INCREDIBLE TOUR of The Animal Room (2021 Extensive Update)

welcome for those of you who are new here my name is tana and this is my animal room [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] all right real quick before we get started i just want to give you a quick rundown on everything in here just so that you know where stuff is got the spider vivarium there terrarium computer desk and terrariums we're not talking about any of that we got the 150 cube working on that soon and we've got aquariums here patio pond aquariums we've got the suriname toad tank 600 gallon 40 gallon rack reptile rack 75 rack empty 75 we'll talk about that later and the 350 gallon paludarium one more thing real quick before we get started here i've been keeping amphibians reptiles and fish for pretty much my entire life everything that you're about to see here is the combination of years worth of effort research and experimentation to do the best that i can to provide awesome homes for the animals that i love i just want to throw that out there real quick though because i've been doing it for 22 plus years and a lot of people seem to think this stuff happens overnight and it really doesn't i've been working at this for a really long time and i'm so excited to share this tour with you because i know that a lot of you you've been requesting it for quite a while so here's the state of the animal room as of 2021. wait if you wouldn't mind also hitting the video with the thumbs up i'd really appreciate it this is going to be at least an 80 plus hour endeavor thanks i think the best place to start is over here with the first nano rack this neat area currently houses a lot of my smaller enclosures but it's a work in process i built the stand itself out of two by fours two by threes and plywood it's actually not complete though because i want to put a little wooden strip here on the front just to make things look a little bit more dialed in you may be thinking though what's up with all that empty space over there well i actually recently took down two setups that were over there to make room for new and improved ones there of course was the upflow overflow aquarium and the skyscraper paludarium the aquarium as i said in the build video was a little bit of a prototype i had it set up for several months and i was really enjoying it but there were a few things about it that were annoying me and i decided you know what it's time to make the noon improved version of this so i recently took it down and i'll be working on that here soon as for the paludarium i've been thinking for a while now that it's been set up for a few years and i think it's time to do something new i'm really excited for what i have planned for that but what about the setups that i have up and running right now up top we have the blackwater tetra tank now of all of the setups i have in the room this is actually probably one of the more natural ones sure i get a lot of inspiration from nature i use live plants and natural elements and things but if you were to actually go underwater and look at where these fish are in nature this is really similar to something that you'd actually see a lot of tannins in the water botanicals down in the bottom algae sparse plantings that sort of thing i think it has a really cool vibe to it that's largely due to the hardscape even though it looks really intricate with all these roots and things like that it actually only consists of two pieces of wood believe it or not i actually found these locally while i was digging for a pond at my parents house i unearthed them and i thought to myself you know what these would be absolutely incredible in a setup so i boiled them for a few hours to remove pathogens or anything like that and built the entire tank around them and yes i know i'm a crazy man for doing it but i purposely put all that duckweed up in the top first and foremost i really just like how it looks the roots hanging down in the water add for a pretty cool look and they of course shaded up on top which adds to that black water effect they also help with nutrient export and will keep the tank a little bit cleaner as for the tank itself i custom built it out of quarter inch thick glass that i salvaged from old aquariums i don't know about you but the tannic blackwater look in an aquarium is really appealing to me i utilize it in a few of my tanks but it's definitely most prominent in this one unfortunately at this point the driftwood has pretty much stopped leeching tannins so i have to take matters into my own hands i just steep some marie boss tea let it cool and add it to the tank to get this look i may also make some for myself in the process because i really enjoy how it tastes just to be clear though you can't put any old tea in your aquarium as far as i know this is the only one that's safe to use anyway i don't only add tannins for aesthetics the fish really enjoy it as well even though this tank looks desolate at first glance it's absolutely teeming with fish there are some x-ray tetras golden neon tetras ember tetras exclamation point rasbora and pygmy corydoras most of them are fairly timid and shy and hide within the escape if i'm near the tank that is unless it's feeding time i will say though that the tannins clearly helps them feel more at home i assume it sort of acts like a visual barrier making them less aware of what's going on outside of the tank it's also inhabited by an army of snails and the yellow neocaradina shrimp that were in the flow overflow aquarium i really enjoy these shrimp and i think they're a welcomed addition to this tank and that's the beauty of having multiple setups if i decide that i want to take one down i can take those inhabitants and add them to a new tank that's already established where they can thrive exactly the same at this point though this one's been up and running for about four months now and i hope to have it for many more because i can't get enough of this blackwater look on the next shelf down i have two setups including the moss drip wall betta paludarium and the ghost shrimp ghost chip aquascape the paludarium is an incredible setup that i really think showcases the better well this is mia and she's actually my wife's betta anytime i get betters i always buy them for the personality and this one really spoke to me when i bought her though it was totally unplanned about a month prior to that our other betta ellie decided to jump out of the tank and passed away i've kept several betas over the years and never had this happen before but it's something i'll definitely be mindful of moving forward and you can see with this tank i took that into consideration because the water line is much lower than the top of the tank anyway after i took that setup down i moved the other fish into the tank you saw previously i planned on waiting longer to get alyssa another fish but i saw mia at akushela and i knew she had to come home with me she's incredibly beautiful but her personality was exactly what i expect from a betta active personable and wild so i brought her home and i designed this setup which i think is absolutely perfect for a betta upon first glance i'm sure you could quickly tell that this isn't your standard aquarium it's a cube that i set up in the paludarium format there's a pump near the back of the scape that sends water behind a piece of driftwood which then cascades down a moss drip wall this helps mechanically filter the water and aids in nutrient export this is also done through the floating plants as i explained in the previous tank and the emergent plant growth i used a variety of plants that were readily grown in a riparian setting meaning that they can be grown with their roots submerged in the water and the rest of the foliage growing out of the top doing so is one of the most effective means of filtration because of how these plants pull nutrients from the water column in other words the things that we typically do water changes for plus in my opinion they add a lot of depth and make for a really dynamic looking setup these plants are anchored in place on some driftwood where their roots can then branch down into the water these create barriers and areas of refuge for mia to enjoy if she wants to relax like the previous tank i also included leaf litter and other botanicals to make this setup more optimal for the fish bettas appreciate a more acidic environment and the humic acids released by the leaves are really beneficial to their health another aspect of this tank that really serves no function other than to look cool is that i have a mist maker hooked up to it now i don't use it very often but every now and again i'll plug it in just to make the vibe a little bit cooler unfortunately mia is going to be the only beta that joins us in this tour because we lost casper a few months back i had him for about three years which is pretty typical for beta's lifespan so i believe he simply lived out his days that said i do believe he would have lived a little bit longer had i got him from a more reputable source like a private breeder or something of that nature as opposed to one of those big box stores as you know they're kept in those little cups and the water conditions are less than ideal and that can have effects on them later in life that said i think i'm done with long fin varieties as well i'm typically not too crazy about long fin fish in general but if you watch mia how she swims through the tank and stuff it's effortless whereas if you see those long fin varieties they clearly struggle a little bit and i don't really think that's something i want to support moving forward let me get off my soapbox though i just wanted to discuss that real quick since we were talking about bettas oh yeah one more thing that i almost forgot is that i originally tried to co-hab other fish with her but she was not having it it's something that you gotta feel out per betta because their temperaments are completely different from fish to fish let's move on over to the ghost trim ghost ship aquascape this one's definitely unique compared to pretty much everything else you've seen this tour and that it's definitely designed to not look like something natural it's primary feature is the sunken sailboat that i built out of natural materials and other things that i knew were safe to put in a tank although this is not something i typically enjoy there's something about the way that this one looks in the tank that i find really appealing i think the fact that it's not made from plastic or something of that nature really helps it's nestled atop a bed of cereal stones and other hardscape elements that i think really tie everything together it also includes a ton of plants most notably hygrophila cormbosa i thought this gave kind of like a kelp or deep sea vibe that really complements the boat i also have some crypts and sous swaster tongue to fill in the mid ground although the planting is pretty dense i kept it primarily near the back of the escape to really frame everything in unfortunately though some stag corn algae has begun to form on various elements in the tank i should be able to get it dialed in without issue though this is a somewhat new tank so a little bit of algae is to be expected as for the tank itself it's just your standard 10 gallon tank that i de-rim to match the rest of the tanks for now it's inhabited by a small group of panda tetras ghost shrimp and of course a group of snails i originally bought these fish to match with the ghost theme but i really enjoy them after the fact they have big personalities and a great feeding response the shrimp on the other hand are pretty cool as well they just stick to themselves and feverishly scour the tank for whatever they can find all in all though i think this is a fun little tank that showcases a different side of the hobby i'm not sure how long i intend to keep it set up but in the meantime i'll enjoy it all the same the fourth and final setup on this shelf is the rainbow shiner river island aquascape this is also a custom-built aquarium i used quarter-inch thick glass that i got from a local glass shop i think it's a pretty cool dimension because it's really not that big of a tank but due to the length it gives the impression that it is quite large i also put window frost film on the sides and back for a cleaner aesthetic all of this lends itself to a different type of scape as the name suggests i went for something that sort of resembles an island meaning that i isolated the scape toward the right side of the tank over here i created the primary feature with a stump-like piece of driftwood i placed various sizes of stones around it to create something that i think looks natural i also planted the tank primarily in this area for the same reasons i used plants like vallisneria and hydrocaudal that will branch out from the central location and arc over the rest of the skate the end result is something that i think looks pretty unique and dramatic while also keeping the fish in mind if they feel the need to hide there's plenty of area for them to do so on this side of the tank this rarely happens and they are full of energy so a large open swimming area is ideal because that's where they spend the majority of their time speaking of the fish this tank was specifically built for a group of rainbow shiners i got a few months back these are incredibly beautiful fish that are native to the united states mine have colored up a little bit since going into this tank but eventually they'll mature into a bright blue purple and red colored fish especially the males i also have a group of pearl danios which in some ways resemble the shiners the two groups work well together because both are high energy and very peaceful like the previous tank this one also has a crazy feeding response i absolutely love to watch it and overall this tank is doing extremely well there's one unfortunate occurrence with it though and that's that the rainbow gobi decided to jump out that's obviously my fault because i decided to go with an open top tank you're probably thinking to yourself though why don't you just put lids on these things already so that you don't have this keep happening in reality i've been keeping tanks like this for so many years and it really rarely if ever happens i had those two occurrences and i honestly can't think of any others on the top of my head where i lost fish due to them jumping out regardless even though i tend to overlook this and really haven't had much issues with it i feel obliged to tell you about it because it is an actual issue to consider when you're keeping open top tanks like these anyway i can't wait to see how this tank progresses and how the fish will look as they mature right on the other side of the wall from where we just were is another aquarium rack and a patio pond this is another diy setup that i did myself it's two by threes and a few common boards that i put together in a way that has a little bit of a shelf up on top as well as an area for two tanks underneath we've got the low-tech daniel community aquascape up top the volcano rasbora islandscape below that and the guppy riparian patio pond to the right the riparian pond is especially unique because of how low-tech it is so much so that it doesn't even have a filter all the filtration is actually done through the riparian plants like i described in some of the other setups most notably this huge phylodendron there are other smaller plants in here as well again these all pull nutrients out of the water in order to build and grow the plants periodically trimming the leaves also helps perpetuate and expedite this process once the system is established i will say that when running a system like this it's really important to fertilize the plants after a certain point since i use tap water in all of my systems minerals are replenished when i do water changes however this one's a little bit different because i almost never do them beside the minerals in the water the plants are obviously powered by the bioload created by the fish once the plants get established and are really robust though the bioload created by the fish is so minimal compared to what the plants process this is great news for the fish because it means that the water remains very stable with minimal effort on your end this takes us back to the fertilizer though after a certain point the plants will deplete pretty much all the nutrients from the system and they'll start showing deficiencies like this leaf now of course you don't need to wait for that to happen but i'd recommend at least waiting a little bit before you do the crazy thing is though that i've had this set up for almost 6 months and i hadn't fertilized it all until last week since then i've had several new leaves pop up and they're looking really good anyway making something like this is fairly easy to do and relatively inexpensive the main basin here is just a large planter pot inside of it i got two terracotta pots the one on the bottom is used for a riser and the one on top i filled with substrate for the plants i drilled holes in the planter so the roots can grow out into the water column and so this isn't wasted space for the fish the roots also create an incredible network for the fish and fry to live within as such we've had a few generations of babies pop up in here since i've added the guppies the first happened shortly after i added them and they're more or less adults now and the second one happened pretty recently i was really excited to see all of this but it's what you could expect when you're keeping fancy guppies since they've bred a few times already and no doubt we'll continue doing so i recently added five more females in here to increase diversity and minimize inbreeding at some point i'll inevitably have to start pulling them from this so it doesn't become overpopulated but for now it could handle a decent amount more keeping fish in this way is actually pretty easy and fun to do the major con is probably pretty obvious though you're only able to see the fish from overhead that makes some things a little more challenging but it's obvious the fish don't care how well you're able to see them my caution when working with a system like this especially if you've never done so already is to experiment with the plants a little bit first prior to adding the fish sometimes plants struggle to acclimate to the riparian conditions and confoul the water the last thing worth mentioning about this one is that the light that i have overhead here is a deformable led shop light i just put it inside of a wicker basket here to make it look a little more appealing the danube aquascape here is one of my favorites because of the awesome jungle vibe there's a lot of hardscape that's complemented by various plants and a variety of different inhabitants the largest and most prominent plant is in the dead center the dwarf aquarium lily it's a beautiful plant that makes a big impact in just about any tank if you want to keep it looking pristine though make sure to add root tabs every now and again a few other highlights are the sous voicer tong and bucephalandra the hardscape on the other hand consists of mupaniwood and one of my personal favorites pagoda stone i think the combination of those elements and the plants makes for a really intricate design that gives you a lot to look at as such there's always something new to see and enjoy this intricacy gives the inhabitants so many places to explore and swim around through in addition to that the majority of them are quite small which gives an interesting sense of scale there are several types of fish in here including gold ring tin when i danio which are rare and incredibly beautiful their smaller variety of danio and who i primarily built this tank for there's a group of green kabob tyres bora as well i also have a breeding colony of red cherry shrimp and a few massive amano shrimp and let's not forget about the snails i absolutely love them and i gotta include them in just about every tank because they're so beneficial this tank is a lot of fun and absolutely love watching it despite a little bit of algae here and there i think it's a pretty attractive escape i'm sure at some point i'll do a refresh on it but i don't intend on taking it down anytime soon right below it i've got the volcano rasbora islandscape this is probably one of the more striking designs in the entire room the background consists of a heavily planted forest which is contrasted by bright white sand in the front i created this look by building up two islands of sorts in the back of the tank with hakai stone this is a really desirable stone to scape with that has an awesome aquamarine hue to it i think the combination and contrasts of these looks makes for a really unique design i kept it simple with this tank and it's inhabited by a single group of fish the volcano rasbora these are fairly uncommon fish that are deceptively beautiful at first glance you might look at them and think ah that's just another random silver fish maybe so but let's take a closer look as they turn and move around they have an incredible iridescence about them that reveals a plethora of various subtle colors these fish are somewhat shy but they become ravenous once you drop food in the tank they quickly make it to the top and attack the water's surface like a pack of sharks that's one of the reasons why i love this tank i think the fish are really incredible and are showcased so nicely in this setup that said i do have to get in here and do some serious maintenance it's been a while since i've trimmed the plants so the moss is looking kind of stringy some unsightly leaves and little patches of algae here and there but all that can be addressed really easily so at some point i'll do that but all in all i'm really enjoying the progress on this tank before we continue on that side of the room let's go over here real quick and take a look at the jumping spider this enclosure like most other things down here in the animal room is 100 diy the tank itself is primarily made out of glass that's assembled like any other enclosure the difference came when i included pieces of wood to create a door mechanism it has hinges a little handle and magnets that lock the door shut when i'm making tanks like this i prefer to have a door that opens up on a hinge like this as opposed to sliders to maximize visibility the only obstruction on this one is the spaces between the glass you'll notice that there's a small canopy on top that's outfitted with lights and ventilation to keep it from getting too hot inside of the tank is your typical bioactive setup which i'll discuss more on later there's leaf litter on the bottom for the cleanup crew live plants moss and of course a custom background i carved this all out of polystyrene to create a rocky texture then i went back and painted it with various layers of drylok latex paint the end result is something that i think looks reasonably real and makes for a cool looking design and although i originally designed this for my late ghost mantis it was a perfect fit for my newly acquired bold jumping spider as of now she's still unnamed but for those of you who are unfamiliar with her story the way i got her was kind of unexpected i brought him a plant from a local store and set it in the room behind me i kept seeing movement on the leaves once i took a closer look though i found a little spider jumping from leaf to leaf originally i was just gonna capture and let her go outside but i got to thinking i've never kept a spider before or anything like that so why don't i give it a try prior to this i had her house done a different setup she lived in there for about a month or so until one day i accidentally left the door open and she escaped into the animal room by some miracle i was able to find her a few days later and she lived in this enclosure ever since i never thought i'd enjoy keeping a spider but here i am saying i've enjoyed keeping a spider she's a very inquisitive creature fun to watch and believe it or not very personable if you're ever lucky enough to come across one in your house and you like keeping these sorts of animals maybe give it a try sometime i think you'd be surprised moving on from where we were previously is this large aquarium here this is a 110 toll that rests on yet another custom diy stand it opens from the top to access the tank has doors on the bottom to the sump and everything frames in the tank this gives the illusion that it's a piece of furniture as opposed to a glass box with a plastic frame on it inside of the tank lives a very special group of animals a pair of surname toads that i've named pancake and flapjack pancake is much larger and typically has a more even brighter coloration about her flapjack on the other hand is a bit smaller has a darker and more splotched coloration we named them as such because when we got them last year they were much flatter even though they are still kind of flat given their overall size they've really filled in since last year i didn't realize to what extent that was until i did the updated build here last week i put them in this new tank though because it's more appropriate for their breeding behaviors although i don't know if they'll be successful i've noticed amplexus every now and again and they're almost always together so maybe one day we'll get to see that happen by the way for those of you who didn't know these are the toads that give birth out of their back i know a lot of people cringe about it but i think it's pretty interesting anyway as for the rest of the tank i was able to pull off this look using a universal rocks background it's basically a really thin piece of rubber that looks like a rocky wall with vines all over it i also added a few pieces of wood to mimic the look of tree roots using these materials allowed me to maximize the footprint and also get a really dramatic look you'll also notice that i included leaf litter on the bottom of the tank since the toads mimic leaves when they bury down in them you almost can't notice them unless you take a really close look i just can't get enough of these creatures and that cute little face i mean look at that thing and tell me you think otherwise we'll skip over a few enclosures for now and come over here to the reptile rack what you're seeing is a rack with four individual plywood enclosures on it i designed it in a way that keeps everything separate while looking like a single cohesive unit the main feature that made this possible was building the canopy into the stand as opposed to in the tanks that way all of the lighting and other components outside of the tank are not isolated to a small area the enclosures are all custom built out of wood and sealed on the inside with liquid rubber to make them waterproof all four of them more or less use the same design with minor modifications to accommodate the difference in size the ones up top have swing open doors which allows for max visibility and that's one of the reasons why i so avidly diy my vivariums especially if you look at the ones on the market a lot of times they have all these obstructions and ugly things that really distract from the view whereas something like this you can look into the tank and see it in its entirety like the smaller one i showed earlier these ones also include magnets as such they'll lock on contact without using latches or anything of that nature all three of them are outfitted with circulation fans overhead they're set on timers to turn on throughout the day and keep air moving for the geckos i also have led light strips over the top for the plants and uvb lights for basking i've kept these geckos with uvb on and off over the years traditionally speaking since they're nocturnal it was often viewed as unnecessary i don't know to what extent they'll benefit from having this because it's not anything that i can see with my own eyes but in reality pretty much all reptiles are going to benefit from some amount of uv so again i don't really know how helpful or necessary this even is but on my concept pursuit to provide better for my animals i figured i might as well do it i have a single new caledonia gecko and all three of these tanks and all of them have their own unique story i think we'll start out on the right with henry this little guy is a christed gecko he's so personable and of the three he appreciates my presence the most every night when it's time to care for them he usually comes up to the front of the tank for attention this isn't always the case but he's the only one of the three that comes to me and the funny thing is that i love him so much but i actually never intended on getting a crested gecko now i have two of them and a gargoyle gecko anyway an opportunity arose where i was able to adopt him so i did he was a baby at the time and really skittish roughly eight years later and we formed a very special bond he appears to genuinely like my presence and even likes pets a lot of you often ask how do i get these types of behaviors out of my animals well it can only happen if you respect your animal's space don't push your boundaries and make sure they have positive experiences you can do that by providing them with a proper enriching home but also by spending time observing their behaviors even though they can't talk you can learn a lot from your animals simply by watching being able to adopt and give better homes to animals that otherwise wouldn't get the love they deserve is something i try to do when i can and another animal i did that for was cynthia the gargoyle gekko cynthia's story is a little different than henry's though because she lived with her previous owner for five to six years prior to joining our family she had very little human interaction during that time and it's really evident she's essentially a wild animal that lives in this room i've tried to work with her providing positive interactions nice homes food etc despite all of my efforts though little progress has been made i will say that she's not quite as flighty as she was a few years ago but i don't think she appreciates my presence at all every now and again we'll lock eyes while i'm taking care of her but it never takes long for her to retreat to one of her hiding places i'll continue to be patient and work with her because the reality is that i'll probably have her for another 15 years or more that said i pretty much accepted the fact that she might always be this way delilah on the other hand is the only one of the three that i bought for myself i raised her up from a baby and now she's around four years old she's not quite as excitable as henry but in general she has a very calm demeanor about her she doesn't flee at my presence and tolerates handling quite well i don't think she craves it quite like henry but i will say that it appears she likes pets as well i know there's no way that i can prove it but i honestly think that they do delilah is extremely beautiful especially when she's fired up this typically happens at night when there's a spike in humidity after spraying i keep all three of these geckos the same way and in the same size tanks these all measure 24 inches long by 24 inches wide by 24 inches tall which is a pretty good footprint this gives them plenty of room to climb jump explore and hide if they want to i think often times when we're keeping these animals we think since they're arboreal we should go taller and that definitely works but a little bit of width they're gonna appreciate as well the tanks all more or less have the same plants as well i put plenty of cryptanthus down on the bottom because they're really robust i've also included pothos and false aurelia which can both be found on new caledonia where the geckos are from i included some umbrella plants as well which when combined with the false aurelia create a great canopy overhead which i think the geckos appreciate like the spider vivarium these tanks include custom made backgrounds as well i carved them out of foam and painted them using the same techniques these combined with various types of driftwood and plants i think makes for a pretty natural look the variety in these environments helps stimulate and enrich the animals which facilitates more natural behaviors speaking of nature i've designed these enclosures to function just like it down on the bottom is a thriving colony of isopods and springtails that do a number of things they break down various organics ranging from these leaves to the animal's poop and uneaten food in fact when the geckos are done eating i bury their food dishes which are biodegradable under the leaves here they're processed by the cleanup crew and turned into fertilizer for the plants this creates a natural cycle which keeps the tanks clean with minimal effort other than adding new leaves trimming the plants and general care for the geckos i really don't have to do much of anything and that's the beauty of going bioactive it's not always the best solution but for small to medium animals like these geckos it can be a really good option below those tanks is where i keep houdini my blotched king snake and things are done a little bit differently down here he too lives in a bioactive enclosure that's very similar to the ones you just saw it has a custom carved and painted background natural elements like leaf litter plants etc the difference is though that dean creates more waste than the geckos and although the cleanup crew can and will process it it takes much longer the geckos poop won't last for more than a day or two while deans would last for at least a week this really isn't ideal so whenever he does poop i'll go in his tank and clean it out lucky for me he usually goes in his custom-made water bowl that way it can remove it without really disrupting much of anything doing it this way allows us to get the benefits of the cleanup crew while also not allowing excess waste to spoil the tank his tank is also different because it includes a ceramic heat emitter and no circulation fans this isn't set up to be a humid environment so air circulation isn't quite as important plus his tank has side ventilation while the geckos don't he also has some slate down in the bottom which collects heat from above that he can lay on at night for some belly warmth the challenge with this one though is setting it up in a way to where he doesn't disrupt the plants the solution was actually kind of easy though i just made planter baskets and filled them with gravel so he can't move them dean is currently the oldest animal in the room and i've had him for about 14 years i raised him up from a baby so he's very habituated to people he doesn't bite and is generally really chilling less foods in the picture he turns absolutely savage then but otherwise he's a pretty calm and inquisitive snake as such i tried to fill his enclosure with a lot of things to stimulate his mind through exploration i haven't done it yet but at some point i want to get in his enclosure and rearrange things a little bit doing so will encourage his desire to explore and it's something i should probably do more regularly it was a lot easier to do in his old setup and i noticed that it was something that boosted his curiosity certainly not a requirement just a little anecdotal thing that i've picked up on over the years i should also mention for those of you who are new here that shortly after i got him when i was young he actually escaped from the tank i hadn't seen him for many months but one day my dad found him outside under a trash can that happened because i didn't have clamps on the lid needless to say i take proper precautions these days and i have a lock on his sliding doors moving back over this way we have my custom built 600 gallon vivarium now i wanted to show the other ones prior to this one because this uses the exact same design as those ones but obviously it's much bigger it's six feet wide two feet from front to back and seven and a half feet tall from floor to ceiling i built it primarily out of reclaimed materials so really the only thing i had to pay for was the glass it includes a custom carved background like the previous ones a ton of hardscape and other elements that make for a really cool sort of canopy feel and obviously by looking at it a ton of plants i have a lot of incredible plants in here from string of turtles to various margravia a batwing passion flower and sebu blue potos to name a few as you would come to expect by now it's set up to be bioactive and everything like that since i was working at such a large scale here i really wanted to design this in a way that if you're walking around in the forest or something like that couldn't you just see this right next to you you're just walking next to these trees all these plants and stuff growing on it i don't know that's what i wanted to create and i think i did a pretty decent job doing that for now it's the biggest enclosure in the room but it's only a few months old so i haven't stocked it yet i can't wait to get it stocked though because the they're gonna absolutely love this environment i can picture them utilizing all of the climbing spaces jumping around and different things like that it's just gonna be a really cool thing to see and this is actually a pretty easy environment to take care of there are a few hiccups that i had to address early on in the process but overall it's doing really well and i cannot wait to see how it progresses anyway that's all for a different video though for now let's take a look at the 40 gallon rack over here this was built using the same exact design from the suriname toad rack again i set it up so that all the aquariums look like they're framed in by the wood it holds three 40-gallon breeder aquariums that house various incredible animals the only thing about this one is i went a little bit overboard with the finishes because it was the first one that i did so probably address that at some point in the future so that it's a little bit more subtle to match the other ones anyway up top here we have the p-puffer jungle aquascape and even me just standing here with the lights and stuff they're curious about what's going on and that's one of the things to love about these animals but we'll talk about that here in a little bit for those of you who didn't follow the saga of this tank it was a little bit of a rough go it's been set up for around a year now but i was having serious issues with algae at first i just couldn't get it to stop overtaking the tank and it made it look really terrible the fish probably didn't carry either way but i was so fed up with how it looked that i almost took it down completely and started from scratch good thing i didn't though because after several months of blacking out the tank and manually removing the algae i got things dialed in and here we are now i still have to get some more plants in here but overall i really like the look and feel of it and it really resembles the original vision that i had for this tank when i was originally setting this up it was really important to include a lot of plants and hardscape to create visual barriers for the fish this houses 12p puffers which can be temperamental towards each other with enough space and visual barriers though you shouldn't have any issues with that at all the group that i have clearly has a dominance hierarchy but regardless they live peacefully together i should mention that i resisted buying these for a really long time every time my wife and i would go into a fish store she'd always want me to get these and i just really wasn't feeling it because i know they're a little bit finicky at eating and that sort of thing but eventually i decided to do it and i'm really glad that i did they're very personable really inquisitive and absolutely adorable and as the name suggests even when they're full grown they're hardly bigger than a pee that definitely adds to the appeal but for such a small animal they have big personalities and they're absolutely savage when it comes to food they fight over the worms and make a total mess it's hilarious though the only problem though is that they're picky eaters and will only eat blood worms brine and mice's shrimp that's all good and well but lucky me i'm allergic to all three of those things especially blood worms naturally those are their favorite oh well god do what you gotta do to make the buddies happy moving down we have one of my all-time favorite builds in the room the fire belly toad paludarium this is actually the second rendition of this build a lot went into creating the look that you see here but i think the results speak for themselves the entire background and escape itself is built up using dragonstone using that allowed me to create a really unique look that i think showcases these animals well behind the rocks on the background is an overflow box that spills over to create this moss drip wall after some time to grow in it looks absolutely lush and serves as a hangout spot for the toads every now and again when i peer into the tank i'll see them sitting up in this area and just looking over the entirety of the scape if you look up front here i also built the islands out of dragonstone simply put i built up a ring of stones and filled up the interior with the substrate there i was able to add the plants driftwood and all of the elements that you see here the end result is something that looks incredible functions really well and looks unique this is probably actually the lowest maintenance thing in the entire animal room i've maybe done two or three water changes on it in the year that it's been set up and i probably didn't even need to do those anyway the whole reason that i designed it like this was not to look cool it's actually for a functional purpose i wanted the toads to be able to have barriers in separate areas to hang out because they can get sort of temperamental towards each other they're not the only things living in this tank though if we move down into the water feature you see a plethora of movement this area also includes a few plants leaf litter and other components that add texture and interest you'll find a breeding group of white cloud mountain minnows swimming through all of these details there's also a bit of a deformed zebra danio that was mixed in with them when i bought them there's also some ram's horn snails amano shrimp and red cherry shrimp all this combined together makes for a cool little display in the water feature but the stars of this tank are of course the fire belly toads i've actually had them for around 10 years now and they're absolute characters they bebop all around the tank bicker among each other and we'll jump all over the tank to get whatever i feed that said the vibe is pretty big when these guys are chilling out and i mean if i was their size and hanging out in there i'd probably be doing the same thing frogs in general are my favorite type of animal and these ones are no exception they're just so much fun to have around moving down to the third and final tank we have a biotope style aquarium several months back i bought a group of emeka splendens or the butterfly split fin which is an incredible fish they originate from a very small area within the ameca river basin in mexico unfortunately these fish are practically extinct in the wild due to habitat loss and activities around the river they are being bred in captivity though so even if they were to go extinct they'll live on in the fish keeping hobby and just to clarify these are not wild caught animals and any specimens that you're going to find are not going to be wild caught they're going to be captive bred anyway because of the state of this fish i thought it'd be cool to set them up in a biotope style aquarium to give homage to where they come from i did some research to determine what type of materials are in the waters that they come from and i did my best to replicate that environment the water that they come from is very hard due to limestone so i used exclusively limestone rocks and limestone sand to create the majority of their escape i did have to take liberty with the driftwood though and used some that's not found in their area i really wanted to include it though because i think it helps create that riverbank type of feel that i was going for it's planted exclusively with hornwort which can be found in the areas that they're from since i set this up it's really grown in and kind of taken on a life of its own originally i was trying to manicure it make it look a certain way but i thought to myself you know what if this is supposed to be a biotype style aquarium i should just kind of let it do its own thing the plants have covered the top of the tank and kind of frame everything in in a way that looks pretty cool they're always zooming around exploring the rocky crevices and have really cool personalities i wish these were a more common fish in the hobby because they're pretty easy to keep have a really unique look about them and as i said earlier just have awesome personalities these are live bears so just like others they'll readily breed in captivity we've probably gotta wait till some of the smaller ones reach maturity though but i can't wait to see that happen moving over we have yet again another rack and this one houses two 75-gallon tanks the one on the bottom though you'll notice is empty and this is where the surname toads were previously if you got any ideas on what you want to see in here let me know down in the comments let's take a look up top though and see what samson is up to samson's my five-year-old giant african bullfrog he's a total character will eat anything he can fit in his mouth and is a total unit at roughly seven inches long he's not quite full grown but he's pretty big he's got probably about another two inches or so to grow until he maxes out despite this size the 75 gallon tank is more than adequate for him because they don't move around very much he'll spend a few weeks in the water at a time until he makes his way up to the land area he'll sit in a single spot up there until he poops or pees where he'll then make his way back down to the water and the cycle continues this makes it easy for me because if he was up here and moved into the water i know that means it's time for me to clean up this area i would say though that on average he probably spends more time in the water and the habits i just described are what i designed the tank around i wanted him to have a decent sized water feature but i also included a few areas where he can hide within it and feel secure i also of course have the land area where he can go to dry out a bit or dig a hole and relax this is another setup where i didn't really think it made sense to go the diy route because i really wanted to maximize the space within here although i do have some plants in here they don't look quite as nice as they could because he's not so light on his feet although he'd be fine to live in here for his entire life i think at some point i'd like to upgrade him to a bigger setup it's not going to happen anytime soon but i could definitely see him in something maybe twice this size or three times his size and just go absolutely crazy with it maybe we could get him a girlfriend too who knows and moving over to the final setup in the entire room my 350 gallon paludarium this is the second largest tank in all of the room and it's probably one of my favorites as well it's a very elaborate setup and one of the only tanks in the room that i didn't build myself or heavily modified to fit my vision and the animals needs instead i teamed up with custom aquariums to design this tank or maybe i should say that i came up with the design and they built it for me either way it's here now the whole reason i went through all of that to make this tank was for my silver dollars at this point i've had them now for at least six years and i always wanted to keep them in the planted aquarium if you know anything about silver dollars though they're really not a planted tank type of fish they'll just kind of go through and shred it all up there is a loophole though just put all the plants above the rim and that's exactly what i did since the tank is so large i was able to go with a lot of larger plants like peace lilies monstera and calathea to name a few i used a lot of driftwood to create shelves of sorts just under the waterline for the plants to rest on doing this allowed me to get all of this riparian growth it also acts like an overhang and sort of like a riverbank that deters the fish from jumping that's one of the reasons why there's also a foot of space between the top of the water and the top of the front piece of glass had i taken the water all the way up to the glass or the glass down to the water the fish definitely would have jumped out the other option would have been to have opening doors from the front or something like that but i just thought that it would have taken away from the look so all this allowed me to in a roundabout way create a planted tank for my silver dollars and in some ways i gotta say that i probably like this better than a traditional aquarium there's just something about the plants bursting out of the top that creates this really unique look that makes you see past the tank itself and see it as more than just an aquarium or a paludarium or something like that i could have stopped there but i also included a drip wall on the background this adds another layer of depth and interest that sets the tank apart on some areas of the strip wall are dense patches of moss which look absolutely incredible over time it will continue creeping around and further naturalize the look and although the tank is being filtered by sump underneath i'd have to wager that pretty much the majority of the filtration is being done by these plants since they're so large and established they're absolutely demolishing any excess nutrients in the water because of all this i was able to stock this tank pretty heavily as you could probably tell that's not really how i do things around here but this tank is an exception and i gotta say that i honestly don't have any clue how many fish are actually in here it's somewhere in the 120 to 150 range if i had to guess there's of course the group of silver dollars i mentioned earlier a few laced catfish a bristlenose pleco some ancient pro pro-gourami congo tetras black tail hemiotis a brown ghost knife fish named maxwell a breeding colony of bronze corydoras and a large school of at least 50 long fin serpa tetras as i said earlier i'm really not too crazy about long finned fish but the opportunity came up to where i could get them so i did i will say though that their mobility doesn't appear to be affected much at all the neat thing about them though is that i was actually able to catch them myself at the fish wholesaler these are known to be an avid fin nipper but if kept in large enough skulls like this one then they'll bicker amongst each other and leave all of the other fish alone thus i'm able to keep them in this tank without any issues it might sound like a ridiculous group of fish because i mean it is but they actually work pretty well together my favorite fish in the entire tank though is maxwell the broncos knight fish i don't know if i'll even be able to get footage of him because he's very elusive he pops out at night to get food and disappears till the next day he's got to be close to about 8 inches at this point so where he hides i have no idea your guess is as good as mine i really like the overall look and feel of this tank because it's much different than what you would typically see i think it's a great way to really push the boundaries of this hobby and show what's possible and believe it or not it's actually really easy to take care of much like all the other aquariums in the room it gets about a thirty percent water change once a month that's pretty much it and that's the animal room as of december 2021 i hope you all enjoyed the tour i definitely had a fun time going around showing you all the updates on everything because it's been a while since we've done it and i just couldn't be happier with how everything's turning out down here it's been a long time coming to get a lot of the animals into these setups and to just get this overall cohesive look but i think things are finally coming around full circle i'm working on a lot of other big projects behind the scenes the 150 cube we gotta do something with the 75 gallon and i'm working on some tanks to go above the surname toads so stay tuned for all of that and you know some nights when i come down here and i just look around i just i'm in awe by it all i i feel so lucky and blessed and humbled that i get to do this for a living and i have all of you to thank for it i just i so appreciate your continued support over all the years watching commenting liking subscribing all that stuff and i just can't thank you enough uh but that's all i got for you in this one again i hope you all enjoyed the tour let me know what tank is your favorite what you want to see next and until next time surprise squad take care and peace [Music] [Music] you

Channel: SerpaDesign

Views: 3,233,861

Keywords: animal room, reptile room, rish room, aquarium, fish tank, terrarium, vivarium, bioactive, diy, nature art, nature design

Id: -8Pqr-qVqsc

Length: 48min 54sec (2934 seconds)

Published: Sun Dec 05 2021