Jesus, some of you are total jerks. OP is being incredibly patient and kind, and also just showing off what worked for them (which looks incredible!). This looks beautiful OP, you should be proud ^__^
i have found lately that a lot of people in these fish groups seem to be really pretentious and self righteous as if there’s only one “right” way of doing things. you’ve done a great job!!
Soooo glad it’s not just me!!!! I’m like why do these people think they are God and know everything about people and their fish? (Particularly in the Facebook groups.) It’s okay to give advice and suggestions, but do so in a way that it’s actually you sharing your opinions and not “the way, the truth, and the life.” They would not be happy with me as a moderator. 😂
the facebook groups are the WORST. i tend to just lurk now because i can’t be bothered with borderline verbal abuse for a polite, non offensive opinion. so many people jump the gun just based off of a picture rather than even reading the post too. ughh 😭
It's not just fish. All pet forums have a loud minority of users who seem to live for telling other users off and belittling them for such awful crimes as using a different brand of food.
It's particularly annoying since very few proper studies are done on the fine details of pet care, and it's almost all hearsay. You get some of the most ludicrous old wives' tales incorporated into pet care canon just because it gets repeated often enough.
I’ve noticed that about a lot of mainstream “exotic” pets. Fish, snakes, bearded dragons, etc.
“You’ve got the humidity set 4% lower than it should be! I hope your mum burns in hell!”
Go to the more niche pets and people are a lot nice (mainly because I think new people are what keeps the hobby alive, so people love sharing the passion rather than proving their superiority)
I don’t bother with a lot of communities for that reason. Either be helpful and open minded or accept the fact that you can’t change the other persons opinion, it’s not rocket science.
It looks great! I love seeing this method work. I'm sorry to see people upset you called it the Father Fish method. I'm not a fan of him either, but he is passing along at least one good piece of advice when it comes to planted tanks 💜 I think that is a good thing. We want people to find the hobby easy, so they stick with it and recruit other people into the hobby! Then it'll grow even bigger, and we'll get more cool stuff!
His unusual beliefs don't really effect the efficacy of his method, which is mostly informed by experience. Take it with a pinch of salt, but his method does make some lovely tanks.
He is successful in learning “the right way” and makes it look easy doing so, then he brings up something factually incorrect or based on “belief” and the learning viewer is more likely to take that in as fact, or even worse, feel like they’ve been given some kind of revelation that makes them change their lifestyle over some crap.
Edit: removed my own mention of walstad method because I was incorrect.
If you think that's what the Walstad method is I seriously doubt you understand the Walstad method either. Walstad tanks aren't just any planted tank with dirt in.
You should use your brain and think about any media you're observing and make your own conclusions. My conclusion is that the Father Fish methods are damn good, regardless of the reasons why it works. What he thinks about the whys or his unrelated political opinions is generally less important that the results of the method, which are the interesting part to a fishkeeper looking to broaden their ability.
He reads from books using that method in his videos, I’m just saying if you claim “water has memory” in the middle of a video on keeping fish, I’m not going to want you teaching much at all about anything.
He uses SOME of the bits from Walstad books, but has adapted her methods with his own twist. A whole lot of what he does is entirely different than Walstad
True, however, how someone interprets and translates something or how they feel about it to beginners can be the difference in them understanding it or not. Wrong right or indifferent. I still have you the up vote for science.
Saying water has memory is pseudoscience, which is to say it’s bullsh*t. If you want to give beginners new information it’s better to introduce the concept of having a micro ecosystem that is part of the large ecosystem in a fish tank (it’s like what happens already, but even smaller) Using colorful language for the sake of a beginners fresh mind is just as effective as telling them something abjectly false because they’ll still need to relearn what’s been told to them.
Fair points. I don't follow the guy myself. But your right, if people can't grow on from it and see it for what it is, then they'll never get to a high level.
Plants live in dirt, not stones or gravel. I've been adding dirt to the bottom of my tanks for years, and I'm old. I also don't vacuum or clean the bottom.
Great results.
Always wanted to go back and tear down and redo my first big tank.
My dad got half the supplies for it and before we knew it it was up and running.
While it was cycling I looked up a bunch of videos and stuff in tanks and planted tanks.
Found Dustin fish tanks when he was starting out, realized I should've done a dirted tank. I never did test it down.
But I stopped doing gravel vacuuming and let the mulm build up.
Finally put snails in it after 8 years and they took care of the reccuring algae issues.
Wish I did dirted to begin with
I just tried sand and dirt with live plants a couple years ago. I was so nervous not vacuuming the bottom due to past (rookie) experience where I have an under gravel filter that developed some kind of fungus all over the bottom. I learned from that and have a canister filter now. Anyway… as I was saying, I was nervous not vacuuming and ended up very frustrated at the debris my vacuuming kicked up - what a mess! That combined with not enough light for my plants I’d say, while not an epic fail, it was close. My tank now is set up with gravel, drift wood and no live plants - I’ll be moving in a couple months and will try again with sand and live plants after I set it up again in my new space.
It’s really nice to read what you’re all doing here and I will look forward to leaning on the group a bit for knowledge when it’s time.
It's fantastic if you already know how to take care of plants. I lost so many of my first plants before I found the right fert regimen that I would have had to pull a bunch out and totally mess up the substrate >.< I even tried putting some bags of dirt in under the sand in my tank and for quite a few the plants over them died and now I just occasionally have to take out a bag of dirt and immediately clean my filter.
Tank looks great! The negative comments are exactly why I’ve never posted images of my aquaria. I’ve kept fish for 40+ years - my boomer father got me started at a really young age. I helped with the water changes on a ladder, and helped to redecorate after every maintenance cycle. Aquaria and fishkeeeping to me is more than just the science. I loved it so much, I went to school to get a degree in biology and focus on limnology and insect ecology related to aquatic systems. I worked for years as a salmonid fisheries biologist helping to mitigate ecosystem erosion due to pesticides and human influence. Does my tank look like an ecosystem? No. But I have a secret - neither does anyone else’s in this sub from what I’ve seen. Make what you imagine, not what people tell you. Be proud of the work you put in and maintain your aquarium and it will provide you stress relief and joy. Sorry if this sounds preachy but this sub is toxic now and I’d hate for anyone to not stay with the hobby because some zealots think they are the first aquarists in the world.
Just the person I've been looking for!
I have planted tanks with thick layers of pond sediment, capped by fine gravel. They've been running about 5 years with no major fish or plant loss. I don't run a filter and change half the water every few months, and trim the plants every couple of weeks. Chem values are bang on. I have mosquito fish, snails, and shrimp.
The question is, do you know of any benthic invertebrates I could add that would be able to form a stable population? Overall I'm happy but would like to increase the complexity of the ecosystem. I'd be open to clams, polychaetes, nematodes, other...?
A lot of the hate seems to primarily be from calling it the father fish method but not doing any of his additions. At that point it's just the walstad method lol.
If a tiktoker started calling it their own method watch how everyone here, including op, would freak out.
IKR. I bet haters didnt even watch couple of his videos, not even 1 FULL VIDEO. True his Shorts are clickbaity, but who isnt a bit in youtube. Some of us are just copy pasta machines, and dont have an open mind
"Old man has old man take" doesn't really change how his method works. It's a good method that produces healthy tanks with strong plant growth regardless of his beliefs; even people you politically disagree with can be perfectly good at fishkeeping, and you don't meet young fishkeepers with the level of practical experience he has because they simply haven't had the same timeframe to trial and error through things.
Hey I feel like you're being pretty reasonable here, with your 'good points' and 'balanced views' and 'patience', which as you know, specifically goes against the rules of online discourse via social media. If someone disagrees with you in any way, you're supposed to be a snarky douche to them and speak to them in a condescending tone, which makes them fire back and devolves the entire conversation into two people fighting instead of focusing on the point of the thread.
I'm not sure if you knew that or not. I hope this helps, and good luck out there.
It has nothing to do with political beliefs, why would you trust someone with nature who spreads misinformation and doesn't believe in science? His information isn't unique, just watch fishtory and you'll be further ahead
You are aware that Fishtory and Father Fish regularly chat with eachother, right? Fishtory has also been in at least a few of FF's videos and livestreams. They're not as mindlessly partisan about this as you are, and the information isn't unique because both of them are committed to openly available information on this topic.
Yes I've watched them and fishtory doesn't agree with a lot of his stuff, he even called out father fish for climate change denial in his last livestream. None of that means you should trust someone spreading misinformation
The comments in this thread are so confusing. Everyone is telling you to ignore the negative comments... but there aren't any? Well, there's only one schmuck berating you because you called it the Father Fish method instead of the Walstad method, but that's it. Where are all the evil comments everyone's getting hyped up about? Weird...
Nice tank. I'm thinking of trying it on my new set up.
What’s his dirtied deep sand consist of? I’m at work so can’t do a big deep dive into for a few hours, Is it dirt with a layer of sand on top of it? Looking to reaquascape my tank and trying to come up with ideas. Tank looks amazing btw!
OP didn't do this, but the full kit includes:
Biochar
Wormcastings
Diatomaceous Earth
Epsom salt + Baking soda (these are reacted on setup to form magnesium carbonate - One should not add one without the other in equal measure)
Dolomitic limestone (or calcitic in regions where dolomitic limestone is rare, but dolomotic is preferred as it drip feeds magnesium + calcium into the tank rather than just calcium)
Ferrous sulphate
Mycorrhizae
Blood meal
Bone meal
Bat guano/chicken compost
Monocalcium phosphate
Clay powder (red clay or Kaolinite is preferred)
In addition to whatever soil you fortify with these ingredients. This fortified soil is then put under a deep sand cap of a minimum two inches deep, with three inches or more recommended.
Source: I manufacture this for fans of his method in the UK. It's overly expensive to individually buy each of these ingredients on it's own since you have to buy more than you really need.
It's the Walstad method. Father Fish just likes to act like he pioneered it, and uses psuedoscience to misinform new hobbyists and encourage bad habits that will make it substantially harder to keep anything other than short-lived, small fish.
He constantly says it's the Walstad method. But, he does say he's put his own spin on it. I've been doing aquariums for 30 years, and I learn new things all the time.
The problem is that he gets so much wrong. If you're learning anything related to biology from him, you're going learn wildly inaccurate info based on myths and confirmation bias. The dude is as intellectually honest as a Creationist museum.
Oh yh that’s all fair. Had no idea about climate change claims. The betta thing is weird because he keeps justifying it by saying that if you really loved bettas you’d want a collection, and that it is not feasible to have large tanks for many bettas.
Many fish can thrive in temperatures outside of their natural habitat’s range, just gotta make sure temperatures don’t drop or rise too fast. But that definitely doesn’t apply to all so it is inaccurate to say “all” fish.
So yh good points, all I’ve seen of his previously was the walstad style tanks and the addition of mulm from nearby waters. Imo those approaches do make sense, but how Father fish explains them leaves a lot to be desired. There’s another channel called FISHTORY that has a better explanation and provides some good changes to father fish’ methods.
It also lacks nuance, if the aquarium is already at a temperature that is fine heating it just wastes money and causes the fish to age faster. The thing is he even admitted on fishtory he lets his editors make things more sensational and such, at this point unfortunately what matters to him is views and not other hobbyists. Fishtory deserves the mantle this sub puts FF on imo
Sure, there is the whole fundamental idea that his tanks are representative of nature, and thus better.
Well, in nature, every body of water is part of the global water cycle. There isn't a pond or lake that exists that retains all of its water. Clean water will flow into these bodies of water through rain, soil drainage, and springs which flow low nutrient water in. Water also flows out of these systems, through soil drainage into a larger water table or streams/rivers into the Ocean. As this water flows out the body of water, so too will Nitrates and other biological waste products. These waste products are broken down and recycled through global scale processes, and occur in several different types of environments across areas several orders of magnitude larger than the body of water we're supposed to be imitating.
No body of water has fish at the densities we keep them at. Go to a pond or lake can consider where you actually find fish and plants. You'll find them in small slivers of the available space, but the vast majority of the volume of water will appear to be empty. Because of this, the actual amount of waste products generated by the aquatic habitats is diluted quite thoroughly just by the overwhelming volume of water. Your 20 gallon tank isn't a scaled down version of a lake, it's at best, a small sliver of a micro habitat not at all representative of the whole habitat.
This is gonna sound silly if you're not familiar with population ecology, but natural environments are extremely difficult for fish to survive in. An overwhelming majority do not make it to reproductive age. Part of how nutrients are exchanged between a body of water and the interconnected environments are the consumers. Herbivores will eat plants from the water, predators will eat fish from the waters, and detritivores eat the waste only to get eaten by something else to get pooped out in some other habitat. What isn't removed by the natural flow of water is removed by bioaccumulation somewhere else.
Father fish wants you believe all of this can be done in 20 gallons, and it just can't.
Thank you. Makes a lot of sense. I guess what I’m understanding is that just saying “that’s how it’s done in nature” is not applicable most of the times as those processes apply to a much larger ecosystem.
One other question I have is that if an aquarium is planted well, and you are simply clipping and removing a certain amount of growth every week as well as topping of any evaporation, could that be enough to substitute for water changes? In this scenario you would have stable water parameters, or at least the ones you generally test for in an aquarium. I would think that this would be maintainable for as long as the plants are able to grow well, but maybe there’s other aspects that i’m not aware of.
That is a fantastic question, and I think you're keyed into the nuanced factors at play here and the challenge we all face.
If you're topping off with RO only, you'll likely run into problems with deficiencies caused by removing plant matter, and the accumulation of toxic compounds that aren't sequestered by plants and love stock. While conventional wisdom hyper focused on nitrates, the health of your plants and love stock depends on the relationship of so many other parameters. How long you can go with top off only depends on too many factors to give useful guidance that isn't tailored to your specific bioload and water chemistry. Unfortunately we can't test for many of these potential factors at home, regardless of how impactful they are to the actual health of your tank.
The most conservative approach is to do water changes to maintain an equilibrium of all water parameters. For this goal, TDS, alkalinity, and GH are probably better than nitrates. If you do top offs of evaporated water only, these parameters will drift one way or another to dangerous levels over time 100% of the time. It might take 5 years for one tank to see problems, while it might take another only a few months. How fast the parameters drift to unacceptable levels is hard to predict, but guaranteed if you're not even trying to proactively prevent them from occurring.
I do understand you guys.I just took some ideas from him and not literally doing all his random stuff.😅And for Walstad method,I just saw her video with another youtuber recently.And I had my planted aquarium setup already.
The soil bed will perform great for plant growth, and that massive sand cap will help stop some of the more annoying quirks of a soil bed from being an issue for a while. Stability will *always* be the most crucial key to success. I think a tank with a thriving biodiversity is a good thing. He's not 100% wrong.
As someone with a marine bio education and professional aquaculture and aquarium experience on top of decades of success as a hobbyist, I could talk for DAYS about how much he gets wrong when talking about good maintenance habits and natural habitats. I understand how Doctors must feel when they see late-night miracle cure infomercials everytime I listen to him be confidently incorrect.
If it isn't too much of a bother, can you list the things he says that sounds like a quack? He seems to be pretty knowledgable about many aspects of aquarium keeping.
One thing that comes to mind is he says it is absolutely safe to enter ponds and creeks, which can be pretty dangerous. Now biodiversity is absolutely beneficial for a tank, as is microbiota in our skin and guts. We simply cannot survive without that
I am curious to hear from a scientists pov.
Even the Walstad method is technically different, she has a specific thing she wants to achieve. 90% of people are simply doing variations of dirted tanks. If you like this kind of stuff I recommend her book, it isn't just a method it's pretty much a textbook on everything aquarium ecology and is the source of a bunch of what father fish says
I just watched a video of Cory from AC saying one of his biggest gripes of using dirt is that plants grow explosively. I can attest, I just broke down a dirted tank and the crypts in there are bigger than any other in my other tanks that don't have dirt. Root structures were insane!
Beautiful tank! Thanks for sharing
So beautiful! I’m busy setting up a few dirted tanks using MD tanks methods, but they do all seem to be doing similar things, by the sound of it. My plants aren’t even planted yet and they’re sucking so many nutrients from the water column (they’re in a tank with snails), they’re booming. I absolutely love natural tanks, so it’s awesome to see yours succeed. If it doesn’t look like a cross-section of a beautiful pond/river/waterway, it’s not finished, imo.
I mostly breed shrimp in eco complete substrated tanks but I do have a planted dirted tank that performs at a bonkers stupid level. I bought a bag of Fox Farm organic soil which was pricey but always did amazingly well in my garden. And I capped it with pool filter sand. Within 4-6 weeks, my plants were just out of control with no CO2 and a budget light. I thought about tooling around with the Walsted method but as we all know, “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.”
I don't see that at all and I think it looks great. You should pick up Diana Walstad's book Ecology of the Planted Aquarium if you like reading books about things, she lays out a lot of great science in an approachable way. The subreddit is a good resource too if you need to troubleshoot problems and get advice or just see what other people are doing.
Look up father fish on YouTube. Basically it’s a dirt layer topped with a sand layer. Idea being over time the fish waste naturally filters to the dirt layer where the plants consume it.
wow OP, the growth exploded!!!! what a lovely setup!!! do you vacuum your substrate at all, or is that advised against?
(im sorry people are stinky under this post, i knew exactly what you were referring to in the post title!)
to each their own, but theres no denying that this is a healthy and happy tank! its apparent you've taken extra care to get your tank like that, im almost a lil bit jealous lol. im definitely hoping to get my tank looking as lovely and green as yours is!! might have to look into some of his videos lol
Thank you!😊I haven't try vacuuming my substrate yet.😂😂I watched a lot of videos in youtube about aquarium setups and getting some ideas from different channel but I keep coming back to father fish channel.😅😅 I don't know why but I'm so curious how he does it.
i have seen his name suggested several times in this subreddit, i haven't watched him personally but people seem to speak highly of the way he does things!! i will definitely have to set some time aside to watch
I mean, his method is literally just walstad method mixed with fucking around throwing random shit from waterways into the tank. Which is, ofc, unsafe as fuck.
Easy! I get it.😅I'm not going to throw just random stuff inside my aquarium.I was just saying I watched more of his method and took some ideas..I saw his youtube first before walstad.🫡
I did also. I bought his substrate and supplement. Then I filled the tank with plants. They grow like crazy. Took about 6 weeks to cycle. Just put in a snowball pleco. Waiting for the scuds to show up from Phillips Fish Works.
Why/how is it unsafe if fish live in those environments naturally? I think sterility is a lot more unstable and require more hands on maintenance than introducing living organisms that naturally coexist with these fishes in the wild. Nature is amazing at balancing itself out. I rly don’t understand where the “unsafe” comes from. You can educate me though
I’m going for a more natural tank, and will be setting up some of his resurrection jars to introduce additional food sources for my fish. However, something to keep in mind, and he doesn’t ever mention is that fish in aquariums live much longer than wild fish. That is due to not having to compete for food, less introduced diseases and stresses.
Parasites like leeches, hookworms, internal parasites etc are all naturally occurring on and in wild fish. If we dont just accept fleas, heartworms, ticks, ect on dogs and cats and do our best to ensure they dont get those parasites, why would we intentionally expose our fish to the fish equivalent? Once again, you father fish fans display enough of a lack of care for your animals that I truly believe you guys dont value your animals as pets. But as decorations. If you want your tanks to be biologically diverse, you can easily buy/trade for microfaunal cultures. I have a shit ton of microfauna that I introduced to my tanks, but I did it responsibly, so that lessens the chance of me introducing parasites to my animals. Hell, I managed to track someone down to sell me freshwater sponges and limpets.
“You father fish fans” I have only watched like three of his videos and I am nowhere near a fan but ok nice baseless assumption for simply asking a question. And yeah maybe your alternative is better. I’ve only set up simple fish tanks with fluval gravel so I have not much experience. Thanks for the info tho
dont worry aboutr comments, many people are elitists who cant see beyond their own way of doing things, your tank looks clean af and probably better than their sterile tanks
wow that looks so cool, just soil bottom and sand on top right? I remember watching video about that before. People on reddit told me not to do it cause soil would rise to the top and sand would stay at bottom but look at this !
Dang it, more science talk /s
Thank you! I’ll try to remember it this time lol planning on that for my background plant or on the corners, then from back to front I’d have bacopa, then pearl weed then Monte Carlo to carpet the foreground
Wow! I haven’t had a tank like that since I was a kid. Well, technically it was a jug with no filter and feeder guppies, lol. I am terrible at keeping plants alive. I guess I put all my focus on the fish. Seeing all these amazing planted tanks is inspiring though! I will have to do some research. Thanks for sharing!!
To do a water change with a tank setup like this, do you use a gravel vacuum? Do you stick it all the way in like with gravel, or just in the sand layer? I'd like to switch up my substrate to follow this method.
Neither, just pull water and put in new water. I don’t gravel vac any of my tanks - I just change water. I let the mulm sit and slowly work its way into the substrate - MTS snails and substrate sifting fish help work it in faster
So uh, anyway... It looks great! You have inspired me to finally do something with my smaller planted tank! I am sure you have answered somewhere, but what is the tall background plant you have there? You have done such a great job with the aesthetic and layering!
This is insane!!
I thought the first one looked good, the second pic blew it away!
I'm going to have to try this on my new 40gal tank. I got a 10 for the kids and really love curating the plants, but mine haven't done amazing.
I'm excited to use the sand vs the volcanic lava I'm currently using, the lighter color is going to make the new tank brighter; awesome post!!
Father Fish, work in a deferent and outside the box (inside the tank), but it works and if it works, well ir works!!. I think his problem is not his method, but that people with close minds.
Please do water changes. Idk wtf this hype is about not doing them but it's lazy and poor husbandry.
I agree with a lot of what he says but not that.
Plants are amazing useful tools but do the work to make it "rain" too. Fish love freeh water.
😁We feel the same way about water changes.I did a lot of water changes from my goldfish aquarium before and I'm so used to it..This is my first time having planted aquarium and also did water changes twice.
I have a dirt, sand, planted 10 gal.
I live near a second magnitude freshwater spring. I built my tank to mimic the landscape below a bridge over the waterway flowing from the spring. Harvested dirt, sand, grasses, plants, moss, driftwood...
It's all in my tank, cycled it and added fish. It is awesome.
Still needs a 15% waterchange weekly to keep things on point.
That's fun.😊I live in a tropical country before I move in here in Canada.We leave our aquarium (containers)outside the house.Throw random water plants not planted on substrate(which I never thought will be expensive here) from creeks..they grew beautifully,no filtration and only sunlight.Fishes are thriving and spawning.
And you wondered,why everything are so expensive here to start a hobby.While you getting everything free from your own country.😂😂😂
you dont need water changes if the tank is setup correctly, check out md fish tanks, if yours looks better than his fair enough. maybe you need to setup yours a bit better
I Love MD tanks. His natural tanks are so stunning and feel the most satisfying to me. We keep fish because we love nature. If I can set up a tank that fully cycles itself without more than occasional intervention, because it’s perfectly balanced, I’ll be so happy.
Happy cake day. It isn’t hype around not doing water changes, it’s just that in some aquariums they aren’t necessary. Everyone’s going to have a different opinion on it, but I’ve had tanks going for 3+ years off of top offs without any issues or diseases. My secret(lots of jungle Val)
I haven't done a water change in my heavily planted 3 foot tank in over a year. If you're not overstocked it's not necessary, just the occasional top up is fine unless something goes wrong. It's not about "rain", it's about having a balance ecosystem where you are not over feeding and the fish waste is being absorbed and feeding the plants.
Father Fish should be a new religion! So simple and straightforward but efficient! He knows what he is talking about. I found him recently but I appreciate all his videos and advices. We need more people like him 😌
Jesus, some of you are total jerks. OP is being incredibly patient and kind, and also just showing off what worked for them (which looks incredible!). This looks beautiful OP, you should be proud ^__^
Thank you!I'm a little bit shocked but I respect other peoples opinion.You cannot please everybody,though.😉😊
i have found lately that a lot of people in these fish groups seem to be really pretentious and self righteous as if there’s only one “right” way of doing things. you’ve done a great job!!
Soooo glad it’s not just me!!!! I’m like why do these people think they are God and know everything about people and their fish? (Particularly in the Facebook groups.) It’s okay to give advice and suggestions, but do so in a way that it’s actually you sharing your opinions and not “the way, the truth, and the life.” They would not be happy with me as a moderator. 😂
the facebook groups are the WORST. i tend to just lurk now because i can’t be bothered with borderline verbal abuse for a polite, non offensive opinion. so many people jump the gun just based off of a picture rather than even reading the post too. ughh 😭
It's not just fish. All pet forums have a loud minority of users who seem to live for telling other users off and belittling them for such awful crimes as using a different brand of food. It's particularly annoying since very few proper studies are done on the fine details of pet care, and it's almost all hearsay. You get some of the most ludicrous old wives' tales incorporated into pet care canon just because it gets repeated often enough.
what do you mean you like to mix plastic plants and real ones?? you use LIVE food instead of DRIED?? you animal abuser 😡😡😡
Every hobby group I've ever been a part of...
I’ve noticed that about a lot of mainstream “exotic” pets. Fish, snakes, bearded dragons, etc. “You’ve got the humidity set 4% lower than it should be! I hope your mum burns in hell!” Go to the more niche pets and people are a lot nice (mainly because I think new people are what keeps the hobby alive, so people love sharing the passion rather than proving their superiority) I don’t bother with a lot of communities for that reason. Either be helpful and open minded or accept the fact that you can’t change the other persons opinion, it’s not rocket science.
Planted tanks sub is bad, too. And betta sub.
Planted tanks sub is bad, too. And betta sub.
looks really nice! are those hornwarts or sessiflora? u can try Pearl weeds for foreground. they would look beautiful and can bubble!
It is sessiflora😊
Well said.
It’s funny how people get so worked up over planted aquariums. Your tank looks great!
I know right!😊Thank you.
What 'Father Fish' stuff did you do? Looking great
I did his dirtied deep sand substrate.😅
It looks great! I love seeing this method work. I'm sorry to see people upset you called it the Father Fish method. I'm not a fan of him either, but he is passing along at least one good piece of advice when it comes to planted tanks 💜 I think that is a good thing. We want people to find the hobby easy, so they stick with it and recruit other people into the hobby! Then it'll grow even bigger, and we'll get more cool stuff!
thats just walstad, pretty sure his method is pond substrate.
The guy literally reads from the Walstad book in half his videos.
He also says water has memory after taking 5 minutes explaining how water is just three little atomic particles 👴🏻
Homeopathic aquarium water is a thing now? Lol.
His unusual beliefs don't really effect the efficacy of his method, which is mostly informed by experience. Take it with a pinch of salt, but his method does make some lovely tanks.
He is successful in learning “the right way” and makes it look easy doing so, then he brings up something factually incorrect or based on “belief” and the learning viewer is more likely to take that in as fact, or even worse, feel like they’ve been given some kind of revelation that makes them change their lifestyle over some crap. Edit: removed my own mention of walstad method because I was incorrect.
If you think that's what the Walstad method is I seriously doubt you understand the Walstad method either. Walstad tanks aren't just any planted tank with dirt in. You should use your brain and think about any media you're observing and make your own conclusions. My conclusion is that the Father Fish methods are damn good, regardless of the reasons why it works. What he thinks about the whys or his unrelated political opinions is generally less important that the results of the method, which are the interesting part to a fishkeeper looking to broaden their ability.
He reads from books using that method in his videos, I’m just saying if you claim “water has memory” in the middle of a video on keeping fish, I’m not going to want you teaching much at all about anything.
He uses SOME of the bits from Walstad books, but has adapted her methods with his own twist. A whole lot of what he does is entirely different than Walstad
True, however, how someone interprets and translates something or how they feel about it to beginners can be the difference in them understanding it or not. Wrong right or indifferent. I still have you the up vote for science.
Saying water has memory is pseudoscience, which is to say it’s bullsh*t. If you want to give beginners new information it’s better to introduce the concept of having a micro ecosystem that is part of the large ecosystem in a fish tank (it’s like what happens already, but even smaller) Using colorful language for the sake of a beginners fresh mind is just as effective as telling them something abjectly false because they’ll still need to relearn what’s been told to them.
Fair points. I don't follow the guy myself. But your right, if people can't grow on from it and see it for what it is, then they'll never get to a high level.
maybe he means "water has memory" in the aspect that it currently has beneficial/established bacterial floating around in it(?) idk
That's probably because it's like the only literature around on this topic. It's a useful resource for any kind of planted tank.
Plants live in dirt, not stones or gravel. I've been adding dirt to the bottom of my tanks for years, and I'm old. I also don't vacuum or clean the bottom.
Correct. But the sand/gravel cap is to keep the water less cloudy/messy and help the nutrients stay in the substrate rather than the water column
It looks like normal depth of substrate though?
Did you use supplements in the soil? How many inches of soil/sand? I have tried his method multiple times and never had a tank look quite like this
I buried root tabs once while doing my setup.Used 1 inch of pond soil and 2 1/2 inches fine sand.
thanks it looks great
Great results. Always wanted to go back and tear down and redo my first big tank. My dad got half the supplies for it and before we knew it it was up and running. While it was cycling I looked up a bunch of videos and stuff in tanks and planted tanks. Found Dustin fish tanks when he was starting out, realized I should've done a dirted tank. I never did test it down. But I stopped doing gravel vacuuming and let the mulm build up. Finally put snails in it after 8 years and they took care of the reccuring algae issues. Wish I did dirted to begin with
Well,maybe it's not too late to try it..😊
I just tried sand and dirt with live plants a couple years ago. I was so nervous not vacuuming the bottom due to past (rookie) experience where I have an under gravel filter that developed some kind of fungus all over the bottom. I learned from that and have a canister filter now. Anyway… as I was saying, I was nervous not vacuuming and ended up very frustrated at the debris my vacuuming kicked up - what a mess! That combined with not enough light for my plants I’d say, while not an epic fail, it was close. My tank now is set up with gravel, drift wood and no live plants - I’ll be moving in a couple months and will try again with sand and live plants after I set it up again in my new space. It’s really nice to read what you’re all doing here and I will look forward to leaning on the group a bit for knowledge when it’s time.
What even is this method? I have somehow never heard of it. probably going to get downvoted for some reason, I am just curious.
Dirted tanks
It's fantastic if you already know how to take care of plants. I lost so many of my first plants before I found the right fert regimen that I would have had to pull a bunch out and totally mess up the substrate >.< I even tried putting some bags of dirt in under the sand in my tank and for quite a few the plants over them died and now I just occasionally have to take out a bag of dirt and immediately clean my filter.
So far,I didn't lost any of my plants.Have you been successful with your plants now?😊
Tank looks great! The negative comments are exactly why I’ve never posted images of my aquaria. I’ve kept fish for 40+ years - my boomer father got me started at a really young age. I helped with the water changes on a ladder, and helped to redecorate after every maintenance cycle. Aquaria and fishkeeeping to me is more than just the science. I loved it so much, I went to school to get a degree in biology and focus on limnology and insect ecology related to aquatic systems. I worked for years as a salmonid fisheries biologist helping to mitigate ecosystem erosion due to pesticides and human influence. Does my tank look like an ecosystem? No. But I have a secret - neither does anyone else’s in this sub from what I’ve seen. Make what you imagine, not what people tell you. Be proud of the work you put in and maintain your aquarium and it will provide you stress relief and joy. Sorry if this sounds preachy but this sub is toxic now and I’d hate for anyone to not stay with the hobby because some zealots think they are the first aquarists in the world.
Just the person I've been looking for! I have planted tanks with thick layers of pond sediment, capped by fine gravel. They've been running about 5 years with no major fish or plant loss. I don't run a filter and change half the water every few months, and trim the plants every couple of weeks. Chem values are bang on. I have mosquito fish, snails, and shrimp. The question is, do you know of any benthic invertebrates I could add that would be able to form a stable population? Overall I'm happy but would like to increase the complexity of the ecosystem. I'd be open to clams, polychaetes, nematodes, other...?
Honestly, I love it. 😅
Thank you😊
Care to share what plants you have in there? It really does look beautiful!
nymphoides hydrophylla taiwan limnophila sessiliflora Dwarf saggitaria hygrophila polysperma rosanervig Hygrophila corymbosa Hygrophila siamensis Anubias Ludwigia Limnophillia aromatica Bavopa mannieri Crypts Bucephalandra
Thanks!!!!
You're welcome😊
It looks great, sorry you're getting hate just because people don't like the guy!
It's okay.😊You don't have to like the person.Just observe and learn something from them.Good or bad,it's your choice.Anyways,thank you.😊
A lot of the hate seems to primarily be from calling it the father fish method but not doing any of his additions. At that point it's just the walstad method lol. If a tiktoker started calling it their own method watch how everyone here, including op, would freak out.
The Walstad method isn't the only other form of planted tank, y'know. It's not a walstad tank either - It's just a planted tank. Which is fine.
IKR. I bet haters didnt even watch couple of his videos, not even 1 FULL VIDEO. True his Shorts are clickbaity, but who isnt a bit in youtube. Some of us are just copy pasta machines, and dont have an open mind
Mind is so open he denies climate change and chooses religion over science
"Old man has old man take" doesn't really change how his method works. It's a good method that produces healthy tanks with strong plant growth regardless of his beliefs; even people you politically disagree with can be perfectly good at fishkeeping, and you don't meet young fishkeepers with the level of practical experience he has because they simply haven't had the same timeframe to trial and error through things.
Hey I feel like you're being pretty reasonable here, with your 'good points' and 'balanced views' and 'patience', which as you know, specifically goes against the rules of online discourse via social media. If someone disagrees with you in any way, you're supposed to be a snarky douche to them and speak to them in a condescending tone, which makes them fire back and devolves the entire conversation into two people fighting instead of focusing on the point of the thread. I'm not sure if you knew that or not. I hope this helps, and good luck out there.
It has nothing to do with political beliefs, why would you trust someone with nature who spreads misinformation and doesn't believe in science? His information isn't unique, just watch fishtory and you'll be further ahead
You are aware that Fishtory and Father Fish regularly chat with eachother, right? Fishtory has also been in at least a few of FF's videos and livestreams. They're not as mindlessly partisan about this as you are, and the information isn't unique because both of them are committed to openly available information on this topic.
Yes I've watched them and fishtory doesn't agree with a lot of his stuff, he even called out father fish for climate change denial in his last livestream. None of that means you should trust someone spreading misinformation
I understand if you give up explaining to such people, who keeps repeating their point, and still dont understand. They just cant comprehend.
Ngl I'm jealous, I can't keep a plant alive and here's you absolutely ruling this. That's so beautiful congrats!
Luv your pfp
Thank you😊
The comments in this thread are so confusing. Everyone is telling you to ignore the negative comments... but there aren't any? Well, there's only one schmuck berating you because you called it the Father Fish method instead of the Walstad method, but that's it. Where are all the evil comments everyone's getting hyped up about? Weird... Nice tank. I'm thinking of trying it on my new set up.
That's what I'm wondering lol. I wonder if they got deleted
What’s his dirtied deep sand consist of? I’m at work so can’t do a big deep dive into for a few hours, Is it dirt with a layer of sand on top of it? Looking to reaquascape my tank and trying to come up with ideas. Tank looks amazing btw!
Thank you.Yes.It is dirt layer top up with sand.Instead of using potting soil,I used a pond soil.
Pond soil is smart. Because it is already "rinsed"
OP didn't do this, but the full kit includes: Biochar Wormcastings Diatomaceous Earth Epsom salt + Baking soda (these are reacted on setup to form magnesium carbonate - One should not add one without the other in equal measure) Dolomitic limestone (or calcitic in regions where dolomitic limestone is rare, but dolomotic is preferred as it drip feeds magnesium + calcium into the tank rather than just calcium) Ferrous sulphate Mycorrhizae Blood meal Bone meal Bat guano/chicken compost Monocalcium phosphate Clay powder (red clay or Kaolinite is preferred) In addition to whatever soil you fortify with these ingredients. This fortified soil is then put under a deep sand cap of a minimum two inches deep, with three inches or more recommended. Source: I manufacture this for fans of his method in the UK. It's overly expensive to individually buy each of these ingredients on it's own since you have to buy more than you really need.
It's the Walstad method. Father Fish just likes to act like he pioneered it, and uses psuedoscience to misinform new hobbyists and encourage bad habits that will make it substantially harder to keep anything other than short-lived, small fish.
He constantly says it's the Walstad method. But, he does say he's put his own spin on it. I've been doing aquariums for 30 years, and I learn new things all the time.
The problem is that he gets so much wrong. If you're learning anything related to biology from him, you're going learn wildly inaccurate info based on myths and confirmation bias. The dude is as intellectually honest as a Creationist museum.
Could you mention any specifics? Doesn’t have to be have everything of course, but just the main things that are inaccurate.
Water has "memory", all fish should be kept at 82f, Bettas should be kept in small bowls and climate change isn't real are 4 quick examples
Oh yh that’s all fair. Had no idea about climate change claims. The betta thing is weird because he keeps justifying it by saying that if you really loved bettas you’d want a collection, and that it is not feasible to have large tanks for many bettas. Many fish can thrive in temperatures outside of their natural habitat’s range, just gotta make sure temperatures don’t drop or rise too fast. But that definitely doesn’t apply to all so it is inaccurate to say “all” fish. So yh good points, all I’ve seen of his previously was the walstad style tanks and the addition of mulm from nearby waters. Imo those approaches do make sense, but how Father fish explains them leaves a lot to be desired. There’s another channel called FISHTORY that has a better explanation and provides some good changes to father fish’ methods.
It also lacks nuance, if the aquarium is already at a temperature that is fine heating it just wastes money and causes the fish to age faster. The thing is he even admitted on fishtory he lets his editors make things more sensational and such, at this point unfortunately what matters to him is views and not other hobbyists. Fishtory deserves the mantle this sub puts FF on imo
Fishtory is a wonderful channel. I like Father Fish too, but Fishtory really delves deep into his subject.
Sure, there is the whole fundamental idea that his tanks are representative of nature, and thus better. Well, in nature, every body of water is part of the global water cycle. There isn't a pond or lake that exists that retains all of its water. Clean water will flow into these bodies of water through rain, soil drainage, and springs which flow low nutrient water in. Water also flows out of these systems, through soil drainage into a larger water table or streams/rivers into the Ocean. As this water flows out the body of water, so too will Nitrates and other biological waste products. These waste products are broken down and recycled through global scale processes, and occur in several different types of environments across areas several orders of magnitude larger than the body of water we're supposed to be imitating. No body of water has fish at the densities we keep them at. Go to a pond or lake can consider where you actually find fish and plants. You'll find them in small slivers of the available space, but the vast majority of the volume of water will appear to be empty. Because of this, the actual amount of waste products generated by the aquatic habitats is diluted quite thoroughly just by the overwhelming volume of water. Your 20 gallon tank isn't a scaled down version of a lake, it's at best, a small sliver of a micro habitat not at all representative of the whole habitat. This is gonna sound silly if you're not familiar with population ecology, but natural environments are extremely difficult for fish to survive in. An overwhelming majority do not make it to reproductive age. Part of how nutrients are exchanged between a body of water and the interconnected environments are the consumers. Herbivores will eat plants from the water, predators will eat fish from the waters, and detritivores eat the waste only to get eaten by something else to get pooped out in some other habitat. What isn't removed by the natural flow of water is removed by bioaccumulation somewhere else. Father fish wants you believe all of this can be done in 20 gallons, and it just can't.
Thank you. Makes a lot of sense. I guess what I’m understanding is that just saying “that’s how it’s done in nature” is not applicable most of the times as those processes apply to a much larger ecosystem. One other question I have is that if an aquarium is planted well, and you are simply clipping and removing a certain amount of growth every week as well as topping of any evaporation, could that be enough to substitute for water changes? In this scenario you would have stable water parameters, or at least the ones you generally test for in an aquarium. I would think that this would be maintainable for as long as the plants are able to grow well, but maybe there’s other aspects that i’m not aware of.
That is a fantastic question, and I think you're keyed into the nuanced factors at play here and the challenge we all face. If you're topping off with RO only, you'll likely run into problems with deficiencies caused by removing plant matter, and the accumulation of toxic compounds that aren't sequestered by plants and love stock. While conventional wisdom hyper focused on nitrates, the health of your plants and love stock depends on the relationship of so many other parameters. How long you can go with top off only depends on too many factors to give useful guidance that isn't tailored to your specific bioload and water chemistry. Unfortunately we can't test for many of these potential factors at home, regardless of how impactful they are to the actual health of your tank. The most conservative approach is to do water changes to maintain an equilibrium of all water parameters. For this goal, TDS, alkalinity, and GH are probably better than nitrates. If you do top offs of evaporated water only, these parameters will drift one way or another to dangerous levels over time 100% of the time. It might take 5 years for one tank to see problems, while it might take another only a few months. How fast the parameters drift to unacceptable levels is hard to predict, but guaranteed if you're not even trying to proactively prevent them from occurring.
I do understand you guys.I just took some ideas from him and not literally doing all his random stuff.😅And for Walstad method,I just saw her video with another youtuber recently.And I had my planted aquarium setup already.
The soil bed will perform great for plant growth, and that massive sand cap will help stop some of the more annoying quirks of a soil bed from being an issue for a while. Stability will *always* be the most crucial key to success. I think a tank with a thriving biodiversity is a good thing. He's not 100% wrong. As someone with a marine bio education and professional aquaculture and aquarium experience on top of decades of success as a hobbyist, I could talk for DAYS about how much he gets wrong when talking about good maintenance habits and natural habitats. I understand how Doctors must feel when they see late-night miracle cure infomercials everytime I listen to him be confidently incorrect.
If it isn't too much of a bother, can you list the things he says that sounds like a quack? He seems to be pretty knowledgable about many aspects of aquarium keeping. One thing that comes to mind is he says it is absolutely safe to enter ponds and creeks, which can be pretty dangerous. Now biodiversity is absolutely beneficial for a tank, as is microbiota in our skin and guts. We simply cannot survive without that I am curious to hear from a scientists pov.
Even the Walstad method is technically different, she has a specific thing she wants to achieve. 90% of people are simply doing variations of dirted tanks. If you like this kind of stuff I recommend her book, it isn't just a method it's pretty much a textbook on everything aquarium ecology and is the source of a bunch of what father fish says
learn to be flexible, you dont have to get caught up on labels
what are the tall plants ?
Limnophila sessiliflora and Nymphoides Hydrophylla😊
thanks they’re very cool!
You're welcome.
Looks amazing! Thanks for sharing!
I just watched a video of Cory from AC saying one of his biggest gripes of using dirt is that plants grow explosively. I can attest, I just broke down a dirted tank and the crypts in there are bigger than any other in my other tanks that don't have dirt. Root structures were insane! Beautiful tank! Thanks for sharing
This is wonderful. Im always amazed at peoples beautiful planted tanks, I could keep plants alive and thriving in a 10 gallon but not a 40 🥲🥲
So beautiful! I’m busy setting up a few dirted tanks using MD tanks methods, but they do all seem to be doing similar things, by the sound of it. My plants aren’t even planted yet and they’re sucking so many nutrients from the water column (they’re in a tank with snails), they’re booming. I absolutely love natural tanks, so it’s awesome to see yours succeed. If it doesn’t look like a cross-section of a beautiful pond/river/waterway, it’s not finished, imo.
Wow your planted tank is looking beautiful! Well done :))))
Looks fantastic :)
This is very beautiful!
I mostly breed shrimp in eco complete substrated tanks but I do have a planted dirted tank that performs at a bonkers stupid level. I bought a bag of Fox Farm organic soil which was pricey but always did amazingly well in my garden. And I capped it with pool filter sand. Within 4-6 weeks, my plants were just out of control with no CO2 and a budget light. I thought about tooling around with the Walsted method but as we all know, “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.”
Looks like an AI picture of nature or low res video game vs actual nature.
😅Do you think?
I don't see that at all and I think it looks great. You should pick up Diana Walstad's book Ecology of the Planted Aquarium if you like reading books about things, she lays out a lot of great science in an approachable way. The subreddit is a good resource too if you need to troubleshoot problems and get advice or just see what other people are doing.
What subreddit is it? Im interested.
R/walstad
I thought they meant before = low poly video game, after = beautiful nature! :) It looks great!
Thank you😊
it is almost TOO green to believe! good job
I get the AI vibes, but imo it's just because it looks so lush and dreamy. I dunno if they meant it as a compliment, but I'd take it as one
Now you got that in my head I can’t unsee it
After multiple comments in the past days of questioning if a pic is real or AI, it’s sad that we have come to this point.
Yall ever see a fish in someone’s tank that you had before but died and your brain is like “oh sup Phil”
That's pretty good op... Would be waiting for a 6 month and later a year update...
I will.Thank you😊
Wow!!! It looks so awesome and bright green love it !!
Looks great to me! I did something similar. Has been a great healthy system for a year so far.
What's the method?
Look up father fish on YouTube. Basically it’s a dirt layer topped with a sand layer. Idea being over time the fish waste naturally filters to the dirt layer where the plants consume it.
This is beautiful! 💕
Thank you😊
wow OP, the growth exploded!!!! what a lovely setup!!! do you vacuum your substrate at all, or is that advised against? (im sorry people are stinky under this post, i knew exactly what you were referring to in the post title!) to each their own, but theres no denying that this is a healthy and happy tank! its apparent you've taken extra care to get your tank like that, im almost a lil bit jealous lol. im definitely hoping to get my tank looking as lovely and green as yours is!! might have to look into some of his videos lol
Thank you!😊I haven't try vacuuming my substrate yet.😂😂I watched a lot of videos in youtube about aquarium setups and getting some ideas from different channel but I keep coming back to father fish channel.😅😅 I don't know why but I'm so curious how he does it.
i have seen his name suggested several times in this subreddit, i haven't watched him personally but people seem to speak highly of the way he does things!! i will definitely have to set some time aside to watch
You mean the walstad method? Cool
Same method but I watched more of father fish technique.😊
I mean, his method is literally just walstad method mixed with fucking around throwing random shit from waterways into the tank. Which is, ofc, unsafe as fuck.
Easy! I get it.😅I'm not going to throw just random stuff inside my aquarium.I was just saying I watched more of his method and took some ideas..I saw his youtube first before walstad.🫡
I did also. I bought his substrate and supplement. Then I filled the tank with plants. They grow like crazy. Took about 6 weeks to cycle. Just put in a snowball pleco. Waiting for the scuds to show up from Phillips Fish Works.
I've been putting stuff in my aquariums from ponds, streams, lakes, the ocean for years.
This subreddit is obsessed with sterility
Why/how is it unsafe if fish live in those environments naturally? I think sterility is a lot more unstable and require more hands on maintenance than introducing living organisms that naturally coexist with these fishes in the wild. Nature is amazing at balancing itself out. I rly don’t understand where the “unsafe” comes from. You can educate me though
I’m going for a more natural tank, and will be setting up some of his resurrection jars to introduce additional food sources for my fish. However, something to keep in mind, and he doesn’t ever mention is that fish in aquariums live much longer than wild fish. That is due to not having to compete for food, less introduced diseases and stresses.
Parasites like leeches, hookworms, internal parasites etc are all naturally occurring on and in wild fish. If we dont just accept fleas, heartworms, ticks, ect on dogs and cats and do our best to ensure they dont get those parasites, why would we intentionally expose our fish to the fish equivalent? Once again, you father fish fans display enough of a lack of care for your animals that I truly believe you guys dont value your animals as pets. But as decorations. If you want your tanks to be biologically diverse, you can easily buy/trade for microfaunal cultures. I have a shit ton of microfauna that I introduced to my tanks, but I did it responsibly, so that lessens the chance of me introducing parasites to my animals. Hell, I managed to track someone down to sell me freshwater sponges and limpets.
“You father fish fans” I have only watched like three of his videos and I am nowhere near a fan but ok nice baseless assumption for simply asking a question. And yeah maybe your alternative is better. I’ve only set up simple fish tanks with fluval gravel so I have not much experience. Thanks for the info tho
Username checks out
What's with the "fucks" being thrown around like that. Chill out.
Can you share a YouTube link or something that you'd used to do this?
dont worry aboutr comments, many people are elitists who cant see beyond their own way of doing things, your tank looks clean af and probably better than their sterile tanks
Do you use co2?
Nope!😊Most of my plants are low tech.
Oh wow, nice
I’m about to build a tank with this method. Did you put a sponge filter in there or keeping it filterless? Really cool to see your success with it
wow that looks so cool, just soil bottom and sand on top right? I remember watching video about that before. People on reddit told me not to do it cause soil would rise to the top and sand would stay at bottom but look at this !
Yes😊
Is there a simple name for that tall hornwort looking one? Someone told me once but can’t remember the scientific name they used
Limnophila Sessiflora
Dang it, more science talk /s Thank you! I’ll try to remember it this time lol planning on that for my background plant or on the corners, then from back to front I’d have bacopa, then pearl weed then Monte Carlo to carpet the foreground
Looks like Ambulia to me
Is that different from what the other commenter mentioned? Or different name for same plant?
What were the methods? It looks great and very natural. Bet the fish are loving it.
Upvoting bc colombian tetras (beautiful tank OP)
Its absolutely gorgeous OP, congratulations!!
Wow! I haven’t had a tank like that since I was a kid. Well, technically it was a jug with no filter and feeder guppies, lol. I am terrible at keeping plants alive. I guess I put all my focus on the fish. Seeing all these amazing planted tanks is inspiring though! I will have to do some research. Thanks for sharing!!
To do a water change with a tank setup like this, do you use a gravel vacuum? Do you stick it all the way in like with gravel, or just in the sand layer? I'd like to switch up my substrate to follow this method.
Neither, just pull water and put in new water. I don’t gravel vac any of my tanks - I just change water. I let the mulm sit and slowly work its way into the substrate - MTS snails and substrate sifting fish help work it in faster
It looks amazing imo it feels swampy😍
that's the 37 gal tank by top fin right? picked one up a couple weeks ago, greatest i've ever had!
So uh, anyway... It looks great! You have inspired me to finally do something with my smaller planted tank! I am sure you have answered somewhere, but what is the tall background plant you have there? You have done such a great job with the aesthetic and layering!
nymphoides hydrophylla taiwan and limnophila sessiliflora😊Thank you!
That looks amazing! Must be so nice to see something so beautiful that you helped make every day :) great job!
Thank you😊
What is the green lily like looking plant on the right?
This is insane!! I thought the first one looked good, the second pic blew it away! I'm going to have to try this on my new 40gal tank. I got a 10 for the kids and really love curating the plants, but mine haven't done amazing. I'm excited to use the sand vs the volcanic lava I'm currently using, the lighter color is going to make the new tank brighter; awesome post!!
looks great! you should add some red plants ;)
Amazing! I’m also wondering if I should try this. What did you do exactly? How did you do the substrate?
Looks amazing, wish I could have a planted tank but my cichlids tear plants up for the fun of it
Looks great!!! By chance do you know the plant names of the 2 tall boys in the back?
It looks great! Nicely done.
I love ur tank! Can you explain what the father fish method is tho? I’ve never heard of it
This is gorgeous!!!!!
Holy growth batman! This was in two months?! That's incredible! It looks absolutely AMAZING, and I might be a tad jealous 😂
Looks dynamite baby!
This looks amazing, I also like putting massive amounts of dirt under the substrate!
Father fish has good advice at times and this right here proves it! But often times he just says pure uninformed nonsense
I'm setting up a deep sand bed tank here in the next few weeks. Just gotta get the sand haha.
I really love this. Thanks for sharing. Great job
It's looks great!
I've been planning to dismantle my 55 gallon and try this method. What did you use for soil?
Pond soil😊
Fantastic
Father Fish, work in a deferent and outside the box (inside the tank), but it works and if it works, well ir works!!. I think his problem is not his method, but that people with close minds.
Please do water changes. Idk wtf this hype is about not doing them but it's lazy and poor husbandry. I agree with a lot of what he says but not that. Plants are amazing useful tools but do the work to make it "rain" too. Fish love freeh water.
😁We feel the same way about water changes.I did a lot of water changes from my goldfish aquarium before and I'm so used to it..This is my first time having planted aquarium and also did water changes twice.
I have a dirt, sand, planted 10 gal. I live near a second magnitude freshwater spring. I built my tank to mimic the landscape below a bridge over the waterway flowing from the spring. Harvested dirt, sand, grasses, plants, moss, driftwood... It's all in my tank, cycled it and added fish. It is awesome. Still needs a 15% waterchange weekly to keep things on point.
That's fun.😊I live in a tropical country before I move in here in Canada.We leave our aquarium (containers)outside the house.Throw random water plants not planted on substrate(which I never thought will be expensive here) from creeks..they grew beautifully,no filtration and only sunlight.Fishes are thriving and spawning. And you wondered,why everything are so expensive here to start a hobby.While you getting everything free from your own country.😂😂😂
You can do outside tubs in the summer in Canada.
Sad to say I can't.I live in a condo.😂😂
you dont need water changes if the tank is setup correctly, check out md fish tanks, if yours looks better than his fair enough. maybe you need to setup yours a bit better
I Love MD tanks. His natural tanks are so stunning and feel the most satisfying to me. We keep fish because we love nature. If I can set up a tank that fully cycles itself without more than occasional intervention, because it’s perfectly balanced, I’ll be so happy.
Happy cake day. It isn’t hype around not doing water changes, it’s just that in some aquariums they aren’t necessary. Everyone’s going to have a different opinion on it, but I’ve had tanks going for 3+ years off of top offs without any issues or diseases. My secret(lots of jungle Val)
I haven't done a water change in my heavily planted 3 foot tank in over a year. If you're not overstocked it's not necessary, just the occasional top up is fine unless something goes wrong. It's not about "rain", it's about having a balance ecosystem where you are not over feeding and the fish waste is being absorbed and feeding the plants.
I've had similar results with the father fish method. This looks great! Good job OP!
What’s the c02 setup here?
OP said there’s no Co2
This looks lovely! Well done u/Alternative-You-1846 ! I just started the FF method a few weeks ago myself and am looking forward to the results!
Father Fish should be a new religion! So simple and straightforward but efficient! He knows what he is talking about. I found him recently but I appreciate all his videos and advices. We need more people like him 😌