HUGE 4FT ECOSYSTEM UPDATE & MAINTENANCE (no water change in 5 months) | MD FISH TANKS

[Music] so i've just come back from my father-in-law's house now he has got an absolute ton of uh rams horn snails in a small little tank he's got a cute little better tank he keeps on his side he loves his fish anyway i went round there and i got a whole bat can you see that i don't know if it's going to focus focus there we go look at the amount of rounds of snails i've got in there and that has barely touched the surface of his tank i'll put a little clip up of his tag you know it's a tiny little thing now i keep rams on snails in almost all my tanks but they never get like that i swear it's because he overfeeds the fish he says he doesn't but you know what it's like you walk past a little sprinkle here a little sprinkle there because let's face it better fish constantly beg for food don't they so any real way a population can sort of grow of snails is if there's excess food for them to sort of eat i mean and the only way you get that is over feeding the fish anyway if that's what enjoys doing who am i to tell them otherwise [Music] so yeah i've now got all these snails i'm going to distribute them amongst all of these tanks and then sort of keep over feeding the tank if you like so i want to keep that population going just so i can keep using them in lots of my tanks i mean that's probably a good amount of snails to put in a large four foot fully planted aquarium to be honest so let's get them breeding let's get lots of them they're my favorite snails to be honest i absolutely love them so yeah and we can put a sprinkle a sprinkle of snails it sounds funny doesn't it there we go in with the apistogrammas here you go look that's a good number there oh that's quite a lot actually but to be fair that's going to be the tank that's got the most food because i'm feeding up those uh young apistogramma as well there we go sprinkling that one sprinkle over in the little shrimp tank there's only about five shrimp in here but never mind there we go and then we've got a good amount though probably too much there for that whole last time oh no screw it this can be a full-on shrimp breeding tank well there you go guys why um i don't know why i decided to use a ziplock bag but i have there we go under you go in in in that is a lot of snails look at that the apistogramma is just like what have you just dumped in it this is definitely not food it's so confused you gonna say hello to him he's checking him out because uh there wasn't any in the tank that he was in the shop so he's probably never seen a rams horns now before they are friends you don't no no don't eat them okay he'll learn he'll learn look she's come over as well well maybe i can eat them no nobody eat the snails please oh look they're starting to stand up now look oh good should be absolutely fine oh no please don't what are you doing yeah okay yeah you're learning no she's not learned yet though snails are friends guys they're friends oh maybe this wasn't a good idea no they're gonna find out straight away they just don't know what they are and let's face it the snails have got a good defense haven't they moving across straight away look these guys are standing up as well there get to work and then yep so are those well i'm just gonna power feed these tanks not too much in this one because i don't want to sort of put a load of ammonia into the water but yeah just give the food for the snails that's what's going to make them populate well populate even more [Music] and the apistos will be happy as well won't they look because now they've got even more food you've had double food today guys oh it's okay it's okay no problem at all my treat right i need to do a massive update and maintenance session on the ecosystem aquarium behind me it's come along massively since it was first set up it looks great but it's very dark overgrown plants are twisted the bottom parts of the plants have completely died off as well because they're not receiving any light i want to cut it right back do a lot of replanting and just get it looking absolutely awesome again i think i need to bring the light down lower as well that tank can take a lot more light i think anyway so yeah look here's where we're at it looks good don't get wrong it looks cool fish are doing great they seem to love the environment but it doesn't mean they won't love it if we make it a little bit more visually pleasing like this mass up here of plants is just like a spiral where they've all twisted together because of the flow of this uh um what is it it's a powerhead slash internal filter basically it's a powerhead with like sponges underneath so an internal filter duckweed is starting to cover this whole surface over here broke over this side but i'm going to clear it out a little bit and if you look you can see all the little little bits of rotala just sort of starting to grow out the top as well so i used to be a massive advocator for duckweed look at me now just scooping it all out all the stuff it just gets everywhere clogs everything up grows way too quickly all about the salvinia for me now and to be honest i don't even remember putting in this tank i'll go through this little net in a second and just make sure i haven't got any fish but to be honest they're not that stupid once they feel the surface breaking they tend to get out the way pretty quickly and i'm trying to scoop as close to the surface as possible as well i've done this many times now to be honest that i don't usually catch any of the fry so we're all good i'm talking about the ender fry here by the way right that is a good amount of it out as much as i can be bothered for now anyway so you see look removing all that duckweed still super dark we need to cut back this whole section well we need to cut it all back but i'm going to start here because it's it's a big chunk of work [Music] that has opened it up hasn't it look um right i've only just made three cuts there look at how many plants i've managed to take out i don't even think i want to put any of them back to be honest because those ones i've just cut are all going to grow again in no time they'll grow a lot thicker though so it would look really good i think i'm just going to cut everything right back and just let it do its own thing again to be honest apart from these rotala greens here they're so good i want to i want to trim those and replant those ones but everything else just let do its thing it'll grow back thicker and a lot better oh actually duh no saying that it's an ecosystem tank isn't it it needs masses of plants that's the point of it the plants are doing the majority of the work in this tank because there's basically no filter i mean there's so little media in that it's just pushing water around essentially so yeah i'm gonna have to replant everything but what i'm gonna do is replant it so it stays down low so i'll probably trim off the bottom of say look at those stems there i've just trimmed as well i'll trim off a section of them and then just replant them um actually with the length where i've cut they should just go about level so there's going to be just the same plot that's just going to be double the amount of plants in no time at all but they're all going to be equal length and easy to trim back this one here i'm taking it right back down see it's going to look completely different but be just as good as it was before and then after that i'm going to do a little bit of water testing to show you guys i'm fingers crossed there's absolutely no need for a water change in this tank at all [Music] whoa i don't know how long that looked like it took on camera in a time lapse but i've been working so hard for such a long time just to get that section almost done i mean it needs tidying up some of the longer ones and that but already looking better isn't it you can actually see the beautiful wood now manzanita wood that is we've still got this side to do but this should be easier because actually only a couple of uh who am i kidding it's going to take just as long that is a thick mass of plants right there isn't it beautiful though but you know we need to do something about it already looking good though loving it [Music] ah [Music] so this tank was actually set up five months ago so i did a couple of little water changes to start with just whilst it was settling in i've not done a single one since apart from top ups and as you can see i've not really been keeping up with that either so has it worked right so there's no need to test for ammonia there's not going to be any ammonia in here it's five months old fish are perfectly healthy um nitrite nitrate i suppose we'll test both of those if they're of a good i mean i'd expect to see no nitrite to be honest but if the nitrates are a reasonable level for a planted tank then we know it's been a success don't we right i've got my trusty api test kit mine's filthy because i use it very often okay a little water sample oh look at that look at that absolutely nailed it first time come on troy where's the nitrite nitrite there we go always remember guys with the testing kits any liquid testing kits bang them because there's all stuff at the bottom that gets hard every time bang them and shake them hard for like 30 seconds okay then we're ready to go one two three four five pull away nice good shake leave it there right next up nitrate now i'm not going to be able to nail this one as well am i surely not no nowhere near we're over a little drop out i've got a syringe to fill this up but it's easier sometimes with open top tanks just to dip it in like that there we go perfect nitrite so far staying perfectly zero but it's good to give a good 15 minutes or so again same for these bottles there's bottle one and there's bottle two of the nitrates bang bang bang sorry fishes there okay a massive shaker oh these are nearly empty actually testing a lot recently just making sure i've been getting stuff right okay bottle number one ten drops of this oh one two and then ten drops for number two as well feels like it takes forever and then a nice big shake and we leave and we wait [Music] and the results are in so we are barely registering any nitrates at all like very minute amounts now i know everything's all good because on my other tanks they are registering nitrates the right amount that i'd want i'd want to see about 20 to 30 ppm on a very planted tank a very planted tank does that make sense yeah so i consider this a densely planted tank couldn't you i mean so i haven't got enough um nitrates in there for my liking i mean the plants are growing they're just not thriving we want our plants to thrive so here's what we're going to do i'm going to top the water up first of all i'm going to bring the lighting down and then i'm going to start adding in some nitrates and also if you remember the starter video i said i was going to suck out this sort of mole that's down here i'm not going to do that why would i do that it's an ecosystem that is part of the ecosystem that organic matter has enabled a balance maybe take it out or change everything and upset it either way it's sort of natural to this tank i don't want to influence it too much i don't want to move stuff i don't want to i just want to cut back plants where needed and then let it carry on doing its thing i'm already enjoying it a lot more having opened up the space like that as well right water up light down i'm going to try it just with the this light comes with little brackets that you can attach to the edge of the glass i'm going to give that a go and see how that looks um but it might not get quite the same coverage you might need two of those to get good coverage so see how that works if not we can just raise it down a little bit on the on the ropes um ropes no that's uh fishing line thing is i'll have to redo it all again to do that and it sounds like so much hassle rather than just putting it on the little sticks let's just give it a go [Music] right i think that is looking a lot better with that light down lower but i'm only actually lighting i don't know if the camera can tell show you but look i've pushed it to the back so it lights the back a bit more um i think i can put another light on i've got another one i'm just going to hook it up see what it looks like it might be too bright but if i put another one on and add some salvinia as well it's going to give a really good sort of ecosystem effect i love how the greens are really popping now the light a lot closer um i just feel like we can get a little bit more light on the tank let's give it a go see what it looks like oh just hit some more egg oh there's my neurites now hello buddy it's just a single one in here um it keeps all the rocks and all the wood looking great you can see some of these dotted like eggs around that's that's the eggs from the nights now but they won't make uh new snails they kind of just stay on there and make the place look ugly but they eventually get picked off by the bristlenose plecos um where are they i'm just straight away i just keep being drawn to the apistogrammas in this tank which haven't bred yet um maybe they're just not a compatible pair i don't know or maybe they have and the uh the endless have picked off all the babies it's quite possible to be honest because the babies of these guys are absolutely tired and well the babies many the fish are tiny aren't they but anyway let's get that second light on and see how it's looking so yeah down here on this bottom section look for where i keep my plants just like these are new ones that i've bought so i just put them in like an inch of water and they just carry on growing like a greenhouse of a lid anyway i've got that same light on the top i've also got another light i can put there that's like not matching so this one is the same as the one we've already got an ecosystem so i'll whip that off i can just put another one on there that would be absolutely fine for these plants you see but that one will be perfect to use [Music] right then the moment of truth has add in the second light made a difference not just that not only has it made a difference has it improved the look of the tank that's the main thing we're interested in because that back area looks really well lit now let's just get on with it plug it in boom oh yes look at that look at that that's like high-tech lighting um i i've required two budget lights to make high-tech lighting but the price of those two budget lights is like 80 pounds or like 18 90 pounds something like that about 100 110 dollars similar euros i think i don't know but yeah it's still cheaper than one of the high-tech ones grant it doesn't look as good and it hasn't got rgb leds it's just pure white but when you're doing a green only tank i actually think that just pure white light looks better look at how good that trident fern looks there's a couple of bad bits in there i need to prune out but it's growing lovely isn't it i can't wait to see how this tank progresses now oh look at that too did you see that loaches where are you going remember we put the cool notes there was two there actually i think yeah so i think there's about three or four loaches in here as well i've got the iso way too low hang on let me just match i'm gonna match iso that's how i'm seeing the tank right now so that is the level of brightness looking good isn't it oh you're so much better looking this light and look and the endler also looking fantastic this was such a good idea i think what i'm going to do in future if i use these strip lights again i'm just going to double up each time it still works out cheap doesn't it so why that why the hell not like i said look there's that trident fern look how good it looks granted it didn't get looking this good with these double lights but the fact that it's got them now means it should progress continuing to look that color i mean that looks amazing we've got that little bad bit there i can prune that out um what i've tried to do with the flow to stop this whole area over here just getting bombarded look it's not moving too much there's a slight gentle waviness to it that's all up it's the grams come on i don't often see him over here actually that's quite nice to see just exploring the new tank buddy are you so yeah what i've done with the flow to stop it just completely twisting up all of those plants back there again is i put this little piece of wood in the way of the outlet which means that it's just sort of dispersing the flow rather than just absolute because before this would have been hammered like that whereas now it's just a gentle sort of flick oh my goodness this is looking so good plants like the limb the feeler you can see in the background like that one there there you go right in the middle that limb the feeler now will go super green it will grow very big and thick and oh it's gonna look so good i can't wait for this tank to progress sometimes just doing like something like that to an older tank can just really refresh everything but because we've added just a big chunk of light and we've done a huge trim back the plant will probably suffer an algae bloom unless we sort of dial it in a little bit so what i'm going to do for the time being is add some of the salvinia to the top i've got loads over here actually follow me so over here in the neon tetra tank there we go look look what's happened that has happened over the space of about four days something about the blue leds in this strip and let me i don't know if i can pick up the blue ones anyway every sort of few inches there's blue leds and the salvinia just for whatever reason seems to absolutely love the blue leds and grows so so fast so what i'm gonna do is just take out probably a good half of that put that in our new sort of set was not a new setup but the ecosystem with the new lighting it will give a nice sort of look at these guys i'll feed you a second i need to give you some light the plants are all kind of low like plants so they're not suffering at all that's not how i'm seeing it hang on how am i seeing it i'd like to do this match for you guys so you actually know but that's how the tank is at the moment um so i need to take some of this out just get a bit more light in there and this actually works out perfect because this is my next tank to maintain actually so if i just take a load of this out it's halfway doing the job already isn't it need to be careful when i'm doing this i'm not picking up any of the ammanos not that it'll matter because obviously they'll be fine in the new tank but i don't want to remove them from this tank because they're doing such a good job in any algae in there and to be honest the algae is going to really struggle to grow isn't it when we've got this amount of floating plants stopping the light and sucking up all the nutrients i've got quite a lot here this will multiply itself in no time at all i don't even need to take half i've barely barely made a dent in that and then of course we can put all of these in here can't we now the benefit of salvinia versus the duckweed is that this is just so much easier to pick out when you get like loads of it you saw how easy it was for me to remove it then from the other tank whereas so the duckweed seems to just go underwater get caught on everything oh it's just an absolute nightmare but i do love floating plants but the right kind and for me this is the right climate the right kind it propagates so fast it looks beautiful as well floating on the surface it can take a little bit of flow as well not too much but you know a gentle pushing around not going to affect things and it just doesn't make so much of a mess in my opinion so when i come to the point of thinking you know we've got too much in there it's so easy just to scoop it oh we've got a little bit of mess here now some old leaves got them yeah so when it comes to the point of thinking there's enough grown in there just literally just scoop it out again it takes no time at all and it just stays looking good in my opinion [Music] [Music] so as always i hope you guys enjoyed this one make sure to hit the subscribe and a bell button if you haven't already so you can continue on the story of md fish tanks i mean there's loads more to come especially from this tank i mean i thought it was done but it's nowhere near done we can get it looking insane so make sure you subscribe and i'll see you on the next one you

Channel: MD Fish Tanks

Views: 68,630

Rating: 4.9671593 out of 5

Keywords: md fish tanks, md fish tanks vlog, md, fish, tanks, planted tank, planted aquarium, ecosystem, ecosystem aquarium, planted ecosystem, fish tank, aquarium, MD, Fish, Tanks, Tank, ecosystem fish tank, Md fish tanks, aquarium tutorial, fish tank tutorial, ecosystem tutorial, aquarium step by step, fish tank step by step, ecosystem step by step, no water changes, no water changes aquarium, no water changes fish tank, no water change ecosystem, tank ecosystem, youtube, aquascape, design

Id: oj1aEorO7TA

Length: 20min 31sec (1231 seconds)

Published: Fri Sep 24 2021