Blackwater Riparium for Blue Tetras in the IKEA Aquarium

I've made Blackwater setups on the channel a few times before and I think it's time for another these setups are a lot of fun very indicative of what you'd actually see in nature and the fish love it I'm really excited for this one because I'm doing things much differently than I've shown before let's get to war these black water setups usually include leaves and seed pods which I'll referred to as Botanicals these make it easy to replicate the natural look of forests say the Amazon for example once they're flooded plus these items create awesome textures and details that the fish can hide within I've mostly used small leaves and seed pods for the builds I've done in the past and although I've wanted to use larger items they're typically not as available however inspiration struck a few months ago while I was building a pond at Charlie's house we were pulling materials from all over his property and while doing so I noticed a lot of really cool Botanicals that can make for an incredible design so I asked them if he could hook it up and send me some and sure enough he did I'm really excited to include some of these larger items like the Palm leaves and banana leaves they'll help me create a really great sense of scale and depth I know most people aren't going to get this excited about a dead leaf but isn't that incredible additionally I have a lot of smaller items that I bought separately a few highlights are bail tree pods cariniana pods starkulia pods and what I'm probably most excited about this fatigue route come on how incredible is this piece as you can see all of these will contrast against the larger items this is an important thing to consider because as I've shown in past videos if you have a large item it only looks big if you put a small item next to it and vice versa lastly are a few miscellaneous leaves and twigs anyway I wanted to show this all to start because I need to boil them I like to do this to ensure they're clear of anything that could harm the inhabitants and to quickly waterlog them otherwise they'd immediately float to the top of the tank once it's filled with water so I'll add these onto my trusty Boiling Pot fill it up with water and boil it on medium heat for at least an hour if I would have pre-soaked everything ahead of time to get them waterlogged this would have been a little bit easier then they would have only had to boil for a short period of time now then after letting them boil and coat down I transfer them over to a bucket and fill it up with water I like to do this to ensure the items remain waterlogged before I add them to the tank and to remove any foam created during the boiling process this isn't harmful but it would take away from the appearance of the setup with that addressed we can finally start setting up the tank what I have here is a custom built 29 gallon aquarium I constructed it completely out of glass from Ikea which made it very easy to do I have a complete tutorial on that that I did a few weeks ago which I'll link up in the video description in case you missed it since then I also blacked out the back of the tank with a piece of foam board which helps showcase the Blackwater look now in order to set this up properly an element that I want to include is this piece of cork bark which I'll put in the tank sort of like this I think that putting it in the back of the tank like this adds a lot of interest and it will also allow me to hide the filtration plus leaving the sides exposed will give the fish additional hiding places however I need to Anchor this down because otherwise it would float that's easy enough I drilled a few holes in a piece of sandstone with the masonry bit I drilled holes in the bark as well this all allowed me to Anchor the bark to the stone with zip ties once combined I trimmed off the excess and prepared the tank I put down a piece of egg crate light diffuser to help distribute the weight of the stone so the bottom doesn't crack I got this all anchored in and although it will move around a little bit like this it's not going anywhere before I continue doing Escape though I gotta adjust the filter I decided to go with the Shark Pro internal filter that way it can keep it all contained within the tank and easily hide it behind a cork bark that said it was a little larger than I anticipated and although it does fit I have to modify the bark I marked for it on the bottom here and cut it out with an oscillator you'll see that it fits better now but I have to adjust the filter's return as well I used a forstner bit to make a hole slightly larger than the return all of this makes the pump disappear behind the cork while retaining its function like most other Blackwater aquariums this tool will be planted sparsely below the water I still want to include an aqua soil but because of this I'm gonna do things a little differently what I decided to do was pulverize the aqua soil down to a dust I'll just sprinkle this down on the bottom to create a nutrient-rich layer which will get the plant started this will be more than enough to start But as time goes on I'll add root tabs I'll cap this all off with A fine grain natural colored gravel I personally prefer smaller grains like this but I also really like the color using a darker substrate is probably the best move because it accentuates the Black Water effect we're trying to achieve without standing out as I'm sure you can imagine this is not going to be your average aquarium what I want to include is a lot of terrestrial plants that grow up from behind the bark here which I think will look pretty cool but also help filter the water I considered how I could do this and using various size net Parts seemed like the best solution I can wedge these between the bark and the glass to create a pocket for the plants to ensure they stay put I drilled holes in the bark which I'll use to Anchor them together with zip ties this was a really easy solution to create a hidden area for the plants as usual I've selected terrestrial plants that will do well in a riparian environment including equisadum scarpoyedes fitonia or gironura hydrocodone Lucas cephala moronta lucanera nephrolepis exultata rumex sangunias and syngonium potiphylum before use I'll take them down to the bare Roots the substrate on them now isn't needed and will only dirty the tank a quick rinse gets them ready to go in no time these plants will grow directly in the water a substrate isn't required in fact we're better off not to use one so the plants filter or absorb nutrients from the water itself this will simultaneously feed the plants and provide better living conditions for the fish that said I did use polyester filter fluff in a few of them to help keep the plants situated I got it all planted Above the Rim here and I really like how it turned out that means I can go and add the Botanicals down in the bottom there's really no Rhyme or Reason to this process I generally Place Large items in the back but what I'm primarily doing here is arranging things so that various elements I think look cool are highlighted otherwise you more or less want the Botanicals to look like they naturally fell into the water the result obviously being something like what you'd actually see in nature I'll talk more about some of what I highlighted later but for now I'll get this thing filled as I did I also poured in cup fulls of the water that the Botanicals soaked in that way I could get the water looking fairly dark from the start it will of course get darker in time but this is good enough for now I'll add a few plants down here as well including anubias Nana petite and crypticorania lutea I peppered these throughout to contrast with the Botanicals [Music] after all of that I ended up with something I think looks pretty cool and natural I really enjoy the contrast between the elements above and below the water there's also just something about the cork in the background that really takes the design to the next level in my opinion the arch created by the Palm leaves is the first thing that draws me into the water feature followed by the seed pods and the textures created by the overlapping elements although I really like how it's all come together now I can't wait to see it in a few months there's more I want to do with it especially above the water I want to get that log almost completely covered with moss for example however I could keep this somewhat basic for now because I have to move the tank in just a few days that's also why I'm only going to stock it with a fraction of the fish it's intended for it will be a true Community tank for nano fish from various tanks you've seen before consolidation will make it much easier to move everything around that said I have a group of blue tetras intended for this tank that you haven't seen before who've been in quarantine for months now rounding them up again in a few days should be easy enough so for now I'll just add them foreign magical about a Blackwater tank especially the way it makes the fish pop their colors come through much more vibrantly in a setup like this and it's a sight to be seen plus they tend to act a little more relaxed and differently because of the tannins in the water if you haven't done something like this before and keep fish tanks I highly recommend it it's a lot of fun and something a little different than what you're used to seeing anyway I'm really enjoying this one and can't wait to show you more of it in the future unfortunately I had to keep it somewhat brief given my current circumstance I'm about to move everything over to the new house including this tank so wish me luck with all of that if you want to see more from this riparium and future builds be sure to like And subscribe until next time surface Squad Take Care thank you [Music] foreign [Music]

Channel: SerpaDesign

Views: 397,443

Keywords: riparium, paludarium, aqua terrarium, aquascape, fish tank, blackwater, natural, tetra

Id: QhPgAnEku_o

Length: 10min 54sec (654 seconds)

Published: Sat Oct 08 2022