5 ELEMENTS OF A BALANCED AQUARIUM - FATHER FISH || FOREVER AQUARIUMS

Well, hello. Come right on in. You're in Father Fish. A balanced tank has five elements. Substrate, cat, water, food, and livestock. In order to create a balanced tank, it is critical to start with an empty tank. Because the first thing that goes in the tank must go in the tank first, or it cannot be put in the tank. And that first thing is mud. Now, I'm going to be doing another video shortly on an updated version of mud. I've made a few changes, added a few things, really not taken anything out. But the supplements have changed somewhat. So we'll be getting into that probably in the next video. In any case, starting with mud. Now, in truth, that mud can be anything you want it to be. I very strongly recommend that you go out to a local pond, ditch, stream, lake, and dig up a bucket of mud and put it in the tank. After doing that, it becomes important to cap that mud. You see, the mud contains nutrients. And nutrients need to remain deep in the substrate, essentially in the anaerobic layer. You can't do that unless you cap it. By capping, I mean a layer of sand covering the mud deep enough to prevent the mud from migrating up through the sand into the water column. So the purpose of this sand, you can see here, we've got about three inches of sand above the mud. That three inches of sand prevents the mud from working up through it and entering the water column. Now, why is that important? It's important because you do not want nutrition in the water. You want it under the water. You want it in the substrate. If nutrition is in the water, the first thing it will do is grow algae. It will also potentially become foul. It will have an odor. It will be discolored. It will create a huge growth of floating plants to the detriment of rooted plants. When you put the water in, do not disturb the sand. Because if you do, you're going to punch a hole through it that will release dirt up into the water column. You need to add water carefully so that it does not disturb the sand. Add plants. When you put rooted plants in, you do not need to push them down into the dirt. They'll find their way down into it. Just get them halfway in the sand bed. An inch, inch and a half into the sand bed is more than adequate. Roots grow very quickly. They search out nutrition. It's their function. They'll find food. They'll go deeper and they'll burrow into that deeper substrate. As this tank remains established, something very important happens in the sand bed. It happens very quickly. Starting from the bottom and working up. From the top and working down. Life begins to develop in the sand bed. In the sand substrate. It's microscopic animals. It's various kinds of algaes and bacteria. And as it grows, it sucks water out of the water column into the sand bed. It's looking for nutrients. So it pulls it down in. Now, at the other end, some of these animals will delve down into an anaerobic layer. They'll go down for a short period of time. Feed and when they feel depleted of oxygen, they'll come back up. Into a more aerobic environment. Into the sand bed. Then they'll go back down into the mud. As they're doing this, they're moving that around. They're bringing mud up into the sand bed. Why you need two to three inches? Because the mud is going to migrate up. It'll do so naturally. It'll do so by virtue of the action of the animals living in the sand. Similarly, with the animals living at the top of the sand bed. They're pulling nutrients that are in the water down into that sand bed. Where they can feed on them. So they're creating a current. It's a very slow current, but a very serious and consistent and coherent current. A current that actually moves the nutrients that are precipitating through the water into the sand bed. As they're used up by the microproduct, they sink further and further and further into that sand bed. Until they eventually become part of the substrate. The mud. The anaerobic layer on the bottom. That's how the anaerobic layer replenishes itself. So that it can last year after year after year. In truth, after about a year with pretty good plant growth. Most of the nutrients that are in that mud are pretty well used up. So the system really depends on the precipitating waste matter coming down into the sand bed. Being drawn into it. Being burned up, used up and precipitated further into the mud. Where it begins to break down into its component parts. Such that plants can absorb it and take it up into the stems and leaves. So that's the basic principle. You don't need a lot of water current on the top. There needs to be some. In a heavily planted but sparsely, a tank with sparse fish populations. You don't need really much current at all. I like to use sponge filters. Because they do a good job of moving the water. And they also create their own biological filtration. And help also to reduce the nutrient level that's in the water column. So, by feeding very small amounts. That food is eaten. And then it's eaten again. And then it begins to go into the sand. Where it's eaten again. And again. Where it goes down into the deep substrate. Into the mud. Into the anaerobic layer. Where it's broken down. And taken up by the roots of plants. To return to the water column. Where it is eaten again for the first time. Again for the first time. And eaten again. Each time a fish produces waste. 90% of what it has eaten is released as nutritious food. So it's eaten again. And released. And eaten again. Over and over. And over. Until it gets down into the sand. Where it continues to be eaten. And continues to be broken down. Until there is virtually no nutrition left. And it sinks into the mud. Where the anaerobic bacteria breaks it down into its chemical components. So that it can be taken up by the plants. The cycle. The balance. It happens if the environment allows it to happen. If your environment does not allow for that kind of precipitation. Then you cannot have a balanced aquarium. So you may have one that will go a long period of time. Maybe months. But you won't have an aquarium that will last year after year. Decade after decade. And will be as permanent as any pond that you see in the park. Now, there's also the matter of life and filtration. But I'd rather keep those as separate issues. Because there are tremendous variables involved in deciding what kind of life to use. And what kind of filtration. The system behind me has a sump. It's an overflow tank. That flows down into a base sump. Through a filter bag. With a deep sand bed. And is pumped back up into the system. So it's a standalone system. Make an effort to create a genuinely balanced aquarium. And you will begin to understand the power of that aquarium. To maintain its own health. The health of the fish. The health of the plants. And the ability to be utterly disease free. You will not have sick fish.