles, guppies,gouramis, synodontis, corys, bettas ect... doing nothing different with my setup each time.

@FatherFish

6 ай бұрын

You understand the flexibility of fish to varying water conditions.

Father Fish thank you for the excellent knowledge in fish keeping you share with us all. We appreciate you and salute you Sir 🫡 ❤️

I agree, in general your problems are not the parameters. Also the testing equipment for the hobby are often not very precise.

Another great video, a wise, logical approach to aquaristics - I follow your rules in my aquarium 110 gallon with 4 oscars and i have question, will an internal filter be enough for me?

@animablo

6 ай бұрын

I even just use internal filter 2watt 300L/h 😂

@AkwarystykaNaturalna

6 ай бұрын

what kind of fish do you have and how big is the aquarium?

I am setting up two tanks. A 10 and a 20 gallon tank. I collected 30 gallons of rainwater and a pond nearby as well as soil and some one year composted Sheep/hog manure. Any suggestions or thing to avoid?

Thank you sir for sharing all your knowledge here! I want to try it but I live in a small apartment. Is your method work in a 20 gallon tank? I cant fit any bigger unfortunately.

@FatherFish

6 ай бұрын

A 20 is a perfect size for a natural system.

@matefodor330

6 ай бұрын

@@FatherFish Thank you sir! My other problem is, I cant buy your suplement, because I live in europe. Is there any good alternative I can use?

@matefodor330

6 ай бұрын

Sorry I found a recipy. Putting the recipy avalible for everyone of your main product is one of the nicest thing I ever seen. We need much more people like you!!

Good day sir. I have a question regarding stress coat. So I put stress coat in my tank 2 years back and it completely over ran the tank and I couldn’t even see inside it. All fish died and I put it away for 6 months. Started the tank back up recently and the stress coat came back. I do not want the same thing to happen to this tank, is there anyway to remove a stress coat?

@FatherFish

6 ай бұрын

Yesd. Put it in the dust bin. If it is too late to not use it then water changes will dilute it.

My tank is stable, have platies with babies, guppies, danios, neons, snails, shrimp all happy. I put last week 4 lemon tetra. They died within 2 days. They looked stressed and frightened of the other fish. Parameters all ok.

@FatherFish

6 ай бұрын

They coould not adapt to your environment. This is a completely natural experience.

@flybobbie1449

6 ай бұрын

@@FatherFish I won't be adding any more fish, i think the tank is stable with what's in there, reached sort of peak fish. The Lemons in nature would have just swam off to a more suitable environment.

I set up a new 40G tank, dirt, bigger sand, finer sand, added some rocks and 20ish plants. Still have 5 tetras, some Platy, some guppies and a pair of panda rats. The water is clear and the plants seem to grow, the only thing I have no clue about is whether the fish need feeding or not. I mean, they're always hungry, so how do I know if they are starving or not?

@FatherFish

6 ай бұрын

cut back and watch them scavenge for food. If they are pooping they are eating.

I have a 2 week old tank (that I set up following your instructions) with a few shrimp and snails. water was testing great until a couple days ago the nitrites shot up…I’ve only fed once, a tiny pinch last week. no deaths. I did a 10% water change two days ago but didn’t change anything. what do I do? leave it alone? shrimp are acting fine.

@FatherFish

6 ай бұрын

sounds perfect

@krussell3

6 ай бұрын

two shrimp died today. the others are not looking good..I don’t know what to do

@krussell3

6 ай бұрын

@@titoham-DCXLs I had media from my previous tank in it (filter, 4 plants, rocks, tank water), plenty of beneficial bacteria. that’s why I’m not sure what’s happening

Can u please tell me not to worry about TDS reading i am hearing ideal 120-150 mine are 325-425 ugh. Trying to keep Neocardina alive.

@FatherFish

26 күн бұрын

Do some small 10% water changes.

I keep seeing people having pH going low but I'm having the opposite issues. I've got water about 7.6 pH out of the tap but the next day or two it will go up to 8.4 or higher. How can I combat this?

@pendlera2959

6 ай бұрын

If it's coming out lower but jumps up after sitting, that usually means there's a lot of CO2 dissolved in your tap water, but you have a high GH/KH. Most captive bred fish can handle a higher pH/GH/KH, but IIRC cardinal tetras, rummynose tetras, and apistogrammas generally don't take it as well. It's generally better not to fight your water chemistry, since fish will adapt as long as it's stable. But for the health of your fish, it's better to stick with species that naturally prefer a high pH (livebearers, African cichlids, some US native species) or which have been captive bred in the hobby for a long time (common danios, barbs, corydoras, etc).

@andreashessler838

6 ай бұрын

Same as mine, 7.6 out the tap, 8.2 in the tank. It's perfectly normal. Water companies sometimes add CO2 to the water supply to control pH. Your fish will adapt to it. My tanks have been set up for years like this. Fish do not seem fazed by it.

So i bought some cherry shrimps from a petstore and i didn't realize that they have vorticella I thought they have the same supplier as the other batch i got from another pet store The petstore which i got the infected shrimps in doesn't really know much about shrimp diseases (they are very good at treating fishes tho) Im currently researching for a good treatment for this and the most natural way i found uses indian almond leaves Which is perfect as i have a whole tree in my packyard I currently put in 6 leaves in my 2.5 gallon tank Aquarium salt and other meds is crazy expensive here so i opted for natural method Is there another method i could use?

@FatherFish

6 ай бұрын

isolation and no substrate with regular maintenance until the pest is gone. You are on the right track.

@moditorplayz

6 ай бұрын

@@FatherFish some of the vorticella are on the plants and hardscape

So what is the best water to top up with, distilled, rain or tap. 5:33

@FatherFish

6 ай бұрын

It depends on your tank. Heavily planted with a deep substrate needs minerals from the tap.

My tap is so low on mineral content - almost no gh/kh, and sits around 6.4ph with no tannins/leaves in it

Dear father fish, It's a complaint on mollys.. I have 3 pairs of molly and a pair of guppy fish in my 8 gallon tank with sand substrate and few plants in it.. One of my molly pair is chasing other fish ,tring to nib, dominating everything in the tank.. female looks like pregnant from past 2 months but didn't deliver baby frys yet. What should I understand by this? Do I need to remove that orange pair from the tank? Or is it normal?

@FatherFish

6 ай бұрын

Chasing is not usually harmful. It is natural behavior. If the guppies are not being injured it is okl. Mollies can take 3-4 months to bear young.

@bumboopanda4558

6 ай бұрын

@@FatherFish ohh.. thankyou so much dear father fish..☺️

Awesome

my tap in new jersey reeks of chlorine....and yes I'd rather test and avoid my fish dying on me and getting sick .....I rarely test and do 50% water changes every 2½weeks and know when the water is ready for a change based on smell

@FatherFish

6 ай бұрын

A healthy substrate will alleviate the problems with water fouling.

I’m developing a symbiotic relationship with my tank. My fish are alive. I give them pond culture and po nd water. No other food. As per your instructions. thanks. Also dead leaves and some decomposed detritus from the pond. You need to feel the life force of your tank in your heart center. We’re too much in our heads.

Quick question... My tap water is quite polluted with chemicals, I don't even drink it because of taste and health so I don't want to bath my fish in it. Would it be appropriate to get the water straight from the source? For example using water straight from lake.

@FatherFish

6 ай бұрын

Yes. Absolutely. While you are at it collect some live sand from the lake to top off your substrate.

4:32 Facebook shaol???

@Desmond000007

6 ай бұрын

The name of the group

Yeah, I've used test strips from two different bottles, same brand, and one says my PH is under 6 the other says it is over 8. Testing same aquarium, same day, same time. LoL

@FatherFish

6 ай бұрын

These chemicals are extremely poor quality. An accurate testing device can cost hundreds of dollars. Do not trust the bottle of chemicals or worse yet a strip with come chems on it. OBSERVE!

Watching the animal and plant life is key, I have snails in all my tanks as they’re a visual indicator of the micronutrients and hardness in the tank… If my snail shells are smooth and shiny, the levels and calcium are fine, if they start to show signs of erosion on the new shell material at the front of the shell, I just add a few pinches of aragonite crushed coral sand, many times the snails/shrimp/crawfish will go right to the aragonite and start grazing on it, a few days later, the shell material shows signs of recovery I just added a nerite to my 20 long plant overflow/algae cleaner tank (three Flag Fish, some ramshorn snails, and now the Nerite, and just to be safe, I dropped in a pile of aragonite sand for it, it immediately went to it and started grazing on it, even though the shell looks great and has no signs of putting or damage

What kind of pleco in thumbnail

@Somewherefried

4 ай бұрын

Basic bristlenose got it

Ive been saying this for years. You have people that are born water keepers. There senses are beyond a test. The human senses can really sense certain things. Which makes us the ultimate tester. Don’t get me wrong, i am sure we can measure everything that water. But why ??? I think we need to create a chart for environmental needs of aquarium fish. Like a life biology of these fish people keep. Why nobody has made keeping fish like Pokémon is beyond me. Each fish in a fish tank should come with a qrl code with a video of information on the fish and tank mates. Fish keeping is real life Pokémon keeping…😂

@d.p.kfishaquariums8825

6 ай бұрын

Am a witness fish tropic tried to share a very similar of thought in fish keeping but sadly in The past was alot of pushed back for it to the point of being black listed but am glad other voice is finally being heard that many of us discuss it many years ago but was taboo in the hobby and yt.thank u father fish and others who couldn't have a voice now making our voice possible.

Exactly, your tank is talking to you. You need to listen. The human eyeball will always be the most important thing. Better than any test kit. Dirty is good. That is what your tank is trying to tell you. Nothing can live in tap water. That is the whole point. Tap water is for human drinking, not for the aquarium or fish. Dirt changes everything.

obviously the advice you're giving in all your videos are only meant for planted tanks right? for example stopping water changes how would that work on a 120 with bichirs? those guys poop logs so ive been doing a water change once every week because of the nitrates, i have no plants so there is nothing there to help lower nitrates besides water changes

@FatherFish

6 ай бұрын

bichirs love planted tanks. They poop according to what they eat.

@RosinBoii

6 ай бұрын

@@FatherFish im really looking into changing my 120 into an all natural tank, what is the main thing i should keep an eye out for? i do not want to kill my fish with a transition like this, thanks for the info!

I agree to disagree with this vid, sorry for you FF! Can't endorse this! Can't even watch it all!

@freckledbeef

6 ай бұрын

Hilarious that you think FF needs your endorsement. Especially seeing as you admitted to not watching it all 😂

@Nomadistar

6 ай бұрын

@@freckledbeef Hilarious that you are so toxic and got a heart for it. Shame on both of you. PH is very important & if you buy shrimp and DO NOT drip acclimate them, you WILL KILL THEM IF the PH is too much of a swing! Now as for you thinking That me disagreeing means anything more than that, all I have to say is it is people like you that are the problem. Now you go have a nice day even though you just took a shit on mine. Blame fans & then people lose their minds when fans stop endorsing & spending their money. People like you I just don't get. IF FF doesn't need endorsing he can stop trying this revolution BS and trying to get people to endorse him then. Anyway, listen blindly and go kill your fish & shrimp, not my money. I'll do what works so I can enjoy MY hobby. Good Day.

@FatherFish

6 ай бұрын

This is precisely the extremism that makes conversation impossible. EVERYTHING in moderation!