Nano Shrimp Waterfall Paludarium Made from Scrap Materials

yo what's up Serpas squad Tanner here and I'm building another nano pallid areum this project is different though Rachael O'Leary asked me to participate in the scaping from scraps challenge where you have to escape exclusively with materials from around the house sure I do that all the time but I almost always buy an element or two to complete the build not for this one though let's scape from scraps I do little recap before we start back in August of 2019 I transform this 5.5 gallon all Keon aquarium into a rimless pallid areum style tank it was used to make the pond themed riparian which I think was a neat little project I'll link that video up in the card although I like that set up I recently came up with a better idea that I think will look incredible as such the ripe areum was taken apart and I saved the materials for other projects or this one before getting started I wanted to make a few modifications to the tank you'll notice I scraped up the viewing panel pretty badly I also think the silicon beads on the front or larger than they need to be to fix both of these issues I'll simply replace the front pane of glass to remove the existing one I'll use a razor scraper first I removed the seam on the inside of the tank it would have been nice to just remove the sections in the front but new silicon doesn't stick all the old silicon we need to redo the entire inside seam once that was removed I cut through the seam between the pieces and removed the glass let's cut out a new one for that I have a scrap piece with the broken edge which otherwise isn't good for much I also have a glass cutting wheel lubricating oil two rollers a spring clamp cut resistant gloves and safety glasses I set one of the rollers on the glass is the straight edge and made my measurements the edge closest to me was clamped down and I double-checked the measurements I old the cutting tool so it rolls easily and to keep the glass from fusing back together once it's scored it was first lightly rolled over the glass to distribute the oil then I applied even downward pressure with a single pass to create this scored line [Music] the glasses moved to the edge of the table and snapped along the scored line the one side didn't snap on the line but luckily I don't need the entire length of glass I repeated the process to get the glass down to the desired width before doing anything else I'll say in the edges with 150 grit sandpaper so it's safe to handle with bare hands I sprayed the sandpaper with water to eliminate dust particles and sand it away it doesn't take much just enough to remove the sharp edges with the edges buffed out I rinse the glass to remove any debris the end result was a clean piece of glass free of scratches ready to be attached to the tank prior to that I'll tape everything off with frog tape I added strips of tape to the newly cut piece and to the tank for consistent beads of silicone [Music] after that I poured isopropyl alcohol on a rag to clean the taped off areas this will remove debris in oils that could compromise the silicone seal as usual I'll use GE silicone wand to seal the tank this is a tube I've used previously I turned the tank on its back and applied silicone along the taped off areas then it was applied along the edges of the front and the new piece of glasses pressed in place it was also taped down I went around and smoothed the beats with my finger lastly I carefully removed the tape the tank was left to sit for 24 hours while the silicone cured after that the tank was turned upright the anchoring tape was removed and I scraped off any excess silicone now we have a pristine tank to work with since this will be a pallid areum you can imagine we need to move some water for that I'll use a spare mini 50 gallon per hour pump and a length of leftover 3/8 inch vinyl tubing with the addition of these items I also need to make a filter compartment of sorts for that I'll use the piece of glass we removed from the tank earlier I scraped off any remaining silicone and measured the tank I cut the piece to the appropriate height and then down the middle the end result being two pieces of glass that are the same height with one being slightly wider than the other I'm not stopping there though I also need to drill a few holes in the glass for that I have diamond tiptoe saws and duct seal putty I form the putty into a ring on the glass photo its water and drilled the holes I used the same paper from earlier for the edges a large hole was made for the intake of the pump and a small one for the return are you Scot knitting mesh to create a cover for the intake area I used two slightly larger hole saw to cut out a section I put silicone around the opening and press the mesh into it silicone was then applied to the edges of the glass the pieces were pressed into the tank since they're small the silicone is tacky enough to keep them situated I applied more silicone along the edges you won't see this area so it's fine if it looks a little sloppy this was also left to cure for 24 hours everything turned out nicely I put the pump down through the compartment I also want to create a buffer area between the scape in mesh screen for that I'll use a crate light diffuser held together with zip ties I cut down the egg crate with a pair of wire cutters once I had two smaller pieces they were joined with the zip ties to attach it to the tank I'll use hot glue the foam and other components will hold this in place so I'll use the glue to get a quick hold instead of waiting for silicone now we're ready to scape for hardscape I have sandstone River rocks and pine spider wood three of these came from the old Blue Dream shrimp tank I just had to scrape off all of the thread and superglue I used to hold Moss on the branches the others I had on deck for future build which ended up being this one to hold it on place I'll use great stuff gaps and cracks expanding foam this was one I used from the recent patio pond build luckily it had the reusable dispenser on it so I could get a second use out of it anyway I went on to scape the tank with the spider would I want this scape to have a lot of climbing areas for the shrimp with that mind I situated the branches so that all the roots will be in the water portion of the setup once I got a decent formation in place I turned the tank on its side from there I placed some of the larger stones between the branches and along the background these elements will act as a base for my scape I'm not concerned about details at this point I'm simply placing the largest elements with everything in place I applied foam between the objects to anchor at all I'll let the set up for a few hours prior to removing the excess once the foam cured I removed undesirable sections most of this I could do by hand but there were a few areas that called for the razor scraper now that the background is secured I want to give the waterfall a test run I filled the tank up and turned on the pump the vinyl tube was directed to various spots to determine where the waterfall would look best initially I intended for that to be on the far left of the setup but I later determined that it would look better on the right side of the glass compartment at first I tried to simply shorten the tube but I thought it would be hard to conceal later on and make it more difficult to service the pump if need be what I decided to do was make another hole for the returned in a better location for that I drilled like usual but I used two pressurized sprayer instead of putty in water luckily I was able to pull this off without ruining the entire setup I cut the tube once more and fed it through the new hole this should work perfectly now it's time to add more details to the background what I did was silicone various stones to the existing structure to hide off the phone my goal is to make it look like an eroded Bank of sorts most of the dirt has eroded away what's left are roots and stones I think that look was achieved quite well I let the silicone cure overnight the remainder of the glass above the waterline on the back of the tank needs to be concealed for that I'll use some scraps of cocoa fiber liner I simply lined the piece up with the shape of the rocks and gradually cut it down it ended up fitting perfectly I removed the liner applied silicone to the glass and pressed it in place I let this cure for a few hours prior to adding the final details to the background at this point it's almost ready to be planted I just have to finish off the background with some tree fern fibers I started by applying silicone between rocks and over the Coco fiber liner I firmly press the tree front into the silicone so that it's embedded into it otherwise the fibers just sit on the surface and generally fall out over as I worked through this I decided to cover off the cocoa fiber for consistent aesthetic once the main areas were addressed I went back with smaller bits of tree fern fibers and cyanoacrylate superglue I used these to fill in all the fine details I was very conscious of my application though as I had very little glue to work with to finalize the background I reattached a piece of wood that fell out earlier I also snipped off a piece of wood from another branch that looked out of place here's the end result I think it turned out extremely well and has a lot of great details and then gave the setup a quick rinse to remove debris while the tank was full I figured I would give the waterfall another test run it looked good but I adjusted a few rocks near the vinyl tube to optimize the flow that looks perfect after I drained the tank I placed rocks throughout the bottom I wanted to hide the egg crate area and add more definition to the layout now for the remainder of the materials for substrate I'm using a mix of planted tank substrates from an aquarium i dismantled not long ago peoples in garnets and I also have a few pieces of spider with twigs that came from the original pond themed riparian the majority of the plants I'm using came from the original setup including of course gramineae smitten miss aureus anubius nan Appetit rotala indica sigani and pata phylum white butterfly to lancia i Anantha in several miscellaneous plants I think are primarily different varieties in fall turn entre a few plants are also pulled from the bio orb including heavy grauffis or panda more coarse cominius minimis aureus in focus piola-kirchhoff olya I also got a few clippings of fotona Alba Venus mini white from the fire-bellied totalitarian cryptic corn 1t bronze from an old aquarium and a few boosts of flanger deep blue from the foggy riparian bowl as usual I'll start with the largest plant to Singhania I trimmed up the roots prior to planting to make things easier I put them in the set up before the substrates I can simply cover the roots in a moment trust me it's much easier that way after getting them situated in an area of interest I dumped in a few couples of the substrate mix it was distributed with a few brushes in doing so I wanted to cover the back two-thirds of the tank and the roots with that taken care of I could plant some more starting with the hemming office this is a great offset plan for the Cinco neum since the leaves are much finer it's also probably my favorite riparian plant next I watched the anubius rhizomes between a few of the river rocks the same was done with the ax course once those are situated I sprayed down the tank to keep things hydrated I also redistributed the plain to tank substrate from there I added more stones to the scape then I poured in the pea pebbles like the substrate from earlier they were distributed with the brush lastly the front of the scape was filled with the garnets and it's already damp so I can't distribute it well with a brush instead I sprayed it down to get it to settle with all of that looking proper I added the final pieces of driftwood although it's a different type of spider wood than the rest it blends in quite well now for the rest of the plants starting with the miscellaneous items next up were the stems of rotala indica I planted them primarily on the right side of the set up the boosts of Landrover wedged between the rocks just like the anubius and of course let's go above the rim and add the tillandsia to do so I simply super glued them to the branches this is a quick and easy solution that actually does quite well for the plants with the majority of things in place I filled up the tank to ensure nothing would float away lastly I planted the ficus on the background I didn't pin them in place or anything like that they'll root in over time the main thing with these is that a portion of their roots are submerged under water if you don't do this the plant will quickly wither away we're in the homestretch just a few minor things and it's done I taped a piece of black paper to the back of the tank to give the illusion that the background crevice keeps going beyond what you can see I also have some spare filter media for mechanical filtration in black lava rocks for additional surface area for beneficial bacteria after adding those the tank was finally returned to the nano shelf I filled it up with dechlorinated tap water no setup like this is complete without the floating plants I added something near minima duckweed and giant duckweed that were all pulled from various setups the combination of the three will create a great variation in texture before adding the inhabitants I got the tank going with Fritz I'm Tober start 700 which was provided by our channel sponsor we can't do this without some snails I've a few from the previous blue dream tank including a tiger narrate snail and olive narrates now and a few bladder snails there were some already living in the substrate so these are just a bonus I also decided to add some of the botanicals and leaf litter directly from the shrimp's previous tank hopefully these will help them feel at home right away lastly of course is a shrimp these are some of Lucas Brett's blue dream b-team shrimp I have a few more than this but these are all I could find in the tank for now they were trip acclimated prior to being added to the tank [Music] there you have it the new and improved Blue Dream shrimp pala Darian I think it's a really neat looking setup that truly shows how big you can go on such a small scale I tried to incorporate a lot of details and little textures that make this setup look bigger than it actually is I also kept the shrimp in mind throughout the entire build they'll make great use of all of the nooks crannies in different climbing areas something else I like is that the tank primarily uses earth tone colors which is what you'd see in nature there's a time and place for high contrast escapes but I honestly feel like they're a little outplayed typically I would only want to add shrimp stew awhile established setup I made an exception for this one though since the majority of materials came from season two aquariums and since we added bacteria the shrimp appear to like their new home so I think it will be just fine other than the snails nothing else will live in this tank this is a shrimp only scape and I think it showcases them perfectly I know that many were setting limitations on what they could do for the scaping from scraps challenge in addition to only using Scott materials I could have done that too but my goal is to make the best setups I possibly can therefore my only limitation was using items I already had at home I didn't want to make something just for the sake of making it I shouldn't needed a new home and I took the opportunity to make something for them within the confines of the challenge would you even know that was the case by looking at it though anyway I had an awesome time making this one and I'm so glad that I did be sure to check out the scrap scape hash tag to see what other creators are doing I'm curious to know what you thought of this one though how did I do with the scaping from scraps challenge anyway I really hope you enjoyed this one and learn something new if you did please take a moment to give the video a thumbs up it would mean a lot and helps out tremendously until next time surfer squad take care and peace [Music] [Music]

Channel: SerpaDesign

Views: 737,712

Rating: 4.9594016 out of 5

Keywords: paludarium, aquaterrarium, aquarium, shrimp, nano paludarium, aquascape, scrapscape, scaping from scraps

Id: NnedKiWs71U

Length: 18min 48sec (1128 seconds)

Published: Sat May 23 2020