This is likley the best advice you could give. "Don't keep fish, keep water." We don't keep fish, nor plants, nor shrimp, nor even bacteria. These organisms live in that water we keep.

I had to watch the intro twice because I was too busy looking at that luscious green tank 🙂

Now that you say it, it sure makes sense.

Since i live in your nrighborhood, this information and advice really hit home! Strange spikes in nitrates recently (April/May), past spikes in phosphates...thank you!

Know your water …… simple and yet very fundamental for the success of our fish keeping experience

Knowing my water saved my anglefish tonight who I found at deaths door from extremely low KH which crashed my pH. If I had not known my water, my first instinct would have been Water Change! But instead knowing that my water has about 0ppm KH and a ph of 6.46.8 my first instinct was to slowly sprinkle baking soda, and observe as he recovered! Thanks again Bentley!

I’ve found that if you leave the algae alone it tends to work itself out plus it’s great for my bristlenose

Wonderful.

Great info, thanks.

Great info as always.

Good points. Thanks for sharing. Cheers

Great reminders and advice!!

Thank you as always Bentley!

Great topic.

Grrrrrrreat information!!! Thank you!

thanks for the vid man very useful

I'm so glad the tip wasn't 12 inches of compost and pond water.

Thank you for the information.

Great video, Bentley! Thank you!!

Thanks Benley.

As usual, you insights are very valuable.

You're so incredibly humble and helpful. Thanks Bentley!

great info Bentley

Thank you for sharing! Great videos always! - Little Bobby

Ding Ding Ding, thats what I was hearing in my head while watching this video. Great tip Bentley!!! Thanks for all you do!!

Thank you for the work you put into helping everyone be successful

Great video. I test straight out of the tap and the tanks but will now be testing the tap aerated 24hrs as a reference.

Sir. You are awesome! Your videos revitalized my interest in the hobby. Keep in keeping on!

Awesome video Bentley. Great information and advice very helpful for a beginner. Appreciate your videos. Keep up the great work 👍👍

I've learned so much listening to you! And I thought I knew a lot about aquariums thank you so much

cheers thanks Bentley and Hello to all aquarium friends

This is the first video of yours i have seen. Very very well explained. Keep contributing to the hobby thank you!

This video fantastic! It truly is day one, 101, foundation knowledge for any level aquarist. As always, great job, Bentley!!

🤯🤯🤯🤯🤯 that how you explain why we do water changes 👏👏👏👏

Great information. I have tested my water out of the tap several times I need to try the 24 hour test to see the difference. Great video 👍

I’ve watched a few of your videos now. You seem to very knowledgeable and very passionate. That, and you are just plain likable lol. I subbed to your channel today. I hope you keep up the great work!

Thank you for explaining it so well- makes so much more sense to me now. I never understood why it changes from tap to aged to tank. Great video!

I am on well water, and always test my tanks after the water has been in there for over 24 hours and rarely take a test out of the tap first. This vid served as a great reminder Bentley! Sometimes we get caught up in other aspects of the hobby but forget back to basics. Great content, keep up the hard work!

I am still catching up on all my "fishtuber" videos this week... had family come for 4 days.... oy. Great video as always 👍

I need to watch many, many more of your videos. Such good info. You're probably the smartest guy in the hobby who's active on YT. Alexander + Dr. Kelly Foreman as well, but you're awesome!

Indeed, the first step goes to get county's water analysis

My water is perfect for African Cichlids but for my plants I have to mix about 1.5 tap water with 3.5 gallons of RO , brings KH at 5 and ph about 7.2

Another reason to test your tapwater is that, in some areas, the county is big enough that major metro areas do not all have the same well-water and river sources. That means different neighborhoods have different results that may or may not be reflected in the county water's "averages". Turned out that part of our supply was bought from private wells that weren't maintaining adequate water pressure, and when EPA inspected, some of those wells had contaminates that forced them to shut a few down. Eventually ended up that the city had to tap into other wells and add more river water to bring our part of the system up to acceptable parameters. River water is subject to radical changes as we get snowmelt diluting things in the spring, vs. low levels and higher minerals during drought in later summer and early fall.

True

Good tip! I know I get a decent amount of ammonia in my tap water. I don't know what the reading is it's a pretty green color so too much. I also know if I keep the bio load light by keeping fewer fish and do lots of little water changes. It all works out. Right now between the lucky bamboo growing both in and out of the tanks and the rest of my houseplants have enough water demands that if I water them from the tanks it keeps me on schedule.

I find maintaining a decent KH level provides stable water conditions that don't tend to fluctuate too much. This applies to all my heavily planted tanks, my shrimp tanks, and my African cichlid tanks, to different degrees depending on the type of fish.

You hear a lot of nonsense on KZfaq. But you my friend were right on point in this video. Great video, Great advice. Cheers!

I know this is old, and wish I'd of watched this while I was running hydroponics. Good advice! I always knew my waters ppm and pH, never actually checked for anything else to see what the ppms were. I know it's mostly calcium, but beyond that never imagined other nutrients.

I named my tap water. "The Rock". :) Perfect for African Cichlids but I keep Angels, etc. Nothing against AC, I have kept them before but my passion is the plants.

My water comes from a deep well here in the Philippines, after trimming and water change all plants would grow and i have a cheap light and no fertilizer whatsoever my substrate is top soil from a rice field and capped with river sand. What i observe is that my plants tend to grow up and they're thin. So maybe I'll try to upgrade the lights and dose fertilizer to hopefully have bushy growth.

Bentley, It's funny how an old mind plays tricks on you. As I stated back into the hobby (after 50 years) I did remember how valuable records help later on, so I kept them. Starting with a 10 gal. I figured it would be more of a challenge; NA! With gravel and no active substrate, things went slow. Plants were easy ones. Also, fish load was about right. Initially (OMG) I got a small amount of diatoms. But the diatom growth was very small. Things went very well. I won't bore you with a lot of record details over 4 years. They do show more fluxartion in PH, KH, etc. But stability was always there. Maturity settled PH to 6.8, and KH to 2. You and I had a small talk about Java fern as the stuff just would not grow. Bumping potassium and iron solved the issue. Life was good with the little 10 gal box. I finally decided to step up to a 29 gallon, and use the 10 gal grow out/ quarantine tank. OK so after set up with a lot of Plants things went well. I did notice aged tap water changed from 4 years ago PH and KH were 6.7 and 2, the same as my stable tank water. Not dosing nitrogen or pretty much anything except iron and potassium I had nitrates between 0 and 25. If the nitrates got over 30 water was changed. So here's the issue DIATOMS ARE NUTS! The only difference between the 29 and 10 are: 1. Deeper kitty litter, and a small amount of active substrate for Crypts. 2. Aged tap water has 20ppm nitrates and phosphates of 2. 3. Stronger light for water depth. Hornwort is floating to consume nitrates, phosphates, and for shade. Water parameters are: PH = 6.7 KH = 2.0 Nitrates = 20 (aged tap and tank water). GH = 100+/_ Phosphates = 0.25 You can guess I am not doing well with this BS. The diatoms have been going a month and I know it might be a couple more weeks, but the only plant doing well is the hornwort. ANY input will be appreciated. Thanks, Dave Spangler

Great video as always.do you have any idea how i can get the poster of the rainbow fish species ive seen that gary lange has? I think he brings them to shows and sells them but I've scoured the internet and can't find anywhere to buy one.thanks

thank you from Ukraine!

Outstanding. And if you have a good understanding of YOUR specific water, you have a better chance of recognizing when the "standard internet advice" isn't a good fit for your situation/problem d'jour. Bentley: how often do you re-test your Tap and 24-hr water? My biggest worry is that my local water ... it's city water, but the water system is now operated by a private contractor ... would switch WITHOUT ADVANCE PUBLIC NOTICE from chlorine to chloramine as part of periodic "shock the system" maintenance. I just moved, so I have to remake a fishroom and a water treatment process. I plan on gassing off the chlorine, but if chloramine is coming in unexpectedly, that could be disastrous.

Understanding my water is a great tip. I will definitely use this advice 🙂

Hey Bentley quick question if you see this, so I’m barely going to setup my first co2 tank after having my planted tank for more than a year I decided to give it a try and learn more about it, my question is what happens if I take clippings of co2 grown plants and move them over to my other tanks, will they survive and adjust to new parameters ? I know they will get smaller and lose maybe their reds but just start thriving in their new environment with new different leafs

I trust you more than Cory any day. And I've felt that way for a year or more!

Is that giant mass behind your head Java ferns or crypts Bentley? My crypt wendtii green gecko is a massive green bush like that I love it!

What is a safe KH and GH for fish and a planted tank?

Great video. My nitrates run 20 right out of the well. Tank is usually a steady 40. I do have soft water. What do you suggest for fertilizer that won’t help raise the nitrates?

How often do you test your tap water?

Hey I'm having trouble with getting dark algae on all of my crypts. Is it likely bc of the light level? I'm using Finnex Stingrays so I thought the light level would be low, especially when it's ~1' above the water lol. 😔 I don't understand lol.

Hi Bentley I have a question about Dolomite lime rocks i am using them to put my RO water up to 7.0 then doing my water change, i was watching one of your videos on all in one fertilizer and bought the one you use FlorinMulti by Brightwell, and Dolomite lime rocks have Calcium,Magnesium in them and Dolomite lime rocks reduce Iron in the water so can this overdose the Calcium,Magnesium and will it take out to much Iron ?

I'm just getting started an growing plants in my aquariums . Is aquascaping and fish planted tanks the same ? I didn't do the research on my lighting for plants in my other tanks . Since checking water out of your faucet is important to growing flourishing plants , howabout lighting . watts , lumens , liters , volume of water in tank etc. I attempted to figure what watts I needed for my tank ? Dimensions on my tank are 6' x 18" x 24 deep . I thought I did it correctly , but I don't know . Maybe you can help me setting up this new tank with plants and fish . I watch your shows often , too smart for me , but if I stay with you long enough You'll rub off on me . Keep it up I'm watching .

Very insightful video. Thank you. Any suggestion about the chemical testing kit that you like and use?

I can’t ever seem to keep nitrates in my water ever since I sat my tank up it’s always 0. I dose easy green once a week I’ve even waited a few weeks between water changes still 0. I’m also trying to deal with a bba problem.

How can I avail easy green ?

Bentley, the buffering in tap water cannot 'de-gas' out as stated. By definition, it is there to stabilise the pH of the supply water. PH changes that occur on aeration are due to loss of CO2 mainly. Carbonates and bicarbonates are not volatile. The CO2 can be either from microbial activity in the system or from a leak where the high pressure flow entrains air into the system and CO2 dissolves in under pressure. Nitrogen also does the same. The latter scenario is more common than you think; there are loads of small leaks in pipe networks that water companies don't care to admit and won't bother to repair for a number of reasons, money being the main one. As aquarists, we should always dechlorinate and aerate our make-up water before adding it to the aquarium. Adjustment of water parameters can then be carried out safely.

Without understanding the basics, which you explained very well, you will never be happy with your aquarium. I myself am a lucky guy and have water without nitrate, without nitrite, without phosphate, ph 6.5 and GH 4. It does not get better than that!

I have 40ppm Nitrates so am always fighting it i just dont know what to do

For the algorithm 🤙

I am on a small Greek island. Nobody drinks the tap water - because it has a TDS reading of 4,700. Yes, that's not a misprint it really is 4,700. I have a well but because the rock here is volcanic the water coming from my well is 1,500. Any suggestions?

until i got my amazon puffer i never felt like a fishkeeper i just managed their water...

My algae is crazy high & unable to get rid of it, but can’t keep plants alive 😂😂

I'm so going to email you for an indepth solutions. I need help, well my poor plants need help. I know from the tap i have nitrates and ammonia, super high pH, yet very soft water, like 2 kh and 4 GH. But i need to do that 24 hr gassing and test that. Then I'll send you an email with all my info. My poor plants have been on the brink of death for far to long.

i found out that i don't need fertilizer in my water and my plants started taking off

Ahh yes nitrates from the tap the root of my frustration at times