BUILDING MY FIRST AQUARIUM! 

“Sorry, plant, it was an honest mistake” 😂 Live planted aquariums are so much work and I feel like the learning never stops! This is really good for a first aquarium 👏🏻👏🏻

Dude! I hope any aquarium advice given is done so with kindness and appreciation. You might be a novice, but you’re showing us behind the scenes of starting new things. Your vulnerability can help others try new hobbies. Keep it up and thanks!!

Ok, all I ask is that you don't freak out in a few weeks when the snails suddenly explode in number. Those are pond or bladder snails. Most people seem to hat them because they tend to reproduce like mad. This is NOT a problem. Yes the spread quickly, but they will naturally find balance in their numbers. Also don't freak out if you see them eating your plants. They only go for dead or dying plants so they are doing you a benefit. I love my bladder snails. My issue is I can't find any new ones to prevent massive inbreeding in the population I have now. Aquarium CoOp has a thing on them here on RU-vid take a watch it's very informative. Good luck with the tank!

Its really nice because he shows us that there are no limitations and its always nice seeing something new in the darkden because of his versatility in hobbies.... YOURE AWESOME!

Some tips for your aquarium! -The mosses should be secured to a rock or driftwood for the best results, you can use superglue (any without fungicides/additives, look up fish safe superglues if you aren't sure) or just tie it down with cotton strings, which will eventually rot away after the moss has hopefully attached to the rocks or wood. You can also trim some of the roots off your plants if they're a bit too crazy to bury properly, they'll be fine. -The neon tetras and bettas will both likely harass the shrimp and eat some of their babies as neons and bettas are both predators, but as long as they have enough hiding space it should be ok! Just expect to maybe see some aggression or occasionally find a casualty or two. The amount of plants you have now is great for preventing that, though. -Since you have different colors of shrimps, there's a chance they'll breed between their colors and produce wild-type babies (which will be brown), so if you want to keep consistent colors in the future it'd be best to just keep just one color together. Personally I love the look of the mix of colors though, shrimps are so much fun to watch no matter what. -Editing to add this one because I forgot lol: The snails are called bladder snails, and while they're harmless they will very very quickly take over your tank so you may want to try and remove some of them every now and then! They're almost as bad as the duckweed (floating plants) and will be everywhere haha Your tank looks fantastic so far and I can't wait to see how it progresses :D

As a fish keeper, I’m very happy with all the research you have done and the process you followed. A couple things to mention: 1. Don’t put water from the bag into your tank. 2. You can use gel super glue to glue moss to rocks and wood. Glad to see you expanding!!

This is so wholesome, I love watching you learn. I've been in a aquarium hobbyist for my entire life, and you're doing everything right so far. I'm proud of you, welcome to the hobby

I would advise adding the heater at the start of a cycle, as the bacteria will be adapted to the temperature you cycle at, you risk killing them when altering the temp like that. Edit: the moss would do best if you attached it to the lava rock, it would eventually grip it and not need tying down.

That Bacopa planted in an arch is comedy gold, hahahaha! It screams "I have no idea what I'm doing here" :D

You should check the size of the holes of your intake. Your shrimps might get sucked into the filter if the holes are too big. There are special "filter guards" for making your filter shrimp proof/safe. Also you can take some fishing line or superglue to connect the moss to stones or wood. if you're using fishing line you can remove it after a month or two when the moss grew onto the stone/wood.

Wow amazing to see the different colour of shrimp and cant wait to see the updates on the aquarium, hope your lovely lady is doing well ....

Welcome to the world of aquariums, I already with more than 15 years of experience in this field I love the result you achieved, keep going with your projects

With the floating plants of top we put a large ring in the middle and we put the plants on the outside of the Ring. LOL it makes beautiful Shadows on all the edges of the aquarium. Allowing a large beam of light to shine right down the middle

A few pointers for you . Carbon should only be used for a cleanup , not for everyday maintenance so I would remove it . Acrylic will eventually discolour and warp . Polycarbonate is much better for aquarium lids . Your shrimp are Neocardina davidii . The snails will eventually take over if left alone . If you crush them the shrimp will eat them . Alternatively you can control their numbers by adding some Assassin Snails . The first moss you added will grow on your rocks . The second one is actually a fern , known as Süsswassertang which grows best if just left in a bunch . There are lots of great Epiphytic plants which would grow well on your rocks , Anubias , Bucephalandra , Java Fern . The floating plants you added are Duckweed also known as Aquarium Herpes . I would get rid of it . There are lots of great floating plants ( Phyllanthus fluitans or Red Root Floaters are lovely ) but they tend not to do well in covered tanks . Enjoy your aquarium .

Awesome vid! Congrats on your aquarium! Everything looks great! Langlang really gave you a huge boost with the plants and shrimp!

I would recommend just popping in a couple of root tabs under the substrate for those stem plants. There is little to no nutrients in the substrate for them to thrive. Really like the tank though. 👍

I love how the aqarium looks! The shrimps are supercute.

Its a lovely aquarium - and your joy in creating it was palpable, so lovely to see, that it brought me joy! I must remember to thank the donor of the shrimp and vegetation, which made you so happy. The plants added just enough green to take the raw, new edge off without taking away your personal creativity. Thank you for sharing your process and I look forward to seeing the aquarium grow and prosper.

I love your videos Petko! That stem plant you planted like a bridge should be planted straight up. It will be much happier and will grow nice and tall. You can cut it in half once it almost reaches the surface and replant the trimming. Then you have two of them! Rinse and repeat and you’ll have a beautiful, dense bush of them in a few months. Looks like a bacopa species stem plant but I could be wrong

I'm so happy for you. You've been mentioning for years that you wanted an aquarium. Now you have one. Reminds me if after you started your Patreon, and upgraded from a skateboard to a car. So happy to see your story pan out. When do we get to meet your daughter???

I love how at 8:02 he checks the instructions out just to be sure he needs water to run a filter 🤣🤣🤣

I actually love how lush green the aquarium turned out and how lively it already is, props to that guy for the plants and shrimp too really made the aquarium come together well

OH YEAH! This made me happy. I've been watching your channel for years but I don't even own any inverts. Hovewer I do own a few aquariums and have been keeping fish since ever and I LOVE the aquarium hobby with all my heart so seeing you finally fall for it as well makes me so excited! Enjoy your aquarium Petko 🖤 maybe there will even be more eventually 👀

What a lovely aquarium. The little creatures are so satisfying and cute. Thanks for another great video :)

You have done really well, it looks lovely and relaxing! The best way to start building your aquarium is do what you enjoy, put everything together and most importantly enjoy!

I really enjoy watching these videos, very therapeutic ☺️

Its so nice that the whole of this channel community is coming together giving advice into the aquarium hobie. 👍

Petko this is awesome! I just got into the aquarium hobby myself about five months back and now I'm in it deep with two aquariums and a shrimp tank I'm setting up this week as well. It's so neat to see you in basically the same spot as me when it comes to learning all these things. I'm sure people have already said so but the stem plants can be planted from either side - I laughed quite loud when you made it into an arch hahaha. If you cut it in half you can actually make it into two for the price of one! Best of luck and looking forward to seeing the betta.

So much I could tell you on aquarium business... but I don't know where to begin 😅 You'll figure it out anyway! Only thing I'd like to say: be careful pouring in the water from the bags the livestock comes in, especially from aquarium stores. You'll risk getting diseases or unwanted algae etc. into your tank. Acclimate the fish, by adding small amounts of your water to the tank (so the animals can adjust to your water parameters as well as the temperature) then pour them into a net and release them into the tank! Better safe than sorry! ;) Anyway, good luck with your first aquarium I hope it will thrive and bring you lots of happiness! ☺

Using Joey’s the King of DIY stand. I have built built many of these stands myself. That is a great stand and super strong you’ll never need to make another one again for that tank unless you want to.

Phillix..! So glad to see him haha thanks for showing him in the video:)

I really enjoyed this video. My husband and I used to be avid fish keepers and once we had 15 tanks running and a swimming pool on our basement full of koi lol. We had them for many years but unfortunately in our city something happened with the water when they changed what chemicals they were using and we ended up waking up one day and all but one tank died. Devastating. But watching your joy setting up your first tank reminds me of how much we loved ours. It was a very cool video. :)

As an aquarium hobbyist, I really enjoyed watching this, and I don't think your tank looks shitty at all! The plants will fill out soon enough and things will look even better! You are such a good hobbyist/pet owner when it comes to doing research and creating the best environment possible for your animals, I'm excited to watch this new journey for you. Enjoy!

Floating plant is Duckweed, it's hard to get rid of after introduced (try salvinia or red root floaters instead).The moss plants are most likely java moss and subwassertang. Rooted plants look like jungle val, some crypt species, rotalla species indica, pogostemon stellatus octopus, and bacopa. with the rotalla (red plant in back) you can cut them in half when they grow to tall and replant the top portion back into the substrate. Big tweezers will help with planting allowing you to put the plant roots deeper down into the substrate without disturbing the nutrient layer under the sand. I think it looks good, but I would caution putting a beta fish in with shrimp. It can be done but they might enjoy snacking on them. Best of luck, I cant wait to see the aquarium progression!

Looks good! You can use long tweezers to plant more easily in the substrate, and I would also make the front gravel more flat so it looks even at the front window and climbs up as a slope to the back. You can use superglue to fasten the moss to the rocks. The first moss you added is java moss which likes to climb on stuff. The second and third blob of moss is susswassertang, which doesnt really attach to anything, and will float around a bit, but gives great cover for your shrimp. I would advise to put a nylon stocking/sock over the filter intake, to avoid your baby shrimp being sucked up into the filter. When you add branches, boil them or soak them first so they dont float when you put them in (java moss loves to climb on that too) I would also add some smaller staying plants to the front of the tank, this will give cover for the shrimp to go more towards the front of the tank. For the floating plants, use the tubing system you made to keep an area free of them instead of trying to catch them with it, it will be easier to manage. Adding a piece of black paper or cardboard on the back glass gives it more sense of depth and will make the colours of your animals pop inside the tank

I would really advice you to use a top piece and a foam mat (or at least also paint the ends of the pieces of wood) under the tank to avoid the wood expanding and cracking your tank. Nothing is sadder than finding dry fishes and water on the floor

So just a bit of a tip when it comes to maintaining your aquarium 😁 When you clean your filter wash the media and foams in the tank water you’ll syphon out, if you wash them underneath your tap water the chlorine will kill all the essential bacteria and cause major water quality issues! Also with the Shrimp they need a stable KH and GH, if you are using RO water then you can get buffers to add into the water to help with that or you can get supplement foods, this will help with their shedding. The Snails can become a pest, they don’t stop breeding 😂 once you have one, you most likely have 20 on the way so be prepared for that! I’ve worked in an Aquarium for 7+years and also studied this at college, so it’s solid advice 💪🏼

Great Tank! The learning never stops :) Just keep in mind that if a fish can fit in their mouth they will...Some betta's are great hunters of shrimp. Not saying the one you acquire will be a shrimp killer, but be aware that they can be. So have a plan B in mind if you want to keep all those lovely shrimps alive (just in case). I'm excited to see your aquarium grow! Thank you for another wonderful video. I'm sure there are a bunch of helpful tips in these comments.

This is awesome I've been in the aquarium hobby for a long time and for your first tank you should be proud it was awesome to watch you set up your first aquarium

Glad you have a fish tank now too! Lots of thoughts but two that I don't see mentioned elsewhere in the comments: Check the intake of the filter is small enough that the shrimp won't get sucked up. Also, try to avoid tapping on the glass, it stresses the fish.

Petko, I know nothing about aquariums but your excitement and proudness has made my day. I'm sure there are plenty of helpful replies, I'm just here to say I think you're great. One of the best RU-vidrs out there. 😁

Looks good! for the shrimps, theyre neocardinas, you might want to get a small "sponge filter" for your intake tube. the intake can suck up some of the smaller or baby shrimps into your filter. Also the neons will probably go after them sometimes, but with all that moss they should have some good hiding spots :)

Excellent first tank! I love your old style method to cycle it with meat and snails, always how I do it 😅 The lil plants you have in the corners growing slow are cryptocorynes, they do take a while to fully settle and grow, sometimes they might melt back as well so don’t be alarmed if you lose some leaves at any point :) Look forward to more from this!

The neons where breeding in the moss! At 20:45 you can see a baby fish fry swimming by the right of the shrimp!!

Your aquarium turned out very nice and I am happy that you like the plants and shrimps I have sent you 😊 I hope they will breed well and I am sure you will have a lot of fun with them 😉😊

Those stem plants will grow roots all over. But only should be planted into the substrate on the bottom side (you can see which side is the top by where the new leaves are forming). Aquatic plants are very cool, since they can get nutrients from the water column (hence why the roots are all over). Stem plants can easily be cut and the cutting planted, whenever they grow too long. Loved watching this, especially because you clearly did a lot of research before starting. Can't wait to see you set up more aquariums!

I'm not an expert, but I heard that you should quarantine your animals for 2 weeks before adding them in the aquarium with other animals. But it looks like it turned out ok. Awesome aquarium!

The shrimp are so cute! I have loaches, though, so I don't think they would survive in my tank😅 The loaches are great for cleaning up snails, it's one of their favorite snacks! We had a snail infestation when putting new plants in and I loved listening to the loaches clicking happily away at night while they hunted them all down. One night and we had a snail free aquarium and very happy loaches!

I think the aquarium looks great Petko. The shrimp are so cool looking!!!

Awesome you showed fishless cycling and the need for cycling, sadly soo many do not know. With axolotls the RO water needs remineralisation and the GH and KH is affected as well. The leaves are Indian Almond leaves, really good water conditioner and general health care. Add one at a time. Great job

good stuff!! love seeing how well you set it up and the joy on your face doing something new that you enjoyed!! ❤️

Pretty sweet aquarium. The shrimps are cute! I don't know anything about aquariums and the few that I have had in the past didn't last long. I bet listening to the water flow out of the pump is peaceful though

Honestly, yeah I’m cringing a little bit but also smiling very much. It’s so relieving to see someone new to the hobby do stuff correctly, you got real plants, that’s amazing, you know about the bacteria cycle and waited weeks before putting fish, also amazing. You did some research about the fish and the water quality and parameters. I wouldn’t except less from you because you already keep many animals but it’s just amazing to see I think you can understand that feeling. Congratulations on your aquarium

Literally living my dream right now, tank looks amazing 😍😍

Nice Aquarium! Some comments already said the import stuff to improve: 1. Bind the moss with a cotton string on the rocks. The moss will grow on the rocks and the cotton will dissolve afer a few weeks. 2. Put a sponge on the input of the filter. It will prevent the shrimps (and mostly their offprings) to get sucked in by the filter. 3. The Bladder snails may be "overtake" (I never thought of them as a problem) its up to your pesonel taste. If you think there are to many of them, put them in the waterpart of your vampire crap enclosure, they will eat them. This may be my opinion, but I think a Betta (I assume you mean Betta splendens) isn't the best community fish. He will try to drive out the Neon tetras but won't succeed. In the end all fish will be stressed and results in a shortened life span. Anyways, a Betta will eat baby shrims and freshly shedded shrimps. Sorry if my english isn't perfect. It's not my mother language but I hope you guys can understand me. ^^

Hey Petko ✌️the Aquarium look‘s great. I would recomend a Filter Sponge around the suction pipe of the AQ Filter , it will prevent Baby Shrimps from ending up in the Filter . 👌Stay cool Dude, love your Channel.

If you ever get over run with snails,you can always add one or two assassin snails for crowd control

You did an amazing job at research!happy to see😍 I know opinions are different on that one..but bettas should be kept alone as they are really sensitive to stress and see other fish as potential rival...in case you're planing to put him in with the neons.. 😅 in regards to the snails ..an aquarium has only as much Snails as it needs ..they only breed according to the food offer inside the aquarium ..meaning if you have to many snails you feed too much ..the best way to control em is to only feed as much as the fishes can eat in a few minutes so that not too much food falls to the ground😊 Allright threw in my two cents ..looking great for your first aquarium 😍

I suggest a container under the filter. If the filter ever develops a leak, it will leak into the container before flooding the floor. This way you can spot it without a flood hopefully. Safety net.

awesome to see you trying out aquariums petco. Quick tip though, acrylic/plastic used for your lid will absorb water and will bow over time.

Wonderful first attempt. Aquariums are a lot like T's. One is never enough. It is obvious you have done much research as you always do. Thank you for sharin.

an idea for plants is the anubias. they are low growing. they crawl sideways and if you feel they get too big you can just break one in two and move them around where you want them. they look great in the front of the aquarium, and they flower very nicely like peace lilies. also the moss will attatch to roots and such so you can make lava rocks or roots look like underwater mountains with growth on them. the anubias can do the same. you push the base stem into a crack of a peace of wood and it'll stay like that and keep growing

Awesome ! The Beta is going to be happy to live there with all the little friends :)

Love seeing when hobbyists cross over for even one project. Antscanada did a project similar to this for the first time aswell that was amazing.what would be super cool is a dark den - green aqua colab 👍they are a Aquascape shop and channel in Budapest.

Gonna be so cool seeing this evolve over time. The more variety in the tank the better!

You’re amazing man - really love your enthusiasm ✌️

Thank you langlang for the plants and shrimps ! Had so much fun watching Petko planting the gifts =)

Oooh I love your aquarium Petko! It looks nice. I wanted to make my own for awhile though cant right now. Thats cool too, the shrimp fish and snails.

I would recommend getting some assas snails to get rid of those pest snails. Other than that if you need any pro tip let me know. Pozdrav sa Brača

Feel like you might need a solid base under that aquarium, glass tends to crack over time if there's too much pressure on top and nothing to support underneath. Tends to be a piece of polystyrene or similar on top of that too to allow for descrepencies in the sheet

Very nice 👍🏻 it's great as long as you're having fun and enjoying it and of course as long as the cute little inhabitants are enjoying their home as well 🖤

Every year we raise a few of our fish from our garden ponds here in the UK (me and my partner) I've never shipped animals but if ever you'd like to raise a goldfish or koi from an egg for the channel please let us know :) it's great to see something new on your channel, I think yours is the only channel I've watched every single week since I found it, so you are doing something right. Much love to you and your family and all the Beasties in the dark den :)

I love the new shrip kingdom! So lush and beautiful!

The aquarium is adorable. Love it!

Well crap. You've inspired me Petko! 😂 It's been a hot minute since my last tank, but your set up is so great, I'm keen to get back into it! (Time to harrass my other half 😂) Fantastic first set up! 😙👌🏻

Nice to see you get into this! This is a great hobby to be in!

Your first aquarium looks awesome! My very first tank looked a lot like yours and I always loved Neon Tetras. Now, years later, my partner and I have a huge 120 gallon saltwater tank with tropical fish and coral, which is a LOT of work, so not for everyone. But regardless, I love the fish hobby and it definitely is addictive. Looking forward to future updates. :-)

Wow I'm so excited for your Betta fish keeping. I will wait for your next vlog for that 🐟❤️

My advise is.."keep it simple".no need to stress out.do not complicate things..you're doing fine.next time use your long forceps when planting.it is much easier...and keep in mind that those shrimps will be at risk to be eaten if you add a betta fish.

I sure do hope the aquarium works out for you! They seem pretty easy at first but there can be so many complications. Especially with a "planted" tank. Really hope it turns out well! Looks great! In my opinion, scrap the beta fish and get a bigger school of neon tetra! Keep up the amazing videos!

Very nice setup and epic video. Was time you get the Aquarium running.... Is an awesome hobby to and fit's perfect in to the Dark place 😂👌

Been waiting for this update! Miss the good vids man!

That was so much fun to watch. Hope you didn't get too much grief from more experienced aquarium keepers. To me it looks great, but I don't know anything about them either.

I don't know much about aquariums but they have always fascinated me. Yours looks amazing, so lush and colorful! Maybe add a skull? 👀🙈 I wish I could go to the expo and meet you, but I don't live in Europe, sadly. Best of luck with your aquarium and with the expo!!! It's always a blast to watch your videos and your DIY persona =)

pretty amazing for a first try! wish I have your ability to build things :D awesome!

4:34 - a massive box of texture!

I think it’s awesome I love that your versatile in your hobbies ❤️

How adorable, they are so tiny! You did an amazing job! You are being so modest its beautiful! 🥰😂 lol! shrimp business!

I've been keeping fish for almost 20 years and I still get excited seeing up a new tank, no matter the size.

I suggest getting a pair of aquascaping tongs.. They look like the tongs you use to feed your tarantulas but have a much narrower beak so that they can penetrate the substrate better coz they're mostly used for planting..

You should watch Floo the flowerhorn on YT. He feeds his shrimp all kinds of veggies. They love it!

Someone's been watching the King of DIY 😆 Nice scape, you can tie the moss to the rocks using sting. It's nice to see you getting into fish. I've been subbed since you was doing the channel from your living room ☺️

Im actually waiting for another aquarium video :D! One question, did you make the aquarium it self ? siliconed the glasses? if yes is there any specified glass or silicon that needs to be used in aquariums, i expect a yes for the silicon, like in your tarantula enclousers you put special silicon but im not sure, probably i could search it on youtube but i would really like your advice, awesome video and thank you for giving us amazing content.

I really missed those DIY videos - great Times man great Times :) The Aquarium looks great hoope its not the online one hahaha :) PS: You should bridge back the "main, main" ambient TDD music i didn't heard it in a loooooong time. Best regards to You and Maya stay safe bro, Cheers!

i didn't see anyone mentioning it, you should add a leveling matt under your aquarium to disperse the weight, it will prevent the aquarium from cracking in the future

You did a great job Petko! 👏👏👏👏👏

This is so helpful. I had the exact same idea. I am currently making an Aquarium out of scrap glass. I am planning to have a Betta and couple of neon tetras. 😅

Nice i have a 55ltr (14gal) freshwater tank aslo incase not aware betta's don't like a big flow there fins are heavy so swimming is quite hard for them and make sure they have natural air entering tank as betta's have a labyrinth organ so they like to surface for air

One more tip! When getting fish from someone else, don't pour the water from the bag into your tank. It can throw off your tanks chemicals. 💜 we have 4 tanks, soon to be 5. Definitely a learning curve as you go!

Super excited for you!