Substrate-Free Aquarium

Substrate-Free Aquarium

I have many great things to say, and I said before ;) about sustainable self-feeding aquariums as this one.

Healthy aquarium without water changes that I can leave without feeding fish for many long weeks.

Is it possible to make it without any substrate at all?

November 2024.

I disassembled the aquarium in order for setting it up without substrate.

Let's cover the bottom of this tank with some plastic mesh.

I am using mesh here instead of gravel for anchoring plants.

Let's cut the plastic mesh on pieces.

It should be easier to remove or replace later small pieces with plants if needed.

The mesh starts moving around when I add water...

Let's reuse lava rocks from the previous setup for keeping pieces of the mesh in the places.

I leave a lot of empty space between lava rocks.

And I put slow growing Subwassertang seaweed on top of the mesh.

It would take months for Subwassertang to get attached to the mesh and spread around filling up the empty space.

Let's add fast growing Hornwort and Guppy grass.

I am reusing about 2/3 of water from the old aquarium.

It was about coupe years old aquarium without water changes.

I also reuse all plants and mosses and everything else, but gravel.

I want to cover the bottom with layer of slow growing plants for small critters to hide from fish.

The fast growing plants will fill up the middle and the top part of the tank.

I like to keep Marimo balls floating in the middle part.

That is how my substrate-fee aquarium looks like after the first night without fish.

Now I am going to add fish.

This is a great opportunity for me to check how a colony of Least Killifish will do in this 29 gallon large aquarium comparing to the small cube tank.

Fish start exploring every corner of the aquarium right away.

This is a very specious aquarium for 3 dozens Least Killifish :)

I have to stand close to the aquarium to see tiny Least Killifish.

I populate all my aquariums with scuds, seed shrimp and snails - they all come with plants that I already placed in the aquarium.

Let's add duckweed with more scuds.

Watch for scuds dashing down as I put duckweed in the tank.

There is a lot of adult scuds and many more speckle sized babies that nearly impossible to count :)

Scuds are the most reliable live food to grow for fish right in the aquarium.

Basically, scuds and plants are what make my aquariums self-feeding when I am on vacations.

The plastic mesh and carpeting plants give scuds some protection from fish.

The aquarium is all set and looks good... for now.

I feed my fish different foods every other day.

Least Killifish loves to eat Grindal worms.

Fish can easily pick up Grindal worms on the open space feeding spot I made for them.

Small Least Killifish can swim through the mesh to pick the food.

I see some snails also get under the mesh.

So here I have the substrate-free aquarium with mesh.

And also I setup a smaller substrate-free aquarium without mesh to compare it with.

You can see the difference right away.

The mesh very efficiently hides all the poop and other detritus.

And I still keep many years old cube aquarium populated now with Endlers.

I do not change water in all my aquariums at all.

The flat rock serving as feeding spot surrounded by gravel remains clean of any detritus in this tank.

I love this setup with medium sized gravel!

And here we have about 6 months old substrate-free aquarium with mesh.

I use this aquarium for water evaporation experiments too ;)

The feeding spot also remains clean from detritus.

The other parts of the mesh already get covered by plants pretty well masking the detritus.

And here you can see ugly bottom of substrate-free aquarium without mesh.

I have to put mesh or gravel in this tank.

So again, I prefer to use medium sized gravel in all my aquariums like this one.

No water changes and basically no maintenance.

Substrate-free aquarium with mesh and plants covering the bottom also has been stable and it looks good.

Here you can see the same about one year old substrate-free aquarium with mesh.

I already removed some of the plants from the bottom to make space for my new experiments with mesh ;)

I will talk about it in another video.

Most importantly - the mesh works great for making substrate-free aquariums.

Have fun and happy aquariums :)