I simply love your tanks....you have a unique ability to create and maintain such a natural environment of beauty. .. All of them are so healthy looking. I have inherited my son's 55 Gallon tank and I am struggling to keep them alive. I am happy to have stumbled on your video which has impressed me more than any other. Hearing you speak has been so helpful to me. Four years ago my son took his life over the girl he was dating while he attended Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge. His aquarium meant so much to him and he had names for all of his fish, which he put me in charge of while he attended school. I guess you can imagine how important his fish are to me. I have had quite a few problems with the tank and I'm ashamed of my care. When he was alive, his tank was incredible and so full of thriving plants and happy fish! In fact Keller would have to prune the plants constantly because of their growth. I would love to know more about how you are caring for your plants? Currently I still have four of his clown loaches which are pretty large and full of personality. Four Buenos Aries Tetras and three Denison barbs. I have lost all three of his large Angel fish...the last one today. Can you also guide me to the best freshwater sites to learn from possibly? Thanks so much...I hope to hear from you...God Bless...ljk

ohhh, you do have my favorite water fern!!! I love all of your tanks. People are just jealous.❤

Great video! I usually have a lot of surface agitation in my tanks because I can, but I've also had a lot of success in my tanks without much movement on the top.

nice video Dan. In the past my tanks only had the bubbles for the look. I used my filter for the main pushing the water around. my reef tank is different and with my current freshwater tank I have a wave maker to break the skim up.

Your tanks are awesome! Love them

Enjoying your vids Dan, very informative. I myself am running a planted 90 right now, heavily stocked but with a stringent fish keeping husbandry routine. It probably helps from previously keeping a reef tank. I do prefer surface agitation, other than the gas exchange which I think is important as you explained I think the flow is important to the welfare of the fish. I keep Denison Barbs and as you probably know the do like clean water with a bit of flow. I also appreciate the movement of the plants, it kind of gives it a more natural look I find. As in most things its personal preference. I will be doing some more in depth vids detailing my experience in this fascinating hobby. I find myself keeping tabs on your vids as you give me a few pointers to things I may have missed. Cheers Steve.

Love your tanks! I wanted to say that I have quite a bit of that surface biofilm on the side that doesn't have surface agitation. It seems to be a main food source for my blue ramshorn and pond snails. It's cool to see them crawl around, upside down on the surface tension munching away. So I don't try to do anything about it. I just see it as another life form in my tank.

Very very enlightening video. thanks i learned quite a lot 😊

My filter powerhead pumps out just under the surface, enough to agitate the surface but not too loud. Added a surface skimmer and that was the biggest improvement to remove the surface film. The skimmer is off for 4 hours a day to give me a feeding window to aim for. And you can see the surface build up starting at the end of that 4 hour off cycle. Skimmer back on and that clears in minutes. I don't run any air into the tank, it's reasonably planted with 1 large plec and an handful of smaller fish. Been stable for many years.

Thank you for the video! Very good info!!

hmmm, great info. I have my cichlid tank with medium to low surface agitation, I turn my tank high. no problems at all. great looking tanks

Bubbles are pretty. Your tanks are beautiful

Love how the African Leaf Fish just wedges himself into places. Also love the new Otto Temple Plant. LOL. I think you just created a new variation of plant there.

Thank you for the video I actually have a 10 gallon tank that's one of my most successful tanks but I've always worried about whether or not there was enough oxygen in the water, it's doing well, but I was just paranoid about waking up and having all of my fish dead, and this cleared it up for me thank you very much for that

Back in the day lets say 40+ years We had hang on back filters and it had a pump putting water into the tank and a U shapeTube putting water into the top of the filter. In the filter we had a layer of poly fill then charcoal then a thin layer poly fill at the bottom and that was it for the filter. The rock's and substrate inside the tank I guess was the bio media. It was a very effective filter I wish I could pick up a few now. It was so easy to clean. Now we know that we can put the bio media in the filter but back then no one knew. Thanks bro.

These are the happiest fish I've seen tonight and I've been watching videos for hours.

Hey DAN, just wanted to say i found your channel today, and have been binge watching your videos!lol. I appreciate your attention to detail and explaining everything! Keep up the great work. Maybe one day my tank will be as pretty as yours! Have a great day :)

I have quite alot of surface movement. My guppies & Tetra seem to enjoy the flow.

new fish tank enthusiast here. 130litre tropical tank setup 2 weeks ago. Real plants and bogwood/driftwood. I had my filter and spraybar under water and bar facing downwards (so wrong but it didnt come with instruction). I had no surface agitation. One week later i had a horrid slime all on top. I did a top layer water change 10%. I then put the spray bar just on top of the surface and it had nice surface agitation and it looked nice too. Not dead still. Nice tranquil water sound and ive had no bio scum film now. I like the surface agitation and the little water noise it makes

I have set up an 14 gal cube with a micro sicce submerged filter that is very quiet. I hope that there will be no reason to ruin the quiet with an air pump. I adapted the filter with magnets so I can position it anywhere in the water column. The little filter cycles the water four times per hour so that should give me enough water movement without adding another device.

Good Video! I have (2)20 and a 10 gallon tank where I have air bubbles in them But I just use a small amount of air bubbles to rise to the surface which is under a water drip spray that I made to agitate the surface water which mixes with the air bubbling up. (My tank uses an HOB filtration and has fake plants)

What you are saying is true we here in Barbados mostly use plants I have tanks that I only recently added power stones to them but in terms of filtration most of us don’t use any and our fish thrive also no heaters cause the water temp here is already what you guys try to achieve

Just started watching your videos. You mention cannister filters. Setting up a new to me 75G. I will be running an UGF because I am old school and cannot be talked out of that, but I want advice on a cannister, or do I go with an Aquaclear 110 which is my favorite HOB option. Stock will be 6 various goldies. Adolescent now ( 3 months old but outgrowing the 29). Your fav, best for the money option? Just curious your opinion.

Are u using Stratum for substrate? I am thinking of giving it a try. Just wanted to know what u use.

Good video. I agree with some things you say but not everything.

Im new to aquariums so I still learning in how it works. This is helpful, thank you. I would love to get rid of my air stone in my 10 gallon. Would be HOB be enough water agitation to get that gas exchange needed for the fish to survive? It is a planted tank as well. I also have a planted tall 37g I just set up. I have the fluval 207 canister on that. I added a spray bar too

Nice videos... :) At 7:29, what kind of plants are those on top?

Good info man. I try to keep air lines going in my tanks but I do get a lot of "slime"/"oil" on the surface of my tanks if i don't have surface agitation.

A little off topic but your congo tetras are beautiful what do you feed them

The name of the black fish in the right uper corner at 1:41 ?

I have a Betta in a 5.5 gallon tank along with a few Nerite snails with the Forza PFE1 filter (5-15). I'm a bit concerned with the amount of oxygen getting into the water due to lack of surface agitation (bubbles) even at maximum outflow. Then again, I don't want my Betta getting tossed around by a larger outflow filter. The tank is medium planted. Any thoughts?

I've been trying to find the right combination of flow and co2 distribution in my small, 10g planted tank. Had a bio wheel hob that just wasn't creating enough flow and was losing a lot of co2 with the surface agitation. Got a nicrew internal filter which has improved the flow by a lot. Placed the co2 diffuser under the filter which breaks up the bubbles and disperses it throughout the tank. 2 days after setting this up I have zero agitation and came home to dead fish. Decided to run an air stone after the lights go off. Hope this works for me!

my tank is the same way. That is why I have pump and sponge filter and heater of course.

Great vids, full of useful information. How do you find your UV filter? Is it good for all algae? Do you think one is necessary?

Did they now. I felt it was just fine. I've seen plenty of power heads in your fish gallery and plants.

Hi! Nice video, a lot of well managed tanks. What fish are the blue/purple ones in your oldest tank? About min 14.

I have seen a tank that was very heavily planted and there was a circulation pump and that's it.

This topic is highly relevant to the number and size of fish you have consuming oxygen as well as there being plants in your tank as you stated all I know is if I had the mild amount of surface agitation that you have in your 125 all of my fish would be at the top and most likely dead within a day or two. What I mention actually happened to a fellow hobbyist that keeps African cichlids recently and it wiped out his whole tank due to minimal surface agitation it obviously works for you with the small fish and lots of plants but definitely would not work for a heavily stocked African cichlids tank. Great topic I personally believe the more the better there has actually been quite a few studies done on wave makers breaking the surface and airstones breaking the surface and the dissolved oxygen level with a wave maker is far higher then the airstones but then again there is a lot of variables that come into dissolved oxygen count fish quantity size plants or not temperature of water etc.

Hey Dan, beaytiful tanks you got there! I bought my first 32gal 3 months ago and I'm now trying to put more plants. I was wondering if oyu could tell me what is the name of the floating plant at 0:58 (We can see the roots going to the left because of the flow) and at 8:52 on the left of your tank? Thanks Dan!

In an aquarium book I have from 1947 (first edition 1937) they give the rule of 24 square inches of surface area per inch of fish. The actual volume of the tank is inconsequential, insofar as this rule assumed no aeration or filtration, so the breathing of the fish would depend entirely on gas exchange at the surface, and not on how much dissolved oxygen is "stored" in the water. In a later book I have (1970's) this rule is revised slightly, to 18" per inch of tropical fish, and 30" per inch of coldwater fish. The older book barely mentions filtration, and goes on to suggest that aeration doesn't need to be run continuously (the author notes many experienced aquarists only aerate water at night, when the plants don't produce oxygen). It was still a few years before the vibrator pump had been invented so your choices were either an expensive piston pump, or inflating an inner-tube with a bike pump and using that to provide air to the tank (this was not at all uncommon before cheap air pumps existed!).

Beautiful tanks. Btw what type of plant is the one floating with magnificently looking trailing roots?

I haven't got much water movement in my tank , I've read different reviews on this , I've only got a small 55 litre tank as I'm a beginner , no fish in tank yet but a couple of live plants, do i need a lot of water movement ,

Do you think there is any oxygen transfer difference between the tanks with lids and the ones that are open?

I just newly add co2,, 1 or 2 bubbles per sec,, tank is 2 ft, the indicator newly bought yesterday show yellow which is high,, some suggest I shut down n do water surface agitation,, done that for 8 hours already , co2 shut down more than 20 hours,, inductor still show pale yellowish with slight green hints, may I ask should I continue shut down co2 or ignore the color indicator?

I try to get movement at the top of my tank mainly for cosmetic reasons. I wouldn't add bubbles to my tanks because it would defuse more of my Co2. Your tanks look good!

Hi. Are you still creating content? I just discovered your channel. It's excellent. But the stuff is 7 years old. Thanks Greg

Thanks for all the videos. I watch them as soon as they come out and they help with my own fish obsession.

Great video! I have a 10 gallon covered in surface plants (literally), with heavy filtration, but no surface agitation at all... I feel like that will cause problems?

if your tank is heavily planted, you can most likely get away with no surface agitation but it never hurts to add it.

Hey , hopefully you reply to this question because I'm stumped . I have the fluval flex . Shrimp tank haha so the water is pretty warm because it's being used for a breeding. So of course warmer water doesn't hold much o2 as cooler water so does that mean I need more surface movement ?

In my female bettas and rasboras and flame tetras tank I have very small water agitation , very much still water ... bettas love water that stays still ... still that’s the only tank I had Cyanobacteria though

Is surface agitation necessary? In a planted tank, during the day, not so much, as the plants will provide the water with oxygen. At night, it is essential as the plants will give off co2 and your fish will suffocate without any surface agitation. I had a issue where my fish were fine during the day, but I'd go to sleep, wake up in the morning and find numerous fish died overnight. All my water parameters were fine, so I was baffled. Until I realised they were suffocating at night due to there not being enough surface agitation. I added an air stone that comes on a timer when the light goes off at night. During the day the air stone is off and my pump provides a gentle surface agitation. No more fish dying over night.

My two ghost shrimp are one year and about three months old!

great info👍👍👍

what kind of fish is that black one at the back...looks like a gourami

how much do you want for this angelfish?

What are tge silver and orange fish in the first tank eith the frills on the ends of their fins?? Thay are so cool!

You seem to be quiet knowledgeable. I'm curious how does a heavily stocked tank of plants affect this at all? Would there need to be less surface agitation or just an equal amount?

What is that big black fish?

Why does my tank have alot of bubbles at the top of the water that arnt popping ? thanks

To get good surface like that means my top swimmers are swimming in a Tsunami lol

that a black gourami? hes badass...first i've seen like that.

Hello, What's that bushy plant on the bottom left corner?

your tanks look great man...do you have carbon in your filters?.... man that last entry was a sad story... God bless us

There's a Chinese couple in San Francisco that own a fish store and they have a ton of fish and a ton of plants and they don't believer in surface agitation... only very, very little.. They do a really thick gravely substrate, about 4 to 5 inches, to build up the healthy aerobic and aerobic bacteria to eat the ammonia and nitrites and nitrates... And they put a ton of plants and fish in there,. I mean lots and lots of fish!! And they are super healthy...

what kind power head is that?

I think i can't get away with no surface agitation as im living in tropical very hot climate

Do you have a video on lightning? Your plants looked great.

Ok I watch this vid about 3 times, but I kept being interrupted. So I think you didn't cover it in this one. One big advantage that you have, you like longer tanks. I think it would be key to note that longer tanks have better gas exchange rates than taller/narrower tanks. The volume to surface ratio is important to know when deciding how much agitation someone might want. I like my tanks filled just past the bottom of the top bracket. I have two 20 gallon tanks; one tall, one long. Before I used circulation, the long tank always did better with having active healthy fish. Once I learned about the ratios I was able to adjust the tall tank with better agitation. I hope that comes across right, because I really enjoy your channel. I can't help watch every minute.

What are those fish with the black stripe going across their body at 13:57?

Really interesting and useful. Just wondered whether you have any thoughts on flow patterns. I previously had a spray bar and a circulation pump but felt they were actually competing with each other rather than helping. (www.ukaps.org/forum/threads/spray-bar-flow.41745/)

hi dan, foud u in YT after adding u in G+ ...do u use co2, this is the 2nd video i have watched from u this ay have already been answered but ill ask anyway thanks.. mark

what is that big black fish in your first aquarium

what is that big black fish?

is that a pure black Gourami??

my tanks are weird. my duck weed died and I can't really keep mts. but some harder fish and and trap door snails just fine. I also can't find duck weed I think I found pond weed. but it also died. idk it's weird

Do you have soil in your tank?

I have a air stone run for an hour a day in my betta tank

Whats that plant floating?

I can’t get ghosts shrimp to live more then a couple weeks 🙈

HOLY SHIT !, thanks for the video !, i already lose 3 shrimps because of this, not only that i overestimate the plants to distribute oxygen and didnt consider the water exchange, and i somehow stupid and arrogant enough to though that the excess oxygen is enough for the shrimps AND plants at night, my stupidity caused 3 loss of innocents life

TO ALL AQUARIUM ENTHUSIAST - YOU NEED SURFACE AGITATION!!! IT IS NECESSARY - this person say he doesn't have "much" surface agitation and yet he has a 4 inch wide waterfall overflow filter...that is surface agitation.

Good demonstration. I don't like the look of the film at the top. One more reason I like HOB's.

I honestly thought that was a leaf than I noticed it had a eyeball ...

Yes you are correct you can run a tank without a filter or surface agitation. The problem is you'd have to have an open top tank and hope the fish don't jump out and you have to change the water all the time. You also said one of your tanks has cynobacteria. More surface agitation for better gas exchange will help prevent cynobacteria. Air stones as you said do not put oxygen in the watter, but it does move water around in the tank breaking the surface witch causes the tank to trap oxygen from the air. In a non plated tank surface agitation is more crucial than a heavily planted tank like yours. If the top is still an oily like resedue will form and if not removed regularly can smother the tank. You claim you remove this with the watet changes. I just think you are putting too much work into the tank maintenance that more surface agitation could solve. This all being said if you want to do the work it is up to you and overall your tanks look great and healthy.

IS THAT ACTUALLY LIME STOME ????

Floating plants with a still surface works. They will keep it clean

FYI for those New to fish keeping If u Don't have Aquarium Plants U need Surface Agitation If u have Plants in ur aquarium make sure to have more plants than fish The aquarium Plants in this Video produces a lot of oxygen enough for the fishes so he doesn't need a lot of surface agitation but if ur new to the Hobby please please don't kill ur fish watch a ton more of very informative videos, tutorials etc on KZfaq Surface Agitation lets the oxygen enter the Water. AGAIN surface Agitation Lets the oxugen enter the tank. If u are palnning to have a planted tank its fine to have less surface agitation with more plants and less fishes. But if U have a Tank that Have more fishes than the plants, U need SURFACE AGITATION.

@16:00. One of the secrets for making a great aquarium video is to jerk the camera around wildly. If the video does not induce vertigo and vomit, it's not a good vid. Please try harder! PS: What lighting do you have for the tank at 16:00?

All this is true with large bodies of water as their is a lot more surface area in contact with oxygen especially when wind passes over it but in small tanks fish will not survive very long in still water with no surface breakage. Agitation is not enough, you have break the surface of the water otherwise it's like you being in a balloon full of oxygen and co2, eventually, it will just be co2 and unless you break a hole in the balloon their will be no release of co2 and no oxygen

I have a loud annoying ass spray bar.

what the heck, that fish identifies as a leaf. lol

Do we have a blonde version of this 😂😂😂 or can I have a blonde version of this 😂😂 you know what I mean hahahaha

Thanks. Took your advice and all my shrimp died

I have better version of your water sprite. Mine is called broadleaf water sprite/ indian fern

You can... But should you ?👴

Sell me your spotted African leaf fish

Put your money where your mouth is. Take your filter out for a month.

A little more DO would help. But am wasting my time. Your not going to change anything. That's fine it's your tank.

Somewhat i am offended as i am a FX6 user, your explanation is so wrong and you keep on saying you dont need filter. Why dont you do it and report back after a month. Lets see what will happen lol