BOY have I had a rough few months, blame it on multiple debilitating preschool-related illnesses. I'm being dramatic. Or am I? What do you think, did the dry start method end of working alright? I sure think so. Tank balancing and algae control is my next challenge, and I'll be doing it with some livestock in the next video on this. Can you guess which species I'll put in there? Thanks for watching, guys!
Your tank is gorgeous! Axolotls would be cool in there❤ We're lucky to go 2 weeks without someone being sick. My son's in Pre-K, and daughter's in kindergarten, plus going to church. We have a wide range of places to get illnesses.
Taylor, what a great job with this set up. I have been waiting to see how it went with all of the stock you acquired over the past year and now, thank you. Really really nice, God bless.
@@annasensee8132 I feel your pain, it's been one thing after the other here. I have a pre-k and a 1st grader and I get EVERY big they bring home. Mom solidarity.
For someone who used to be unsure of their aqauscaping skills, this is just flat out beautiful. Incredible setup! Expensive but worth it. The algae kinda makes it look even more lived in. I don't have the patience and too much time on my hands for a dry start but this kind of makes me want to give it a try. Can't wait to see what you add to it. So many possibilities. I don't know if you've ever kept Apistos but I think you'd fall in love with them. I also think this would be a perfect place for a couple gobies.
Thanks, I appreciate it! Def. spendy, but getting everything over a few years vs all at once really helped. And thanks for the suggestions, I've never had apistos or gobies
So, to make your bio blocks extra effective, I recommend drilling small holes all the way through them. It will greatly increase the area that water is continuously in active contact with the beneficial bacteria. This tip also works great with lava rock. You will 100% notice the difference in water quality and clarity in doing this. Also, you earned a new subscriber today. Your content is awesome.
I'm gonna vote for a massive school of Pygmy Corydoras because the hover like hummingbirds and like to perch on plants and hardscape. And they're adorable. The more of them there are the safer they feel too. I have a betta with mine in 16 gallons and when there's at least 10 they can always find a couple of friends to swim around with even when the betta is being all agro.
That would be so cute! I'm still toying with ideas, I really like the idea of a group of schooling fish like a tetra, a handful of minnow-y fish to flit around, but also shrimp :) So much to choose from
I've been following this tank idea from the conception and it's so cool to see it finally complete minus the fish. You did a great job with the plants and the perspective of the layout. It looks super rad 👌
Really like the look of your tank. I'll have to check your planting video again. Seeing the emersed growth makes me want to start a terrarium with some of these. Really enjoyed the editing as well as the dorkiness/geekiness. It's really noticeable that it's a passion project. LOTR for life!
Absolutely love this entire video, an incredible piece of content. An overall an awesome tank in the end. I love how it came out and am super jealous of the fert dosage pump and lighting setup. Thanks for sharing all of this.
A gorgeous tank, and I love all the effort you put into setting it up. For hiding the wires I'd probably just have an open backed stand next to the tank, and hide the wire box inside of it. Would also help with safety 😅 Electricity on the floor next to an aquarium always makes me nervous. Anyway, you could hide the wires inside furniture and then have a plant on something on the stand so it won't look out of place.
We use the same material for our 300 Lake Malawi tank. We cut 4 rectangle holes, then secured the cut outs with velcro. That way we don't have to left an 8ft lid all at once. ❤ Not that you needed to know that.
Wow! That turned out absolutely fabulous. I'm in agreement with you about bracing the floor, peace of mind is priceless, and 10 years from now your know for a fact you're floor won't be sinking at all in that area of your house. Can't wait to see what you stock this beautiful, mythical, mysterious tank with. 👍❤️👍
I think the algae looks pretty cool in it 😂 but I can understand the frustration of doing all that work and then algae showing up. Can’t wait to see what inhabitants you choose!
Wow, it's beautiful!! Such a lovely tank. We will be looking forward to your updates! Glad you are feeling better. Maybe for the wires and canister a custom wood box that matches the stand with an access door either on top or the front. Maybe a little LED light strip to light it up in there. And whatever livestock you put in, I think the color should stand out against the forest, and something should be in there that makes use of the trees/wood (shrimp or plecos) but not little shrimp. Maybe like bamboo or vampire shrimp and a vibrant colored pleco. Then some vibrant colored fish that like to school so it looks like a swarm moving through the forest. Regardless of what goes in there I know it will be awesome. Your ideas are always cool. Thanks for the share!
This tank will be epic! - one tip for using auto dosers - put a note in your calendar to check the hose pipes every 6 months or so. They can get brittle - and crack - as I found out, when I saw fertilizer dripping out of the bottom of my pride and joy hand made cabinet! - not a fun thing to clean up and can get everywhere! The pipes on my setup were more than two years old - but it was never something I thought to check before!
It would be so cool to see a bunch of different loach species, kuhlis, pandas, dwarf chain exploring this set up with a bunch of shrimp. Pair that with a few schools of tetras or Danios and it'd look like a dream!
Good idea about the bracing, excellent piece of mind! First video I have watched, subscribed! Love your energy! And this scape is amazing! Keep the videos comin!
Yaaaasss! The next vid in my favourite fangorn forest series has dropped! Been waiting for this for so long 😊 The tank is looking spectacular! I'm in awe every time I see your beautiful masterpiece 🥰 Not sure what fishies you plan on populating the tank with, but I've got my fingers crossed that either a rainbow unicorn betta (because every dark and mysterious forest needs a unicorn) or an ominous looking crown tail betta (for that spooky look) will be one of the residents here. I simply can't wait for the next vid now!
I just found your channel and I really like this Fangorn Forest scape. Looking really nice, the wooden-scape is beautiful. But what really brought my attention is this industrial SUMP-setup. I´ve never seen this where you can buy the plastic pieces and apply them as you need. My Sump, and all sumps i´ve known are basically another aquarium (glass-made) underneath the main project. I´m from São Paulo, Brazil, and thank you for your content.
Has anyone seen Taylor lately? I'm worried she went back down into the crawl space to hang out with Gollum!🤣 I actually love the way this looks as a mossy mess, makes it look more mature and spooky. Buuuut i can see why people dont want their paid to plant greenery getting choked out in the process. It's coming along great, can't wait 'til the next update!
This is coming along great!!! It is beautiful and magical. I can't wait to see all the plants mature and fill the tank. You are doing fantastic with it all. I enjoy watching your progress. ☺️
Looks fantastic. I love that moss you pained on. The plant Lobelia (S-B) sounds good for a Tolkien theme tank :). I can see Treebeard wandering about in that tank. It has a very Fanghorn vibe.
For cable management you can get a large basket or decorative hamper and put a hole on the back for the wires. I did something similar and have a smaller hide for my internet modem and router.
Wow what a setup! Love all of the plant growth, the moss came in magically! To hide your CO2 and cables, get some wood or white pvc garden materials (where you got the lid) and build a tiny cabinet to match the white stand! Or… thrift a small cabinet and gut it to fit your needs.
I absolutely love your content! This tank is exquisite! The nervous nelly in me wants you to install a CO2 monitor, just in case you do have a leak. CO2 is an asphyxiant, and can kill you before you know anything. Though this is a very small tank and I assume the room isn't "sealed". Also, you may or may not have installed one already and it is none of my business. Just the safety person in me! (I deal with CO2 at work, and the safety is in my face there every day) Thanks so much for the awesome content! Also, please just do what you are comfortable with. I am always just the most nervous person at my work and over think things sometimes. Also, someone may have already gave this recommendation, so disregard if that is the case! Or even just disregard anyway!
I started filling up a new tank today. It’s a pie shape. I put a circle of lava stones as big as I could get in the tank as the area to plant my Anacharis Elodea. The first thing I bought for this tank. I also added Java fern, and Ludwigia. I managed a hole in about 10 gallons today. I was having to wait until I had bought some sand to My fluval stratum. I put in one fish that likes to jump out of the fish tank. The only one I have that does that thing. In the tank a half an hour after I filled it up for my test fish. All my water is rain water that runs through a reverse osmosis system. The entire bottom inside and outside of a circle of lava rocks are very tiny lava rocks. Yes, I spent ages sorting through my love of rocks to get all three sides of I rinse them in a metal colander and I boil off the water so I can have the red sand, when I need to crazy glue stuff to cover up the white of the crazy glue when it cures. I find that the base layer of lava in my tanks second layer substrate third layer black sand really gives me a good planting medium and also very stable parameters.
Oh the dry start worked so well! The atomizer and fans obviously functioned beautifully! I have no idea what you will add other than some neat shrimp? Maybe you can choose some fish based upon their resemblance to sturdy and diminutive hobbits or a fish with flowing finnage like wizard robes, perhaps juvenile long finned green plecos that resemble elves for stealth and grace, perhaps something menacing like orks too but perhaps predators would be bad for a community tank? I have so enjoyed this tank and I think its intense the sump/pump/fertilizer/alert/overflow support system you have put together! I have no time for such complexity. Sponge filters are my limit currently. Would love evil driftwood tank update to see if the spooky crabs survived. Maybe you added some disturbing albino blind fish that look like zombies.
@@SimplyBetta 9 black bettas 😱😱😱. Or betta, one white betta! And alot of black shrimp or jade green ones 🤩. Well but the betta would probably eat them. Looking foreward to what it will be!
As someone who does daily dosing manually with multiple tanks- that dosing pump will be a godsend! I got sick in November/December and didn't keep up with my dosing schedule, and I'm just now managing to get on top of the algae again.
That's something a lot of people don't get; Your tanks likely suffered from the nutrient deficiency of a few specific nutrients, which caused plant photosynthesis to drop off, and the more frugal and efficient algae to have less competition, such that at least some of every nutrient that allows them to breed and grow was available. I was thinking Simply Betta should have taken the opposite approach and not fed nutrients into the tank before the plants were adapted to the newly submerged state. There should be more than enough nutrients to feed the plants in the initial water fill for a few weeks (unless of course she used pure or mostly RO water, or her water is very soft).
@@WhatIsMisophonia It's my experience that newly submerged plants need plenty of nutrition along with plenty of water changes- it's when you can't do both that plants suffer. Thanks for your input!
Some small shrimp for clearing excess algae will good. Main fish like halfmoon betta will nice, and give some neon tetra or some guppy to make more color and lively.
Ever since I found out your Penny from RWBY a few months ago all I see is Penny aquascaping and instead of Swords its a bunch of tools for aquariums. Also I love the tank! Geek up the fantastic work!!
Off topic.. but for me you’re the real life Dr.Kepner from Grey’s Anatomy 😩❤️ (Edit): not just bc of looks.. but also how fun, bubbly and your attitude and gestures ❤❤❤
This tank is an absolute gem, I will never reach this level but I'm happy with my two aquariums. I think I'll look for more information about the app-related technologies because it seem like saving a lot of time and effort. Giving you a hug from Italy! Speaking about fish...Idk, maybe some black guppy will keep the "dark and forest-y" mood, but I'm not a fish expert.
Thank you! There is absolutely no need to reach this level, by the way. I'll do it for the both of us. :) I've really been enjoying using technology to make my life a little easier every day!
I find using water from a tank that you have Co2 and other added nutrients in your spray bottle for your dry start works super good, especially for monticarlo. Also, that plastic ball valves. If you close it, and use a q-tip to put some Vaseline on the inner valve, after open and closing it a few times open it and pull a rag through to get the excess. Boom, its now better then the metal one as far as ease! Also, watch your impellers! Galvanic corrosion is a problem when you have diffrent metals working in the same water bodies! You may want to look into a better plastic solution, or at least make sure all metals are the same!
Also, for hiding your canister and Co2 tank! Look into a cat box hideaway! Esecially the ones the access holes on top! Swap the hinges to make bit so you can open the lid backwards, with the hole being closest to your tank and so your hoses can come out the top and you can open it to service and store stuff in! These instructions require a lot of imagination because I can share a picture via RU-vid 😂
I'm convinced the aquarium factory glued that particular ball valve in the open position just to mess with me! Thanks for the tips :) The hinge lid box idea sounds like a good one, I'll have to do some brainstorming!
Definitely a bummer about the co2 bottle leak. As far as power and routing, you should have a seperate hole (not the one the water pipes use) to route power internal to the cabinet. If you don't then I'd recommend mounting it where it cannot be dripped on (maybe the wall?) and just attach it to somewhere you can easily get to. Looking forward to hearing about the dosing setup.
OMG I Love it! I have been waiting for this update.. I'm not hating some of that algae on the trees either. Thank you for the fun video. Hope to see you at Aquashella in Dallas! 😃
FYI for anyone starting to get into this hobby and feeling overwhelmed watching this, don't be, this isn't what the average tank can or needs to be. It's an more showcase setup, a dream goal of what you can do, if budget isn't a problem and you want to go all out. More than half the shit she has done and purchased/ gotten sponsored for in this tank is unnecessary, you can save so much money and time while still having a gorgeous looking low maintenance planted tank, even for one of this size. There are many guides and places you can go to on RU-vid and the internet to do this.
Oh totally, I try to stress that too. This is my one "fancy" tank that's completely for my own pleasure and is the centerpiece of my living space (and is the only tank allowed in the house, hah!), and I had to gather all this equipment and hardscape over a few years. Most of my other videos are low tech and also perfectly awesome, don't feel discouraged people
Even with the algae it already looks soo cool! I can't wait for the day I own a house so I can set up an aquascape without having to worry about moving.
Sorry to hear you got sick. Other than the algae, it looks fantastic! I finally moved my forest scape from the 40g breeder to a 47g rimless and have over 100 cherry shrimp and 20 CPDs in it. Your wood choice is so much better than mine! LOL! I don't have a sump, but I am putting an ATO system in and I've been thinking of an audo doser too.
Glad to see the tank progressing Taylor! I'm setting up a fourth reef tank at the moment. I'm sure the algae is just so excited for the impending invasion🤨. PEOPLE! This has been up for four hours and there are only 350 likes...... Lets goooooooooooooo!!!!!!!!! Cheers, Chris
Idea for hiding the CO2 canister and the cords and whatnot. Put up a little curtain on the left side of your stand. Voila, no more cannister or cords... This project is coming along nicely. Can't wait to see what you decide to stock in Fangorn. Personally, I think a nice hearty group of Celestial Pearl Danios, White Cloud Minnows or Green Neon Tetras would be awesome. Possibly a couple shrimp of the Amano or Cherry variety. I need to get back into aquariums. I want to keep some Apistos so badly. I think they're beautiful fish.
Haha I like that idea, sounds easy :P What to stock in here has been a tough decision, but I think I've done it! I have my fish ordered and on the way, I'm stoked
