Complete Aquascaping Beginners Guide - Learn ALL The Basics!

what is aquascaping that is a question i get asked  a lot and the best short answer i can give you is   aquascaping is creating a  natural underwater layout   the biggest influence in aquascaping came from  the legendary mr takashi amano with his company   aqua design amano he has made a huge impact on  the aquarium hobby in this complete aquascaping   beginner's guide i'll do my best to set you up for  success by showing you the basics of aquascaping most aquascapers like to use rimless open-top  aquariums made from extra clear glass with minimal   clear silicone and this is for a number of reasons  the clear glass and minimal silicone reduce   any distractions when viewing the aquarium an open  top tank also provides the opportunity to look   into the aquascape from above and an open aquarium  also makes it easier to do regular maintenance   and most important an open aquarium gives us the  opportunity to let hardscape and plants come out   of the aquarium so it provides another dimension  of course you can use any type of aquarium you   like and i suggest you choose something that  suits your home interior and suits your budget   and if you are new to the hobby i also recommend  to start with a smaller size aquarium an aquarium   around 45 to 60 liters or 15 to 20 gallons  is great for beginners and easy to maintain   to start building an aquascape we first need  a substrate now you can use gravel or sand but   if you want to achieve great results and the best  possible plant growth i recommend to use aquasoil   it is a little bit more expensive  but it has a lot of benefits   soil is an active substrate that contains a lot of  nutrients and it slowly releases these nutrients   to feed the plant roots soil will also make the  water slightly more acidic as it lowers the ph   this is great as most aquatic  plants prefer softer water   another great benefit of soil is that it has  something that's called a high cation exchange   capacity now you can forget about that but just  remember that soil can soak up nutrients from   the water column lock that into the substrate  and slowly release it to feed the plant roots   aquasoil is also very beginner friendly since it  is a complete substrate and doesn't require you   to add anything else of course there are a lot  of additives on the market but you really don't   need these as a beginner it also does not need to  be washed so you can pour it straight into your   aquarium and start scaping one of the main goals  with aquascaping is to create a sense of depth   so we want to try to make the aquarium  look bigger and deeper than it actually is   and one way we can achieve that is by creating  a slope with our soil so when you are placing   the soil into the aquarium we want to have a  thin layer in the front and a thicker layer in   the back this will really help to create more  depth as we start making our hardscape layout to make our layout we like to use rocks and or  wood we also refer to this as hardscape material   it's important to know the characteristics of your  chosen hardscape material before you purchase it   as some rocks might leak calcium into the water  and some types of wood might leak tannins or   they may float to prevent the wood from floating  and potentially destroying your hardscape layout   you can either pre-soak it for a couple of  weeks beforehand you can weigh it down with   some rocks or what i like to do is just glue  my rocks and wood together to form a solid   structure that also does not float the hardscape  really is the main structure of our aquascape   so it's important to spend some time on creating  a beautiful hardscape i usually take a couple days   to get a desired hardscape layout a lot of  beginners struggled to create a nice looking   heartscape that is completely normal nobody won  the iaplc contest with their first hardscape   and just like anything else the more you practice  the better you will become at it if you want to   practice making hardscapes or aquascapes i suggest  you take a look at the program scape-it.io here   you can basically make a virtual aquascape so  it's a great way to get some extra training now let's talk about plants because there  are hundreds if not thousands of different   aquatic plants in all different shapes and  sizes and some grow fast and some grow very   very slowly some grow short and some grow  long and some prefer a lot of light and some   prefer shadow so before buying your plants it's  good to do some research on their requirements   if they would suit the idea for the kind of  scape that you have in mind you can find a lot of   information on websites like dennerleplants.com  or tropica.com traditionally plants are grown   above water in a nursery these plants are more  robust and can withstand shipping a lot better   because they have been grown above water these  plants may start to look a little different after   a few days in your aquarium when they transition  to their submersed or underwater form to clean   them simply take them out of their pot remove the  rock wool and divide them into portions now these   days we see more and more in vitro plants and  these in vitro plants are grown in a laboratory   under sterile conditions these plants are free  from algae snails and pesticides now even though   these invitro pots might look very small and  more expensive compared to regular potted plants   they actually contain a higher quantity of plants  and in my opinion in vitro plants also adapts   faster to the conditions in our aquascape now  a few tips for planting to plant your aquascape   i recommend to use special aquascaping tweezers  these will make your life a lot easier i prefer   to plant in a wet substrate i find that in  a wet substrate when i release the tweezers   the plants tend to stick better i never really  plant the aquascape when it's full with water   this might work when you're using heavy gravel  or sand but aquasoil is a very light substrate   and especially in the beginning it traps a lot of  air bubbles so when you start planting underwater   you're just going to end up with a bunch  of plants that just keep floating back up   when setting up a new aquascape i really  recommend you to plant densely from the beginning   a new setup can easily get into trouble with  algae and more plants will make this startup   easier when i started aquascaping i  always tried to save money on plants   so i would just buy one pot of each type of  plant because i thought they would grow and   multiply over time anyway and this just gave  me a lot of unnecessary problems with algae   for the plants to grow healthy and colorful we  need light now this is a topic that can easily get   complicated because it raises so many questions  therefore i'm going to keep this simple by   suggesting you to use a led light which has white  red green and blue leds and that is dimmable as   well so you can increase or decrease the intensity  when needed i also like to suggest that you keep   your lights on daily for an average of 8 hours  and do this with a timer so you have a consistent   photo period every day of every week and it does  not really matter when during the day you have   your photo period if you are away from home during  the day and you want to enjoy your aquascape as   much as possible in evening then just set your  photo period from 2 pm till 10 pm for example carbon dioxide is one of the most important  nutrients for aquatic plants and regular tap   water only contains a small amount of co2 which  is not enough for most plants therefore a lot of   plants used in aquascaping require co2 injection  a professional CO2 kit for aquariums consists of   a pressurized cylinder a regulator with a solenoid  valve and a diffuser besides that it's also good   to have a drop checker in your aquarium this will  tell you if you are injecting enough co2 or not   the basic rule for co2 is that it comes on an  hour before your lights turn on and turns off   an hour before your lights turns off as well  and my advice is to invest in a professional   co2 kit from the beginning this will set you  on to a great start with the aquascaping hobby   now setting up a co2 system can  be quite scary and overwhelming   so check out my complete co2 setup guide if  you want to get more familiar on this topic   professional co2 systems are quite expensive and  if you are on a low budget then diy co2 can be a   good option i suggest you check out some of  my DIY CO2 videos that i have on my channel to maintain good water quality in our aquascape  we need to use a filter there are a lot of   different types of filters on the market  so let's go over a few of the popular ones   starting with internal filters even though i  have a few aquascapes with internal filters   this would not be my first option as they can  take up a lot of space inside the aquarium and   are not very stylish so they need to be covered  by either hardscape or plants other than that   internal filters are usually quite cheap so  they're a good option if you're on a budget   than next hang on the back filters these are  becoming more and more popular and are a good   option for small cube aquariums i wouldn't use  them on larger aquariums as they usually don't   provide enough flow now my favorite option  would be external canister filters these are   great because they don't take up any space inside  the aquarium they have a lot of room for filter   media and you can combine them with glass lily  pipes which always look very good in an aquarium   when choosing a filter the most important thing  is the flow rate or the turnover rate especially   in a high-tech setup with a lot of light and co2  injection we need to have enough flow so i always   recommend to look for a filter that has a flow  rate of 10 times the volume of the aquarium now to   make the most of our aquascape we need to perform  regular maintenance and in general i would say   that there are three types of maintenance we have  the daily maintenance this consists of feeding our   fish and feeding our plants with liquid fertilizer  and this really shouldn't take more than 5 minutes   then the weekly maintenance this consists of a 50  % water change so taking out old water and topping   it up with fresh water this is important to remove  any excess nutrients or excess waste organics   during the weekly maintenance i also  like to clean the glass of the aquarium   then lastly we have the monthly maintenance and  this is usually a bit of a longer maintenance   session where we trim the plants we  remove any algae we clean the glass   and we also clean our glass  lily pipes and our diffusers   and the key to any successful aquascape  is to really enjoy these maintenance sessions in order for our plants to grow lush and beautiful  we need to provide them with enough nutrients and   as i said earlier our chosen soil substrate will  provide a lot of nutrients to the plant roots but   the nutrients from the soil is usually not enough  we need to dose a liquid fertilizer as well and   we can divide these in macro and micronutrients  so you can buy all these nutrients separately   but i prefer to keep it simple with one bottle  that has everything in there that the plants need   especially if you are using  aqua soil as a substrate the   first few weeks the soil will leak a  lot of nutrients in the water column   and these nutrients are plenty enough or even too  much for our plants so because of that i usually   don't start dosing liquid fertilizers until  the third or the fourth week of a new aquascape   because too many nutrients in the water  can potentially lead to algae issues the last thing i would like to talk about is the  early stages of a new setup aquascape because it   can take up to 3 months before aquascape is fully  established and matured try to see those first few   months as a testing phase where you're testing  if you're injecting enough co2 or you're dosing   enough fertilizers and in these three months  we will probably get some algae issues so it's   important that we stay on top of the maintenance  and identify any potential algae problems there's   a whole playlist on my channel with videos that  tackle almost every type of algae and i also have   a video with 13 tips to help you establish your  new aquascape so do check out those videos as well aquascaping is an amazing hobby which has  brought me a lot of joy over the years   creating a slice of nature in your home and  seeing it develop over time is beautiful to watch   and extremely relaxing as well i hope this video  will help you get a great start into aquascaping   as always if you have any  questions comment down below   thank you for watching take care  and i'll see you in the next video you

Channel: MJ Aquascaping

Views: 308,612

Rating: 4.952652 out of 5

Keywords: Complete aquascaping beginners guide, aquascaping for beginners, nano aquascape setup, nano aquascape tutorial, guide to aquascaping, nano aquarium aquascaping, nano aquascape, aquascaping nano tank, how to aquascape, aquascaping tutorial, nano aquascaping, planted nano tank, nano aquarium, nano hardscape, planted aquarium, step by step aquascaping tutorial, beginners guide to aquascaping

Id: vIApulWcVE8

Length: 13min 56sec (836 seconds)

Published: Tue Mar 16 2021