Should we add rocks or sand on the
bottom of our fish tank? This is what
we're going to see together in this
video.
[Music]
I just received a question from
Julian, who is a member of the Private
Aquaponics Club and he asked me if on
the bottom of the fish tank you could put
some gravel or sand or rocks to make
it more natural and to have the fish to
feel more comfortable and why not to
hide. So to respond to this question, I
would like to go back to my video, a video
that I made a few days ago, a few weeks ago, that was about a shelter. Should we add a
shelter in our fish tank? And my response
to you was yes. It's good to have a
shelter in the fish tank, depending on
the species of fish you are growing. If
you are growing fish that are a bit shy
that are not very domesticated, it's
always a good idea to put a shelter
because it helps them to hide and to
feel more relaxed, more comfortable, and
to decrease the level of stress that is
present in the fish tank, and basically
that is going to affect the fish. So for
the surface, right, that you're going to
put in the fish tank that's the same
question and then the same thing I would say. You can add some but the problem is how
are you going to clean the fish tank? So
you know, depending on the quantity of
fish you have, the quantity of food 
you give them, you may have some
sedimentation which means particles of
organic matter that are going to fall
down on the bottom of the fish tank. If
you have a fish tank that is empty, when
the fish are swimming, they move the
particles around. They move the particles
in the water and eventually all those
particles will finish in the
the water pump. They will be sucked by
the water pump. If the fish tank has got
plenty of rocks, between the rocks, there
are spaces and this organic matter is
going to fall down in the space
between the rocks. It's going to fall
down on the bottom of the tank and then
it's never going to move again. So the
organic matter is going to build up on the bottom of the fish
tank and unfortunately, it's going to
finish in mud, and it's going to turn in
anaerobic conditions which means without any oxygen. There you're going to have
fermentation. So some bacteria are going
to be present but bacteria that we
don't necessarily want in aquaponics.
It can be an opportunity for disease to
develop. That's why it's very tricky in
one way. Yes, we would like to have
gravel because it looks good and that's
good for the fish. They are -- it's closer to
what they will find in their normal
environment, depending on the fish,
obviously. Some fish will will be happy
in the mud, but generally speaking, you
know, it would be good to have something
that is similar to their natural
environment.
But on the other way, we don't want to
develop a fermentation on the bottom of
the fish tank because it can be
critical for for the fish. It can be a
source of disease, and yeah, it may be
something that we don't really want. We
try to keep the fish tank quite clean.
So my recommendation will be to not add
any gravel or any sand, and if you do,
just a very, very thin layer that you can
clean but not something that is thick.
Not 10 centimeters where basically, it's
going to create lots of space in between
the rocks and all the organic matter is 
going to fall down. It's going to be
completely anaerobic. It's going to smell.
That's not what you want. So that's my
recommendation is to avoid those types of things but to put a shelter so it can be
a pipe. It can be roots. It can be some pieces of wood, anything in the tank that is
going to allow the fish to hide but no
gravel, no sand, no media or substrate on
the bottom of the fish tank. I hope I
responded to your question, Julian.
And I hope it's going to help a few of
you who watch this video. If you want to
start aquaponics,  I recommend you to
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