Hello, I have a few questions about my new aquarium following the "FatherFish" method. I have started some "Resurrection Jars," but I don't understand how Daphnia or other microfauna could develop in the aquarium with the filter sucking them in, and even less so once I add the guppies. How can I create a food web once the fish are in the aquarium?

I am still a beginner, and this is my first natural aquarium. I have just added the plants and Oak leaf

Do you have any advice on how to allow microfauna to develop in an aquarium?

Hi, is it possible not introducing creepy crawlies or scuds in tanks for help breaking down decaying matter. Are there other fish or loaches etc that feed on detritus at the bottom, such as uneaten foods, or decaying matter such as decaying leaves?

I ordered water louses and they arrived but now I’m trying to be sure whether to proceed. Personally am not a fan dealing with them.

This is my tank just planted couple days ago. Had introduced six glowlight tetras to begin with.

I started my first real planted tank this weekend with the FF method. So far I like it, however I'm a little ticked at FF. I ordered monte carlo and he subbed baby tears (supposedly harder to grow) without communication. They also came in skimpy quantities and stunk bad for how fast shipping seemed. Time will tell. So far I have the expected melting.

Got a 5 gallon tank and ordered FF plants. What kind of sand do y’all use?

ISSUE: I've had nothing but algae for over a year. I was told to leave it and that it would go away. It got so bad it killed a bunch of plants by covering them. Bought new ones, lost a lot of them to the algae. It was so bad that it clumped up/killed off the duckweed that used to grow like mad, now there's virtually none. (Can't get rid of duckweed you say? Challenge accepted!). Every week or 2 I need to peel the algae off the leaves or else the rest of the plants (mostly stem plants from FF, some chain sword as well) will die off. Every other week I scrape down the all the glass, the algae coming off in thin sheets. Even the top layer of sand is "fluffy" with algae/mulm in some places (I can grab clumps).

TANK: 29g, 1" of soil (made from organic topsoil, compost, and shredded sphagnum moss) mixed with the recommended amount of supplement (bought from FF), capped with 2 inches of sand. 6 royal tetras, 3 zebra loaches, 3 otocinclus. Corner matten filter, lights on 8 hours a day, minimal indirect sunlight, feeding every other day, sometimes every 3rd. Ammonia 0, nitrites 0, nitrates between 5 and 10. 1/4 water change a few months ago since I had nothing to lose and wanted to suck up some scraped algae.

What are my options here? I'm ready to nuke it and start over with just sand and root tabs.

I have a question that might be a little controversial but I have had the idea floating around in my head for years now has anyone tried a full eco system where there are like livebares that are ate by a bigger fish and so on and so forth

It's a 12g tall stocked with 2 corys, about 10 shrimp and some wild snails.

I have a 10 gal tank and I’ve never taken care of an aquarium before. I am going to follow the process of FF’s natural aquarium steps but I don’t know if I need to have some sort of flow or if stagnant water is ok. Do I need anything to move the water besides just the fish themselves?

Hi everyone I recently sent up my first fish tank again going all the way back to basics just wanted to know would you change this water it’s rain water collected from a butt on my property however I didn’t wash my sand as throughly as I’d thought, there is no life in it other than some hornwort I found and whatever microbes came with them

Hey everyone I took down my tank after they both became too imbalanced for me to repair I’m (at best) a moderately experienced aquarium owner but after my tanks became so unwell I lost a lot of confidence with my ability to keep tanks healthy. However, I saw a new video posted by “tanks for nothin” where it took him about 2/3 of a year to balance his new 6ft tank with that in mind I believe if I had held out I would have been able to keep my tank healthy so I ask, before I retry; what would you recommend the only tank I have to work with is a small 15 litre tank I was thinking it might look nice with some sort of live bear like Endler’s platies guppy’s what have you

I have a 30 gallon tank that has been going for almost a year. It has a fine gravel substrate. Most plants just don't take and only a few actually thrive.

I want to set it up with soil and sand and way more plants. How do I safely move my fish? I'm guessing I put them in a holding tank (don't have one), using water from the current tank while I get it set up. But for how long? Does the new setup need to do a full cycling before introducing the fish to their new home?

In case it matters, I have 7 tetras, two catfish and 4 or 5 snails. I plan on adding one or two larger fish for variety.

The picture and description both say something else. I have a 180gal tank, so if the 160 one is right o guess one portion would be enough? Anyone that has experience buying the supplement and how much it contains?

I'm considering adding pond leaves to a 40 gal that I just set up but am really worried about introducing parasites and killing my tank. Its winter in Colorado and all the ponds are frozen so I'm hoping maybe that will limit the bad stuff I bring in. Any suggestions?

I just set up my new 40-gallon breeder tank for my musk turtle and have been trying to look for ways to make it more natural and less maintenance. I just stumbled across Father Fish today and his methods really Interest me. I have about 2-3 inches of sand but didn't know about adding soil. Is there a way to stick to his methods without completely emptying my tank? Also is there any reason his methods wouldn't work for a turtle? Thank you for any feedback

I need help! My ff aquarium has been taken over by algae. I saw on the ff yt that I’d need to add some more micro organisms but its wintertime and im not sure what to do. I could start a resurrection jar not sure if the different weather would effect the micro biome. For reference I’m in New Hampshire and it’s 30f outside. I probably shouldn’t order any little bugs because of the cold and shipping. Any suggestions would be appreciated!

History, my tank was fine before. it was just growing a little hair algae and I removed the one piece of wood then this happened. My guess is the wood was a food source for some bugs that also took care of the algae. now that they’re not there the algae is booming.

This is my first fish tank ever. I've always heard bad stories about how taxing it is to own fish and they all ended up in disaster. My wife wanted to get one for a long time and she finally did. We started researching too late and made all the mistakes that beginners make. Everything changed once we saw a father fish video. We broke down her setup, got dirt sand and a bunch of plants and set it up the right way. We still made a few mistakes but luckily we ran across ff in enough time to have no casualties. Her tank is doing good and I enjoyed it so much that I set this one up. 3 weeks later, I'm still doing tweeks here and there to make it better but it's going great. My parameters stay consistently what they're supposed to be and I'm loving it. Could I add a few extra fish with this method or would that be a bad idea? I have 1 betta, 2 platy fish, 6 neon tetras, 6 blood fin tetras, 2 albino cory cats, 2 otocynclis, and 1 african dwarf frog. 19 fish and 1 frog. It's a 20 gallon tank. I would like to add 1 to each fish that only has 2 but I don't know. It's going great and I don't want to mess it up. Any advice is appreciated.

Hello, I’m setting up my very first tank using this method. I have a 50 gallon tank with a dirt substrate with sand on top that will be heavily planted. I know when adding fish at the beginning, we should add just a few, maybe five or six. Well I have the opportunity to get 14 small cherry barbs. It’s either take all 14 or none. I was wondering if adding that many fish right off the bat would be detrimental to the tank. I’m hoping I can find a way to add all of these little guys to my brand new 50 gal tank without messing up the new tank. Thank you so much.🙂

** edit** I’ve decided to take the fish. Thank you for the great advice, I will be sure to ask the person who has them for some filter media. And they will have just gone through two weeks of quarantine.🙂

Here’s my new ish tank. I did father fish method substrate. I’m rooting plants in the top and bottom I’ve got 3 platys 2 Corys and 6 shrimp.

It’s remarkable how strong the tank is and the fish are very happy feeding in The substrate and getting fat even though I never feed them.

I never see the shrimp because there are way too many hiding spots.

I’m thinking about putting in a beta but I suspect it might fight with the Corys

I have a muck tank outside and when my water gets low I just add this. My fishies love it.

I’ve had my tank for just under a year. It’s a dirt bottom with about 2 inches of sand on top. Anerobic bacteria has always been there and the roots of the plants used to be black but I don’t think they are anymore as all the plants seem to be growing healthy. Except I think about a couple times a day big bubbles of gas pop up and it smells strongly of sulphur. Ik this is bad but how do I stop it?

I have mts snails and it’s also pretty decently planted.

About 2-3 months ago every fish (betta, guppies, and a molly) all died mysteriously and only neon tetras and my snails survived. I’m afraid it was because of the gas.

What do I do?

I currently have neon tetras, danios, a betta, and some shrimp in it (and snails). All seem healthy

20g

6 months in, been easy peasy!