I've been collecting sailboats
like these since I was young. I looked at them the other
day which got me thinking. Maybe I should do a sailboat aquascape? Now we've all had a tank with one
of those tacky plastic ones in it, but that's not what I'm talking about. I'm more so referring to something like this. The only thing though is we can't
really put this into the tank. I have no idea what it's made out of. It's probably not safe for fish. So, I think it makes sense to
take matters into our own hands. That way I can ensure the materials
are safe to use, like this oak wood. Oak is a hardwood, that if cured
properly, is fine to put in a tank. It's also readily available,
so that's what I went with. I got the Cutty Sark here and I'm
going to use it as my inspiration. I'm thinking of it in terms of halves and what I'll do is translate
that over to these boards. I took it to the scroll saw
and cut out a length of board. After that, I drew on a rough
shape for the boat's half. I cut that out on the scroll saw as well. Once I was done with that, I put it on the
board from earlier and traced on the shape. I cut this out like before. Then, I went back and made a few
additional cuts on both halves. If you take a close look at this boat here, you'll see that there's a thin
board that runs the length of it. Now, I could carve this into those ones I just
cut out, but that would be a waste of time. It would actually be a lot easier to
sandwich a thinner board in between these. So that's what I'll do. I placed one of the halves on the
thin board and drew out a rough shape. I cut it out like before. So I've got my two halves here that I cut
out earlier they're still pretty rough, but they sandwich right around this thin piece and as you can see it really does
already sort of look like a boat. I've got all the pieces clamped together here. Everything's still really rough, so I'm going to
take it to the belt sander and even things out. I started by sanding the three together. That way, I could get the
proper shape on the back here. Kind of like this. From there, I took them apart
and sanded them individually. This is when I really started getting
the right shape on everything. It took a little while, but I think
the results speak for themselves. It's really starting to look like about now. I've got the pieces all sanded
down and looking much better. I'll add more detail later but for now, I'm
going to glue them together with some super glue. As you may already know, cyanoacrylate
super glue is fine to use in a fish tank. That's why I decided to use it as my adhesive. I applied glue to the appropriate
surfaces and clamped the pieces together. I let it sit for a little while and took
care of inconsistencies on the belt sander. And here it is now. I really like how it turned out,
but there's more work to be done. This next step is going to be the hardest, but before I could actually do
it, I got to set this up in a jig. All right so I've got the jig set up. What it is, is just some 2x4s secured together
with screws and then, locked onto my workbench. I don't want anything moving around so I
need to make sure that it's sturdy here and I also secured the boat
from underneath with screws. What I'm going to do is cut out all
of this middle area with my router. Now you'll notice that I also
have a line on the jig itself and I'm just going to kind of use that as a guide
to make sure that I don't cut past this line. I only have one boat and I'm
not trying to make it again. So I took my time and was very
careful during this process. I just kept going around and around and
slowly cleared out the center of this. Sure, it's not perfect, there's a little
hole in the back here and inconsistencies, but that's all right. It doesn't need to be perfect for this build. At this point, I'm ready to start adding all of
the detail work and I'm really excited for that. However, I got my other boat here for
reference instead of the Cutty Sark because it's a little less
detailed and easier to follow. To start I drew a line along the top. I carved this out with my
Dremel to create a nice detail. For my boat, I think I'll
just make a single cabin. I glued a few small boards together
to create the main structure. I went and drilled a few holes
on each side to create windows. I glued this to the boat. To add the masts was quite simple. I drilled a few holes in the boat. I glued dowel rods in them to create the masts. I also glued a few dowels to
the front for more detail. I went on to cut out more
dowels for the spreaders. I glued these to the masts. You may have noticed that it has this
really cool weathered look about it. Now to achieve this effect, I used
a wire brush drill attachment. I just went over all of the pieces
to make a really cohesive look and although I think it looks
awesome now, this is only the base. I've got even more details to add. I'll use this Hemp Cord for a
lot of the remaining components. I glued it to the masts and wrapped
it around in various directions. I went back and applied glue to the
end so that nothing comes undone. For it to look proper, I need some
hardware like these boats have. I don't know if that's something that you can
buy, so I had to take matters into my own hands. I twisted up some Stainless Steel
Wire to create these little loops. I drilled holes all over the boat to install them. As I'm sure you could tell based
on the look of the other boats I'll use these to secure more strings. I also used the one along
the top to create a railing. I simply wove some stainless
wire through the loops. That got us to the current
point, which is almost complete. The only remaining detail I
need to add are the sails. For that, I'll go with this Polyester Fabric. I know it's fine to put in tanks and I thought this would be a good option
because it won't break down. I used a few paper templates to cut
them out to the appropriate size. Then, I glued them to
various portions of the boat. After several days worth of
work, it's finally complete and I gotta say I'm so pleased
with how it turned out. As I constructed this, the more
excited that I got about the build. Like can't you just picture this
being at the bottom of a scape? I definitely can. Originally I was going to tatter it up some more put a little hole in the side and stuff like that, prior
to putting it in the tank. However, I'm gonna take the artistic
liberty on this one and leave it as is. You know, I took so much
time to get it to this state, that I figured, you know what, I can see
it being in the aquarium just like this, so that's what I'm going to do. Enough talk, let's get to the tank. So this is just a 10 gallon rimless
that I made some modifications to. It originally had a frame on the bottom; I ripped that off, I blacked out the background, and I also put it on a piece of Neoprene,
which will act as a self-leveling mat. Like most other aquariums I set up
that are going to include plants, I'll start out with an aqua soil. I poured in enough to build up a
decent layer in the bottom of the tank. Now you'll notice that i also evened it
out and sloped it up toward the back. This is just an easy way to
create more depth in the scape. As for the scape itself, I
decided to go a Seiryu Stone. It's got a lot of cool texture
and detail to it that I thought would complement the boat really well. As I placed the stones, I more or less
wanted everything centered in the aquarium. So I placed them accordingly and in ways
that allowed the boat to nestle in them. I'm just using the natural crevices of
the stone to keep the boat in place. I went with a simple layout because I want
the boat to be the primary focus of the tank. If I were to fill this as is
it would definitely float. So what I'm going to do is secure
it to the stones with superglue. I'll apply to all the areas
where it's in contact with it. I also sprinkled on a little bit of
rock dust to hide some of the excess. And as you can see now, it's rock solid. Now I can add the remainder of the
substrate, starting with some White Sand. I poured it all throughout the
enclosure to conceal the aqua soil. I also used a brush to redistribute it. To bring more detail I added some smaller stones. A few pieces of Limestone did the trick. Then, I sprinkled Gravel over
the majority of the scape. I added Limestone sand for even more texture. A little more sand brought to look full circle. I got it moved over to the rack. You'll notice that I also installed a Hang-on
Back Filter, which has a sponge on the intake. I have it lit with an Led Flood Light. More on that in a little bit. In the meantime, I'm going to get this
filled up, so that we can get it planted. I got it filled up and the boat
didn't float, so it's a good day. It looks good now, but it's going to look
even better when we add these plants. As I typically do I'll start with
the largest plants and work down. First up, are a few stems of Vallisneria. I think this will look really cool as
it grows in and arcs over the boat. Next up, is Hygrophila corymbosa. For this scape, I felt that it
could loosely resemble kelp. I put in some Scarlet Temple for a pop of color. From there, I filled in the foreground
with an assortment of Crypts. I finished it off with sue Süßwassertang. It's basically freshwater seaweed. I thought that it would look awesome in this one. I primed the filter and got it running. I netted out the debris as well. I gotta say I absolutely love how this turned out. Obviously, it's much different
than what I would typically do. I like a more natural style most of the time, but there's something charming
about the way this looks. I think it's due in part to the fact that
the boat is made from real materials. This one, has some movement to the sails and an overall sort of organic look
to it, that I really enjoy. It gives me inspiration to do more
builds like this in the future. My only complaint with the whole thing really
is how I did the bottom sails on the boat. I wish I would have stretched them
out like I did with the ones on top, but nonetheless, I think it looks great. The tank will look even better
with some livestock though. Let's add them. To stock this tank I'll keep it relatively
light, starting out with six Panda Tetras.
I thought these would be a good
choice because they're black and white and kind of ghost-like, which
goes with the theme of this tank. I also added eight ghost
shrimp for obvious reasons. This is a ghost ship, so why
not add some ghost shrimp? And last but not least, were some Bladder Snails
I was able to collect from a different aquarium. It should go without saying
that I added dechlorinator and Fritz Turbo Start prior to adding any of this. Both of course were provided by
Fritz, who sponsors the channel. And that my friends is the ghost ship aquascape. I gotta say it's definitely not
something I ever thought I'd be doing, but even more so now with the inhabitants
in it, I'm seriously enjoying it. I'm curious to know what you think though. Let me know down in the comments. Oh yeah, I almost forgot about the led floodlight. This has a really cool feature to it
that allows me to change the color, brightness, all that kind of stuff. So I can make it a blue color for a more
ominous feel or really whatever I want. I'll leave links to that down
in the description because I'm sure some of you will be curious about it. Anyway, that's all I have for you in this one. As always, I hope you enjoyed
it and learned something new. Let me know what you think
about it down in the comments and leave it with the thumbs up if you liked it. Until next time SerpaSquad take care and peace!
