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3 Things You MUST DO RIGHT in Your New Aquarium #firstaquarium — Transcript

by Father Fish · 2,067 words · 346 segments · language en · Watch on YouTube

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0:00These are the three issues that kill more
0:03fish than anything
0:05else you can possibly do.
0:12Well, hello. Come right on in.
0:15You're at, Father Fish.
0:17Hello again. This is Father Fish. I want
0:21to talk with you today
0:24about the three great crimes
0:27that are committed by many people
0:32keeping tropical fish, but especially by
0:37beginners. These are the three issues that
0:41kill more fish than
0:43anything else you can possibly do.
0:46They have to do with substrate, water,
0:52and food. Let's take
0:56them in order. Substrate.
0:59What do you have on the bottom of your tank?
1:03Well, to determine what's best,
1:06you need to understand what the substrate is for.
1:10It's actually the
1:11foundation of your tank.
1:14If you think about it, it's the
1:16foundation of a house.
1:18It's what keeps the water healthy and safe.
1:24So there's certain considerations you
1:27have to have in order to be able to have
1:31the right substrate.
1:33Some people don't use substrate at all.
1:36They use filtration,
1:38canister filters, sumps, whatever.
1:42That's okay. They're merely substituting
1:46a substrate in the tank for a substrate,
1:51either in a canister filter or in a sump.
1:56Typically, when
1:58someone goes into a pet shop,
2:00particularly a chain store, then buys an aquarium,
2:04it will come with gravel.
2:07Now, gravel is probably the worst possible
2:13thing you can put in a
2:16fish tank. The reason is,
2:18it doesn't do anything with the waste
2:22that it collects. It
2:23holds onto it. And that waste
2:26deteriorates essentially in the water column.
2:31It's like having
2:32an open sewer. All the dirt,
2:35all that it brings, all the waste sifts
2:39down into the gravel, it
2:41breaks down and deteriorates,
2:44releases into the water, and you get bad water.
2:49Bacteria blooms, all of the problems
2:52that cause fish to become sick and die.
2:57So what's the alternative?
3:00Well, the one I have discovered is
3:03sand. Sand is a product that two to three
3:08inches deep, creates an anaerobic layer.
3:13Oxygen permeates about two inches into
3:16the sand. So that bottom
3:19inch is anaerobic. Now,
3:22what's the importance of that? Well, in
3:26an anaerobic environment,
3:29as anyone who has a septic system
3:33understands, is necessary in order
3:37to break down waste.
3:40It's then released as water and as
3:44typically nitrogen, which feeds out
3:47through the field drains in a septic system.
3:51In an aquarium,
3:53I like to add an inch of soil in the
3:58bottom of a bare tank. That creates a
4:01rich environment for
4:04bacterial microbial activity. You add two
4:10inches of sand on top
4:12of that, you're sealing
4:14in the dirt and making it possible for
4:17all of the waste that's
4:18coming into the bottom to sift down
4:22in, to break down, and by planting your
4:27tank, those roots go down
4:30into that soil and take up
4:33nutrition. The roots of plants must be in
4:38an anaerobic environment in
4:41order to be able to absorb
4:43nutrients. So anaerobics are your friend.
4:49Now, you don't want
4:50them in the water column,
4:52but you really do want them in the
4:54substrate column,
4:56specifically on the bottom. A layer of
5:00soil, two inches of sand, and you have a
5:04substrate that is ready to
5:07go day one, that will begin
5:10breaking down waste immediately, and that
5:14will last for as long as
5:17that aquarium was established.
5:20I have aquariums 20 years old with dirt
5:26and sand beds that
5:28have never had a filter,
5:30never had an air pump, that are perfectly
5:33balanced and grow plants
5:35prolifically. They are my mother tanks.
5:38I pull plants out because they
5:40grow them so profusely. So don't be
5:44intimidated by this,
5:46just do it. A layer of soil, wet and
5:50muddy, two inches of sand,
5:53dry on the top, and then fill
5:56carefully so you don't stir that
5:58substrate up. Once it's full,
6:01you can put your hardscape in,
6:04your driftwood, pottery, rocks, whatever
6:09you're going to use, and
6:10begin planting. And you will
6:13have a tank that you will delight in for
6:17as long as that aquarium is
6:19established. That's number one.
6:23Number two, water. Now, we think of
6:27filtered water, reverse
6:29osmosis water, spring water,
6:33rain water as delectable, delightful,
6:37delicious, and perfect for human
6:40consumption. Well, not only
6:44is that not necessarily true, but in the
6:48case of fish, it isn't true
6:50at all. There are a couple of
6:52issues. One of the primary issues is that
6:57soft acidic water, such as
7:00rain water, such as reverse
7:03osmosis water, such as surface water
7:06typically, contain very few
7:09carbonates. Carbonates are key
7:13to being able to hold a stable pH. That's
7:17the acid base level of the water. Now,
7:23why is that important?
7:25Well, water that is very base, has a lot
7:30of carbonates, has a pH of
7:337.5 to 8.0, does a good job of
7:37controlling bacteria. Now, while it is
7:44true that acidic water
7:47does a good job of controlling ammonia,
7:51so does a dirtied tank. A dirtied
7:54substrate controls ammonia.
7:57You don't get ammonia blooms with a
8:01dirt in substrates because
8:04you've got bacteria in there
8:07that are nitrifying the ammonia, creating
8:11nitrite and nitrates,
8:13which are overcoming
8:16the problem of ammonia. Hard water with
8:19carbonates, alkaline
8:22water, a high pH of 7.5 to 8.0
8:27is much preferable to a pH of 6.0 with
8:33little or no carbonates at all. RO water
8:37is 7.0, no carbonates.
8:40You start getting biological activity,
8:43that water becomes acidic.
8:45Now, the fish that are living in
8:47it will probably survive and be able to
8:50tolerate it, but you can't
8:53put new fish in. The best way to
8:55kill fish is to take them out of alkaline
8:58water and put them in
8:59acidic water. They'll be dead in
9:02an hour. The pressure on the cell
9:05structure is so much different that the
9:09cells actually expand
9:12and can burst and will kill the fish. So,
9:15you may have a tank with a
9:18pH of 6.0 and the fish in it
9:21are perfectly healthy because they've
9:24gotten used to it as it's
9:25gotten there, but you can't
9:27put new fish in. Deep well water is the
9:31very best water for tropical fish. To be
9:36sure, there are fish
9:38that require soft acid water. A
9:42beginner's hobbyist is not likely to ever
9:46encounter any of those fish.
9:49More likely, the beginner will encounter
9:52fish that have either
9:54come out of brackish water
9:56or very hard water, such as the water
9:59in southwest Florida
10:01where most of the farms are.
10:04That's by and large hard alkaline water.
10:09Well water, and in
10:10truth most municipal water,
10:14is deep well hard alkaline water. There
10:18are a number of ways to add the
10:21carbonates in order to
10:23be able to get your pH where it needs to
10:26be. I do not recommend,
10:29however, that you do that. I
10:32recommend that your fish learn to live in
10:36your water just the way
10:38it is. In truth, if you're
10:41buying fish locally from a local pet
10:44store, a local fish shop,
10:46they're going to already be in
10:48and be acclimated to the same water
10:51you're using. So get them used to your
10:54water. That way, when you
10:56have to do a water change, it's not going
10:59to shock them. They'll be in
11:02the same water continuously.
11:05That's number two. Number three, food.
11:10Food for fish is poison. That doesn't
11:16mean that they're not
11:18healthy by eating it, but it means that
11:21in a limited volume of
11:24water, feeding excessively,
11:28which means feeding routinely several
11:31times a day, dozens of times
11:33a week, will cause problems in
11:37the water. Bacterial blooms, it'll cause
11:40waste that will lead to your fish
11:46becoming sick. The biggest
11:48single problem that most people have,
11:51keeping tropical fish, is
11:53believing that every time they
11:55come up to the glass, when you walk in
11:57the room, it's because
11:59they're hungry. They're not hungry.
12:02They're happy to see you. If you sit
12:04there and observe them, they'll say
12:07hello, and then they'll
12:09go on about their business. But if you
12:11feed them, they're going to keep coming
12:14back. They'll stay at
12:15that window because you're paying
12:17attention to them. Oh, they
12:19love to eat. Fish adore eating.
12:22They like nothing better to eat than to
12:25eat. Fish are hungry all the
12:27time. They have a very tiny
12:30digestive system that allows them to
12:33process food in about two hours. That
12:38means that the food that
12:40they evacuate when they poop it out still
12:44has substantial food
12:46value. Other fish will pick it
12:49up and eat it. In the wild, in the
12:51natural environment,
12:53there's a whole range of animals
12:56that depend on eating the waste from
12:59other fish. That waste gets eaten time
13:02and time and time again.
13:06And each time, more and more nutrition is
13:10taken from it. Now, if
13:13that happens five times before
13:15the food is finally has all of its
13:18nutritional value used stuff,
13:20that means that little bit of
13:22food you put in there that then one fish
13:25ate has fed five fish. So if you
13:29feed all five of those
13:30at once, you're putting five times more
13:33food in than they need. So the food
13:36builds up. If you see
13:37food laying on the bottom, you're
13:39overfeeding. Even if it's laying on the
13:42bottom for more than
13:44two or three seconds, you're overfeeding.
13:47I like to feed my fish
13:48once or twice a week. And in
13:52point of fact, I have fish that I
13:55feed once a month. These guys
13:57in back of me, they eat about
13:59once a month. Now they'll have a big
14:02meal. I'll give them a large piece of
14:04chicken for a big old
14:06fish or some live cut fish or shrimp
14:09that'll give them a big belly. Then
14:12they'll take because they
14:13have a larger digestive system. They'll
14:16take about a day to process and then I
14:19won't feed them again
14:21for another month. And they're perfectly
14:23healthy. I'm down here in
14:25snowbird country and I have
14:27snowbirds who are die hard fish keepers.
14:31You just want to have a
14:32tank. They have to have a tank,
14:34even for the six months that they're
14:36here. So they'll come in
14:38at the end of six months,
14:40bring me all their fish. I'll give them a
14:42little store credit for
14:44them. They'll put saran wrap over
14:46their tank, cut off the power, cut off
14:49the lengths and the filters
14:51and let it sit. This gentleman
14:54came in. He took the saran wrap off of
14:57his tank after six months
14:59and there was a guppy in there.
15:02It was alive and healthy and happy. Six
15:06months with no food of any
15:08kind. That fish was perfectly
15:11healthy and perfectly happy. I had the
15:14same thing happen once in
15:16a tank in an old fish room
15:18where a Jack Dempsey jumped into a tank
15:21on the floor in the corner.
15:23I didn't see it. A year later
15:26I saw it. Now that doesn't mean that
15:29didn't eat. It ain't very tiny
15:31things. It ate the algae that
15:33was growing in the tank. There was a
15:36sliver of light, sunlight
15:37coming into that tank for about
15:40an hour a day. It ate the micro organisms
15:43that grew big enough for it
15:45to be able to see them and pick
15:46them up. The aquarium provides lots of
15:49natural food, particularly
15:51in dirtied aquariums. If you
15:53have little tiny fish, you rarely need to
15:57feed them at all. They'll
15:58find foods and they'll be
16:00perfectly happy and perfectly healthy. A
16:04hungry fish is a healthy
16:06fish. Don't try to feed them
16:08until they're not hungry anymore because
16:12they'll get sick. If
16:13they're not hungry, they're sick
16:17and they may very well die. Don't give
16:21you fish more food than they
16:23really need. What they really
16:26need is much less than you may think.
16:30Feed very, very, very sparingly and try
16:35to feed a high quality
16:37food. Not something with a lot of
16:39cornmeal in it. Not something with
16:41filler. Feed something
16:42that they can actually benefit from.
16:46Well, those are the three main issues
16:50that newcomers and old timers face with
16:54virtually every aquarium. Substrate,
16:59water quality, and
17:02food. Keep them in mind as you set up and
17:07maintain your
17:08aquarium. You can have healthy,
17:12happy fish without any extra effort,
17:17without any real trouble.
17:21This is Father Fish wishing you
17:24happy fish. Bye for now.

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