THE *AMAZING* EAST v WEST AQUASCAPES - 180 DAY UPDATE

Vote for your favourite, East versus West. You all right? Yeah, I'm good, thanks. Yeah, I just think these are looking really good. Well, they need some maintenance, actually. Yes, who does that? You? Most of it, yeah. The guys help me out as well. So, yeah, I do a lot of the intact maintenance. You do the actual kind of trimming of the plants, don't you? Yeah, mostly, the most part, yeah. Yeah. So just to remind the viewers, this is called Connection because we're connecting East and West. So all plant species from the East, Asia mainly, and then mostly plants from the Americas, from the West. Yep. And I just thought it was a really cool concept. You did it, how long ago was it now? Six months, wasn't it? I think it was six months almost, six months now. Yeah. And yeah, I think quite tech scapes, they kind of get to their peak around six months, don't they? Yeah, that's probably looking as good as it ever has right now. Love this stuff coming out the top. This is crazy. It took a while to get going, you know, and I never thought it was going to do it. Yeah, but now once it's going, yeah. So this is Hydrocotyle lucifala, which Pennywort, Brazilian Pennywort, yeah. And you can see it's absolutely brutal, like taking stuff over, which is really cool. It's a different texture that you normally see, isn't it? With the really strong lighting, it gives you that more layered texture. It's going a bit wild as well, but you get that kind of layered growth pattern. So it's pretty cool. Yeah, it's amazing. And they are very different. I mean, they're both triangular kind of layout, but they are very different. I think it's pretty cool to see. Yeah, definitely. The hardscape compositions and the different plant species. Generally goes like that. Yeah. And then down again. But the plants are what make them completely different, all the different textures it has. Yeah, let's talk about plants actually. So I think we mostly used Tropica in here, didn't we? Yeah, if not all Tropica. Yeah, and this is obviously, well not obviously, this was a Scapelline 90. Lighting. Hyperbar by Skylight. OK, these are good, aren't they? Yeah, this is the Hyperbar 75 XL, it's called. Nice. Not bad. Really good colour rendition, good build quality. Good price? Yeah, it's 375, so it's for a 9cm light. That's not bad. Especially fully app controlled as well. Yeah, that's pretty cool. It's pretty good, yeah. Yeah, so back onto the plants. So foreground, we've got a classic one of Hairgrass. I actually like the way the moss is kind of probably exterminated by accident, but it looks good. I keep siphoning it away, but I actually quite like it in there. I don't like, yeah, I don't like to see like a monoculture. It's nice to have a bit of a different texture. I have to say, what a great fish selection. Is that Ty's idea, by any chance? Yeah. They're really brave as well. You don't normally see Pentazones of ice being so brave. No, I was straight surprised as well. You can't feed them when they come up to the top. Can we feed them now? What are you feeding these days? Er, what? NT Lurks, is it? Yeah, so Praguartic, usually go for. Yeah, nice. Pretty good. They're crazy. There we go. Nice. I'm going to realise it's there. Normally they're straight up to the top. Yeah, probably a bit. Because you're there. Yeah, look at my camera shot here. There we go. But yeah, great, great, great addition. Definitely an Asian fish as well. All right, it's like, it suits it. Yeah, it really, really suits. Like, the plants behind it are subtle, but nice. Yeah. So we've got the Aerocanon here now. I love this plant. I've loved this plant for ages, actually. It's really, really good. Rotala Green, is that? Yeah, Rotala Green. And the Limnophila. Hipporoides. I was hoping this would go more red, you know. It hasn't under this light for some reason. So maybe you need to change the setting. Is that a spectrum thing? Possibly, yeah. Yeah. And then we've got the beautiful Swallowed Babes at the moment. The Cryptoporinus virus red. Yeah, it's a lovely plant. Really, really popular. Yeah, it's going to be. Yeah, a real good seller. Hodgepodge Vertecolata. This is doing well. Yeah, this is nice. I remember you kind of rubbed that on initially, didn't you? Yeah. I didn't really see it for a while. Nice. Beautiful. Yeah, it's like a nice cushion. I watched a video. My friend Myles is a teacher, a school teacher. He's really into, like, Japanese gardens. And he sent me a link. The first variety spreads across the grounds. And there's this moss garden on YouTube. Oh, nice. It's like massive pillows. You think they're rocks, but they're just, like, the rocks are really small. And then the mounds of moss around it, they just lay into them and lie down and sleep on them. Yeah, brilliant. Yeah, I tried it at the crypts. Yeah, that's their crosses. Spruce Philandra. Oh, yeah. Where are they? There's one there. Oh, yeah. Is that the red? Yeah, I think it is. Because I've got this sorted all of blue now. Have you had any of that in stock yet? It's coming in today. Is it? Yeah. Yeah, it's beautiful. We've got about 25 pots. We also have a popular one, that. Oh, great, yeah. Oh, that's beautiful. And so what maintenance then? A weekly water change? Yeah, a weekly water change down to about here. Clean the glass. Pipe work if needed. Filters are done every couple of weeks with the pre-filter still. Oh, you've got the Aussie on this one, have you? Yeah. Is that the 850? Yeah. And you swapped the media for Matrix? Yeah, we just put a bit more bio-media in there just to bulk it out for long term. So it's sort of taste on that one, really, what you prefer. Yeah. And then obviously trimming the plants where needed. So I need to siphon up some of this moss this week. Might trim over the Rotala a bit and the Limno filler. Just tidy things up. Fertilisers? Yeah, APT 3 complete. OK, is that what you're using on everything this time? Yeah, we have been for a couple of years now. Yeah, good results. Thank you. Perfect. A bit expensive though, isn't it? It is more expensive. You know, when something works, it works. We have found a lot less green spot algae and it's a bit leaner and I think better formulated for our high-tech stuff. That's interesting. So does that contain nitrogen phosphorus? Yeah, it does. I think it has lower amounts than some of the other fertilisers that we used to use. It's good that you're stocking it. I mean, to our aquarists, obviously, he knows what he's talking about. I think when something works and if you pay a little bit more for it, even if it's 20% more, then it saves you a lot of time in a way. Yeah, yeah. Proven performer. Yeah. Let's move on to the West classic. Look, Lidwigia. Yeah, Lidwigia Mini Super Reds. Super Reds. Is that Cuba? Yeah, Hemianthus callitrichoides Cuba. So we just used it as an epiphyte on the skate. It's basically glued on a wedge steerage, isn't it? That's amazing. I find because it's so close to the light near the top, it just looks better than it does on the floors. Yeah, yeah. Get that really compact growth. Access to CAT. Some nice mosses. Is that North American moss? Or is that a new kind of chunk? Cheated a little bit. Cheated a little bit, yeah. A lot of artistic mosses, so that's OK. Yeah, we'll ignore that one. I imagine there's some invasive mosses in America. It's on the market as well. Yeah, yeah. It's tender as that one. Yeah, yeah. It's there, but I like the way you kind of carry it like that. Yeah, there's a little bit of deficiency in some, but it's growing pretty well overall, to be honest. I think I wouldn't be surprised if that could be... Have you got a monoshrimp in there? There will be, I can't see any right now, but there definitely are. Sometimes they eat plants, you know, when they get really hungry. Monte carlos do, doesn't he? Don't they? He's a good old shrimp, that. Yeah, shrimp's breeding, obviously. Oh, we've got the, you know, the film in the back. Yeah, so what happened with that is, it's looking pretty sorry for itself right now, but the undergrowth got really, really stemmy and leafy. Oh, OK. All the leaves fell off lower down, so I chopped it right down to the floor. Yeah. So there's just stems and no leaves left. And what happens a few weeks later, all those leaves start to pop out again. Oh, that's interesting. Yeah, it looked horrible to begin with, but it's coming back, and that's good. A lot of people struggle with that plant, especially in hot water. It does love, like, a lot of light. I love the contrasts, but they're both, you know, both clearly nature aquarium style, aren't they? So it's nice to showcase, you know, different, obviously different species. Yeah, it's been handy in the shop as well, because we can just refer to, we've got two tanks we can refer to as Asian and American plants, so it sort of helps us. Yeah, yeah. We like this kind of connecting wood. A lot of people are, you know, attracted to that. It's quite cool. It's different. It's novel, isn't it? It's not novelty. You can grow an even set of water. You can grow hydroponics. Yeah, of course you can, yeah. Yeah, and this one, this is the gracilis, is it? Yeah, gracilis, yeah. So this is actually, yeah, much prefers growing out of water than under water. It does, yeah. It's not part of the baltary family. It actually struggles, I think, in the long term. We deliberately chose it for that reason, because we know it's wonderful to grow out of water. I know, that's amazing, mate. I've got, what filter is on there? Eheim? Oh, I've got Oase. I've got Oase on that one as well, yeah. Oh, nice. About 50-50 in here between the wires. Oh, OK. Obviously, I happen to have Oase. And then, obviously, CO2. Yeah, I've got a Strideway CO2 regulator. You can see it going through about three or four bubbles a second. Yeah, that's nice. And you've got Tregeros water data. Yeah, which we've just set up, actually, yeah. Sweet. At the moment, it's just got the fertilizer going in there. Cool. Probably put some liquid carbon on there, because it's got a two pump system. What would you do with a liquid carbon? Just a tiny daily dose? Yeah, I'd probably do three or four milliliters in this tank. Yeah? Yeah, just keep those background levels of algae away, really. What would you use? Seachem Flourish XL for that? Yeah, Flourish XL is a good one. Easy Carbo is a good one. And APT Fix is another one we use. OK, interesting. All essentially going to do the same thing. Yeah. That's two channels. That's really interesting, because some people like to dose macro and micro separately as well, don't they? Yeah, there are four. They're doing the AI. Yeah, four channel ones. So you've got your nitrogen, your potassium, and your micro is all separate and that. They're really expanding their range, aren't they? The Cheerios. They've got the Lighten, CT, Rex, Stansys. That light's on their way as well. That light as well. Yeah, their products are good. And then they have got improved massively over the years as well. The quality of them is really quite good now. Yeah, that's good. You haven't had any many returns or drama, Sam? Not yet. Touch wood? Touch wood, yeah. Yeah, because you recently started stocking the Lighten as well, which is good. Yeah, like probably about four months ago or something. Yeah, cool. So is that one on there? Yeah, this is it. Is this the WIGB2 Pro? Yeah, it's the 90. I'm just going to try and find the app now so I can show you that. Yeah, that'd be cool. So this is the app and you can control all of the Cheerios products from here. Can you like the CT, dose down? I don't think I'm doing it right. I've not actually done this before. There is... But if you go on manual... That's it, that's it. Yeah, so now we're off. It's on the fish mode right now. Green, see that changes quite a bit. And then red. Oh, is that gone yet? Boost. And you can obviously do your own settings as well. You can turn the green right off. Yeah, yeah. Oh, you don't want that, obviously, but yeah, you can do it all. It's like those pop-up horticultural lamps, you know, like the purple. Yeah, yeah. That's awesome, mate. I like shrimp, so I'm going to leave on shrimp. Nice. But yeah, I mean, yeah, it's just lovely to see the tanks developing so well. And yeah, you've got the great work. I have to ask the questions to the audience. Which do you prefer? East or West? I won't tell you each one. People might know already, but I don't want any bias. So yeah, vote for your favourite. East versus West. No politics, just scape skills. And then guess who did for each one as well. Yeah, exactly, yeah. Ah, great, man. Really cool. Great, yeah. What else have we got? We can show people. Boy, this is a new one, isn't it? This is a 1200 that you've done relatively recently. Yes, in two months. Two months? Believe it or not. That growth is insane. Probably some of the fastest growing plants we've got in the shop. Is this the Hydrocotyle cephalum? Yeah, it's the new one. That looks amazing. I've never seen it look so nice. A naturally carpeting creeper. Yeah, it's like a giant antigala. Yeah, or even better, like a giant Glossostigma, isn't it? Yeah. The shape of the leaf. Yeah. Mate, that's quite inspirational, because I've seen it at Tropica, but we've never grown it. Oh, really? Yeah, well, we don't have such high energy systems over there, you see. So I imagine it's because of the decent lighting. Much like hard water as well, because... Yeah, I mean, hydroponics are pretty easy, aren't they, on the whole? And then you're using the Brazilian pennywort again. Yeah. It's amazing. I've never grown it before, these two tanks, and now I love it. It's good, isn't it, when you find a new species, and you've tried, and then it's nice to use it in different layouts, and you get... It's another, like, you know, like a chef has his signature dishes and signature kind of ingredients, you know, like as an aquascaper. Yeah, the species are your ingredients, aren't they? You know, they're your different types of paints for your canvas. Yeah, exactly. Oh, that's great, man. Really good. And this is MJ's? MJlingium White. It's just, you know, just running itself now, pretty much. Yeah. Quite popular with all the colour at the top. Yeah. You know, that texture's pretty unique, isn't it? That serrated leaf in the red. Very cool. And this is Pavol's steak. Yeah, Pavol's. Still doing well. This is going a while now. Almost two years as well, actually, isn't it? Yeah. It's a bit wild at the moment. We need to trim that very tightly down. And then this one's obviously going through a water change right now. We'll just find out, yeah. Yeah. Cool, man. Well, I've got to let you go, mate. Thanks so much. Keep up the great work. Where can people find you? Huntingdon, UK. Cool, and then you're on Instagram, Facebook, of course, YouTube. You've got your own YouTube channel. Yeah, check out YouTube for now. Yeah, I'll leave all the appropriate links, mate. Thanks, Dave. Always a pleasure. Take care, everyone. See you on the next one. Cheerio.