Aquascape Tutorial: CRYSTAL RED SHRIMP Nano Cube (How To: Planted Aquarium Step By Step Setup)

[Music] what's going on guys welcome back to another aquascape tutorial behind me is a big racking system you can probably see most of it yeah you can on this side here we've got all my shrimp tanks well i've got two sets of shrimp at the moment but one of the first shrimp i got and my absolute favorite so far anyway is the crystal red shrimp and today we're going to set up an aquascape for them so here are the crystal red shrimp you can't see you know all of them but there's 20 in there and you can see that the escape isn't great i just put some plants in i wanted to get the sort of the bacteria just growing all in the tank and get that sponge filter at the battle cycled so they've been in there for several weeks now it's doing really good but we can do something better than this can't we i still want to have quite an open sort of look to it but i also want it a little bit more sort of controlled and designed than what we've got it doesn't look bad it looks nice doesn't it but i can do better than that now in a couple of vlogs back i did say i was just going to keep them all just as they are and then just concentrate on the shrimp and not worry about the skate but i can't do it i just can't do it i can i when you know you can do better at something i think that you should always try to do that and that's what we're going to do nothing complicated just a nice simple aquascape that shows off the shrimp one important thing to remember though is that crystal reds or any shrimp to be honest they don't like big parameter swings in their water so what i want to do take the filter out drain out most of the water catch the shrimp put them all into a bucket together and when i fill the tank back up after i finished escape 80 of it will be the same water it'll have the same filter and then a little top up with some clean 20 water and you know there you go that's gonna be absolutely almost the same as as it is now but just with a different you know escape click subscribe okay so that's all the shrimp out now there's no fish in this tank but look you can see all the water fleas popping around and that's probably because there is no fish in this tank they normally would eat those but that just goes to show how good the water quality is because you know you tend to only get that amount of water fleas in healthy water or cycled water at least i don't know i just think it's a good sign to have more foreign on your tank all right maybe i just made that up i don't know but let me know in the comments section if you know if that's true or not water fleas tend to mean that the water quality is good i swear i read that somewhere so the shrimp are down here in the bucket and then in this one's just some more water but they'll stay in there for the time being i've kept that blix of japonica in there because i'm going to be using that in the next cape as well the rest of the plants have gone whoa that's really bright the rest of the plants have gone into this one one of those tanks so just drink drain the rest of the water i also want to save all of that aquasol as well because that'll be perfect in the next setup basically recycling everything we can because it's just better for the shrimp that way [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] so we're all set up guys i'm ready to start escaping now this light is not staying on now just borrowed it you know for the purposes of demonstration i'll leave a link to that one if you are interested it's the same as the one i've got here on my ember tetra tank so it does give a really nice color and sort of strength not too much not too little it's low budget so it does the job really well for my kind of tanks and this one is the strip light 910 plead from opon solutions really nice light it does the job again you're not going to get fantastic color renditions it's not you know full spectrum red green and blue leds it's just white leds but for what we want and for what i like doing it works a treat [Music] [Music] now when i'm setting up an aquascape i like to put some like biological filtration as well under the substrate now that's even more important in this aquarium because it hasn't got like a big hang on the back filter or a canister filter it's just gonna be having these little sponges that we've got so any more surface area for biological filtration is just better bacteria can colonize it it's awesome so i like to use a layer of crushed lava rock [Music] there we go a nice thick layer there well not too thick but it's a that's lava rock crushed lava rock it's really porous the water can sort of flow through it and bacteria will colonize this layer as well as every other layer as well but you know lots more in this layer because of that surface area now on top of that we want to put some nutrition so in here's just some like nutrition capsules you can get on the internet loads of brands available best thing to do though is to spit them open and pour them over the surface for this size tank i'm going to use about five [Music] okay so weed now on top of that net what was that anyway on top of that next is the aquasaur that we pulled out of this tank and we're going to reuse it again because it's just going to be really good for the tank and the shrimp [Music] so although that is a nice layer that isn't quite enough to plant into you could try but stuff will keep trying to uproot so i've got some more aquasore down here it's basically the fine graded aquasaur from tropica really good from the shrimp for the shrimp sorry and we can just pour a load more on top i probably i want to bank it up at the back more look if i come low you can see here there's not much of an angle going on and you get much better results if you get a slanted angle so like more like up like that you know what i mean and then we can just put that fresh stuff on top and it'll be planted into it so easy then [Music] so [Music] there we go there's our angle look you can see from the side there much much more depth now so you might be thinking where is the sponge filter going to go if you've got that much height at the back md well i've come up the solution so here is the sponge filter in question i've just put a little sucker on it and then i can just stick it to the side like that just underneath the water surface and it will be better than that when i've done it but yeah look right off the bottom and it doesn't really impact on any view we can have all our plants almost all the way up to it so now that's done i want to start you know planning our hardscape now i'm fortunate enough to be able to have this cool section over here which has got tons of hardscape from now it's just a small tank remember isn't it it's just little so we don't want to start chucking in tons of different different elements you can do but not for shrimp shrimp you want to be able to see them want to see how well they're doing numbers if they're multiplying down off whatever so for that i'm going to do an irigumi escape which is actually just rock only now the rocks i've got to choose from i originally i was thinking about something like using this sort of rounded rocks but then i remembered i had this elderly stone now i picked this up from aquarium gardens all of my hardscape by the way is from chrome gardens they provided me with everything that we need go and have a look it's an awesome shop it's got loads and loads to choose from but this elderly stone look [Music] look at it it just looks aged straight away so i'm gonna try and come up with something in there now remember if when you're using stones try and use odd numbers because even numbers look silly so if i put four stones in there it doesn't really work but if i do five i can do three at the back two at the front different angles anyway just get on with it this might take a while [Music] well i thought it was going to take a while but it didn't so there we go just stick it in looks good looks like a pile of rocks just falling on the floor and that's exactly the look i want some people might be like oh the uh the strata lines are going in a different way to i don't care about that i'm not worried if this is not that sort of escaping channel this is realistic stuff that you guys can do let's get it in the tank like that that looks cool so you notice i've separated this small one at the front from the back though so that just gives a little bit more interest don't just put it in in one neat spot you've got angles one's going that way one's going that way a little one at the front and then the monolithic sort of one at the back and then the plants can be everywhere else but i want to keep the planting really simple and i want to go for just like a hair grass carpet because the crystal red shrimp are really going to stand out on that green carpet aren't they the whites the reds are that look great but first of all before we get that planting done i need to prepare the hair grass so we are over by the md sink area that's when you know business is about to go down here is the hair grass it's just in these little pots you just peel the lid off pull the liquid out and split them up into little tufts and then you can plant the tufts let me show you [Music] so [Music] that's all that hair grass prepared so you see those four whoa my discus are going nuts guys you're right oh by the way this is my other studio if i haven't shown you that already so there's lots going on in here lots of other tanks if you're interested in any of these take a look at some of my other videos and you and you'll see them that they've all been done quite recently actually because i've only been in this studio for a few months now look at this beauty it's doing well no co2 on any of my tanks by the way guys you don't have to have co2 it's better if you can but you don't have to look at these beauties hello hello stunners anyway sorry back to the back to the job at hand so that's four parts of hair grass probably a little bit overkill for the size of chrome we've got but it's always better to have more plants than you need and that's cost me what 20 pound or 25 to get a tank looking awesome i think that's a good deal really with the amount of plants that i've got there that's gonna cover most of the surface but i also want another type of hair grass one second follow me ah here we go look down here so it i've got this one as well this is a much taller version so the other one in there is the short dwarf version this is eleocharis accelaris whatever the taller version of the other plant so we can have one sort of area that's just got these tufts coming up and i'm thinking they'll look really good in you know just in this sort of middle gap here or you know surrounding this big stone and then we can have all the smaller ones all around it and then that nice bit of blix of japonica that i've got in in the bucket with the crystal reds that one can go sort of as a centerpiece if you like maybe this area here you know the main focal point plants you've got the main focal point plant well that's hard to say and the main focal point rocks and then just the hair grass are it's going to look great in it [Music] [Music] oh yeah that's looking great isn't it i think so anyway i really like that sort of central piece of uh flex of japonica that's just really popping and it's gonna really come into its own it'll actually grow quite big and sort of burst if you like the background eleacharis will grow much taller and cover the whole area eventually and the the nice hair grass we've got in the foreground will actually stay this size which is nice it will grow a little bit but not too much but it will go horizontal and just cover the whole area so that should look great with all the shrimp sat on top of it but that said i've actually got another plant one of my other tanks that will add some really good detail to this tank okay so it's not this one but this one here is my little mini pond that i made oh good two to three months ago now it's one of the first ones i made in the studio other than the big asian aquarium that you can see there but look the plant i'm talking about is hydrocarbon japan this stuff here it's like little mini clovers and it just looks so so nice it's growing a bit too much in this area that was the plan but obviously not to start covering the intake and everything like that so i'm gonna hack it back a little bit steal some of it put it in that new click tank [Music] there we go look how cute is that all looking especially with those little bits of detail coming from the hydro cotta japan yeah really nice addition there but there's one thing still missing from this tank new setups which technically this is going to be a new set it's not but it is if you like because all the plants are not new and only just gone underwater well the uh eleakaris has anyway but i think it needs some stem plants so i'm going to put a nice big bunch of pearl weed in the back pull weed grows fast it pulls nutrients from the water column it's something we can maybe take out later but for now i think in that back corner section there it'll look really good just like a nice sort of mounding of it [Music] so that looks a bit funky at the moment it's hard to tell but we'll fill it up with water see how it sits and we can play around with it add more you know get like a nice triangle composition going on we just see once it's filled up with water [Music] so we're filled up and the top's clear it's a little bit misty in the water because obviously it's only just been filled up it's gonna be but let's get our filter fitted and that should clear in no time at all [Music] okay so we're clear now i'm the most impatient guy ever so i stuck in this little filter with a load of filter floss rammed into it to reduce the flow so it didn't blow everything everywhere because you can't you can't actually like adjust it but it's done the trick in no time at all really clear ordinarily i would have just done like a 50 water change but i can't do that on this one because i need to keep the water parameters the same now that they are it's brilliant i can put the shrimp in it's not in its place but for the purposes of demonstration i'll do it all here as part of the video maybe put it up there at the end with with the whole lot but anyway you don't care or need to know about that let's get the shrimp in oh you may be wondering guys why i haven't put any red plants in at all and that's because the crystal reds are obviously red and white i don't want any red plants to distract from the beauty of the shrimp themselves [Music] boom straight away they're in they're getting to work they're happy there's that monster one look at that the goliath the behemoth the godzilla of the shrimp world look at this look at her there's a girl by the way you can see by that sort of undercarriage being undercut awesome look how good they look they're popping they're really popping exactly what i wanted to see the reds looking really good against the green and the black oh from a distance look loads of them so in total i think i've got about 20 possibly a few more i'm not entirely sure i can't remember but i asked for 20 but i think they just sort of scooped them up and chucked them in for me they normally do look how good that rock looks as well that elder stone that's from remember aquarium gardens you get it there this looks so good looks like an instantly aged like that shot there look there you go let me cut out the soil so it's just like that that looks like something that's been sort of growing for years and years didn't it ah loving it it looks so good it's quite a good little angle as well double trouble oh no i've just realized something i've not left a space for that cute little feeding bowl i think i can squeeze it in there maybe just move some of those yeah hang on [Music] yeah hey there we go look fits in there nicely and i don't think it spoils the viewer down here you can't even see it at all just about see it there but that's okay you need a nice little effort to get their food they'll know it's there it'll be easy to clean up because i can use a uh what are they called turkey baster just to go in and take out any that they haven't eaten always best to do that with your shrimp by the way because you don't want to leave foul food in there to be honest they'll only eat what they want and then they'll just leave it anyway so you'll know if you're over feeding the tank or not but now i've got to move it back up there so why didn't i just move up there in the first place oh well [Music] [Music] [Music] my [Music] so the shrimp are doing great but i think we want to utilize the little feeding tray that i've got oh this guy's going to need to get out there going to put some food in for him and just watch him go nuts in a time lapse i love looking at that so i'm going to be feeding the shrimp the stuff from denali that i picked up shrimp king five in one it seems to have everything in it it's got snow pops leaf mix complete protein and mineral so we've got to put it in the tube let it float down into tray and then we can watch these little monsters eat [Music] [Music] well they all seem to be enjoying that which is really awesome now look there's already been a malt into the tank i just saw these guys munching on it that's really important to leave the mulch which is obviously what pops off the skin you leave those in the tank because they'll consume them and i'll just give them more sort of calcium which is what they need to grow their shells again and continue to cycle oh hello hello come back don't be afraid that's my killifish in there it's the male one he uh he came to say hello and then he went back but there's a full video on the killer fish by the way guys if you just go and have a look at my video list but the tank looks great and we're off to a flying start there is quite a lot of food in that tray so any of that uneaten food i'll just siphon back out and oh look look right at the back there in the background you can see there is betty the beast the biggest shrimp the whole tank my favorite now obviously because you've got to have a favor haven't you allowed a favorite they're my children i can't have a favorite but i do have a favorite oh no so there we go guys the first properly escaped tank in the shrimp rack if you've enjoyed this video don't forget hit the like to subscribe and all that stuff and i'll see you on the next one [Music] you

Channel: MD Fish Tanks

Views: 652,278

Keywords: MD Fish Tanks, MD Fish tanks vlog, MD, aquarium, planted tank, aquascaping, fish tank, nano fish tank, shrimp, crystal red shrimp, cube aquarium, nano aquarium, setup, planted tank setup, aquarium setup, md fish tanks vlog, planted aquarium, planted fish tank, aquascape, aquascape tutorial, aquascaping tutorial, fish, aquarium fish tank, how to planted aquarium, aquarium tutorial, aquascape setup, aquascape how to, planted tank tutorial, fun, fish tank tutorial, fish tank how to

Id: ixfx8wsqbQk

Length: 21min 0sec (1260 seconds)

Published: Sat Nov 07 2020