Is It DIRT or Is It GOLD? - The Secret of RICH Soil

[@meghanpelej183]

I needed this reminder. I always feel like I need to vacuum my substrate and have everything be super clean. I have to remember that I'm working towards a very healthy, established little bio-universe in my tank!

[@CEA046]

This is a great video as usual FF. When I setup my latest 125g I used the substrate from an existing 50g FF setup. There was tons of mulm on top. I added the FF supplement and additional dirt since it was more than double the size. I capped it with live river sand. My plants and fish are doing phenomenal.

[@peaoat3608]

I bought the vacuum tube thingy when I was setting up a year ago. Never used it. The ironic thing is how folks strive for a nice brown substrate and use aquasoil that looks like a bunch of mouse poops but when it comes to mulm that is naturally brown and smooth, they panic.

[@ashikrafi290]

our tank around 7 mins..😊😊😊 thanks Father fish .

[@philcarlino6942]

I hope Father Fish narrates the upcoming book. That would be fantastic.

[@mattbrennan647]

Hello FF, new sub here. I’m wondering if it is beneficial to wash the dust from the sand beforehand. Thanks, love your content and philosophy.

[@c.o.b.r.a586]

Hello from Brazil

[@Jackie-j5m]

Excellent lecture now can we have the lab?

[@jayaquatics]

I ❤ FATHER FISH VIDEOS AND HOW HE EXPLAINS THE TRUTH ABOUT NATURAL AQUARIUM.... 💪 NO VACCUM, JUST WAIT! SIT BACK AND RELAX! LET THE NATURE 🌲🌳💦💧⛰️ DO THE JOB! 💪 GREETINGS FROM PHILIPPINES ♥️

[@coinquadro4343]

I started with 2 tanks which were already built and had live in it. Naturally, my next one will be a Father Fish tank and I can't wait. I already started planning how to get mud from my garden, stones and cultures from the near river...but then I stopped. How healthy is it for fish from South America or Asia or Africa if they are being put in a tank with cultures from Germany? Merely the temperature will be adequate

[@jabarriley3799]

Thank you very much for all the great info...will this work with just sand ..I don't have dirt under my sand

[@nicholassadaka6330]

It will work, but like he said, it'll be a few years before it is self sustaining. The mulm goes through the sand VERY slowly.

[@santiagofilipe3611]

I have terra preta under the sand. I collected it from my backyard here in Rio de Janeiro Brazil.

[@niccaangel777]

Fiz tmb graças a esse canal fantástico que contraria a maior parte dos canais brasileiros de aquarismo, minhas plantas são exuberantes e peixes felizes, tmb sou daqui do RJ.

[@jacquesethier]

I would like to ask you, what is your take on TDS levels in a natural aquarium? Thanks Jacques

[@mannyaraujo1]

I have gravel in my 36 gallon tank for 3 years not, medium fine gravel, white, should I top it off with black sand, 1 or 2 inches?

[@Moonlight76876]

Father fish. How do we deal with Detritus/mulm in aquarium that isn't natural or planted. Thanks in advance.

[@danielingalls8980]

You have to get those dead dried leaves from out of your local waterway and stick them right on top of the deep sand substrate of your aquarium. Your fish and food web will thank you for it. It will fertilize your plants too. Father Fish knows the secrets to a beautiful natural aquarium and he is sharing them right here with all of us. It's up to us to take these lessons and apply them in our own tanks. Thank you Father Fish for all your glorious words of wisdom.

[@leanderfoldy9293]

Really? I mean yeah, I built my food web this way too, but just the decaying leaves were never enough nutrition for my java ferns e.g

[@valleymykel-mq7gw]

@@leanderfoldy9293 decaying tree leaves need time to decay, because they are stronger than fresh trimmed plant leaves. Thats what your infusoria, snails, and shrimp are for. Go for softer leaves, like maple.

[@leanderfoldy9293]

@@valleymykel-mq7gw Thanks for your reply! I am putting maple, hornbeam, poplar, plane tree, linden, apple, pear, ash, reeds, stinging nettle, cbd hemp and more into my tank. All sourced locally, much of it out of my own garden. It’s a pretty thick layer too, like about 1-2 inches. My food web is thriving and so are all the other plants like buce and anubias BUT floaters and java fern didn’t really do well. I got around it by fermenting my own diy liquid fertilizer out of the mentioned leaves as well as spirulina and moringa. So far it’s been working out, but I’ll have to wait another month or so until I really see results. Edit: I do have nerite snails and cherry shrimp as well as some bigger microorganisms so leaves in my tank decay rather quickly.

[@leanderfoldy9293]

@@valleymykel-mq7gw Hi, thanks for your reply. I have maple, linden, hornbeam, ash, plane tree, poplar, apple, pear, reeds, cbd hemp, stinging nettle and more in my tank. All of it sourced locally, most out of my own garden. It's a pretty thick layer, too, like 1-2 inches. I also keep nerite snails and a pretty hefty population of cherry shrimp which multiply rapidly so leaves in my tank decay rather quickly. My food web as well plants like anubias and buce are doing fine while frogbit and java fern never did great. I got around it by fermenting my own diy liquid fertilizer out of the mentioned leaves plus spirulina and moringa. So far it's been working out but I'll have to wait another month or so until I really see results.

[@leanderfoldy9293]

@@valleymykel-mq7gw Hi, thanks for your reply. I have maple, linden, hornbeam, ash, plane tree, poplar, apple, pear, reeds, stinging nettle and more in my tank. All of it sourced locally, most out of my own garden. It's a pretty thick layer, too, like 1-2 inches. I also keep nerite snails and a pretty hefty population of cherry shrimp which multiply rapidly so leaves in my tank decay rather quickly. My food web as well plants like anubias and buce are doing fine while frogbit and java fern never did great. I got around it by fermenting my own diy liquid fertilizer out of the mentioned leaves plus spirulina and moringa. So far it's been working out but I'll have to wait another month or so until I really see results.

[@ForkZandKniveZ7]

Can you in theory, collect it after it’s all built up and then mix it with your soil to create a super soil for your next setup?

[@annablack4599]

I’ve been freaking out about how much has been accumulating at the bottom of my tank

[@melissaskinner4501]

I do believe you can have to much,I just remove some.Especially if it’s a smaller tank,it can overwhelm the system.

[@annablack4599]

I only have a batte fish I this that’s my problem. Nothing to eat it. The snails are not doing a good job. But I have a bunch a babies growing up. I don’t think I will like it when I have 100s of them but we will see

[@mariavaladez7981]

Father fish hi! Can you make small portions of aqua prieta soil for sale? Some people have only 5 or 10 gallons tanks. .

[@abrahamschaal5875]

Father fish, you say that detritus is good, but I had an aquarium in the past that built up over time a layer of detritus. But what happened next was blue green algae started taking over my whole tank. Therefore, if you don't remove the detritus from your aquarium, won't that just lead to an inevitable blue green algae bloom making your tank toxic?

[@TKaquatics]

Turning lights off for a few days to a week can tackle the Cyanobacteria from getting foothold.

[@stevep6317]

That's a sign that you don't have enough plant life to properly balance the detritus load. If you balance it just right, nothing builds up except your beneficial plants. I run my lights for 11 hours a day and don't get algae blooms, but I also have a dense carpet of dwarf sag and lots of frogbit and salvinia.

[@abrahamschaal5875]

Thanks for the suggestions! I'll be trying them out

[@valleymykel-mq7gw]

Cyanobacteria is not a product from detritus. Thats a very problematic algae that strives in high nutrient, low dissolved oxygen environments. Once it starts, its hard to get rid of, but like most algae you have to cut out the source and limit the conditions that allow it to thrive

[@narantsogaltangerel1492]

Dear Father fish. I have a question. I build aquarium with your advice and was great for small fishes. So i have 10 adult Discus and 10 adult Altums. How many litter dirt aquarium will be need those 20 adults?

[@FatherFish]

10 29s

[@narantsogaltangerel1492]

@FatherFish cant understand. what is mean litr or measure size?

[@elite6657]

I used to hate it but I listened to you and now I only suck out the giant really built up parts of it then just leave it in

[@Endtimescoming]

Father Fish. I don't totally disagree with you, macro nutrient in "bio soil" ie nitrogen phosphorus and potassium is huge. But you still need that mineral component. Iron molybdenum and so forth the micro nutrients. Thus your supplements. I know that you are older and wiser than me, I don't dispute that. Tera praeta though is based on charcoal "biochar" which is able to hold onto the nutrients. Aqua praeta (yes I am probably spelling praeta wrong preta maybe?) works under the same premise. I agree that it is very beneficial for soil and also for locking carbon the great "global warmer". I discovered bio char just about a year ago and plan on making a goodly amount of it and placing it in my garden. Until I began seeing it on your channel I hadn't considered it for my aquariums. But I do think the mineral soil at the bottom of the aquarium does serve a vital purpose. The bio char of Tera praeta and now aqua praeta would go into that soil below the sand and act like a sponge for nutrients.

[@dn7096_]

Can a sand be too fine?

[@humility-righteous-giving]

at 2 minutes said if your willing to wait..wait for what ,to see the most amazing plant growth? you wait instead of adding root tabs right away? , witch won't give as great a plant growth result as the one who chose to wait for the mulm and detritus to build up? or wait because its less likely to stress ecosystem? or wait to get a more satisfactory feeling in the joy of minimal input and the joy watching nature work its magic for you in something like a 50/50 partnership?

[@Laganan]

Szkoda, że nie ma polskich napisów 😢

[@xa000c]

KZbin can auto-translate the subs. Try choosing "Settings > Subtitles > Auto-translate" and select "Polish" from there. Worked for me.

[@Laganan]

Thank you ❤ But there is no Polish in the list of language ☹️☹️☹️​@@xa000c

[@jonisolis9645]

What is the difference between Detritus and Mulm? Or are they just different words for the same thing? thanks

[@ubermausse306]

I believe, but i could be mistaken, that detritus is the fish poop and mulm is the decaying plant life... At least that's what makes sense to me lol

[@stevep6317]

Detritus is the solid waste of the animals. Mulm is literally the same material just further broken down into a fine powder-like consistency.

[@jonisolis9645]

@@ubermausse306 Thank you!

[@sims8717]

How does one see mulm sift into tthe sand. Mine seems to cake the top and just stay there. Snails?, shrimp?, corys?

[@philcarlino6942]

Same thing. I'm thinking snails. But my gold barb likes to eat them lol

[@sims8717]

@philcarlino6942 my snails got wiped by a colony of assassins. Once the assassins die down I'll reintroduce them.

[@jacquejecker4435]

Also remember, whatever eats that stuff still has to poop it out again, so it will be further broken down and will more easily work its way, eventually, down under the sand.

[@TharseinXrh]

Same problem for me as well - snails do miracles, shrimps i believe the same but what he says takes a long long looooong time to accur. Corys i believe they take a huge burden taking in and out that sand with whatever is on it while digging , i dont know ... the sure thing is that you need a very strong system to deal with waste material at any present time

[@DashDrones]

0:15 look how cloudy the guppy tank is. It needs a sand cap on that substrate urgently...

[@AkbarZeb-p6f]

I vacuum mine occasionally when it gets too thick & weird. My garden appreciates it more than my fish do. =p

[@aneekogaucha]

Wow youtube now have voice translator no more need to read to understand

[@somjitsengupta5252]

Keeping mulm and detritus in aquarium for years successfully needs water change once every 15 days.

[@FatherFish]

not if it is sifting into the sand capped substrate.

[@somjitsengupta5252]

@FatherFish also its not needed if i keep 6 angels medium size 2 tetra and one red tail black shark? Lots of bio load!!

[@mannyaraujo1]

Your overfeeding

[@MCorrigan]

Who here vacumms fish poop from their sand? Interested to know.

[@mannyaraujo1]

Never

[@MCorrigan]

@mannyaraujo1 not even a light hover over?

[@mannyaraujo1]

@@MCorrigan nope,

[@mannyaraujo1]

@@MCorrigan no

[@MCorrigan]

@@mannyaraujo1 interesting. I tend to do a very light vacuum every now and then, but I'm going to stop doing it.

[@david-le-jardin-libere-terre]

IA en français ? Insupportable !😩

[@fanyoktavia1703]

still hate it, it make the water cloudy n unpleasant to watch

[@DZSabre]

I have never had the water go cloudy with the mulm except when I pull up plants to thin the growth. Only then does the water cloud up. It clears in a couple hours though. maybe your filter is circulating the water to fast? Not sure but that's all I can think of.

[@fanyoktavia1703]

@@DZSabre my corydoras -_-

[@valleymykel-mq7gw]

@@fanyoktavia1703 You can prevent that with more plants and bio-turbulence. Get some trumpet snails and infusoria that can dig. Detritus needs to make its way into the sand rather than just continue to sit on top of it in order to be more effective at being a nutrient medium for plant roots. Broader leaf plants, and a good carpet, will stop the excess detritus from floating around. I have corydoras myself, and what caused the most dirty cloudy water was the filtration with no media flinging around whatever the corydoras were kicking up from the substrate.