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I have five tanks set up with the father fish method and every one of them is profuse with life. I feed them less than twice a month and change the water even less. Perfect water, multiplying fish, and essentially an unlimited supply of plant material to keep in grow out jars on various window sills. My only complaint is nobody believes how easy fish keeping can be.

Best Hobby Community Ever!!!

This is all such a wholesome view of nature. We keep a tank of nature via her rules. Father Fish gives us all biology lessons for this nice hobby!

This is such refreshing content! All of the other people I see posting videos on here teach you how to keep fish alive. They’re fish store owners or sponsored influencers that have crystal clear tanks that they dump chemicals into to artificially keep things cycled. It’s amazing to finally hear from someone who knows how to have a healthy, thriving ecosystem that can sustain itself (with a small amount of food) for generations. Really awesome stuff!

I wish I knew father fish before starting my tank. Full of wisdom!

So sad that I found this channel long after setting up my tank😢 Definitely trying this in the future though!

Father Fish, I am so appreciative for what you are doing. I came across your channel a month or so. I use to feed my fish almost everyday. I tried your method of dead leaves and my testimony is real. I put in some dead leaves and didn't need to feed till about 2.5 weeks 😀. I then feed frozen brine shrimp and its been about 1 week now. I will throw in some more dead leaves next week. This is sooooo amazing. Now I have all these full jars of fish food and wondering what in the hell....!?!?!. Im working on my 5 gallon tank that is currently gravel filled with poop. I'm so excited to cap with sand! You are making this journey so exciting, makes my brain work overtime thinking of the many wonders I can do with nature 🌱🦠🐠💚 Thank you so much!

This is what Father Christmas does for the rest of the year

I started keeping aquariums in the mid-1980’s and getting back to ecological basics is of paramount importance. Essentially, ecology already has systems in place, and by embracing them, instead of working against them, a stable, beautiful ecosystem can be achieved. Father Fish, I cannot thank you enough for upholding the importance and appreciation of managed decomposition. (Key word there is managed.) It’s a vital process for nutrient cycling. Decomposition has for far too long been mistakenly viewed as a messy, undesirable phenomenon in aquariums. I think another process that is misunderstood in the hobby is succession. Properly established aquariums are dynamic systems. They are not static. A tank will not look the same a month after it is set up as it will a year afterwards. I don’t understand why so many tanks are torn down and restarted because they don’t look pristine as they were at the start. Succession will and is happening. Aging is a beautiful process in nature, in my opinion. Plants will compete just like fish. The substrate ages and matures. Driftwood changes. Microbial systems develop and change. It’s like a garden: you can manage succession, but you can’t stop it.

I am new to Florida and fish keeping this channel has helped me out so much. A complete and living ecosystem should be the goal of every fish keeper to ensure the longevity and happiness of our little friends we enjoy watching.

We are thankful for your great experience Father Fish. Loves You!!

After being 40 years out of this hobby I returned to it a year ago. To cycle my first re-entry I went to my local drinking supply lake and hi jacked some sand from the bottom, some swamp plants and actual land based moss. Rocks are abundant here in NH so I got lots of options. This worked great! My instincts dictated my actions. You are right on target. Mother Nature is the best cycling agent you can get. All natural. I would NEVER have a tank without a natural setting or real plants. Now, after a while, I removed the moss and some of those plants that wilted away, but they served the purpose.

I love this so much!! Thank you for explaining it!!

Thanks again; I am addicted to your videos now! LOL...

Wish had known this method years ago, thanks for your time teaching us, will save a lot of newby mistakes.

Thank you father fish.

Very useful information. Thank you for sharing father fish 🙏

Good to see you Father Fish! It's been great to see all the projects you have in the works! All the Best to You 🙏❤️

This video was almost poetic. Very inspiring and calming. I've just set up my first live tank last week following your method. Just a little thing I did differently was to prevent the mud from showing in the front glass. I find it more estetic this way. I had a leakeage of mud when I poured water in but it seteled quickly so now I have to remove it by hand with an eyedropper. My wife asked me why should I care and not starting over from scrach, to which I answered "I prefer to do that the Japanese way" 😂😂 Fish tanks are made to test your patience and ability to contemplate nature by repressing the "need" to help it. Nature is stronger than us all with our mighty science. At first I did not washed the sand so I had to put cotton balls into my filter to clear out that cloud of clay. Took only a night to get cristal clear water but just to be sure I changed the cotton balls twice a day for 3 days. Now I removed any sort of sponges and filters from the device and it's sole purpose is to circulate water. So far I found 8 or 9 different kinds of aquatic plants to but in the botton. Since I live in north of canada I am a little bit worried about plants that may have a need to winter so I cross my fingers that they don't if I give them summer conditions in temperature and a 15 hours exposure to light... If it doesn't work I will have to buy plants from the market. There are now 6 babies guppies in there (just waiting for more of them to come) saved them from being eaten by their own parents in my wife's tank. Since I transfered them in my natural tank they stopped dying for nothing all the time and are actually looking so happy and playfull. I preserved some insects from a swamp to give them only live bait as food. I'm keeping them in separate jars but wouldn't mind if they where to reproduce right in the main tank. This would eliminate even the need to feed.

Love how simple you explain it...great video very educational 👍

Thank you soo much for always sharing and updating substrate recipe

I did this method the first time had a problem with fish digging in substrate and exposing the dirt. Took the dirt and made a bag out of flower bed material now it works beautiful in my cichlid tank. Roots still grow threw it but keeps the organics out of the water.

im very happy that i found your channel! very enjoy!

I'm so thankful for your videos

Great content as always sir but I wanted to ask when putting nature into our tank what about Schistosomiasis how do we detect it and not get it into our tank thanks

I have 2 dirted tanks that are over a year old and running great. My first person for me to see how well dirt works is Dustin. But in the end when I found you and your videos it gave me the confidence to do it. Thank you for the great videos.

A pleasure to listen to your advise Father Fish!

I've been experimenting with tanks for 2 years now and spent over 1k£ on various methods. I set my first tank up with mud. Zero fatalities. Infact its a miracle. Other tanks, mixed results. But to be honest don't bother with anything but the advice this man gives.

This is like touching the aquarium monolith. Thank you.

You have tremendously helped me better understand fishkeeping and how much I have been over feeding my fish even in light oF only feeding every 3 days. An immediate benefit is I no longer have to skim biofilm off the surface every couple of days. My area recently experienced a power outage that lasted 3 and a half days. I thought for sure I was going to lose all my fish. The temperature in the tanks dropped from 76 to 54. I was concerned about oxygen in the water but the fish didn’t appear stressed. They just hovered near the bottom barely moving around I assume to conserve energy. By day 3 I was looking around for a way to increase oxygen in the tank and tried the suggestion to inject hydrogen peroxide into the tank, 5ml for every 10 gallons which is supposedly good for 12 hours. When the power came back on I was surprised to see I lost no fish and only a few leaves on the crypts melted. There was no spike in ammonia, nitrite was in barely there, nitrate was less than 50 ppm. My tank is planted but the plants are still growing in. Can you help me understand what happened to preserve my fish or do a video on that subject?

Heya father fish ❤ I just started a 20 gallon tank..with your method.. after my 75 gallon dirted tank a few months back is doing extremely well..i was thinking on my next dirted tank im going to put down ,a cut to fit piece of burlap over the 1 inch soil substrate and then capped it with sand.. it might help keep the soil matted down along with the sand.. 😊

Wow natural soil nutrision good work thnks 😃👍🙏

Ive just changed 3 of my tanks to your method and currently doing my 2 of my other tanks i type this, going to be a long night 🤣

Could you do a video on how to set up a pond for fish and plants. Thank you!!

Thank you

God bless father fish!

I just found your KZfaq channel tonight , absolutely love the video's and knowledge you are sharing, thank you very much . when I was younger I had aquariums, I just recently about a month ago setup a 55 gallon. It has gravel in the bottom and I hate it lol. found you looking for a better way or method. Not sure how I'll do it as I only have the one tank and it got fish in it. But the gravel is coming out to be replaced with soil and sand. Why isn't everyone doing this ?

Amazing video, always open to learning new things #greetingsfromgermany

wonderful!!! how about mixing potting soil with the creek mud??

My New favourite Chanel , Great Videos!!! I have a Canister filter , Wondering if that can still be used or if substrates/ Filter material could be changed to favour a balanced Tank ?

It works people. I’ve done this on my 10 gallon. Don’t be afraid. I used organic potting soil in mine. FF ive seen a video of someone freezing disks of dirt and putting it under their sand substrate. What do you think of this? I don’t want to tear down my 55 and start over.

legendary content

Great stuff! Can’t wait to try. Can I use Miracle Grow potting mix for the mud base?

I have a 2.5 gallon tank and I will try this method to grow some plants. But I will try to use regular soil from HomeDepot. I have other larger tanks but will try your method on my smaller tank first to make sure the water does not change to a darker color. And if I get it perfected like your tanks, I will use this method on my two 20 long amd my one 10 gallon tank. Thanks for making this video!

Father fish I have a question I have a tank with Sand as the bottom layer and aragonite from crushed coral, what should I do with the tank? As in what type of fish and plants should I put in it to make it an ecosystem?

hi I have just been basically gifted a wonderfully 4 foot boyu tank for 50 quid...absolute touch from a gentlemen in town. Going to soil the tank and wondered what were the large plants in the tank please? This is going to be a beauty.

Father Fish, thank you for everything you do for us, can you answer a question for me? How thick should the soil be for a 40-60 liter aquarium? Greetings from Romania!

I was under the impression from reading different research studies that true anaerobics are nearly impossible to create in an aquarium, the substrate isn't remotely close to being deep enough for true anaerobics

Did your sump filter tank have sections of different filters like we see on youtube? Yours looked like just a simple tank.. I liked it.

HELLO I started last week with a 4 gallon tank, it has 2 monks, 2 tigers, 2 parrots. Can't wait to save enough money for flling the tank with plants.

Newbie here, my tank and occupants nicely established for two months now. Just found your wonderful channel, now realise I have no substrate ( mud) just partial sand. Do I take fish out and start again following your set up guidance ? Will the fish be stressed by this ? I can see where I’ve gone wrong. Many thanks, your knowledge is priceless !

Great video thank you again for all the fish

Hej! Great video! I wonder if putting soil/mud in filter bag or stocking can help keeping it undisturbed during capping/scaping/filling proces? I've seen some aquascapers do this. Maybe it will have the same biological effects on the ecosystem but make aquarium setup little easier? What do you think? Cheers!

awesome,thank you!! what temp is the last aquarium with Discus fish in it?,thanks

What do you use to occasionally clean the glass?

I have 21 tanks set up at the moment, my life has been in shambles aside from this, I have ironically been trying to build a fishroom so that I may find stability again but have been struggling very hard to find that in the majority of the tanks I have set up, I do not have that many fish though I am aware I have at least 3 tanks that are overstocked I have been setting up aquariums to give everyone the space they need, I unfortunately have not had time to do much besides maintenance on all the tanks several so unsustainable they require daily water changes, and trying to do damage control on the relationships that suffer as a result from me overworking myself, I currently have 5 tanks at my girlfriends, 7 upstairs at my dad's, and 9 downstairs where the fishroom is coming together very slowly even though I am being rushed, and so many things keep going wrong in and out of the aquariums that Im losing my mind, I have 6 dirted tanks and I must be doing things wrong with them as well, there are good things happening too, but even some of the good things are happening too often, my corys are outbreeding what I can sell to my local stores and there are no freshwater clubs for many miles, Ive driven out of town to sell 75 corys and got scammed for store credit less than what we agreed to in cash at a store with no merchandise and pretty much only monster fish, I will get my money's worth eventually, I had a tank turn south bad, still dont what happened exactly, long story short everything but the plants snails and two corydora died, most of the fish were having their slime coats eaten by 3 otocinclus that suddenly lost their mind, stopped eating any food I provided and then died as well, those two corys have laid eggs 5 times in their new tank, even after selling about 200 I will be on pace to have another 200, I have a huge bladder snail and ramshorn snail population that I don't have the heart to starve or cull and stores only want them occasionally, most say they will take them for free and feed to fish, I do not have any puffer or anything that reliably eats snails, though I do plan to get a puffer one day I know that is not a solution, just free food, I can't shake duckweed in many tanks and just really feel in over my head when it comes to choosing equipment, I have lots of different kinds but no canisters or sumps yet, I'm not setting up an automatic water change or top off system, every tank will be self contained, anything I can do to give myself less work I'm for it, I'm not a lazy fishkeeper, I like the work, I just don't have time for all that Im doing, and I should add I have been feeding all of my tanks twice a day, lights are on too long almost always but I dont have an algae issue in 19 of 21 tanks, lastly I really wish I came to you earlier, my first beta fish passed away on the 26th of last month, had him for almost 2 years and helped him through a lot of illness, but the last one eluded me and I feel awful, I have another beta with a similar issue and it seems to be a tumor at this point, its not anything with her swim bladder she's still graceful and agile with her portly disfigurement, I am not sure what to do as my previous attempt resulted in death

Dear Father Fish . I have two aquariums. One has only river sand and rocks with few plants and no filter . The other one has aqua soil with driftwood and tons of plants filter and co2. Both house one male betta fish , cherry shrimp . The larger tank has some tetras. I add indian almond leaves ( i live in India so get it for free) . Can i attain self sustaining ecosystem where I don't need to feed them when i am away or anything else like liquid fertilizer ? Oh i do add little nutrients as i have rotala blood red also . I am new to such concept but wanted to see it work on my existing system.

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Do you top off with RO or just tap water? I have the RO system already from Reefkeeping.

Это очень познавательно!

If you get dirt sand and leaves from the pond, do you still need to add the bag of added materials?

9:03

What about adding a bit of lake water to get things going .. Good idea??

Hi father fish 🤝How long does it take for a tank you fully function ? If I have fish in a tank and wanted to do it all up again is it possible?

Hey boss, what do you recommend for dirting cichlids where my frontosa will build a 6 inch hill in a few hours any day of the week? Just more sand?

Father fish is it a good idea to put some lava rock before mud?thank you

Hello FF, how do I maintain this substrate method with pearl cichlids? They dig through the sand cap constantly and I get nervous that they’ll get to the dirt some day.

Hey is this method good for saltwater aquariums? Thanks been watching your vids and think about switching from saltwater. But if this works for saltwater even better

Father fish good afternoon. New to the hobby I have a 20 long gal how many inches of soil and sand should I do? Thanks once again

Question I see you have filters and bubblers in your tanks . I thought by doing this method you don't need those anymore?

I have a 10 gallon tank and a 40 gallon tank. The 10 gallon I added a bunch of pond water and leafs to and the water is crystal clear. I didn’t have any left for the 40 gallon so I didn’t add any to it and it constantly gets cloudy and has algae problems

I put dirt in the bottom but it wasn’t particularly wet then I capped it with sand. Is the mud vs dry an important difference?

Should i b checkin the nitrates and all that in my tank? Cause i have never and havent had any fish to die

Good morning We talked a couple of weeks ago. I told you I found 3 plants by the bayou and put then in the tank. I told you they were turning brown. You said leave them in,the rooting system was starting but since then they have completely died..should I pull them out??? I'm 4 weeks in with fish.ive lost 3 tiger barbs..I got the water tested they say the nitrates was high..I read decaying plants and overfeeding can make the nitrates high

My 13 year old 14 inch pleco swishes the sand away so the mud comes up... the solution was a layer of gravel between the mud and the sand. Now how to get him to stop killing the plants.. He loves "bossing around" the rummy nose tetras, plants have never lasted so long but still getting decimated..

Can you explain to me what water changes you do for a setup like this?

Fish father, Could I put the fishes immediately after putting the mud, sand and the plants or should I wait for the nitrogen cycle before putting the fishes?

I wish I had seen father fish a few weeks ago when I decided to start this venture! Is it possible to take me fish out of tank and restart with his method?

Do fish tanks need heaters?

Does it work in a big cichild tank ? I mean cichlids usually uproot all kind of plants

Hello father fish I have a question. Is it ok to use dirt in your back yard to put in the tank?

Do you have any fish aquariums with only substrate like sand or crushed coral for cichlids? Do you add anything like Potassium, Iron, or others?

Can garden soil work as a subatrate seed if no access to mud?

Hi Father Fish, can i use garden soil to replace pond mud instead? btw love your channel.

I have a 120 Gallon tank with a gravel bottom, do I need to remove the gravel to change to a mud bottom?

What about plants that do not have their roots in the substrate? How are they fed?

Do i need to keep this setup at least one year to get settled and get oxygen to anaerobic layer

Father fish. Would it work if i filled my entire 30 gallen tank with everything from a crystal clear little pond, i put moss carpet all across the mud i first put in, then added alot of big plants that are already submerge, alot new ones gave started appearing up thro the moss, every square inch of bottem is moss, wich im not sure will be ideal ? i even took the water from the same lake, it took .almost past a week for it to clear up and shes teaming with life, worms, snils, beetles, you name it, my question is how long should i get it grow out and balance itself befor its safe to add a few shrimp??

Commenting for the algorithm.

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I cant attest that earth dirt/mud is the most superior substrate there is!!! I had to relocate my three female bettas but I had no tank so I put them in three empty ICE CREAM Containers photos plant on them. One has dirt mud already on it so I simply remove about half of it and put water, it was cloudy at first but became crystal clear in the morning. For the 2nd pot I added gravel while the 3rd pot i left it with no substrate. After 3 weeks only the pot with Mud is the most stable, no foul smell, no algae, crystal clear water almost see-through and the betta is creating so much bubbles which means she is happy. One thing to note is that the Mud/dirt contains Rice husks. I didn't bother to removed it and it seems its helping with the water parameters. The other two pot is a disaster, the gravel had blue/green algae after a week, while the no substrate smelled strange.

I’m so bummed out. My entire tank of fish was dead this morning and the only thing I did different was adding an Indian almond leaf. 😢

Can anyone tell me what kind of water tk use for my fish tank i have tap from the city

ok but how do I put the soil in NOW?

Father fish u think this method also applies to saltwater

My biggest fear is becoming a fish hoareder... It's addictive for sure.

Do you use CO2 for your fish plants

What is the depth of the mud?

Do I need a water filter once I switch to this ecosystem?