Bare bottom = carved in stone maintenance schedule. I do my weekly water changes regardless but this video is full of great points and useful info. Well done and thumbs up.
That right there, Glen, is my own personal issue with bare bottom aquariums and why they aren't a good fit for me, because I am not a carved in stone kind of guy. There are times when I am pulling 24-hour shifts to finish the visual effects shots for a project, or I get a call from a production asking if I can be on a plane in four hours. A bare bottom aquarium isn't going to wait patiently for me to be available to do the proper maintenance.
You have a busy life there, but your right bare bottom tanks are not your friend in your situation. One day when your retire and put your feet up in your recliner chair in front of the fish tanks your be able to set up any tank you want. At least I hope that for myself lol.
@@Aquatasy life over enjoyment hum hum hum hope things are changing for the better with your scheduled routine of having fish & doing what you gotta do.
@Chewy Ltd It can be rough if you're not home enough to do the regular maintenance. Before I started this channel I was almost completely out of this hobby because I was working long hours on crazy, time-consuming projects as a feature film visual effects artist. I had gotten down to one ridiculously overgrown 20 gallon tank with only three fish in it. But then my schedule changed (for the better), I discovered the fish tank community on RUclips, and I became fired up again about fishkeeping.
I’ve been keeping an aquarium since my teenage years, and now I’m retired from work. I only used a bare tank to raise Brine Shrimp, Daphnia, hold fish for a few days, or for quarantine situations. You see substrate in nature, that is your biggest hint that you should have one. My biggest tank was a 55 Gallon tank. It was heavily planted. I used to sell my excess plants to local pet shops, and aquarists as well. Once my Canister Filter broke down, and my tank did great without it for two weeks, until I eventually replaced the Canister Filter. I checked all my parameters everyday. I almost considered never putting a filter in, because my tank was thriving. I still did a 1/4 water change every week, but it got me thinking. Do I need a filter? I had thick level of pea sized gravel, which my plant grew from. Some plants floated, but everything alive in my tank did well. Maybe a simple HOB would of done the trick and continue to balance my tank. We need a substrate for many reasons to balance a thriving aquarium.
Oh crap! Now need to add rocks. I've had a bare tank for 5 years now and only add water when the water gets low, never done water changes. Now I'm panicking 🥺
Don't panic. If your tank has been running well for five years without substrate, then obviously you are doing something right and your tank is balanced. No need for panic.
My 20 gallon tetra bare-bottom tank has a 20 gallon HOB filter, two sponge filters and a lot of plants and driftwood. I perform weekly water changes of about 4-5 gallons of water
I've had my bare bottom tanks for years n never had an issue with it.... all u really need is the appropriate size filter and media but that goes for all tanks. benefits of a bare bottom out weighs the cons. especially if you have drift wood or a big rock or 2. substrate is definitely not required for all fish
@@Jhood2k13 A stupid question based in reality my friend. I don't know if heavy rocks (Say five or six inches across maybe) on the bare glass could damage the tank or not so asking is a useful way of learning what I do not know. I saw one fish keeper who put that plastic lighting diffuser under a large rock in her hill stream tank and wondered if it was to protect the bottom of the aqurium. Let me know if you still do not understand and I will be happy to explain further. Have a nice day. :)
@@Kenney9120 Common sense would tell you they wouldn't make a tank that couldn't manage the weight of a aquarium rocks hence why its called an aquarium tank 🤦♂️ if the tank cant even handle the weight of the water being filled to full capacity then thats not an aquarium tank please note that a full tank out weighs a rock. The only way a rock could damage the tank is if you threw the rock at the glass 🙄🤦♂️ again it still a stupid questio this is mere common sense.
@@Jhood2k13 Common sense would also tell you to actually read a comment before responding. Do so and you will see I asked about pressure points created by rock on glass contact when you remove the substrate, not the weight itself which has a logical limit. Again, maybe an issue and maybe not.
Great video,last year I had to move away from home for 7 months and left my 40g tank with substrate in the care of my aunt who is pretty much clueless,only told her to do water changes and feed the fish. Surprisingly when i came back the worst thing that happened was mineral build up on the glass cause she let the water level drop,the fish were healthy even though she was doing very small water changes.
Precisely! Clearly your aquarium had enough places for the beneficial bacteria to grow and thrive thanks to the substrate in your tank. I am by no means stating that bare bottom aquariums are wrong. The point of the video is that a tank with substrate (and other porous surfaces) Is going to be much more forgiving than one without. Your experience perfectly illustrates that. Thanks for watching and commenting!
I do enjoy bare-bottom tanks when it comes to maintenance. I go on work trips all the time, and I've had to adjust to ensure that my tanks can push through most small catastrophic events. For one, I keep my tanks highly understocked, and run a small pump to circulate the water. My biological filter is on the decor and rocks themselves. Even in a power outage, I don't have dying bacterial populations in my filter and substrate. My water also stays clearer in general.
See? That's the way to do it! Clearly, that wasn't how I was maintaining my tank back then. If I had been following your example, then I would never have suffered the losses that I did. I'm wiser now. Thanks for watching and commenting. I hope you'll stick around and share your thoughts on other Aquatasy videos.
This video is a gem, finally someone point out the difference of bare bottom and substrate bottom. I started as bare bottom fish keep and tons of media in the sum, and end up hookep up with a substrate setup. Reason i found is bare bottom with those flow in the sum doesn't give the beneficial bacteria to settle down on the media that easy, meanwhile ammonia is always 0.25ppm above. While my substrate tank is always 0ppm ammonia and also even more fish waste produced than the bare tank..
Thank you! It's all about finding balance, and it is often difficult to maintain that balance without substrate. With substrate in place, we are mimicking a natural environment. A tank without substrate is so far removed from nature that it is incredibly dependent upon us to do so much maintenance. I now lean more towards various layers of substrate and a heavily planted tank to take care of most of the work. I am also currently switching from canister and hang-on-back filters to small internal filters with good water flow. Glad you enjoyed this video. More new videos coming soon!
@@Aquatasy Totally agree, im more peace of mind with substrate tank because maintenance is less than bare bottom. Now i understand why some old school fish store with almost 2-3 inches of substrate without even have a filter in it😅
You are correct, Christopher. So glad you brought that up. I'm actually working on follow-up video about the benefits of a bare bottom aquarium and I'm going to discuss sumps in that video.
@@jeffk464 Agreed. Bare bottom aquariums are much better suited to canister and sponge filters. I naively thought I could let the maintenance slide a bit on a bare bottom tank the way I can sometimes with a heavily planted tank that has sustrate. Nope. Certainly not with a 10 gallon aquarium and a small HOB filter. But I am willing to admit my failures if it helps me grow and helps others to avoid similar pitfalls. Now my quarantine/holding tank is fully scaped and planted. I thought about keeping it bare bottom and switching to sponge filters, but I couldn't help myself. I love to aquascape! I was smart, though, and made it a scape that I could easier access to catch the fish when it comes time to transfer them to their permanent aquariums.
so how does a sump filter work? I run bio wheel filters. there's 2 big 350 jn each of the two 50 gallon tanks. Have to clean them out at least once a week. and as for the filter pads they have to be cleaned daily. you could never let it run for 2 weeks to a month with these fish. Don't get me wrong their great but like i said theres 52 of them and one of me.
I have a 20g long bare bottom. I run 2 aquaclear 50’s with pond matrix and pre filters. Never any issues. Getting ready to set up a 75g peacock tank bare bottom. I will be running 2 Tidal 110’s HOB’s and a sponge filter. I will be using 2 liters of pond matrix which is good for 200 Gallons of water. It can be done with any filter if set up properly. I just prefer HOB’s as I think they are easier to maintain.
75 gallon freshwater tank, 2 small air pumps, Waterfall hung on tank filter "penguin 300" hooked to a header pipe to under gravel filter. 2 inches of pea gravel. 1-15" gar, 1-8" Bowfin, 5-4" sunfish, 2-6" yellow perch and 5 crayfish. I hardly ever had to change my water out. It stayed clear, no odor. Feed bait store minnows and night crawlers.
See, now THAT'S the way to do it! Bravo! Well done, Kevin. Not everybody, though, who sets up a bare bottom tank knows how to do it right or puts in the effort to keep it running smoothy, which is why I wanted to make this video. How long have you had the 75 gallon tank up and running?
That's great! Clearly they are doing things right, everything is balanced regarding filtration & bioload, and the beneficial bacteria isn't being over taxed. If I had had different filtration and/or less fish in the tank shown in this video I might not have experienced the problems I encountered. The main point of the video was to let people know how important it is to find a balance.
Nice video. I know this is a 2 years old video, but I suggest adding pothos plants and peace lily. I did a research on them and it's said that they eat it up nitrates and clear the air. I try it and my water is quite clear. No algae too. I hate cleaning up the tank and changing water. I solved that problem simply not owning any fish lol. My mum on the hand owns a few guppies after a friend gave it to her. She put them inside of a plastic bowl. Flash forward, I bought her a mini plastic tank made for betta. Got a sponge holder with 2 suction cup and I put plants such as Pothos and peace lily on the sponge holder, this keep the green leafs looking attractive and the root help soak up the nitrates and alege while they're submerged in water. As for cleaning the fish poops on a bare bottom tank, I can use those specially made long handle net that you can extend for a few bucks and just scoop up the poops. Or you can use those water tube with w pump that you can get for a few bucks on ebay and suck up the poop. It only take a few minutes if you gonna do a partial water change.
Something here does not make sense to me. The aquarium you demonstrated had a lot of plants and a low bioload. Even without substrate, the plants will consume ammonia, which is actually more efficient than beneficial bacterial converting ammonia to nitrates. I think something else happened.
That's what I thought too. I thought all those plants would have helped keep everything in control, but alas no. It's a 10 gallon tank and it had a much bigger bioload than it may have looked like in this video. There were a lot more fish in there than you could see in the clips I showed. Plus the species of plants I had floating in that tank (anubias, java fern, cyperus helferi, etc.) aren't the best at consuming ammonia. They do so at a much slower rate than say species of hygrophila, ludwigia, water sprite, and others. (Water sprite is amazing in that sense.) Because of time-consuming projects with crazy deadlines and because of travel, I fell behind on my water changes and cleanings. If there had been a bigger filter on the tank or more porous filter medium or different plants or some sort of substrate in the tank I might have had more wiggle room like I'm accustomed to with my fully scaped & planted tanks. The problem was definitely (as we used to say when I worked in game development) "operator error". I messed up. I could be wrong though. As you said, there may have been more going on than met my eye. Thanks for chiming in and leaving a comment. I truly appreciate it. Stay tuned for the rebirth of this tank!
That is exactly the vibe I was going for! Happy to know you enjoyed this. Hope you'll check out the other videos on this channel. Thank you for leaving a comment. I really appreciate it!
Nice to meet you too! I'm sad that the store is closing, but so thankful it has been around for so long. Hope you enjoy the Aquatasy channel. New videos coming very soon!
Im glad i ran across this video. Im aware of the few benefits of BB tanks but i still don't believe it comes close to having a gravel or sand bottom. If you even took away the benefits of substrate, its just plain ugly. Fine for breeding or sick tanks. Ect. But as a room focal point its just so plain and always dirty looking. Had to subscribe after seeing the video. To many people are pushing the B.B. IMO on u tube
Well thank you, Mark. I really appreciate the compliments. I think bare bottom aquariums have a place in this hobby. Certainly, as you mentioned, they work well as breeding or quarantine tanks when properly maintained (which clearly I didn't do with mine). But I'm with you. Bare bottom aquariums are aesthetically boring for me. Sure, to each their own. Some people like that look and only want to concentrate on the fish themselves. Other people like purple gravel and Spongebob decorations. That's fine. Personally, I'm all about aquascaping and planted aquariums. That's what appeals to me. Bare bottom tanks can be very useful, but with this video I wanted to point out some of the potential pitfalls of them. Thank you so very much for leaving a comment and fot subscribing. I truly appreciate it. By the way, if you want to see what became of the bare bottom tank in this video, check out another video I did entitled "The Ellis Island Project". I think you might like it.
@@Aquatasy thank you for the response. I've had a chance to look at a few of your video's and love them. One thing that I get a kick out of you is in the comments. When people disagree or knock something you did, you are so damn cool and cordial with them. Even the ones that are IMOjust plain rude. You're turning out to be easily one of my favorites
I'm just being me, Mark. I'm an easygoing guy. I don't get easily flustered, certainly not by RUclips comments. 9 times out of 10 when you respond to a negative comment with positivity it humanizes things. The viewer is no longer commenting on a video, but having a dialogue with a real person (the video creator). At that point most people change their tone. They are no longer yelling at the television, so to speak. Also if I take their negative comment and make a joke of it (often in a self-deprecating way) then the negativity is nullified and the control shifts from the hatet to me. I guess this comes from my years of doing stand-up comedy and dealing with hecklers. You never win by fighting back and insulting. You win by taking their comments, running with it, and being funnier or wittier than the heckler or hater could ever hope to be. Also, when people disagree with me in the comments I want to learn why the disagree because perhaps they have a unique perspective that could enlighten me or help other viewers. Or I want to know why they disagree because there may be extenuating circumstances that they haven't mentioned that factor into the situation for them that may not be a factor for others reading their comment. For example maybe someone leaves a comment like, "You're an idiot about bare bottom aquariums because mine has been running for five years with no problems and I don't do anything special to help the bacteria colony." After I do little probing I might find out that they have four sponge filters and a hang-on-back filter running on their tank and they are doing daily water changes, but to them that's nothing special. So that's why I am the way I am in the comments. Besides, haters are merely fans in denial. ;-)
My quarantine tank is a 10 gallon bare bottom tank...with a sponge filter rated for a 20 gallon tank and an AquaClear 30 HOB that has its sponge and loaded with ceramic rings (Biomax), and it gets weekly 50% water changes religiously.
Now that's the right way to do a bare bottom aquarium! Sounds like you have everything under control. Not everybody (including me, sadly) are so prepared and are staying on top of their regular maintenance schedule. Kudos to you!
Wish i'd seen this video sooner. I have 9 tanks and 52 koi/hybrid fish. All but one tank is bare bottom, and believe me it's a job. Until i saw your video i thought it was me or bad water. Can't afford to do all in rock, but going to put the rock back in 2 more. We'll see how it goes. The only good thing i can tell you , is with the constant water changes iv'e only lost one fish, and iv'e had the a year and half. thanks for posting that video. Lynn
Yes, it's definitely a lot of maintenance to keep that many tanks running smoothly as bare bottom aquariums. If you don't want to add substrate to all those tanks you could add extra filters. Putting a sponge filter inside each of your aquariums would increase the surface area for beneficial bacteria to grow.
I have sponges in two and i also use the plastic bio corner filters the ones with the substrate on the bottom and then a piece of charcoal filter pad etc. But iv'e decided that koi/goldfish hybrids are just a dirty fish.Don't get me wrong i luv them to death and they are really smart, but messy. I just need to find a way to cycle at least 2 more of the large tanks, the other 50 gal. Right now 3 or four of the tanks are used to move them to drain the water. but there getting so big so fast i'm going to have to split them up to. and there is to much compitition for food, and they do get plenty of food. Anyway time to start doing my fish. Thanks again. Lynn
So maybe add in a small mesh bag of with some gravel in it, to add surface area for bacteria? That way you have some "gravel", but it is contained in a bag, where it can be moved or removed easily. I think this might be a compromise way of having a little gravel, without having a gravel bottom. (Of course a little bag isn't going to do the same job of a bottom covered in gravel, but I would assume it would do more than zero gravel) Some people with bare bottom aquariums, put plants in containers filled with gravel or marbles.
This is what I was thinking of doing it recently. Recently I put up another new 5 gallon tank as bare bottom, but has a large plant pot full of gravels with a lot of live plants in it. I was trying to experiment how well this tank can do in terms of having enough bacteria but wanted to also add a bag of gravels as well and curious how much adding a bag of gravels can help… did you try your idea after your post?
@@Thankful456 Well I had some very small plastic containers i put gravel in. I also put some super washed/boiled (multiple sessions) of sea shells in a mesh bag and some charcoal in a mesh bag in my aquarium. I also crocheted some green yarn and put it in.
@@FusionDeveloper oh wow! Thanks for the reply. Love these ideas. Never thought about crocheted yarn! Let us know how well these serve your tank… I know everyone’s tank is different ( temp, starting local water quality, what fish, etc etc but still nice to learn from any success stories with these ideas☺️)
Interesting point and I agree with you, but beneficial bacteria should be grown and kept in your filter. My filter has biological media such as ceramic biorings and lava rock to provide a place for that beneficial Bacteria to grow. That being said, barebottom or not, your filters are supposed to be suitably sized for the bioload of your stocking. Maybe another video discussion on beneficial Bacteria? Collaboration maybe? :D
You are absolutely correct. In my case I was running a stock hang-on-back filter with a standard filter cartridge. If I had been able to keep up with the routine water changes and maintenance everything would have been okay. Or, as you said, if I had put different filter medium in the filter things might have been fine. Of course the main point of the video is for people to consider all these things and make sure that if you are running a bare bottom tank you have sufficient filtration and enough textural surfaces in your filter (HOB/canister/sponge/etc.) to provide a home for a large beneficial bacteria colony. And speaking of beneficial bacteria, I like your idea of collaborating together on a video about that subject. Let's talk!
Aquatasy I see your point and I'm so sorry for your losses. This is a great video though. Love the awareness you're raising. I'll message you later on the collaboration.
The problem with bare bottom tanks is the very thing I love about them. I dislike canister filters for the same reason. The debris is there for a full month and nothing leaves the system. I like the idea of removing and rinsing out sponges daily and taking just a few minutes daily to vacuum debris off the bottom of a tank with a recirculating siphon. Don't let the debris build up and you will have a healthier and cleaner tank.
I'm planning on a bare bottom indoor goldfish pond with 1 or two cansiter filters. Thanks to this video and the comments I now know to put some sponge filters in there. Thank you!
Watch Aquarium Co-Op's video he uploaded on 2/20/2024. RUclips title "HUGE Fish Wholesaler with Millions of Shrimp, Rare Fish, & Turtles" The wholesaler's over 200 tanks all are bare bottom.
Yep, because they did it the right way. I did it the wrong way, which was the point of my video. Many people attempt to do bare bottom aquariums in a wrong manner without taking various factors into consideration. I wanted to share my mistakes, make people aware of certain aspects of having a bare bottom tank, and offer some solutions as to how to do it properly as to avoid the same fate that befell me.
I run a 20 long bare bottom with several DIY sponge filters. I only clean front glass. I remove fish waste daily except a small portion to keep beneficial bacteria working. I have two bacteria seasoned rocks and as large piece of Maylayian hardwood in the tank. I also run carbon with a bubbler and water bottle DIY contraption. Water change 5 gallons every 4th day. Small fish with one lg. angel and a gold nugget pleco and several cory cats. A fairly large load.. I clean sponges on a rotational basis once a month. Rinse but don't over do it. Nitrites very low. I don't feel belabored to death with this routine. One has to realize that any pet requires husbandry and good taking care of. I find the routine above to be efficient and not too taxing; I don't feel like I'am a slave to the aquarium at all. Casualties? Yeah occasionally, but not inordinate and you wonder why. Sometimes everything seems to be going along swimmingly, but the swimmers themselves. It's funny, knowledge is key, keeping it clean but not too overly clean seems to work best. Breeding good bacteria is a must as well as periodic water changes. Remember ...number of fish, bio load vs. amount of beneficial bacteria and filtration.
I couldn't have said it any better myself. You are doing it the right way. You have main it part of your routine and lifestyle so that it isn't a chore for you. Plus you have it down to a science so that there isn't any guess work. Bravo! My issue was that I became overtaxed in my daily life and was not able to maintain my bare bottom tank the way I should have, and I foolishly thought I could let it slide a bit like I can for a fully planted aquarium with substrate. But it became too much for the little hang-on-back filter to handle and there wasn't a large enough bacteria colony so the tank crashed. If I had put a couple of sponge filters in there it would have helped until I could get back to regular maintenance schedule. Great comment!! I really appreciate it and I hope others will read what you wrote.
@@Aquatasy Thanks for the unexpected praise. I have rung the changes on filtration and finally after wasting a lot of money I landed in the sponge corner. Some fish keepers find sponge filters or Matten filters to be aesthetically objectionable. For me they are the only way to go. Best to have two in tank and squeeze sparingly once a month. No such thing as too much beneficial bacteria. Besides, once cycled one of the two may be used to cycle a second tank used as a quarantine tank or holding tank for new fish.I personally like the large cell sponges. Too fine a sponge and it gets clogged.
I completely agree with you. If I were setting up a breeding tank or a quarantine / holding tank (especially if it's bare bottom) I would go with sponge filters every time. Easy maintenance and top notch efficiency, plus they are a fraction of the cost of other kinds of filters. And like you said, if you have two running on a tank you can transfer one to a new tank and basically cycle it overnight. What's not to love about that? Of course, being a visual effects artist & animator for film and television and games, I get caught up in esthetics so my show tanks all have either HOB or canister filters so as not to draw focus away from the aquascape. But for anything other than a show tank, I'm Team Sponge from now on. I really appreciate your comments. I hope you'll stick around and comment on other videos as well.
i did a debate with Aqua funk/ Angel freak a while back on this very topic, i lost debating on the side for substrate.This video brings out so many points I actually shared.However important point to note beneficial bacteria can be found on the sides of tank and in the filter box or container. While I agree with you for most part I differ on section. I believe both substrates and no substrate has its own benefits. I am of the opinion based on experience, that substrate can result in the build up of gas which may eventually poison the fish, this of course occurs if you take too long to vacuum or clean the substrate. But you never get everything in a substrate tank. Its really a difficult topic with varied opinions. I really enjoyed this video and hope to see more interesting ones like this.
Thank you, I agree with all your statements. Bare bottom aquariums and those with substrate both have there place in this hobby. I never meant to suggest otherwise or that one was better than the other. My goal with this video was to shine a spotlight on one aspect of keeping bare bottom aquariums that some aquarists may not be aware of. I'm very happy that you liked this video and I appreciate your comment. Got plenty more videos in the works. Stay tuned!
go ahead I am avid in listening to great videos. Just wish you pay my channel a visit that's all, nothing to it.. just a visit! How about a discussion with me " water change or filtration which of the two is more import"? let me know what you think!
I have checked out your channel and have enjoyed the videos I've seen so far. You can count me as a new subscriber. I like the idea you proposed for a video collaboration. I'm a bit tied up on a project right now, but let's talk because I would definitely like to do a video like with you in the near future.
Absolutely! A sump is an excellent choice if you want to have a large bare bottom aquarium set up. In my case, however, it was a 10 gallon tank which due to its small size is not really suited for having a sump. For larger tanks, though, that would be a great option.
Could just add a cheap sponge filter and a mesh bag of bio media to the otherwise bare bottom tank. Even a few chunks of cheap lava rock would be a good compromise.
Actually. Having gravel, sand, or rocks is more dangerous overtime. Fish food and and fish waste build up, will cause a super deadly time bomb. If stirred or siphon vacuumed. Having big rocks is okay, because they keep good algae in ponds. Small rocks, sand, and gravel not so much.
That is definitely true if regular maintenance is not performed. For tanks with either gravel or sand I recommend weekly thorough vacuuming during water changes. For tanks with a soil type substrate thats a little harder to do, however if that tank is heavily planted (especially with carpeting plants) it will help a lot with keeping things from becoming toxic, assuming you are still performing regular water changes and siphoning up the waste you can seen. There are also substrate additives you can use (Aqua Design Amano makes some excellent additives) to promote good root growth on plants help prevent that deadly time bomb that you mentioned from going off. Personally, I like to keep Malaysian Trumpet Snails in my aquariums because of their burrowing habits which churns the substrate and reduces the chance of it going anaerobic. Of course they breed like rabbits, but I don't mind the trade off. I agree with you though that a bare bottom aquarium is potentially safer IF it is properly maintained and filtered.
Good tip: use A: use aquatic plants that dont need subtrate for example "Guppygras aka "Najas guadalupensis" if you wanna go bare bottom, it will float B: Use spungefilters that way you will still have allot of beneficial bacteria, also use the spungefilters that can hold media on the bottom, ive been doing it this way for years ,never had a Tank crash on me like this but, like you said: keep the maintenance up.
Perfect music - fish disasters are the perfect subject for the blues. You should set up your quarantine tank in a temporary location somewhere that your spouse will kill you if it stays there too long. That way it never becomes just another tank, it stays empty as your hospital/quarantine tank. I throw a thin layer of gravel on the bottom and a few caves or rocks for hiding. I do need to be able to see the fish if they are new or sick. As usual, great video.
Brilliant idea about using a temporary location to force oneself into remembering that a quarantine is a temporary situation. Yes, spousal scrutiny is a good motivational tool. LOL! I'm glad you caught on to the music selection. That was very deliberate on my part. I always choose the music before I begin editing and use it to set the tone and the pacing of the video. What better music for a topic like this than the blues, right? I like your way of thinking with how you set up a quarantine tank with a little bit of substrate and some rock caves. Smart. Stay tuned to see what I've done with my quarantine tank!
Nice point of view. I am planning to stock discus in my 75G. Most of the people I talked prefer barebottom. Then your video also has a nice pointers on why should I go with substrate. I really love planted tank. I can do maintenance once or twice a week. I hope my decision going planted tank with discus is a good option to me.
A bare bottom aquarium can definitely work out well for a quarantine tank if you set it up right and stay on top of the regular maintenance (which I know you will). As others have said here in the comments, adding some additional porous media to your filter can help tremendously to provide a good home to the beneficial bacteria colony. Good to hear from you!
I agree. It can be pretty awful. This is one of the reasons I have planted tanks. In a heavily planted aquarium with good water flow and water circulation, most of the fish waste will filter down into the substrate and be used as nutrients by the plants' roots. I used to be of the mindset of "I'm gonna set up this beautiful aquascape and maintain it forever," which is unrealistic. It eventually becomes a hideous mess, especially the substrate, despite our best efforts. Now I look at each scape I do as sort of a temporary art exhibit. I keep it for 9 months to a year, break it down, and start over again fresh. Thank you so much for watching and leaving a comment. New videos coming soon!
My bare bottom quartine looks horrifying to anyone who doesn't know what I'm doing. Cuase I keep it by a window to purposely grow algae which has resulted in a rainbow of different algae to grow all over the tank expect for the front.the reason I grow algae is cuase it helps break down fish waste and turns the sides of the tank into one big bio filter.
That is an excellent strategy, Brianna. Some people can't stand the sight of even a little bit of algae, but I have no problem with it (except on the front glass). I have always looked at it as the sign of a healthy aquarium. Glad you mentioned it!
Geez I just LOVE your camera presence. You are so fun to watch and listen to. I'm guessing you're a teacher or something else career-wise who does a good amount of public speaking? You're awesome. I'm so glad I found this channel! (Here's hoping when it's time, you don't end up in the CAE Circle. You deserve at least a Circle of Hell that's only somewhat annoying instead of painful. ;D Like dealing with a row of barebottom tanks, but of really gorgeous fish. You'd be the curator of the Circles of Hell lobby aquariums, obviously. Wow this is a long parentheses that probably wasn't necessary.)
You are very kind to say that. I've been an actor since I was 10 years old. I started off in theater then moved into film, television, commercials, games, and voice-over. That's why I appear so comfortable on camera. And you've got me pegged! I am indeed a teacher, lecturer, and publc speaker. I have a lot of interests in life and a multifaceted career as a result of that. I'm also a visual effects artist (Star Wars, Jurassic Park, Marvel films, etc.), animator, game designer, stand-up comedian, genuine Dark Lord of the Sith (Google me), writer, editor, and now a RUclipsr. But I have *always* been a fish fanatic. It's the hobby that keeps me sane in the crazy, high pressure world that is the rest of my career. So happy to hear that you enjoy my videos.
I put my beloved double-tail black orchid betta in a bare-bottom 10-gal tank, thinking it'd need less water changes than the 2-gal tank since it had a larger amount of water. He was fine in the morning, full of energy and all. At night, as I went to feed him, he was breathing heavily and even started to turn sideways a bit like an ill fish. I got really worried and immediately filled up the old tank with filtered water and heated some in the microwave and poured the hot water into the tank to mix with the cold water to make it room-temperature. I put my fish in the old tank with the fresh water and his breathing calmed down over an hour and he seemed much healthier. Thanks for the video. I just bought that tank and I believed I washed it out well before adding filtered water plus a bit of "stress-coat" to make the water healthier. Now in the small tank, he feels healthier, but I've never seen him so aggressive before. He's attacking his own reflection and I can't get rid of these reflections. I have no leaves to add to the water to calm him either, and despite covering the tank, he continues. Poor Seeker. I wish I could just tell him what's going on so he wouldn't be so stressed. At least the washed decor provides some form of shelter.
How strange. I wonder what was up with the new tank to cause that sort of reaction. I'm assuming you had cycled it and had it up and running for a while before you moved your betta into it. Very peculiar. As to his behavior now that he is back in his old tank and is fighting his own reflections, this is a common occurrence among some male bettas. What is out of the ordinary is that he didn't do it before when he was in the smaller tank. It may be that he is a little upset over the multiple moves and is feeling a bit unsure of himself so he lashes out at what he thinks are intruders (his own reflections). My guess is he will calm down before too long.
@@Aquatasy You're right. I'm actually rather new to keeping fish the right way. I've been doing my homework since before I got my betta, but some of the information I was told was wrong. I didn't realize how big a difference 8 gallons could make. I just finished setting up the 10-gal tank with gravel and a load of new props that were washed thoroughly. Seeker (my fish) is fine in the old, 2-gal filter-less tank and it's like nothing bad ever happened yesterday. He's not flaring anymore, and I don't blame him for being so stressed yesterday. Still made me feel bad. I added a filter this time and am letting it run for a while before adding Seeker back. I don't think I cycled the water, and maybe I didn't need to at the time. My problem was that there was nothing to absorb the toxins nor filter them out. I used only filtered water with stress-coat mixed in and the tank had been washed out very well beforehand. There were no signs of slowness until very late on the 6th day. I have the right tools now that I didn't have then; a large new bucket, glass wiper, gravel vacuum, and a bpa-free container to transfer him from one tank to the other. I think I know what I must do, but I'm still a little nervous and unsure about certain things. For example, should I clean the slime off props, or is that beneficial so long as there's no green? How often should I take everything out of the tank for cleaning including gravel and props? I have the vacuum, so I'll be doing that and I'll be looking up tutorials on water changes, but this is one freshwater fish. I don't want to keep him in that small 2-gal tank. I'd rather do my homework right. Thanks for your time by the way. I really appreciate it.
No worries, Keena. We all start out as novices. I've been keeping fish for decades since I was a kid, and it saddens me to see how much misinformation about this hobby is still being spread as the gospel truth, especially where bettas are concerned. I'm actually working on video to bust a bunch of these long-perpetuated myths. There are two things that are very important when setting up a new aquarium: conditioning the water and cycling the tank. Water conditioning refers to the process of removing harmful substances from the tap water you use to fill your aquarium with. Water conditioners such as Seachem's Prime, Kordon's AmQuel Plus, and others remove chlorine & chloramines from the tap water and help neutralize other toxins. Cycling is the formation of a biological filter, not to be confused with a mechanical filter. Mechanical filtration such as sponge filters, hang-on-back filters, and canister filters will physically catch and filter out particles such as dirt and waste found in the water. A biological filter or "biofilter" means the establishment of a beneficial (good, helpful) bacteria colony in your aquarium. Specifically, cycling refers to the Nitrogen Cycle. Assuming we have conditioned the water, our aquariums are a perfect pristine environment when we first set them up. But once we add fish to that environment waste is produced if the form of fish poop and uneaten food. This waste begins to break down and turn into ammonia which is quite harmful and, in high enough concentrations, deadly to fish. This is where the good bacteria comes into play. An establish colony of beneficial bacteria will feed on the ammonia produced by the waste and convert it into Nitrite. Nitrite is also poisonous to fish, but the bacteria will break it down further into much less harmful Nitrate. Nitrate is easier removed by doing weekly 25% water changes. Where does the good bacteria come from? It's all around us in the air we breathe. Most people when cycle their tanks will set them up, fill them with water, condition the water, start the mechanical filtration running, and then introduce some form of ammonia for the beneficial bacteria to feed on. The most common method is to add a pinch of fish food to the tank and let it break down in the water. In recent years, companies have begun selling beneficial bacteria in a bottle that can be added to your new tank right away to jump start the process. The bacteria will take up residence in the mechanical filter, among the nooks & crannies in your gravel, and anywhere else it can. During the cycling process we test our tank water with a freshwater test kit (API produces a good one) so that we can monitor the progress of the cycle. First there will be a spike in ammonia levels. Then as the bacteria begins to feed, the ammonia readings will go down and the nitrite levels will start to go up. Once the nitrite levels drop to zero and the nitrate levels rise you know your aquarium has finished cycling. This may all sound complicated, but it's not really. Here is a good video on the subject of cycling... "Cycling A Betta Fish Tank" by Life With Pets ruclips.net/video/Z6v6KJaqTKU/видео.html I also highly recommend you get a copy of David E. Boruchowitz's excellent book "The Simple Guide to Freshwater Aquariums" (2nd Edition). It's the best book I know of for learning about how to set up a healthy tank. It's available on Amazon amzn.to/2kOSAQe and also at a lot of pet stores. Hope this info helps.
@@Aquatasy Thanks, you're very helpful! Any tips on decorations? I learned too late that plastic rocks may not be better than real ones. I don't know where I got the idea that real stones could leech harmful things into the water and that the plastic ones would always be BPA-free, as well as decorations. If a store-bought plastic decoration gets chipped, does it leech toxins into the water? I want my aquarium to look cool and not like a typical natural environment, but I don't want this to be hurting my little roommate.
Not everyone wants a natural looking environment for their aquarium and that is perfectly fine. As long as it is a healthy environment for your fish and is pleasing to your eye then that's all that really matters, right? Nearly all artificial plants and other decorations sold at reputable big box chain pet stores such as PectCo ans Petsmart are going to be safe for your fish. Most decorations are made with aquarium-safe resins. Even if they break (as long as that break doesn't leave a sharp edge) they will still be safe and will not poison the water. Many rocks (certainly those sold in pet stores) are safe to use in your aquarium. The same can be said for many rocks you find in your garden or on the beach or by a lake or stream. But, as you suspected, some rocks can break down over time and change the chemistry of your tank water, raising or lowering the pH or altering the water hardness. If you would like to go scavenging for your own rocks from nature there is an easy way to test to see if a rock or stone is aquarium safe. You can buy a bottle of "pH Down" or any similar product made to lower the pH of your aquarium's water. When you find a rock you like, clean it off a bit, make sure it is dry, and pour a little of the pH Down onto the rock. If it starts to fizz or bubble that means it is a rock that will break down over time and is unsuitable for aquarium use. If the pH Down has no effect on the rock then that stone can be considered safe. Granite, quartz, obsidian, basalt, slate, flint, sandstone, petrified wood, and lava rock are generally safe to use. Anything that is brittle and has a high calcium carbonate content such as limestone should be avoided. My first fish tank as a kid had black & pink gravel (it was the 1970s), big chunks of white quartz, and a small ceramic Japanese pagoda. Over time I began to shift more towards natural looking layouts. My current passion is to create natural environments based on real locations somewhere in the world (such as the mountain streams of Montana) and then pick a particular country (such as Thailand) and use only fish, plants, and invertebrates native to that country. It's a fun challenge for me. The bottom line is that no matter how you choose to decorate your aquarium if it is fun for you and healthy for the fish then it's a success. And rest assured, whether you choose real rocks (like those I've mentioned) or artificial decorations, there shouldn't be any worries about toxins leaching into the water. You should be fine.
In my opinion bare bottom tanks are much preferable to petshops since it gives the customers more view of the fish they wanted to buy and fishes there are almost not kept for a long long time. As a fish keeper I think we really need to add any kind of substrate and decorations for the beneficial bacterias to settle and plants are good thing too since if we just rely in our filter medias they will really can't handle the overload of harmful substance in the water specially if you have lots of stocks in your tank. Even if you have powerful filter it's still not enough since it just filters water but it doesn't remove the harmful bacterias that floats in the water. So I think substrate, decorations and plants really goes hand in hand with our filter medias.
I suggest a homemade moving bed filter using k1. I have a large bottle with holes in it and an air stone in the bottom. About a month ago I moved my tank and completely changed and cleaned everything in my tank except for the moving bed filter. Didn't even need to cycle it.
That's actually an excellent idea for a bare bottom quarantine tank, and yes I can see how that would provide basically "instant" cycling for you. I chose to go a completely different route with the redo of this quarantine tank. I scaped it! I know, that sounds crazy, but there is a method to my madness. You can check out the video for the quarantine tank rescape here... ruclips.net/video/jJFBc4iJti4/видео.html
Would it be possible to supplement the lack of bacterial growth space availability by placing substrate (or material) outside the tank? Isn't that the concept behind the canister filters? What if instead of a canister, you used an entire tank? I hear what you're saying, but there's got to be a way to compensate. And I'm saying this as a novice, but I'm looking at it logically. If the substrate and surface area for the beneficial bacteria aren't located "in" the tank, we just got to find a way to pass the water through them outside of the tank. At least, that's what comes to mind for me...🤷🏾♂️
You are absolutely correct, and that is precisely what I recommend to people who want to go without substrate and don't want to have sponge filters showing inside the tank. Either use multiple hang-on-back filters or use a canister filter that is rated for tanks larger than yours. Unfortunately I didn't have that in this situation. Great comment. Thanks!
I have a 180 litre cold water tank running this last 3 years with 3 large fish orlando and black moor they are a good 6 inches long and well fed with sand at bottom . I was going to try a bare bottom as i like the idea just a little concerned for my fish. I do have a external cannister filter running along with small spong filter in tank. Also have just started putting in live plants i can put them in pots if i go bare bottom . Can u advise if running a bare bottom tank in my setup will or willnot be good for my fish . Sorry for long message
I think you should be perfectly fine with a setup like that. With both a canister filter and a sponge filter you will have plenty of places for your beneficial bacteria colony to grow and thrive. And if you are truly concerned about it you can always add some API Quick Start (bacteria in a bottle) each time you do a major water change. If you decide to add plants you could choose species like Hornwort, Water Sprite, or floating plants such as Water Lettuce, Salvinia, or Red Root Floaters that will consume excess nutrients or nitrate in the water.
@@Aquatasy thanks for your response very helpful information yes I will be adding plants as well its just working out best way to put them in a bare bottom tank
Hang on back filters are designed to be only part of a tank filtration system. That's the problem . For a bare bottom you need a much larger canister system and overkill is not a bad word ( unless you under filter and then its fish overkill ).
Couldn't agree with you more, Harry. I have a tendency to over-filter all my tanks. This tank didn't get the treatment it deserved. It is now though. If you haven't seen it yet, check out the video I did called "The Ellis Island Project" which details my make-over of this aquarium. ruclips.net/video/jJFBc4iJti4/видео.html
@@Aquatasy nice scape . So often ideas are ' either , or ' . I'm mixing bare and covered in next scape . A little left of center (3/5s) I am using a stone shore to separate a sandy planted land to the right while using a soft blue plex as the flat bare water to the left . ( it's a design in progress)
Sorry to hear this happened to you, Mauricia, but glad that this video helped you. Yes, even people who have been in the hobby for decades like me can accidentally mess up or have disasters befall them. You're not alone. If you're in the hobby for any length of time there's a chance that tragedy may strike. We just have to learn from it and move forward. Was this recently that this happened to you or a while ago? Either way I hope it hasn't soured you on fishkeeping. It's still one of the most rewarding pastimes I know of. Blessings to you!
I never thought about it that way. I still think bare bottoms are the best way to go for some situations and some fish but up the amount of filtration you have. Like add a large sump, plus a HOB, and some sponge filters. On my 55 gallon goldfish tank I had two HOB's one made for a 70 gallon and the other for a 110, plus two very large sponge filters. It was bare bottom because I didn't realized it was overstock and it was hard to keep clean with substrate. My goal was to get a sump for it but I got out of the hobby before I did. I sold that tank but still have a good amount of my fish tanks left. I think next large tank I'm going to set up. I'm def going to look into a sump or a canister filters in stead.
I think that's great advice. I also think sumps are very underrated. A sump would be an excellent way to go if you are setting up a bare bottom aquarium for fancy goldfish or discus.
You're welcome, Irene! Happy to hear that you enjoyed this video. Hope you'll find the other videos on this channel as interesting. I do a mix of informational videos and humorous videos about the fishkeeping hobby. Thank you so much for watching and leaving a comment. Really appreciate it!
so you can do either OR depending on a routine maintenance that goes with it as with ANY tank has I LIKE that Idea, cause with guppies that works for me thanks for the info.
You do realise the 5ft tank had 2 ghost koi, a platinum ogon koi, a common carp, a mirror carp and 8 goldfish over 1ft long and 2 2ft plecos. All very high producing waste. All good say you had a 5ft tank, but what you missed was it was high stocked with high waste production fish.
Fabulous Andrew!!!...…...well explained, as usual. Each fishkeeping style has it's pros and cons, benefits or drawbacks. I like this topic a lot, and want to produce a number of videos myself exploring and explaining this theme.
Who or What, is really maintaining your tank? 1) Can be solely by water changing. 2) Can be green water, solely by unicellular algae.. 3) Can be the beneficial nitrifying bacteria via circulating filtration. 4) Can be aquatic plants growing immersed or emersed. 5) Can be any combination of the above. Each method has it's own requirements.
That's a great question, Mitchell. If you start seeing a big spike of the ammonia levels in your tank that is a big indicator that your beneficial bacteria colony is being overtaxed or has died off. Too much ammonia and not enough bacteria can overwhelm the colony. The first and most important thing is to diagnose the cause of the ammonia spike. Sometimes, as in my case, it is a lack of proper maintenance (I was away from home too much). It could be dead fish that go undiscovered without any scavengers to consume the carcass (snails, other fish, etc.). You could have imbalances in your water chemistry (pH, GH, KH) that are the underlying issue. Or as I had happen a while back, your water supply might have traces of ammonia in it without you realizing it. We hobbyists often test our tap water for pH and water hardness, but many of us neglect to test it for ammonia or nitrites before we do a water change. If it has been a long time since your local water district cleaned the reservoir or water tower that feeds your neighborhood then ammonia and nitrites can build up. I had to call my water district about it and get someone out to test the water in person before anything was done about it.
This is a well-explained video all throughout.I should share this to my cousin who has just recently gotten interested with fishkeeping.We already set-up his tank last May 22(it was my old 3.5 gallon betta tank.I no longer use it because my betta is now living in a 15 gallon planted tank where he is king,with some Espei Rasboras as tankmates.).His tank already has substrate in it and a few plants but if he decides to go all-out and buy bigger and bigger tanks,this video will be of help to him.He'll start by keeping a betta though but his tank is still fishless because he has yet to buy a mini filter. Also,I see that small clip of the tank of the Thailand Project there hehehe.
Thank you for the compliments. This video was definitely aimed at people like your cousin who may be novices or intermediates to the hobby of fishkeeping. I hope he has great success with his first tank. And yes, you saw a bit of the Thailand Project in this video. More to come!
You are absolutely correct. I am in no way blaming the bacteria (or lack of bacteria). I am merely pointing out that with a bare bottom aquarium there is much less wiggle room compared to a tank with substrate.
The lack of substrate is why most of us that go with a bare bottom tank use some sort of biological filter. Sponge filters seem to one of the more common biological filters used. We don't put an air stone in and call it good. Even a quarantine tank needs to have a well cycled filter. You have very good points on why biological filters are a requirement if your going to go with a bare bottom setup. Especially if you have few to no live plants.
Agreed. Were I to do it all over again with a bare bottom quarantine aquarium I would have a sponge filter running on the tank along with the hang-on-back filter. But i have done something drastically different with my quarantine tank that better fits my hectic entertainment industry lifestyle (that came out much more pretentious than I thought it would, sorry) and my sensibilities as an artist. You can check it out in this video here... ruclips.net/video/jJFBc4iJti4/видео.html Thank you for leaving such a great comment. Blessings to you!
Does it depend on the fish? I mean....from where I am....Asian Arowanas are kept in bare bottom tanks. Not only it is advised......but it is also consistent. Long time Arowana keepers and breeders do this. It is safer to have a bare bottom tank for his fish..in some cases...they swallow substrate when getting food the feel on the bottom of the tank. I guess this fish is not really well studied in the West...I mean it is illegal to own one in the States. Nice video anyway......when it comes to my community fish....I always have substrate. Arowanas are just way different. Love your videos.
It doesn't so much depend upon the fish as it does on the fishkeeper. The whole point of this video is to remind hobbyists that if you have a bare bottom aquarium you need to really keep up with your regular maintenance routine. You can't let the water changes and clean slide. The idea is not to over tax the beneficial bacteria colony. People with busy schedules and not much free time might do better to have substrate in their tanks. Arowanas are fantastic fish. You're right, most people keep Asian Arowanas have them in bare bottom aquariums. Then again, most Arowana owner stick to a strict maintenance schedule. In answer to your question, Asian Arowanas are legal in the United States. I know several people who have them. There are definitely advantages and disadvantages to having a bare bottom aquarium. I made this video to help point out some of the possible disadvantages that fishkeepers may not have thought about. I also believe it's important that if someone like me who is sharing their knowledge and expertise needs to also be willing to share their mistakes and failures. Thank you so much for your compliments and for watching. I truly appreciate it.
What would you recommend for buffering PH in a bare bottom aquarium? I’m always chasing it with the liquids and was wondering some crush coral or something would do the trick.
If you are looking to keep the pH in the alkaline range, then crushed coral can be quite effective. You could scatter it on the bottom of the tank (hmmm... guess it wouldn't be "bare bottom" then) or put some in with your filter media. If you want to go the other direction and aim for a an acid low pH, then you could try adding peat to your filter media.
i agree to disagree i run bare bottom tanks and do changes once a week to every week and a half i use alot of driftwood and plants and low stocking rates and havent had any spikes no dieing bacteria in my filters i agree with this though in my small barebottom tanks but usually i just have them for qt
Well, you are doing it the absolute right way. All that driftwood provides more surfaces for the beneficial bacteria to call home. And you are staying on top of those all-important water changes. Well done. By the way, you are always welcome to agree or disagree with my on any of my videos. I completely encourage viewers to express their opinions and share their experiences here on the Aquatasy channel. That's how we all learn and grow. So I hope you will continue to watch and leave comments. Blessings to you!
Usually they will take up residence in your mechanical filter. My problem was that I overtaxed my hang-on-back filter with the number of fish I had in the tank. Had I been using a large sponge filter or a sponge filter in combination with the HOB filter, then there would have been plenty of places for the beneficial bacteria to call home and the colony would not have died off.
The tank in this video is a standard Aqueon 10 gallon tank with an Aqueon Quiet Flow hang-on-back filter and fluorescent light. If you haven't seen the make-over of this quarantine/holding tank yet, you'll find it in this video... "The Ellis Island Project" ruclips.net/video/jJFBc4iJti4/видео.html
I suppose you could, but it is a rather costly alternative. By doing that you are literally throwing money down the drain. A better solution would be to add more filtration such as an extra sponge filter in the tank, another hang-on-back filter behind the tank, or a larger canister filter with lots of filter media for the beneficial bacteria to take up residence. Or, as another viewer suggested, you could put some pieces of lava rock in your aquarium. The porous surfaces of the lava rock can provide additional areas for the bacteria to call home.
Thanks for 5his nice vedio and for your advise . I have a question please. I have 240 L aquarium inside I have 8 discus small size . In this aquarium I have 3 filters , Juewel internal filter, Eheim experience 250 and fluval FX 6. I do use Tetra Easy balance Tetra aqua safe Easy life filter medium and benficial Bacteria. I have gravel in my aquarium . Since I life in Europe and the water is very expensive here which may lead me to stop the hobby. My question do I need with all this to change water weekly , sort what is your advise to minimize water consmption. Thank you
Thank you for the compliment on my video. I am glad you enjoyed it. You certainly have enough mechanical filtration running on your aquarium which not only filters out any debris floating in the water, but also provides a good home for the beneficial bacteria. So your setup seems to be excellent. If weekly water changes are expensive for you, what I would recommend is to do your water changes every two weeks instead and see how it goes. Test your aquarium water weekly to make sure that the level of nitrates are not too high. If you find that the nitrates are spiking up you can try to compensate by adding floating live plants such as dwarf water lettuce what will help absorb some of the nitrates. I did this recently on one of my aquariums and was surprised to find that the plants I added brought the nitrates down to almost zero. I hope this helps you.
@@Aquatasy thank you brother for this quick reply ok I will do that , but how much water change I should do every 2 weeks ? Thanks for your suggestions.
Most people do 25% to 30% water changes. Keep testing the water quality and observe your fish to make sure that they are remaining healthy. From what I understand, Discus need their water to be very clean so you might need to do a slightly larger water change each time. I am not an expert on Discus.
Thanks, Floyd, I appreciate it. Fortunately yes, I have this quarantine tank up and running again with a different strategy. A video about it is already in the works.
I put furan 2 and anti ick is it okay to combine it? i just wanna say hes back to normal iam so happy my friend.Iam still contuining hes medication to be 100 percent sure no paraytes even hes super active again
I'm not familiar with those two particular medications, but whatever you are doing seems to be working. And I like that you are continuing the medication even after your fish appears to be better.
You are correct, but of course they are probably staying right on top of regular water changes and maintenance. The point of this video was to remind or inform people that bare bottom aquariums are less forgiving when it comes to letting those water change slide than a tank that has substrate or is fully planted.
Hi Andrew.. this was great. Awesome points and very nicely explained. I personally don't like bare bottom tanks. I feel it's for the benefit of the aquarist and not the fish. Just MO... loved the video!!💦😁❤️💦
I tend to agree with you. I think most fish would be happier having a substrate. Some species in particular will become unnerved without a substrate in their environment. But for other species I can see why fishkeeper want to ditch the substrate in order to focus on the fish themselves. I'm happy to hear you enjoyed this video. Thanks for dropping a comment!
hi i was just wondering if the shot at 220 shows an air stone in right corner if those were live plants would that not be a problem conflicting with the CO2 needed for plant health ? or was that a CO2 device ? nice vids !
It looks like it's just an air stone placed in there to increase surface agitation and to help with oxygenation. That's a low-tech tank. No CO2 running on it. None of the plants in there would require supplementing with CO2. The air stone is probably there more for the health of the fish than for the health of the plants. Having said that, air stones are a great way to combat "blue-green algae" (cyanobacteria). Glad you enjoyed the video!
You're welcome! Bare bottom aquariums can work for shrimp if you use a couple of sponge filters in them and you keep the tank properly maintained. The key to setting up a shrimp tank is to let the aquarium mature before adding the shrimp. Personally I think a tank with substrate (and plants and other natural decor) is easier for keeping shrimp, but I have seen several people successfully house their shrimp in a bare bottom aquarium.
hang on backs are the worst kind of filter you can have and are only really good at polishing the water and should almost never be used and should really be fazed out a good sponge filer is one of the best filters you can have and you should always have one in your tank even if your using another filter as your always going to need aeration anywise so you might as well have that air doing something besides just aerating the water also a sponge filer is good during power outages because you just need to worry about supplying air and they are easily run off battery powered emergency air pumps as ware all other filters need a lot more power to keep running honestly the only downside to a sponge filer is how they look but im sure if a company wanted they could make sponge filters that look like decorations like make a skull shaped sponge or maybe a log shaped sponge or even a rock shaped sponge that could disguise the sponge filter a bit more so its not as noticeable
You bring up some excellent points, especially about sponge filters being very handy during power outages. I covered that briefly in another video on "How to Care For Your Fish When the Power Goes Out". Thank you for leaving such a great comment. I hope others will see it and glean from it.
You don't require substrate for beneficial bacteria. Most beneficial bacteria is in you sponge filter, HOB or canister filter anyway, I would paint the bottom of the aquarium if keeping it without substrate.
Great point! This is true, but if there is no substrate then it helps to increase the other areas where beneficial bacteria can congregate such as an addition sponge, HOB, or canister filter where there is extra filter media for the bacteria to live in. Not everyone knows to do this, which is why I wanted to make this video.
Ummm. You increased the bio load tremendously all at once. Substrate or not that would cause an issue. Am I missing something? I have always had bare bottom arowana aquarium and don't even have to do water changes often.(though most if the time I do) Becuase I also created an area for low flow low oxygen so anaerobic bacteria eats nitrates and fish ditritus
I didn't mean to imply that number of the free fish I received were added to the tank all at once. They weren't. But you're right that a sudden increase in the bioload would cause problems in *any* tank, bare bottom or not. My problem was simply that I assumed that since I had so many plants floating in the tank that I could let my bare bottom tank slide a bit and skip a water change or two while I was out of town (admittedly longer than I had planned to be) the same way I could with my heavily planted aquariums that are fully aquascaped. It was too much for the little hang-on-back filter to handle. If there had been a sponge filter running on that tank as well things would have been much better. How big is your arowana tank and what kind of filter do you have running on it? (I love arowanas.)
@@Aquatasy ok that makes sense. Right now my Arowanais in my old 135 gallon . With a dual sump. One being very very low flow and sealed to lower gas exchange and full of matrix media. Building a 500 gallon plywood right now for his next aquarium with acrylic front. Probably going to do tile bottom with same dual sump
No matter what, I totally blew it which is why I wanted to make this video. I'm always quick to admit my mistakes in this hobby if it will help others to avoid making the same mistakes. You'll find that I also encourage people to express their opinions in the comments even if they differ from my own. That's how we learn and grow in this hobby we all love so much. Sounds to me like you've got a great setup for your arowana. Do you have videos posted of this tank?
@@Aquatasy That's how I feel always best to listen to everyone. No I have never uploaded anything to RUclips but I have really been thinking about it lately. I was thinking about filming my whole build and maybe uploading it
It all depends upon what your goals are with your aquarium, the type of fish you want to keep, whether or not you wish to grow aquatic plants (and which species), and so on. Gravel, sand, and various kinds of aqua soil are all excellent substrates depending upon the circumstances, but in order to answer your question I need some specifics from you. What type of fish or invertebrates do you want to keep? Are you looking to grow aquatic plants? How big is your aquarium? What is your experience level with the aquarium hobby? And lastly, what is your budget?
Well, first of all I would not combine guppies and goldfish in the same aquarium. Guppies are tropical fish, goldfish are cool water fish. Each species has its own special set of requirements. Plus, 12 gallons is really too small of an aquarium for goldfish. They produce a tremendous amount of waste and grow much too large for a 12 gallon tank. A 20 gallon aquarium is a appropriate for one (1) goldfish. On the other hand, a 12 gallon aquarium might work well for guppies...if you keep only males. Guppies breed easily and rapidly, quickly filling up your 12 gallon tank. If you want keep males & females and breed guppies then I strongly suggest a larger aquarium or be prepared to sell off or give away a good portion of the fry produced by them. Having said all that, the best substrate for goldfish is small smooth aquarium gravel. For guppies in an unplanted tank you can use aquarium, sand, or a combination of the two. I will say, though, that guppies appreciate some sort of vegetation in their tank. Even some simple floating plants like hornwort will give fry somewhere to hide as they grow large enough not to be eaten. (Assuming you want to breed your guppies.) I hope that helps.
@@Aquatasy yeah, just this morning I know that goldfish and guppies can't be together, i just want your opinion. And your advice lift my spirit to start new tank with only guppies... i also know that i might need sand for that but, of course much more opinion, much better results.... THANKS.... now, my experience level increase: 5😅 👋👋👋👋👋👋👋👋👋👋
Lmao my father had bare bottom tanks for over 60 years of his life . 1 of his barebottoms had gold sided piranha's that had lived in that tank for over 20+ years . And it was a simple set up . He used Shot glasses for his plants but only had HoB filters . But the size of this filtration was double the size of the tank . Which there for kept his parameters on point . No substrate in any of his tanks . A lot of his fish lived about there maximum life spans .
Well, sounds like your father was doing it the right way. He had multiple HoB filters running which provided extra places for the good bacteria to take up residence. That's the key to running a bare bottom aquarium.
Aquatasy since you want me to give you an update on my flowerhorn hes super okay now i put doxyclyne and furan 2 plus anti ick and penicilyn hes super active again
So glad to hear that your fish is doing well! I would recommend keeping a close eye on him for the next month because Ich can sometimes flare up again. And keep up with the frequent water changes because that will help your fish feel healthier. Thanks for the good news!
Actually even he regained hes strength he still scratches hes body on the aquirium i really want to kill it. My next step is to eradicate all this ick any new recomendation my friend? Or only raising the water temprateure to 32 degress will completely kill the ich? Is their a possibility even raising the tempretarature to 32 degrees ick can still survive and flare up again? Wow i didnt know ick is not easy to kill hehe
32C degrees may be a little too high for your flowerhorn. It would definitely kill off the Ich parasites, but it might also harm your fish. If you can get the temperature up to 30C degrees and your fish doesn't show any signs of stress then that will stop the Ich from reproducing and it will run its course and die off. Other than that, keep doing what you are doing. Your fish is responding well and the Ich will eventually be gone.
Ok thank you andrew i will try 30 degress celcius for my flowerhorn and observe also if there is a sign of stress your so informative thank you so much for your help please make more videos hehe
The best thing to do when you have high nitrates is to increase the number of water changes that you are doing. Not so much the amount of water for each water change, but the frequency of them. So let's say you are doing a 25% water change once a week, try doing a 25% water change twice a week and then maybe increase that after a while to three times a week. Once you get the nitrates down to a more acceptable level (such as 10 ppm or ideally 5 ppm) then you can reduce the frequency a little bit. If you are only doing monthly water changes that might explain why the nitrates are so high. There are several reasons why high nitrate levels occur. One is not enough water changes. Another reason is overfeeding. Yet another is overstocking (too many fish). Or it may be that your filter needs to be cleaned. I hope this helps.
@@Aquatasy thanks for your answer...i have another question, if the fish waste is caught up in the filter pad, for how long it will produce nitrates? Does it keep on producing until it's cleaned or it will stop producing after a day or two? Also my filter intake is a bit high so i see fish poop on the corner every night but in the morning its completely dissolved, so i think my fishes are making it dissolve by spitting out, in that case those waste are directly injected in to the water as nitrates right? Please clarify these two questions...
Fish waste trapped by your filter pad produces ammonia which is broken down by the beneficial bacteria in your tank and converted into nitrite. The nitrite, in turn, is further broken down into nitrate. The same fish waste does not keep producing ammonia/nitrite/nitrate indefinitely, *however* each day there is new fish waste produces by your fish and it gets trapped in the filter pad and it begins the process of turning into nitrate. As long as there are fish in the tank and they are consuming food and releasing waste there is going to be more nitrates produced. This is why we do frequent water changes. Uneaten fish food also breaks down and turns into ammonia and then nitrite and the nitrate. We tend to think of filters as the solution for all of this, but that isn't truly the case. Many of us fishkeepers think of water changes as something we do to supplement filtration, but in reality it's the other way around. Filtration is something we do to supplement water changes. It took a while for that idea to sink in with me when I started in this hobby. Once we make that adjustment to our thinking are fish will benefit from it greatly. In short, water changes are more important than filtration. Having said that, it is also important to clean out our filters on a regular basis. You don't need to replace your filter pads every time. You can rinse out that pad and reuse it. HERE'S THE CATCH: Rinse it out in the old tank water that you siphoned out as part of your water change. Don't rinse the filter pad in fresh tap water because you will kill off the beneficial bacterial colony living there, which would be disastrous in a bare bottom aquarium. In answer to your second question, the fish poop that accumulates in the corners of the tank where the filter intake tube doesn't reach dissolve because of the nitrifying bacteria breaking it down. Yes, your fish probably come poking along through it as well and probably suck some of it up and spit it out, but it is the beneficial bacteria that dissolves it and eventually turns it into nitrate. Again, another reason why water changers are so important.
@@Aquatasy thank you so much for taking time to reply... It clears my doubts... i actually have a mini pond setup outside where there is zero nitrates Bcoz of all the algae and the fish grows like crazy, whereas in the tank with any nitrates present the fish don't grow well... I also realised that in the wild fish live in fresh new water every second but we trap them in old water for weeks, i have a future plan to setup a tank with automatic siphoning the cornered waste every few hours and filling with new water immediately...
@@Aquatasy hi again, i have another question related to bare bottom, i recently setup a discus tank but my tank bottom is white in colour , even if i paint the other side it'll still look white Bcoz that white is inside that bottom glass, so my tank looks so bright and my discus seems to be skittish Bcoz of bright light, is this really a problem? Will they adapt or should i put black gravel?
I'm assuming it would be better if the tank was heavily understocked and had plenty of decorations and live plants? Nitrifying bacteria grow everywhere, not just in the substrate (although you're right that having substrate does increase their surface area by quite a bit).
I agree. Definitely don't want your Axolotls consuming waste and a bare bottom aquarium makes it easier to find and clean up all the dirt. Yes, the clay pots are one place that the good bacteria can grow. The majority of your beneficial bacteria colony is most likely living in your filter.
Bare bottom = carved in stone maintenance schedule. I do my weekly water changes regardless but this video is full of great points and useful info. Well done and thumbs up.
That right there, Glen, is my own personal issue with bare bottom aquariums and why they aren't a good fit for me, because I am not a carved in stone kind of guy. There are times when I am pulling 24-hour shifts to finish the visual effects shots for a project, or I get a call from a production asking if I can be on a plane in four hours. A bare bottom aquarium isn't going to wait patiently for me to be available to do the proper maintenance.
You have a busy life there, but your right bare bottom tanks are not your friend in your situation. One day when your retire and put your feet up in your recliner chair in front of the fish tanks your be able to set up any tank you want. At least I hope that for myself lol.
@@Aquatasy life over enjoyment hum hum hum hope things are changing for the better with your scheduled routine of having fish & doing what you gotta do.
@Chewy Ltd It can be rough if you're not home enough to do the regular maintenance. Before I started this channel I was almost completely out of this hobby because I was working long hours on crazy, time-consuming projects as a feature film visual effects artist. I had gotten down to one ridiculously overgrown 20 gallon tank with only three fish in it. But then my schedule changed (for the better), I discovered the fish tank community on RUclips, and I became fired up again about fishkeeping.
Can I add a tiled bottom
I’ve been keeping an aquarium since my teenage years, and now I’m retired from work. I only used a bare tank to raise Brine Shrimp, Daphnia, hold fish for a few days, or for quarantine situations. You see substrate in nature, that is your biggest hint that you should have one. My biggest tank was a 55 Gallon tank. It was heavily planted. I used to sell my excess plants to local pet shops, and aquarists as well. Once my Canister Filter broke down, and my tank did great without it for two weeks, until I eventually replaced the Canister Filter. I checked all my parameters everyday. I almost considered never putting a filter in, because my tank was thriving. I still did a 1/4 water change every week, but it got me thinking. Do I need a filter? I had thick level of pea sized gravel, which my plant grew from. Some plants floated, but everything alive in my tank did well. Maybe a simple HOB would of done the trick and continue to balance my tank. We need a substrate for many reasons to balance a thriving aquarium.
Jose, that is the best argument I have heard yet in favor of using a substrate!
Aquatasy thanks!
So would a empty tank with about an inch of sand work well, so that its not entirely empty but still has a good filter with the beneficial bacteria?
I made a filter using sponge media and glass beads for the bacteria. Simple to do and much easier than cleaning dirty substrate!
Oh crap! Now need to add rocks. I've had a bare tank for 5 years now and only add water when the water gets low, never done water changes. Now I'm panicking 🥺
Don't panic. If your tank has been running well for five years without substrate, then obviously you are doing something right and your tank is balanced. No need for panic.
My 20 gallon tetra bare-bottom tank has a 20 gallon HOB filter, two sponge filters and a lot of plants and driftwood.
I perform weekly water changes of about 4-5 gallons of water
That's the way to go. Plenty of surfaces for beneficial bacteria to live on the sponges, on the plants & wood, and in the HOB filter. Good job!
I've had my bare bottom tanks for years n never had an issue with it.... all u really need is the appropriate size filter and media but that goes for all tanks. benefits of a bare bottom out weighs the cons. especially if you have drift wood or a big rock or 2. substrate is definitely not required for all fish
If you have rocks on a bare bottom tank do you need anything to distribute the weight to avoid pressure points on the glass?
@@Kenney9120 what kind of stupid question is that 🤦♂️
@@Jhood2k13 A stupid question based in reality my friend. I don't know if heavy rocks (Say five or six inches across maybe) on the bare glass could damage the tank or not so asking is a useful way of learning what I do not know. I saw one fish keeper who put that plastic lighting diffuser under a large rock in her hill stream tank and wondered if it was to protect the bottom of the aqurium.
Let me know if you still do not understand
and I will be happy to explain further. Have a nice day. :)
@@Kenney9120 Common sense would tell you they wouldn't make a tank that couldn't manage the weight of a aquarium rocks hence why its called an aquarium tank 🤦♂️ if the tank cant even handle the weight of the water being filled to full capacity then thats not an aquarium tank please note that a full tank out weighs a rock. The only way a rock could damage the tank is if you threw the rock at the glass 🙄🤦♂️ again it still a stupid questio this is mere common sense.
@@Jhood2k13 Common sense would also tell you to actually read a comment before responding. Do so and you will see I asked about pressure points created by rock on glass contact when you remove the substrate, not the weight itself which has a logical limit. Again, maybe an issue and maybe not.
Great video,last year I had to move away from home for 7 months and left my 40g tank with substrate in the care of my aunt who is pretty much clueless,only told her to do water changes and feed the fish. Surprisingly when i came back the worst thing that happened was mineral build up on the glass cause she let the water level drop,the fish were healthy even though she was doing very small water changes.
Precisely! Clearly your aquarium had enough places for the beneficial bacteria to grow and thrive thanks to the substrate in your tank. I am by no means stating that bare bottom aquariums are wrong. The point of the video is that a tank with substrate (and other porous surfaces) Is going to be much more forgiving than one without. Your experience perfectly illustrates that. Thanks for watching and commenting!
I do enjoy bare-bottom tanks when it comes to maintenance. I go on work trips all the time, and I've had to adjust to ensure that my tanks can push through most small catastrophic events. For one, I keep my tanks highly understocked, and run a small pump to circulate the water. My biological filter is on the decor and rocks themselves. Even in a power outage, I don't have dying bacterial populations in my filter and substrate. My water also stays clearer in general.
See? That's the way to do it! Clearly, that wasn't how I was maintaining my tank back then. If I had been following your example, then I would never have suffered the losses that I did. I'm wiser now. Thanks for watching and commenting. I hope you'll stick around and share your thoughts on other Aquatasy videos.
This video is a gem, finally someone point out the difference of bare bottom and substrate bottom.
I started as bare bottom fish keep and tons of media in the sum, and end up hookep up with a substrate setup. Reason i found is bare bottom with those flow in the sum doesn't give the beneficial bacteria to settle down on the media that easy, meanwhile ammonia is always 0.25ppm above.
While my substrate tank is always 0ppm ammonia and also even more fish waste produced than the bare tank..
Thank you! It's all about finding balance, and it is often difficult to maintain that balance without substrate. With substrate in place, we are mimicking a natural environment. A tank without substrate is so far removed from nature that it is incredibly dependent upon us to do so much maintenance. I now lean more towards various layers of substrate and a heavily planted tank to take care of most of the work. I am also currently switching from canister and hang-on-back filters to small internal filters with good water flow.
Glad you enjoyed this video. More new videos coming soon!
@@Aquatasy Totally agree, im more peace of mind with substrate tank because maintenance is less than bare bottom. Now i understand why some old school fish store with almost 2-3 inches of substrate without even have a filter in it😅
Precisely!
If you have a sump filter solves all the problems you listed
You are correct, Christopher. So glad you brought that up. I'm actually working on follow-up video about the benefits of a bare bottom aquarium and I'm going to discuss sumps in that video.
@@Aquatasy The problem is running a basic hang on back filter with no substrate.
@@jeffk464 Agreed. Bare bottom aquariums are much better suited to canister and sponge filters. I naively thought I could let the maintenance slide a bit on a bare bottom tank the way I can sometimes with a heavily planted tank that has sustrate. Nope. Certainly not with a 10 gallon aquarium and a small HOB filter.
But I am willing to admit my failures if it helps me grow and helps others to avoid similar pitfalls. Now my quarantine/holding tank is fully scaped and planted. I thought about keeping it bare bottom and switching to sponge filters, but I couldn't help myself. I love to aquascape! I was smart, though, and made it a scape that I could easier access to catch the fish when it comes time to transfer them to their permanent aquariums.
so how does a sump filter work? I run bio wheel filters. there's 2 big 350 jn each of the two 50 gallon tanks. Have to clean them out at least once a week. and as for the filter pads they have to be cleaned daily. you could never let it run for 2 weeks to a month with these fish. Don't get me wrong their great but like i said theres 52 of them and one of me.
I have a 20g long bare bottom. I run 2 aquaclear 50’s with pond matrix and pre filters. Never any issues. Getting ready to set up a 75g peacock tank bare bottom. I will be running 2 Tidal 110’s HOB’s and a sponge filter. I will be using 2 liters of pond matrix which is good for 200
Gallons of water. It can be done with any filter if set up properly. I just prefer HOB’s as I think they are easier to maintain.
75 gallon freshwater tank, 2 small air pumps, Waterfall hung on tank filter "penguin 300" hooked to a header pipe to under gravel filter. 2 inches of pea gravel. 1-15" gar, 1-8" Bowfin, 5-4" sunfish, 2-6" yellow perch and 5 crayfish. I hardly ever had to change my water out. It stayed clear, no odor. Feed bait store minnows and night crawlers.
See, now THAT'S the way to do it! Bravo! Well done, Kevin. Not everybody, though, who sets up a bare bottom tank knows how to do it right or puts in the effort to keep it running smoothy, which is why I wanted to make this video. How long have you had the 75 gallon tank up and running?
Aquatasy I had that tank up years ago but I probably had that tank for close to 10 years up and running.
My local store all its tanks are bare bottom with sponge filters and there are about 120 fish tanks.
Their fish look healthy.
That's great! Clearly they are doing things right, everything is balanced regarding filtration & bioload, and the beneficial bacteria isn't being over taxed. If I had had different filtration and/or less fish in the tank shown in this video I might not have experienced the problems I encountered. The main point of the video was to let people know how important it is to find a balance.
I run two hang on the back filters ..I rotate the filter's monthly in one or the other hob ..Works perfectly
Clever! Great idea. Thank you for suggesting it here in the comments.
Nice video.
I know this is a 2 years old video, but I suggest adding pothos plants and peace lily. I did a research on them and it's said that they eat it up nitrates and clear the air. I try it and my water is quite clear. No algae too.
I hate cleaning up the tank and changing water. I solved that problem simply not owning any fish lol.
My mum on the hand owns a few guppies after a friend gave it to her.
She put them inside of a plastic bowl.
Flash forward, I bought her a mini plastic tank made for betta. Got a sponge holder with 2 suction cup and I put plants such as Pothos and peace lily on the sponge holder, this keep the green leafs looking attractive and the root help soak up the nitrates and alege while they're submerged in water.
As for cleaning the fish poops on a bare bottom tank, I can use those specially made long handle net that you can extend for a few bucks and just scoop up the poops.
Or you can use those water tube with w pump that you can get for a few bucks on ebay and suck up the poop. It only take a few minutes if you gonna do a partial water change.
The fake bamboos also work great but their roots may not be a pleasant sight for a tank
I like the “see the fish clearly “ pun at 2:52 , lol
YES! Thank you, Daniel! You're the first person to catch that joke. Finally!
Something here does not make sense to me. The aquarium you demonstrated had a lot of plants and a low bioload. Even without substrate, the plants will consume ammonia, which is actually more efficient than beneficial bacterial converting ammonia to nitrates. I think something else happened.
That's what I thought too. I thought all those plants would have helped keep everything in control, but alas no. It's a 10 gallon tank and it had a much bigger bioload than it may have looked like in this video. There were a lot more fish in there than you could see in the clips I showed. Plus the species of plants I had floating in that tank (anubias, java fern, cyperus helferi, etc.) aren't the best at consuming ammonia. They do so at a much slower rate than say species of hygrophila, ludwigia, water sprite, and others. (Water sprite is amazing in that sense.) Because of time-consuming projects with crazy deadlines and because of travel, I fell behind on my water changes and cleanings. If there had been a bigger filter on the tank or more porous filter medium or different plants or some sort of substrate in the tank I might have had more wiggle room like I'm accustomed to with my fully scaped & planted tanks. The problem was definitely (as we used to say when I worked in game development) "operator error". I messed up.
I could be wrong though. As you said, there may have been more going on than met my eye. Thanks for chiming in and leaving a comment. I truly appreciate it. Stay tuned for the rebirth of this tank!
Yes he wants to sell stones at his aquarium shop and get you to watch his videos clever guy
Felt like I was watching a pbs or school special lol. Love the music. Good stuff
That is exactly the vibe I was going for! Happy to know you enjoyed this. Hope you'll check out the other videos on this channel. Thank you for leaving a comment. I really appreciate it!
It was great briefly meeting you at the Albany Aquarium today!
Nice to meet you too! I'm sad that the store is closing, but so thankful it has been around for so long. Hope you enjoy the Aquatasy channel. New videos coming very soon!
Instead of substrate, how about a big piece of (non-toxic) sponge for bacterial surface area?
I suppose that would work, but if you want to use sponge it is probably better to simply have a sponge filter running in your bare bottom tank.
Im glad i ran across this video. Im aware of the few benefits of BB tanks but i still don't believe it comes close to having a gravel or sand bottom. If you even took away the benefits of substrate, its just plain ugly. Fine for breeding or sick tanks. Ect. But as a room focal point its just so plain and always dirty looking. Had to subscribe after seeing the video. To many people are pushing the B.B. IMO on u tube
Well thank you, Mark. I really appreciate the compliments. I think bare bottom aquariums have a place in this hobby. Certainly, as you mentioned, they work well as breeding or quarantine tanks when properly maintained (which clearly I didn't do with mine). But I'm with you. Bare bottom aquariums are aesthetically boring for me. Sure, to each their own. Some people like that look and only want to concentrate on the fish themselves. Other people like purple gravel and Spongebob decorations. That's fine. Personally, I'm all about aquascaping and planted aquariums. That's what appeals to me. Bare bottom tanks can be very useful, but with this video I wanted to point out some of the potential pitfalls of them.
Thank you so very much for leaving a comment and fot subscribing. I truly appreciate it. By the way, if you want to see what became of the bare bottom tank in this video, check out another video I did entitled "The Ellis Island Project". I think you might like it.
@@Aquatasy thank you for the response. I've had a chance to look at a few of your video's and love them. One thing that I get a kick out of you is in the comments. When people disagree or knock something you did, you are so damn cool and cordial with them. Even the ones that are IMOjust plain rude. You're turning out to be easily one of my favorites
I'm just being me, Mark. I'm an easygoing guy. I don't get easily flustered, certainly not by RUclips comments. 9 times out of 10 when you respond to a negative comment with positivity it humanizes things. The viewer is no longer commenting on a video, but having a dialogue with a real person (the video creator). At that point most people change their tone. They are no longer yelling at the television, so to speak. Also if I take their negative comment and make a joke of it (often in a self-deprecating way) then the negativity is nullified and the control shifts from the hatet to me. I guess this comes from my years of doing stand-up comedy and dealing with hecklers. You never win by fighting back and insulting. You win by taking their comments, running with it, and being funnier or wittier than the heckler or hater could ever hope to be.
Also, when people disagree with me in the comments I want to learn why the disagree because perhaps they have a unique perspective that could enlighten me or help other viewers. Or I want to know why they disagree because there may be extenuating circumstances that they haven't mentioned that factor into the situation for them that may not be a factor for others reading their comment. For example maybe someone leaves a comment like, "You're an idiot about bare bottom aquariums because mine has been running for five years with no problems and I don't do anything special to help the bacteria colony." After I do little probing I might find out that they have four sponge filters and a hang-on-back filter running on their tank and they are doing daily water changes, but to them that's nothing special.
So that's why I am the way I am in the comments. Besides, haters are merely fans in denial. ;-)
@@Aquatasy you definitely have a way of human "hugging " with words. Love your theory. Thank you. Now get making some fish vids.🤗
@@markhaunert5029 LOL! Sir, yes, sir! (New videos are in the works as we speak...er, um...type.)
My quarantine tank is a 10 gallon bare bottom tank...with a sponge filter rated for a 20 gallon tank and an AquaClear 30 HOB that has its sponge and loaded with ceramic rings (Biomax), and it gets weekly 50% water changes religiously.
Now that's the right way to do a bare bottom aquarium! Sounds like you have everything under control. Not everybody (including me, sadly) are so prepared and are staying on top of their regular maintenance schedule. Kudos to you!
Wish i'd seen this video sooner. I have 9 tanks and 52 koi/hybrid fish. All but one tank is bare bottom, and believe me it's a job. Until i saw your video i thought it was me or bad water. Can't afford to do all in rock, but going to put the rock back in 2 more. We'll see how it goes. The only good thing i can tell you , is with the constant water changes iv'e only lost one fish, and iv'e had the a year and half. thanks for posting that video.
Lynn
Yes, it's definitely a lot of maintenance to keep that many tanks running smoothly as bare bottom aquariums. If you don't want to add substrate to all those tanks you could add extra filters. Putting a sponge filter inside each of your aquariums would increase the surface area for beneficial bacteria to grow.
I have sponges in two and i also use the plastic bio corner filters the ones with the substrate on the bottom and then a piece of charcoal filter pad etc. But iv'e decided that koi/goldfish hybrids are just a dirty fish.Don't get me wrong i luv them to death and they are really smart, but messy. I just need to find a way to cycle at least 2 more of the large tanks, the other 50 gal. Right now 3 or four of the tanks are used to move them to drain the water. but there getting so big so fast i'm going to have to split them up to. and there is to much compitition for food, and they do get plenty of food. Anyway time to start doing my fish. Thanks again.
Lynn
So maybe add in a small mesh bag of with some gravel in it, to add surface area for bacteria?
That way you have some "gravel", but it is contained in a bag, where it can be moved or removed easily.
I think this might be a compromise way of having a little gravel, without having a gravel bottom.
(Of course a little bag isn't going to do the same job of a bottom covered in gravel, but I would assume it would do more than zero gravel)
Some people with bare bottom aquariums, put plants in containers filled with gravel or marbles.
That is an excellent suggestion! Thank you!
This is what I was thinking of doing it recently. Recently I put up another new 5 gallon tank as bare bottom, but has a large plant pot full of gravels with a lot of live plants in it. I was trying to experiment how well this tank can do in terms of having enough bacteria but wanted to also add a bag of gravels as well and curious how much adding a bag of gravels can help… did you try your idea after your post?
I'm curious to know as well.
@@Thankful456 Well I had some very small plastic containers i put gravel in.
I also put some super washed/boiled (multiple sessions) of sea shells in a mesh bag and some charcoal in a mesh bag in my aquarium.
I also crocheted some green yarn and put it in.
@@FusionDeveloper oh wow! Thanks for the reply. Love these ideas. Never thought about crocheted yarn! Let us know how well these serve your tank… I know everyone’s tank is different ( temp, starting local water quality, what fish, etc etc but still nice to learn from any success stories with these ideas☺️)
Interesting point and I agree with you, but beneficial bacteria should be grown and kept in your filter. My filter has biological media such as ceramic biorings and lava rock to provide a place for that beneficial Bacteria to grow. That being said, barebottom or not, your filters are supposed to be suitably sized for the bioload of your stocking. Maybe another video discussion on beneficial Bacteria? Collaboration maybe? :D
You are absolutely correct. In my case I was running a stock hang-on-back filter with a standard filter cartridge. If I had been able to keep up with the routine water changes and maintenance everything would have been okay. Or, as you said, if I had put different filter medium in the filter things might have been fine. Of course the main point of the video is for people to consider all these things and make sure that if you are running a bare bottom tank you have sufficient filtration and enough textural surfaces in your filter (HOB/canister/sponge/etc.) to provide a home for a large beneficial bacteria colony. And speaking of beneficial bacteria, I like your idea of collaborating together on a video about that subject. Let's talk!
Aquatasy I see your point and I'm so sorry for your losses. This is a great video though. Love the awareness you're raising. I'll message you later on the collaboration.
Sounds good!
The problem with bare bottom tanks is the very thing I love about them. I dislike canister filters for the same reason. The debris is there for a full month and nothing leaves the system. I like the idea of removing and rinsing out sponges daily and taking just a few minutes daily to vacuum debris off the bottom of a tank with a recirculating siphon. Don't let the debris build up and you will have a healthier and cleaner tank.
Wise advice, Kenney. If I had kept up with the maintenance like you suggested then I never would have faced catastrophe.
@@Aquatasy I commented without watching the video. The lack of surface area was one detail I had not considered and will be mindful of.
That why he said more maintenance, duh.
I'm planning on a bare bottom indoor goldfish pond with 1 or two cansiter filters. Thanks to this video and the comments I now know to put some sponge filters in there. Thank you!
You'd probably be okay with just canister filters, but having a couple of sponge filters too never hurts.
Watch Aquarium Co-Op's video he uploaded on 2/20/2024.
RUclips title "HUGE Fish Wholesaler with Millions of Shrimp, Rare Fish, & Turtles"
The wholesaler's over 200 tanks all are bare bottom.
Yep, because they did it the right way. I did it the wrong way, which was the point of my video. Many people attempt to do bare bottom aquariums in a wrong manner without taking various factors into consideration. I wanted to share my mistakes, make people aware of certain aspects of having a bare bottom tank, and offer some solutions as to how to do it properly as to avoid the same fate that befell me.
I run a 20 long bare bottom with several DIY sponge filters. I only clean front glass. I remove fish waste daily except a small portion to keep beneficial bacteria working. I have two bacteria seasoned rocks and as large piece of Maylayian hardwood in the tank. I also run carbon with a bubbler and water bottle DIY contraption. Water change 5 gallons every 4th day. Small fish with one lg. angel and a gold nugget pleco and several cory cats. A fairly large load.. I clean sponges on a rotational basis once a month. Rinse but don't over do it. Nitrites very low. I don't feel belabored to death with this routine. One has to realize that any pet requires husbandry and good taking care of. I find the routine above to be efficient and not too taxing; I don't feel like I'am a slave to the aquarium at all. Casualties? Yeah occasionally, but not inordinate and you wonder why. Sometimes everything seems to be going along swimmingly, but the swimmers themselves. It's funny, knowledge is key, keeping it clean but not too overly clean seems to work best. Breeding good bacteria is a must as well as periodic water changes. Remember ...number of fish, bio load vs. amount of beneficial bacteria and filtration.
I couldn't have said it any better myself. You are doing it the right way. You have main it part of your routine and lifestyle so that it isn't a chore for you. Plus you have it down to a science so that there isn't any guess work. Bravo! My issue was that I became overtaxed in my daily life and was not able to maintain my bare bottom tank the way I should have, and I foolishly thought I could let it slide a bit like I can for a fully planted aquarium with substrate. But it became too much for the little hang-on-back filter to handle and there wasn't a large enough bacteria colony so the tank crashed. If I had put a couple of sponge filters in there it would have helped until I could get back to regular maintenance schedule.
Great comment!! I really appreciate it and I hope others will read what you wrote.
@@Aquatasy Thanks for the unexpected praise. I have rung the changes on filtration and finally after wasting a lot of money I landed in the sponge corner. Some fish keepers find sponge filters or Matten filters to be aesthetically objectionable. For me they are the only way to go. Best to have two in tank and squeeze sparingly once a month. No such thing as too much beneficial bacteria. Besides, once cycled one of the two may be used to cycle a second tank used as a quarantine tank or holding tank for new fish.I personally like the large cell sponges. Too fine a sponge and it gets clogged.
I completely agree with you. If I were setting up a breeding tank or a quarantine / holding tank (especially if it's bare bottom) I would go with sponge filters every time. Easy maintenance and top notch efficiency, plus they are a fraction of the cost of other kinds of filters. And like you said, if you have two running on a tank you can transfer one to a new tank and basically cycle it overnight. What's not to love about that?
Of course, being a visual effects artist & animator for film and television and games, I get caught up in esthetics so my show tanks all have either HOB or canister filters so as not to draw focus away from the aquascape. But for anything other than a show tank, I'm Team Sponge from now on.
I really appreciate your comments. I hope you'll stick around and comment on other videos as well.
i did a debate with Aqua funk/ Angel freak a while back on this very topic, i lost debating on the side for substrate.This video brings out so many points I actually shared.However important point to note beneficial bacteria can be found on the sides of tank and in the filter box or container. While I agree with you for most part I differ on section. I believe both substrates and no substrate has its own benefits. I am of the opinion based on experience, that substrate can result in the build up of gas which may eventually poison the fish, this of course occurs if you take too long to vacuum or clean the substrate. But you never get everything in a substrate tank. Its really a difficult topic with varied opinions. I really enjoyed this video and hope to see more interesting ones like this.
Thank you, I agree with all your statements. Bare bottom aquariums and those with substrate both have there place in this hobby. I never meant to suggest otherwise or that one was better than the other. My goal with this video was to shine a spotlight on one aspect of keeping bare bottom aquariums that some aquarists may not be aware of. I'm very happy that you liked this video and I appreciate your comment. Got plenty more videos in the works. Stay tuned!
go ahead I am avid in listening to great videos. Just wish you pay my channel a visit that's all, nothing to it.. just a visit! How about a discussion with me " water change or filtration which of the two is more import"? let me know what you think!
I have checked out your channel and have enjoyed the videos I've seen so far. You can count me as a new subscriber. I like the idea you proposed for a video collaboration. I'm a bit tied up on a project right now, but let's talk because I would definitely like to do a video like with you in the near future.
no problem, give me a link whenever you do have time, i promise it would not be long, email me at jamaicanaquarist@gmail.com
Will do!
If you have a sump, can you just make up for the lack of substrate with more media in the sump?
Absolutely! A sump is an excellent choice if you want to have a large bare bottom aquarium set up. In my case, however, it was a 10 gallon tank which due to its small size is not really suited for having a sump. For larger tanks, though, that would be a great option.
Could just add a cheap sponge filter and a mesh bag of bio media to the otherwise bare bottom tank. Even a few chunks of cheap lava rock would be a good compromise.
This is true. In fact I mentioned sponge filters at the end of the video. All those things you listed would definitely help.
Actually. Having gravel, sand, or rocks is more dangerous overtime. Fish food and and fish waste build up, will cause a super deadly time bomb. If stirred or siphon vacuumed. Having big rocks is okay, because they keep good algae in ponds. Small rocks, sand, and gravel not so much.
That is definitely true if regular maintenance is not performed. For tanks with either gravel or sand I recommend weekly thorough vacuuming during water changes. For tanks with a soil type substrate thats a little harder to do, however if that tank is heavily planted (especially with carpeting plants) it will help a lot with keeping things from becoming toxic, assuming you are still performing regular water changes and siphoning up the waste you can seen. There are also substrate additives you can use (Aqua Design Amano makes some excellent additives) to promote good root growth on plants help prevent that deadly time bomb that you mentioned from going off.
Personally, I like to keep Malaysian Trumpet Snails in my aquariums because of their burrowing habits which churns the substrate and reduces the chance of it going anaerobic. Of course they breed like rabbits, but I don't mind the trade off.
I agree with you though that a bare bottom aquarium is potentially safer IF it is properly maintained and filtered.
Good tip: use A: use aquatic plants that dont need subtrate for example "Guppygras aka "Najas guadalupensis" if you wanna go bare bottom, it will float
B: Use spungefilters
that way you will still have allot of beneficial bacteria, also use the spungefilters that can hold media on the bottom, ive been doing it this way for years ,never had a Tank crash on me like this
but, like you said: keep the maintenance up.
Good, solid advice. You are so right about that.
Perfect music - fish disasters are the perfect subject for the blues.
You should set up your quarantine tank in a temporary location somewhere that your spouse will kill you if it stays there too long. That way it never becomes just another tank, it stays empty as your hospital/quarantine tank. I throw a thin layer of gravel on the bottom and a few caves or rocks for hiding. I do need to be able to see the fish if they are new or sick.
As usual, great video.
Brilliant idea about using a temporary location to force oneself into remembering that a quarantine is a temporary situation. Yes, spousal scrutiny is a good motivational tool. LOL! I'm glad you caught on to the music selection. That was very deliberate on my part. I always choose the music before I begin editing and use it to set the tone and the pacing of the video. What better music for a topic like this than the blues, right? I like your way of thinking with how you set up a quarantine tank with a little bit of substrate and some rock caves. Smart. Stay tuned to see what I've done with my quarantine tank!
Nice point of view. I am planning to stock discus in my 75G. Most of the people I talked prefer barebottom. Then your video also has a nice pointers on why should I go with substrate. I really love planted tank. I can do maintenance once or twice a week. I hope my decision going planted tank with discus is a good option to me.
Discus will look really nice in a planted tank, and I know the fish will appreciate the plants.
Its called a sponge filter.
I came down here in the comments just to post this.
He literally recommended sponge filters for barebottomed tanks at the end
I did indeed.
Ikr 🤣🤣🤣
Lava rock
Well said good sir. Good to know because I plan on going bare bottom with my quarantine tank as well.
A bare bottom aquarium can definitely work out well for a quarantine tank if you set it up right and stay on top of the regular maintenance (which I know you will). As others have said here in the comments, adding some additional porous media to your filter can help tremendously to provide a good home to the beneficial bacteria colony. Good to hear from you!
Substrate is absolutely nasty. I can't believe the amount if fish waste I stirred up today while cleaning. All the pebbles came out afterwards!
I agree. It can be pretty awful. This is one of the reasons I have planted tanks. In a heavily planted aquarium with good water flow and water circulation, most of the fish waste will filter down into the substrate and be used as nutrients by the plants' roots.
I used to be of the mindset of "I'm gonna set up this beautiful aquascape and maintain it forever," which is unrealistic. It eventually becomes a hideous mess, especially the substrate, despite our best efforts. Now I look at each scape I do as sort of a temporary art exhibit. I keep it for 9 months to a year, break it down, and start over again fresh.
Thank you so much for watching and leaving a comment. New videos coming soon!
My bare bottom quartine looks horrifying to anyone who doesn't know what I'm doing.
Cuase I keep it by a window to purposely grow algae which has resulted in a rainbow of different algae to grow all over the tank expect for the front.the reason I grow algae is cuase it helps break down fish waste and turns the sides of the tank into one big bio filter.
That is an excellent strategy, Brianna. Some people can't stand the sight of even a little bit of algae, but I have no problem with it (except on the front glass). I have always looked at it as the sign of a healthy aquarium. Glad you mentioned it!
Love this video man, thanks for making it!
My pleasure, Jean! Glad you enjoyed it.
Geez I just LOVE your camera presence. You are so fun to watch and listen to. I'm guessing you're a teacher or something else career-wise who does a good amount of public speaking? You're awesome. I'm so glad I found this channel!
(Here's hoping when it's time, you don't end up in the CAE Circle. You deserve at least a Circle of Hell that's only somewhat annoying instead of painful. ;D Like dealing with a row of barebottom tanks, but of really gorgeous fish. You'd be the curator of the Circles of Hell lobby aquariums, obviously. Wow this is a long parentheses that probably wasn't necessary.)
You are very kind to say that. I've been an actor since I was 10 years old. I started off in theater then moved into film, television, commercials, games, and voice-over. That's why I appear so comfortable on camera. And you've got me pegged! I am indeed a teacher, lecturer, and publc speaker. I have a lot of interests in life and a multifaceted career as a result of that. I'm also a visual effects artist (Star Wars, Jurassic Park, Marvel films, etc.), animator, game designer, stand-up comedian, genuine Dark Lord of the Sith (Google me), writer, editor, and now a RUclipsr. But I have *always* been a fish fanatic. It's the hobby that keeps me sane in the crazy, high pressure world that is the rest of my career. So happy to hear that you enjoy my videos.
I put my beloved double-tail black orchid betta in a bare-bottom 10-gal tank, thinking it'd need less water changes than the 2-gal tank since it had a larger amount of water. He was fine in the morning, full of energy and all. At night, as I went to feed him, he was breathing heavily and even started to turn sideways a bit like an ill fish. I got really worried and immediately filled up the old tank with filtered water and heated some in the microwave and poured the hot water into the tank to mix with the cold water to make it room-temperature. I put my fish in the old tank with the fresh water and his breathing calmed down over an hour and he seemed much healthier. Thanks for the video. I just bought that tank and I believed I washed it out well before adding filtered water plus a bit of "stress-coat" to make the water healthier. Now in the small tank, he feels healthier, but I've never seen him so aggressive before. He's attacking his own reflection and I can't get rid of these reflections. I have no leaves to add to the water to calm him either, and despite covering the tank, he continues. Poor Seeker. I wish I could just tell him what's going on so he wouldn't be so stressed. At least the washed decor provides some form of shelter.
How strange. I wonder what was up with the new tank to cause that sort of reaction. I'm assuming you had cycled it and had it up and running for a while before you moved your betta into it. Very peculiar. As to his behavior now that he is back in his old tank and is fighting his own reflections, this is a common occurrence among some male bettas. What is out of the ordinary is that he didn't do it before when he was in the smaller tank. It may be that he is a little upset over the multiple moves and is feeling a bit unsure of himself so he lashes out at what he thinks are intruders (his own reflections). My guess is he will calm down before too long.
@@Aquatasy You're right. I'm actually rather new to keeping fish the right way. I've been doing my homework since before I got my betta, but some of the information I was told was wrong. I didn't realize how big a difference 8 gallons could make. I just finished setting up the 10-gal tank with gravel and a load of new props that were washed thoroughly. Seeker (my fish) is fine in the old, 2-gal filter-less tank and it's like nothing bad ever happened yesterday. He's not flaring anymore, and I don't blame him for being so stressed yesterday. Still made me feel bad. I added a filter this time and am letting it run for a while before adding Seeker back. I don't think I cycled the water, and maybe I didn't need to at the time. My problem was that there was nothing to absorb the toxins nor filter them out. I used only filtered water with stress-coat mixed in and the tank had been washed out very well beforehand. There were no signs of slowness until very late on the 6th day. I have the right tools now that I didn't have then; a large new bucket, glass wiper, gravel vacuum, and a bpa-free container to transfer him from one tank to the other. I think I know what I must do, but I'm still a little nervous and unsure about certain things. For example, should I clean the slime off props, or is that beneficial so long as there's no green? How often should I take everything out of the tank for cleaning including gravel and props? I have the vacuum, so I'll be doing that and I'll be looking up tutorials on water changes, but this is one freshwater fish. I don't want to keep him in that small 2-gal tank. I'd rather do my homework right. Thanks for your time by the way. I really appreciate it.
No worries, Keena. We all start out as novices. I've been keeping fish for decades since I was a kid, and it saddens me to see how much misinformation about this hobby is still being spread as the gospel truth, especially where bettas are concerned. I'm actually working on video to bust a bunch of these long-perpetuated myths.
There are two things that are very important when setting up a new aquarium: conditioning the water and cycling the tank.
Water conditioning refers to the process of removing harmful substances from the tap water you use to fill your aquarium with. Water conditioners such as Seachem's Prime, Kordon's AmQuel Plus, and others remove chlorine & chloramines from the tap water and help neutralize other toxins.
Cycling is the formation of a biological filter, not to be confused with a mechanical filter. Mechanical filtration such as sponge filters, hang-on-back filters, and canister filters will physically catch and filter out particles such as dirt and waste found in the water. A biological filter or "biofilter" means the establishment of a beneficial (good, helpful) bacteria colony in your aquarium. Specifically, cycling refers to the Nitrogen Cycle.
Assuming we have conditioned the water, our aquariums are a perfect pristine environment when we first set them up. But once we add fish to that environment waste is produced if the form of fish poop and uneaten food. This waste begins to break down and turn into ammonia which is quite harmful and, in high enough concentrations, deadly to fish. This is where the good bacteria comes into play. An establish colony of beneficial bacteria will feed on the ammonia produced by the waste and convert it into Nitrite. Nitrite is also poisonous to fish, but the bacteria will break it down further into much less harmful Nitrate. Nitrate is easier removed by doing weekly 25% water changes.
Where does the good bacteria come from? It's all around us in the air we breathe. Most people when cycle their tanks will set them up, fill them with water, condition the water, start the mechanical filtration running, and then introduce some form of ammonia for the beneficial bacteria to feed on. The most common method is to add a pinch of fish food to the tank and let it break down in the water. In recent years, companies have begun selling beneficial bacteria in a bottle that can be added to your new tank right away to jump start the process. The bacteria will take up residence in the mechanical filter, among the nooks & crannies in your gravel, and anywhere else it can.
During the cycling process we test our tank water with a freshwater test kit (API produces a good one) so that we can monitor the progress of the cycle. First there will be a spike in ammonia levels. Then as the bacteria begins to feed, the ammonia readings will go down and the nitrite levels will start to go up. Once the nitrite levels drop to zero and the nitrate levels rise you know your aquarium has finished cycling.
This may all sound complicated, but it's not really. Here is a good video on the subject of cycling...
"Cycling A Betta Fish Tank" by Life With Pets
ruclips.net/video/Z6v6KJaqTKU/видео.html
I also highly recommend you get a copy of David E. Boruchowitz's excellent book "The Simple Guide to Freshwater Aquariums" (2nd Edition). It's the best book I know of for learning about how to set up a healthy tank. It's available on Amazon amzn.to/2kOSAQe and also at a lot of pet stores.
Hope this info helps.
@@Aquatasy Thanks, you're very helpful! Any tips on decorations? I learned too late that plastic rocks may not be better than real ones. I don't know where I got the idea that real stones could leech harmful things into the water and that the plastic ones would always be BPA-free, as well as decorations. If a store-bought plastic decoration gets chipped, does it leech toxins into the water? I want my aquarium to look cool and not like a typical natural environment, but I don't want this to be hurting my little roommate.
Not everyone wants a natural looking environment for their aquarium and that is perfectly fine. As long as it is a healthy environment for your fish and is pleasing to your eye then that's all that really matters, right? Nearly all artificial plants and other decorations sold at reputable big box chain pet stores such as PectCo ans Petsmart are going to be safe for your fish. Most decorations are made with aquarium-safe resins. Even if they break (as long as that break doesn't leave a sharp edge) they will still be safe and will not poison the water.
Many rocks (certainly those sold in pet stores) are safe to use in your aquarium. The same can be said for many rocks you find in your garden or on the beach or by a lake or stream. But, as you suspected, some rocks can break down over time and change the chemistry of your tank water, raising or lowering the pH or altering the water hardness. If you would like to go scavenging for your own rocks from nature there is an easy way to test to see if a rock or stone is aquarium safe. You can buy a bottle of "pH Down" or any similar product made to lower the pH of your aquarium's water. When you find a rock you like, clean it off a bit, make sure it is dry, and pour a little of the pH Down onto the rock. If it starts to fizz or bubble that means it is a rock that will break down over time and is unsuitable for aquarium use. If the pH Down has no effect on the rock then that stone can be considered safe. Granite, quartz, obsidian, basalt, slate, flint, sandstone, petrified wood, and lava rock are generally safe to use. Anything that is brittle and has a high calcium carbonate content such as limestone should be avoided.
My first fish tank as a kid had black & pink gravel (it was the 1970s), big chunks of white quartz, and a small ceramic Japanese pagoda. Over time I began to shift more towards natural looking layouts. My current passion is to create natural environments based on real locations somewhere in the world (such as the mountain streams of Montana) and then pick a particular country (such as Thailand) and use only fish, plants, and invertebrates native to that country. It's a fun challenge for me.
The bottom line is that no matter how you choose to decorate your aquarium if it is fun for you and healthy for the fish then it's a success. And rest assured, whether you choose real rocks (like those I've mentioned) or artificial decorations, there shouldn't be any worries about toxins leaching into the water. You should be fine.
I like your presentation style. Kept my attention all the way through.
In my opinion bare bottom tanks are much preferable to petshops since it gives the customers more view of the fish they wanted to buy and fishes there are almost not kept for a long long time. As a fish keeper I think we really need to add any kind of substrate and decorations for the beneficial bacterias to settle and plants are good thing too since if we just rely in our filter medias they will really can't handle the overload of harmful substance in the water specially if you have lots of stocks in your tank. Even if you have powerful filter it's still not enough since it just filters water but it doesn't remove the harmful bacterias that floats in the water. So I think substrate, decorations and plants really goes hand in hand with our filter medias.
Well said! I couldn't agree more.
I suggest a homemade moving bed filter using k1. I have a large bottle with holes in it and an air stone in the bottom. About a month ago I moved my tank and completely changed and cleaned everything in my tank except for the moving bed filter. Didn't even need to cycle it.
That's actually an excellent idea for a bare bottom quarantine tank, and yes I can see how that would provide basically "instant" cycling for you. I chose to go a completely different route with the redo of this quarantine tank. I scaped it! I know, that sounds crazy, but there is a method to my madness. You can check out the video for the quarantine tank rescape here...
ruclips.net/video/jJFBc4iJti4/видео.html
BB tanks are no problemo if you have high amount of filter media like sponges, imo.
You are 100% right, and if I had been smart I would have done that. I realize it now of course.
Would it be possible to supplement the lack of bacterial growth space availability by placing substrate (or material) outside the tank? Isn't that the concept behind the canister filters? What if instead of a canister, you used an entire tank? I hear what you're saying, but there's got to be a way to compensate. And I'm saying this as a novice, but I'm looking at it logically. If the substrate and surface area for the beneficial bacteria aren't located "in" the tank, we just got to find a way to pass the water through them outside of the tank. At least, that's what comes to mind for me...🤷🏾♂️
You are absolutely correct, and that is precisely what I recommend to people who want to go without substrate and don't want to have sponge filters showing inside the tank. Either use multiple hang-on-back filters or use a canister filter that is rated for tanks larger than yours. Unfortunately I didn't have that in this situation. Great comment. Thanks!
I have a 180 litre cold water tank running this last 3 years with 3 large fish orlando and black moor they are a good 6 inches long and well fed with sand at bottom . I was going to try a bare bottom as i like the idea just a little concerned for my fish. I do have a external cannister filter running along with small spong filter in tank. Also have just started putting in live plants i can put them in pots if i go bare bottom . Can u advise if running a bare bottom tank in my setup will or willnot be good for my fish . Sorry for long message
I think you should be perfectly fine with a setup like that. With both a canister filter and a sponge filter you will have plenty of places for your beneficial bacteria colony to grow and thrive.
And if you are truly concerned about it you can always add some API Quick Start (bacteria in a bottle) each time you do a major water change. If you decide to add plants you could choose species like Hornwort, Water Sprite, or floating plants such as Water Lettuce, Salvinia, or Red Root Floaters that will consume excess nutrients or nitrate in the water.
@@Aquatasy thanks for your response very helpful information yes I will be adding plants as well its just working out best way to put them in a bare bottom tank
Well, adding floating plants is easy. LOL! For rooted plants you could put them in small pots and submerge the pots.
I like it for my fancy goldfish
😊
Agreed. If set up properly, it can work out very well for goldfish as long as you have good filtration.
Hang on back filters are designed to be only part of a tank filtration system. That's the problem . For a bare bottom you need a much larger canister system and overkill is not a bad word ( unless you under filter and then its fish overkill ).
Couldn't agree with you more, Harry. I have a tendency to over-filter all my tanks. This tank didn't get the treatment it deserved. It is now though. If you haven't seen it yet, check out the video I did called "The Ellis Island Project" which details my make-over of this aquarium.
ruclips.net/video/jJFBc4iJti4/видео.html
@@Aquatasy nice scape . So often ideas are ' either , or ' . I'm mixing bare and covered in next scape . A little left of center (3/5s) I am using a stone shore to separate a sandy planted land to the right while using a soft blue plex as the flat bare water to the left . ( it's a design in progress)
I like the sound of that! Will you be posting a video of it?
@@Aquatasy , if all goes well I may
OMG. This is exactly what happened to me. Thank you so much for posting this video!!!
Sorry to hear this happened to you, Mauricia, but glad that this video helped you. Yes, even people who have been in the hobby for decades like me can accidentally mess up or have disasters befall them. You're not alone. If you're in the hobby for any length of time there's a chance that tragedy may strike. We just have to learn from it and move forward. Was this recently that this happened to you or a while ago? Either way I hope it hasn't soured you on fishkeeping. It's still one of the most rewarding pastimes I know of. Blessings to you!
I just throw a few moss balls in my bare bottom tank. They do the biological thing.
I never thought about it that way. I still think bare bottoms are the best way to go for some situations and some fish but up the amount of filtration you have. Like add a large sump, plus a HOB, and some sponge filters. On my 55 gallon goldfish tank I had two HOB's one made for a 70 gallon and the other for a 110, plus two very large sponge filters. It was bare bottom because I didn't realized it was overstock and it was hard to keep clean with substrate. My goal was to get a sump for it but I got out of the hobby before I did. I sold that tank but still have a good amount of my fish tanks left. I think next large tank I'm going to set up. I'm def going to look into a sump or a canister filters in stead.
I think that's great advice. I also think sumps are very underrated. A sump would be an excellent way to go if you are setting up a bare bottom aquarium for fancy goldfish or discus.
GRATITUDE 💥🤩💥
You're welcome!
Thank you! Great video, easy to listen to and clear and correct information!
You're welcome, Irene! Happy to hear that you enjoyed this video. Hope you'll find the other videos on this channel as interesting. I do a mix of informational videos and humorous videos about the fishkeeping hobby. Thank you so much for watching and leaving a comment. Really appreciate it!
so you can do either OR depending on a routine maintenance that goes with it as with
ANY tank has I LIKE that Idea, cause with guppies that works for me thanks for the info.
Glad you found this video useful, Gayle. Thanks for leaving a comment!
You do realise the 5ft tank had 2 ghost koi, a platinum ogon koi, a common carp, a mirror carp and 8 goldfish over 1ft long and 2 2ft plecos. All very high producing waste.
All good say you had a 5ft tank, but what you missed was it was high stocked with high waste production fish.
I wish there was a Turkish translation. I tried to read the comments by translating them, master.
I will see what I can do about that.
@@Aquatasy thank you so much 👍👍
You are welcome!
Fabulous Andrew!!!...…...well explained, as usual. Each fishkeeping style has it's pros and cons, benefits or drawbacks. I like this topic a lot, and want to produce a number of videos myself exploring and explaining this theme.
Thanks, Colin! Please do. I would love to see you do a series on this topic. I've just barely scratched the surface.
Who or What, is really maintaining your tank?
1) Can be solely by water changing.
2) Can be green water, solely by unicellular algae..
3) Can be the beneficial nitrifying bacteria via circulating filtration.
4) Can be aquatic plants growing immersed or emersed.
5) Can be any combination of the above.
Each method has it's own requirements.
Just get plenty of live rock . I also have a sump full of rock rubble . Bare bottom
That would definitely do the trick!
Not true the bacteria will grow on any hard surface , does not have to be gravel . BB works with large tanks and monster fish
You are correct. It will grow on any surface, but not in the same abundance.
@@Aquatasy true that’s why god made canister filters lol
@voctorfloud9341 Amen to that! LOL!
I am agreed with you 200%... 👍
Thanks, Jack!
How do you know the beneficial bac in your filter died. Can too much ammonia kill it? Ive never heard of that
That's a great question, Mitchell. If you start seeing a big spike of the ammonia levels in your tank that is a big indicator that your beneficial bacteria colony is being overtaxed or has died off. Too much ammonia and not enough bacteria can overwhelm the colony.
The first and most important thing is to diagnose the cause of the ammonia spike. Sometimes, as in my case, it is a lack of proper maintenance (I was away from home too much). It could be dead fish that go undiscovered without any scavengers to consume the carcass (snails, other fish, etc.). You could have imbalances in your water chemistry (pH, GH, KH) that are the underlying issue.
Or as I had happen a while back, your water supply might have traces of ammonia in it without you realizing it. We hobbyists often test our tap water for pH and water hardness, but many of us neglect to test it for ammonia or nitrites before we do a water change. If it has been a long time since your local water district cleaned the reservoir or water tower that feeds your neighborhood then ammonia and nitrites can build up. I had to call my water district about it and get someone out to test the water in person before anything was done about it.
This is a well-explained video all throughout.I should share this to my cousin who has just recently gotten interested with fishkeeping.We already set-up his tank last May 22(it was my old 3.5 gallon betta tank.I no longer use it because my betta is now living in a 15 gallon planted tank where he is king,with some Espei Rasboras as tankmates.).His tank already has substrate in it and a few plants but if he decides to go all-out and buy bigger and bigger tanks,this video will be of help to him.He'll start by keeping a betta though but his tank is still fishless because he has yet to buy a mini filter.
Also,I see that small clip of the tank of the Thailand Project there hehehe.
Thank you for the compliments. This video was definitely aimed at people like your cousin who may be novices or intermediates to the hobby of fishkeeping. I hope he has great success with his first tank. And yes, you saw a bit of the Thailand Project in this video. More to come!
Poor husbandry is not bacteria’s fault.
You are absolutely correct. I am in no way blaming the bacteria (or lack of bacteria). I am merely pointing out that with a bare bottom aquarium there is much less wiggle room compared to a tank with substrate.
The lack of substrate is why most of us that go with a bare bottom tank use some sort of biological filter. Sponge filters seem to one of the more common biological filters used. We don't put an air stone in and call it good. Even a quarantine tank needs to have a well cycled filter. You have very good points on why biological filters are a requirement if your going to go with a bare bottom setup. Especially if you have few to no live plants.
Agreed. Were I to do it all over again with a bare bottom quarantine aquarium I would have a sponge filter running on the tank along with the hang-on-back filter. But i have done something drastically different with my quarantine tank that better fits my hectic entertainment industry lifestyle (that came out much more pretentious than I thought it would, sorry) and my sensibilities as an artist. You can check it out in this video here...
ruclips.net/video/jJFBc4iJti4/видео.html
Thank you for leaving such a great comment. Blessings to you!
In my bare bottom tank I have ceramic medium in my filter
That's very smart. If I had done that I might not have had this problem.
Great video!
Thank you! Glad you enjoyed it.
Does it depend on the fish? I mean....from where I am....Asian Arowanas are kept in bare bottom tanks. Not only it is advised......but it is also consistent. Long time Arowana keepers and breeders do this. It is safer to have a bare bottom tank for his fish..in some cases...they swallow substrate when getting food the feel on the bottom of the tank. I guess this fish is not really well studied in the West...I mean it is illegal to own one in the States.
Nice video anyway......when it comes to my community fish....I always have substrate. Arowanas are just way different.
Love your videos.
It doesn't so much depend upon the fish as it does on the fishkeeper. The whole point of this video is to remind hobbyists that if you have a bare bottom aquarium you need to really keep up with your regular maintenance routine. You can't let the water changes and clean slide. The idea is not to over tax the beneficial bacteria colony. People with busy schedules and not much free time might do better to have substrate in their tanks.
Arowanas are fantastic fish. You're right, most people keep Asian Arowanas have them in bare bottom aquariums. Then again, most Arowana owner stick to a strict maintenance schedule. In answer to your question, Asian Arowanas are legal in the United States. I know several people who have them.
There are definitely advantages and disadvantages to having a bare bottom aquarium. I made this video to help point out some of the possible disadvantages that fishkeepers may not have thought about. I also believe it's important that if someone like me who is sharing their knowledge and expertise needs to also be willing to share their mistakes and failures.
Thank you so much for your compliments and for watching. I truly appreciate it.
What would you recommend for buffering PH in a bare bottom aquarium? I’m always chasing it with the liquids and was wondering some crush coral or something would do the trick.
If you are looking to keep the pH in the alkaline range, then crushed coral can be quite effective. You could scatter it on the bottom of the tank (hmmm... guess it wouldn't be "bare bottom" then) or put some in with your filter media. If you want to go the other direction and aim for a an acid low pH, then you could try adding peat to your filter media.
i agree to disagree
i run bare bottom tanks and do changes once a week to every week and a half
i use alot of driftwood and plants and low stocking rates and havent had any spikes no dieing bacteria in my filters
i agree with this though in my small barebottom tanks but usually i just have them for qt
Well, you are doing it the absolute right way. All that driftwood provides more surfaces for the beneficial bacteria to call home. And you are staying on top of those all-important water changes. Well done.
By the way, you are always welcome to agree or disagree with my on any of my videos. I completely encourage viewers to express their opinions and share their experiences here on the Aquatasy channel. That's how we all learn and grow. So I hope you will continue to watch and leave comments. Blessings to you!
How do you keep the beneficial bacteria in a bar bottom tank?
Usually they will take up residence in your mechanical filter. My problem was that I overtaxed my hang-on-back filter with the number of fish I had in the tank. Had I been using a large sponge filter or a sponge filter in combination with the HOB filter, then there would have been plenty of places for the beneficial bacteria to call home and the colony would not have died off.
HI PLS I NEED YOUR HELP I HAVE A TANK THAT HAS NO GRAVEL there’s all this much in there
How many gallons that tank is? I don't like bare bottom tank too. What kind substrates that suitable for plants and easy to maintains?
The tank in this video is a standard Aqueon 10 gallon tank with an Aqueon Quiet Flow hang-on-back filter and fluorescent light. If you haven't seen the make-over of this quarantine/holding tank yet, you'll find it in this video...
"The Ellis Island Project"
ruclips.net/video/jJFBc4iJti4/видео.html
Can you substitute the bacteria with a bacteria in a bottle every water change?
I suppose you could, but it is a rather costly alternative. By doing that you are literally throwing money down the drain. A better solution would be to add more filtration such as an extra sponge filter in the tank, another hang-on-back filter behind the tank, or a larger canister filter with lots of filter media for the beneficial bacteria to take up residence.
Or, as another viewer suggested, you could put some pieces of lava rock in your aquarium. The porous surfaces of the lava rock can provide additional areas for the bacteria to call home.
This is polar opposite of Walstad method, wow.
Yes, I guess you're right. Hadn't thought of it that way.
Walstad Method works like a charm. When I dismantled my Walstad Bowl, I found life in my tank that I didn't buy.
Thanks for 5his nice vedio and for your advise . I have a question please. I have 240 L aquarium inside I have 8 discus small size . In this aquarium I have 3 filters , Juewel internal filter, Eheim experience 250 and fluval FX 6.
I do use
Tetra Easy balance
Tetra aqua safe
Easy life filter medium and benficial Bacteria.
I have gravel in my aquarium .
Since I life in Europe and the water is very expensive here which may lead me to stop the hobby. My question do I need with all this to change water weekly , sort what is your advise to minimize water consmption. Thank you
Thank you for the compliment on my video. I am glad you enjoyed it. You certainly have enough mechanical filtration running on your aquarium which not only filters out any debris floating in the water, but also provides a good home for the beneficial bacteria. So your setup seems to be excellent.
If weekly water changes are expensive for you, what I would recommend is to do your water changes every two weeks instead and see how it goes. Test your aquarium water weekly to make sure that the level of nitrates are not too high. If you find that the nitrates are spiking up you can try to compensate by adding floating live plants such as dwarf water lettuce what will help absorb some of the nitrates. I did this recently on one of my aquariums and was surprised to find that the plants I added brought the nitrates down to almost zero.
I hope this helps you.
@@Aquatasy thank you brother for this quick reply ok I will do that , but how much water change I should do every 2 weeks ?
Thanks for your suggestions.
Most people do 25% to 30% water changes. Keep testing the water quality and observe your fish to make sure that they are remaining healthy. From what I understand, Discus need their water to be very clean so you might need to do a slightly larger water change each time. I am not an expert on Discus.
@@Aquatasy thank you very much . For your reply. I will update you what happen. Thanks
Thanks Andrew for sharing this sorry it happened... hopefully it will be up and going again😉
Thanks, Floyd, I appreciate it. Fortunately yes, I have this quarantine tank up and running again with a different strategy. A video about it is already in the works.
I really enjoy watching your videos, but the background music is so loud I have trouble understanding what you are saying.
Bare bottom aquarium is like the polar opposite of Diana Walstad aquarium XD which I'm a follower of
Ha! I hadn't thought about that, but you are absolutely right. I love it! Thank you for that comment.
I put furan 2 and anti ick is it okay to combine it? i just wanna say hes back to normal iam so happy my friend.Iam still contuining hes medication to be 100 percent sure no paraytes even hes super active again
I'm not familiar with those two particular medications, but whatever you are doing seems to be working. And I like that you are continuing the medication even after your fish appears to be better.
Strange .... bare bottom tanks seem to do just fine in Asia , aren't they the biggest suppliers in the world for fish
You are correct, but of course they are probably staying right on top of regular water changes and maintenance. The point of this video was to remind or inform people that bare bottom aquariums are less forgiving when it comes to letting those water change slide than a tank that has substrate or is fully planted.
Hi Andrew.. this was great. Awesome points and very nicely explained. I personally don't like bare bottom tanks. I feel it's for the benefit of the aquarist and not the fish. Just MO... loved the video!!💦😁❤️💦
I tend to agree with you. I think most fish would be happier having a substrate. Some species in particular will become unnerved without a substrate in their environment. But for other species I can see why fishkeeper want to ditch the substrate in order to focus on the fish themselves. I'm happy to hear you enjoyed this video. Thanks for dropping a comment!
Try growing out juvenile discus in a tank with substrate, then tell me bare is for the benefit of the fish keeper..
Good point. I have never had discus. 💦😁❤️💦
@@lastflea6986 I have grown our hundreds of discus with substrate. To me they grow into a calmer fish with deeper bodys and stronger colours.
hi i was just wondering if the shot at 220 shows an air stone in right corner if those were live plants would that not be a problem conflicting with the CO2 needed for plant health ? or was that a CO2 device ? nice vids !
It looks like it's just an air stone placed in there to increase surface agitation and to help with oxygenation. That's a low-tech tank. No CO2 running on it. None of the plants in there would require supplementing with CO2. The air stone is probably there more for the health of the fish than for the health of the plants. Having said that, air stones are a great way to combat "blue-green algae" (cyanobacteria). Glad you enjoyed the video!
Dont need sand or any substrate for beneficial bacteria....... that's what your aquascape is for
Thanks for this video.. I was planning a bare bottom of my existing shrimp tank.Wont do that now for sure !! You saved my shrimps !!
You're welcome! Bare bottom aquariums can work for shrimp if you use a couple of sponge filters in them and you keep the tank properly maintained. The key to setting up a shrimp tank is to let the aquarium mature before adding the shrimp. Personally I think a tank with substrate (and plants and other natural decor) is easier for keeping shrimp, but I have seen several people successfully house their shrimp in a bare bottom aquarium.
hang on backs are the worst kind of filter you can have and are only really good at polishing the water and should almost never be used and should really be fazed out
a good sponge filer is one of the best filters you can have and you should always have one in your tank even if your using another filter as your always going to need aeration anywise so you might as well have that air doing something besides just aerating the water
also a sponge filer is good during power outages because you just need to worry about supplying air and they are easily run off battery powered emergency air pumps as ware all other filters need a lot more power to keep running
honestly the only downside to a sponge filer is how they look but im sure if a company wanted they could make sponge filters that look like decorations like make a skull shaped sponge or maybe a log shaped sponge or even a rock shaped sponge that could disguise the sponge filter a bit more so its not as noticeable
You bring up some excellent points, especially about sponge filters being very handy during power outages. I covered that briefly in another video on "How to Care For Your Fish When the Power Goes Out".
Thank you for leaving such a great comment. I hope others will see it and glean from it.
How about bare bottom with HOB, Ziss Moving bed filter and sponge? That should be more effective then the surface area of substrate right?
Yes, with all that you should be just fine.
You don't require substrate for beneficial bacteria. Most beneficial bacteria is in you sponge filter, HOB or canister filter anyway, I would paint the bottom of the aquarium if keeping it without substrate.
Great point! This is true, but if there is no substrate then it helps to increase the other areas where beneficial bacteria can congregate such as an addition sponge, HOB, or canister filter where there is extra filter media for the bacteria to live in. Not everyone knows to do this, which is why I wanted to make this video.
I’ve got a bare 6ft tank with gel large sponge filters
Ummm. You increased the bio load tremendously all at once. Substrate or not that would cause an issue. Am I missing something? I have always had bare bottom arowana aquarium and don't even have to do water changes often.(though most if the time I do) Becuase I also created an area for low flow low oxygen so anaerobic bacteria eats nitrates and fish ditritus
I didn't mean to imply that number of the free fish I received were added to the tank all at once. They weren't. But you're right that a sudden increase in the bioload would cause problems in *any* tank, bare bottom or not.
My problem was simply that I assumed that since I had so many plants floating in the tank that I could let my bare bottom tank slide a bit and skip a water change or two while I was out of town (admittedly longer than I had planned to be) the same way I could with my heavily planted aquariums that are fully aquascaped. It was too much for the little hang-on-back filter to handle. If there had been a sponge filter running on that tank as well things would have been much better.
How big is your arowana tank and what kind of filter do you have running on it? (I love arowanas.)
@@Aquatasy ok that makes sense. Right now my Arowanais in my old 135 gallon . With a dual sump. One being very very low flow and sealed to lower gas exchange and full of matrix media. Building a 500 gallon plywood right now for his next aquarium with acrylic front. Probably going to do tile bottom with same dual sump
No matter what, I totally blew it which is why I wanted to make this video. I'm always quick to admit my mistakes in this hobby if it will help others to avoid making the same mistakes. You'll find that I also encourage people to express their opinions in the comments even if they differ from my own. That's how we learn and grow in this hobby we all love so much.
Sounds to me like you've got a great setup for your arowana. Do you have videos posted of this tank?
@@Aquatasy That's how I feel always best to listen to everyone. No I have never uploaded anything to RUclips but I have really been thinking about it lately. I was thinking about filming my whole build and maybe uploading it
I would gladly watch that. Do it! :-)
You simply did not have enough cycled media in your filter
That is definitely part of it. It's all about finding balance.
Can you suggest best type of substrate......
It all depends upon what your goals are with your aquarium, the type of fish you want to keep, whether or not you wish to grow aquatic plants (and which species), and so on. Gravel, sand, and various kinds of aqua soil are all excellent substrates depending upon the circumstances, but in order to answer your question I need some specifics from you.
What type of fish or invertebrates do you want to keep? Are you looking to grow aquatic plants? How big is your aquarium? What is your experience level with the aquarium hobby? And lastly, what is your budget?
@@Aquatasy
Type of fish: Guppies & Goldfish
Grow aquatic plants: No
Aquarium size: 12 gallons
Experience level (1-10): 4😅
Budget: Below $30
Well, first of all I would not combine guppies and goldfish in the same aquarium. Guppies are tropical fish, goldfish are cool water fish. Each species has its own special set of requirements. Plus, 12 gallons is really too small of an aquarium for goldfish. They produce a tremendous amount of waste and grow much too large for a 12 gallon tank. A 20 gallon aquarium is a appropriate for one (1) goldfish.
On the other hand, a 12 gallon aquarium might work well for guppies...if you keep only males. Guppies breed easily and rapidly, quickly filling up your 12 gallon tank. If you want keep males & females and breed guppies then I strongly suggest a larger aquarium or be prepared to sell off or give away a good portion of the fry produced by them.
Having said all that, the best substrate for goldfish is small smooth aquarium gravel. For guppies in an unplanted tank you can use aquarium, sand, or a combination of the two. I will say, though, that guppies appreciate some sort of vegetation in their tank. Even some simple floating plants like hornwort will give fry somewhere to hide as they grow large enough not to be eaten. (Assuming you want to breed your guppies.)
I hope that helps.
@@Aquatasy yeah, just this morning I know that goldfish and guppies can't be together, i just want your opinion. And your advice lift my spirit to start new tank with only guppies... i also know that i might need sand for that but, of course much more opinion, much better results.... THANKS.... now, my experience level increase: 5😅
👋👋👋👋👋👋👋👋👋👋
I hope you will post a video of your guppy aquarium when it is all set up. I would like very much to see it.
Thank you for the informative video
Great! Glad this was helpful to you. Hope you'll check out the other videos on this channel.
Lmao my father had bare bottom tanks for over 60 years of his life . 1 of his barebottoms had gold sided piranha's that had lived in that tank for over 20+ years . And it was a simple set up . He used Shot glasses for his plants but only had HoB filters . But the size of this filtration was double the size of the tank . Which there for kept his parameters on point . No substrate in any of his tanks . A lot of his fish lived about there maximum life spans .
Well, sounds like your father was doing it the right way. He had multiple HoB filters running which provided extra places for the good bacteria to take up residence. That's the key to running a bare bottom aquarium.
Aquatasy since you want me to give you an update on my flowerhorn hes super okay now i put doxyclyne and furan 2 plus anti ick and penicilyn hes super active again
So glad to hear that your fish is doing well! I would recommend keeping a close eye on him for the next month because Ich can sometimes flare up again. And keep up with the frequent water changes because that will help your fish feel healthier. Thanks for the good news!
Actually even he regained hes strength he still scratches hes body on the aquirium i really want to kill it. My next step is to eradicate all this ick any new recomendation my friend? Or only raising the water temprateure to 32 degress will completely kill the ich? Is their a possibility even raising the tempretarature to 32 degrees ick can still survive and flare up again? Wow i didnt know ick is not easy to kill hehe
32C degrees may be a little too high for your flowerhorn. It would definitely kill off the Ich parasites, but it might also harm your fish. If you can get the temperature up to 30C degrees and your fish doesn't show any signs of stress then that will stop the Ich from reproducing and it will run its course and die off. Other than that, keep doing what you are doing. Your fish is responding well and the Ich will eventually be gone.
Ok thank you andrew i will try 30 degress celcius for my flowerhorn and observe also if there is a sign of stress your so informative thank you so much for your help please make more videos hehe
Gorgeous baby doll😍😘
I have a bare bottom tank and no ammonia or nitrite issues but nitrates are always high.... How to control it?
The best thing to do when you have high nitrates is to increase the number of water changes that you are doing. Not so much the amount of water for each water change, but the frequency of them. So let's say you are doing a 25% water change once a week, try doing a 25% water change twice a week and then maybe increase that after a while to three times a week. Once you get the nitrates down to a more acceptable level (such as 10 ppm or ideally 5 ppm) then you can reduce the frequency a little bit. If you are only doing monthly water changes that might explain why the nitrates are so high.
There are several reasons why high nitrate levels occur. One is not enough water changes. Another reason is overfeeding. Yet another is overstocking (too many fish). Or it may be that your filter needs to be cleaned.
I hope this helps.
@@Aquatasy thanks for your answer...i have another question, if the fish waste is caught up in the filter pad, for how long it will produce nitrates? Does it keep on producing until it's cleaned or it will stop producing after a day or two? Also my filter intake is a bit high so i see fish poop on the corner every night but in the morning its completely dissolved, so i think my fishes are making it dissolve by spitting out, in that case those waste are directly injected in to the water as nitrates right? Please clarify these two questions...
Fish waste trapped by your filter pad produces ammonia which is broken down by the beneficial bacteria in your tank and converted into nitrite. The nitrite, in turn, is further broken down into nitrate. The same fish waste does not keep producing ammonia/nitrite/nitrate indefinitely, *however* each day there is new fish waste produces by your fish and it gets trapped in the filter pad and it begins the process of turning into nitrate. As long as there are fish in the tank and they are consuming food and releasing waste there is going to be more nitrates produced. This is why we do frequent water changes. Uneaten fish food also breaks down and turns into ammonia and then nitrite and the nitrate.
We tend to think of filters as the solution for all of this, but that isn't truly the case. Many of us fishkeepers think of water changes as something we do to supplement filtration, but in reality it's the other way around. Filtration is something we do to supplement water changes. It took a while for that idea to sink in with me when I started in this hobby. Once we make that adjustment to our thinking are fish will benefit from it greatly. In short, water changes are more important than filtration. Having said that, it is also important to clean out our filters on a regular basis. You don't need to replace your filter pads every time. You can rinse out that pad and reuse it. HERE'S THE CATCH: Rinse it out in the old tank water that you siphoned out as part of your water change. Don't rinse the filter pad in fresh tap water because you will kill off the beneficial bacterial colony living there, which would be disastrous in a bare bottom aquarium.
In answer to your second question, the fish poop that accumulates in the corners of the tank where the filter intake tube doesn't reach dissolve because of the nitrifying bacteria breaking it down. Yes, your fish probably come poking along through it as well and probably suck some of it up and spit it out, but it is the beneficial bacteria that dissolves it and eventually turns it into nitrate. Again, another reason why water changers are so important.
@@Aquatasy thank you so much for taking time to reply... It clears my doubts... i actually have a mini pond setup outside where there is zero nitrates Bcoz of all the algae and the fish grows like crazy, whereas in the tank with any nitrates present the fish don't grow well...
I also realised that in the wild fish live in fresh new water every second but we trap them in old water for weeks, i have a future plan to setup a tank with automatic siphoning the cornered waste every few hours and filling with new water immediately...
@@Aquatasy hi again, i have another question related to bare bottom, i recently setup a discus tank but my tank bottom is white in colour , even if i paint the other side it'll still look white Bcoz that white is inside that bottom glass, so my tank looks so bright and my discus seems to be skittish Bcoz of bright light, is this really a problem? Will they adapt or should i put black gravel?
I'm assuming it would be better if the tank was heavily understocked and had plenty of decorations and live plants? Nitrifying bacteria grow everywhere, not just in the substrate (although you're right that having substrate does increase their surface area by quite a bit).
You are absolutely correct. And if aesthetics aren't an issue, a sponge filter or two is a great addition to a bare bottom aquarium.
Adequate filtration. Your filter didn't have enough media for your bioload. If u have added more media your tank would of bounced back.
Death trap lol. Enjoyed watching
Glad you enjoyed this. I figure even in a bad situation (like a terrifying death trap) you have to be able to laugh a little. Thanks for the comment!
Very nice. Interesting.
Thank you. Glad you liked this video.
Mines bare cause I don’t want my lotls eating dirt.
I guess the bacteria probably grows on the clay pot I put in there? It’s super porus I can’t think of a reason why it wouldn’t
That stuff just wouldn’t go away
I agree. Definitely don't want your Axolotls consuming waste and a bare bottom aquarium makes it easier to find and clean up all the dirt.
Yes, the clay pots are one place that the good bacteria can grow. The majority of your beneficial bacteria colony is most likely living in your filter.