Making a Waterfall for My Climbing Fish (Two-Sided Ecosystem)

Ages ago, I was adding some shrimp to one of my aquariums and noticed they loved to climb against running water. There had to be other animals that did the same thing, so I thought it'd be cool to build a habitat just for them. Little did I know, the project would involve a lot of sculpting and meticulous construction, but the end result would be a pair of thriving ecosystems, interconnected and powered by the creatures that live within them. The story starts as soon as I got some space to build it. I've finished tinkering with this massive tank, so suddenly I could put something in front of it as well, because I've always had trouble trying to squeeze more aquariums into this one room. Now this scratched up cube storage thing that I got for free is prime real estate for a new project, because you can see it from down the hall. I've also got a stockpile of old glass from tanks that I've disassembled, so I'm just going to use the biggest piece, which is actually the broken panel from the tank on my windowsill. If I score a line and apply some pressure, I can just trim off the jagged edge. This particular glass box is going to be an unusual shape, partly because I don't want anything too bulky in the doorway, but mostly because you don't see him every day and I think it'll be cool. I've come up with this cutaway design so I can showcase two different water levels connected together, but to build a retaining wall I'm going to need a lot of hardscaping materials. I went to a huge aquascaping warehouse to pick the exact right pieces. It was a bit overwhelming, but the crate of massive grey stones looked the best for building a waterfall, so I sorted through a literal ton of rocks to find the ones with interesting features. Looking at such a variety of shapes sparked a lot of different ideas for the project, but ended up focusing on whichever had already been dramatically shaped by water erosion. It's hard for me to visualise the end product, but with a wide selection and enough patience, something will work. So many days have passed just sitting on the floor playing with big stupid rocks. I keep stacking them in different ways like some kind of 3D jigsaw to figure out how they could fit together, but the best ones are just not matching up with each other. All I know is that I want this natural cradle to be the centrepiece, but it's a bit unwieldy to say the least. If I can reduce its size and weight, it'll be a lot more practical to build around, so I'm looking for weak points like fissures that I can use to my advantage, because if I'm careful with a chisel, I should be able to remove some material without disrupting its best features. There are also these veins of calcite running all the way through that I can tear open if I whack hard enough, which leaves me with loads of fragments. Now I can take smaller pieces and use tissue with glue to build a more usable structure. But if I'm trying to build upwards, I'm going to need something more. The original plan was to build the whole thing out of stone, but I quickly realised it'd be way too heavy, so I made a scaffold out of expanding foam. I put down another layer every few hours and checked if it was high enough to build off. Then a little extra on top meant that I could carve into it without losing support around the rock. The leftover spongy sculpture spreads the pressure across the glass, but mainly it lets me make fine adjustments to get the little plunge pool aligned with where I want the waterline. Once the height and angle were good, it meant the foundation was set. Up above I placed another tier of rock and did some more quick geometry, then slotted the rest of the retaining wall into place. The top edge had to be made precisely level so the water would only flow over certain sections, whereas the bottom I only decorated so it'd look good. At this stage I could actually start to imagine what it might look like when it's done. To activate the epoxy I had to mix it thoroughly, then I had a little bit of time to shape it into the right position before it hardened. I just pushed it into the obvious gaps, mostly around the edges, and covered up the ugly parts with smashed rocks. The caves on one side looked like a good place to hide the electronics, so I ran some tubing through the epoxy with a sponge on one end so it didn't hurt the animals. An inline pump could be hidden under the sand and still move water to the other side, and I put the heater near the floor as well. I have never been so proud of a pile of rocks. I'm surprised I could even come up with this glorified water feature. Now all that was left was to fill it up with water and see my creation in action, but this time wasn't going to be that simple. I can't remember the last time things were simple. Of course there were gaps in the foam, so on both sides there were some pretty serious leaks. A lot of the water was being held back, but even a tiny leak at the bottom could be catastrophic for this setup if the pump ever failed. The weight of the water on one side would push liquid through the hole until the levels equalize and it overflows onto the floor, so I drained it and dried it. I put some silicone on the back and smeared it around to cover up the holes, and just in case I did the seams as well, though it wasn't that pretty. Now to sustain the plants I took some regular soil from the garden and just added water to make a uniform kind of mud. As always I made sure to have a thick layer of sand on top which I added to both sides, and finally I'm siphoning directly from the tank on my windowsill to steal some healthy water with good bacteria. I just caught the moment it trickled down for the first time. Water seems to be flowing through all the right channels, with a pool in the middle and some branches at the sides. The flow is perfect as it trickles over the final step. The day a tank is filled marks the start of its journey, so I now pronounce this system alive. It needs to be a way to absorb waste, so wherever there's a wet patch I can add some moss to filter the water. Clusters of various stem plants and runner plants will go in the back, then a mix of carpeting and floating types in the front, then garnish with some rocks to blend in. Seven different coloured shrimp to track seven different adventures, all into the lower basin so they can get to work while I finish setting up. The Facebook marketplace came through with a gooseneck mount for a light, and it was a good price for something so high powered, but this cheap one up top will do just fine too. Usually people buy a mix of shrimp colours just to have some variety in the tank, but for this experiment I want to be able to track what each individual gets up to, and to begin with it's just a bit of communal grazing. I thought I'd add some snail friends as well. They were understandably disorientated and they seemed to need a little bit of help flipping upright. Like aliens that had just crash landed on another planet, they started to get their bearings in slow motion, before moving on to polish the glass. Now I can leave the whole system alone to let it develop. Wait what? How? A shrimp has escaped, somehow. I wasn't looking for about five minutes and now it's at the top of the cliff, though I think she quickly decided that's not where she wants to be, because for some reason she's already trying to get back down. Her tiny little legs shuffle forward faster than you'd expect. There's no fear, no slowing down. She's obviously got places to be. She stopped to take a breath and contemplate life for a second, before tackling the most dangerous section. Which she gracefully finished off backwards. The shrimp have really settled in, thanks to me starting with water from the established tank. They've been enjoying the edible biofilm that already covers the surface. More than one shrimp has been caught mountain climbing, since their instincts tell them to find a source of the flow. Which in this case, might not be what they expected. This one's carrying fertilised eggs, so it won't be long until she colonises the other half of the aquarium. The plants in the upper basin have spread across the sand, so there's already a dense habitat for microfauna. These limpets are hard at work, scraping algae off the leaves. And even smaller crustaceans carry out their tiny lives everywhere you look. So the jungle has room for a predator. To lurk in the shadows, watching and waiting. And to look good on display. Especially when they emerge together. Small life will sustain itself on leftover fish food, and provide a tasty snack every now and then. The red shrimp can taste the food too, and she knows just what it takes to get some. She worked hard to complete the pilgrimage, and the jungle rewards her. The white shrimp has released her eggs, but the babies are so small I couldn't find any. I only spotted this one after I went to review the footage of the mother. The minnows investigate wherever the food's likely to hide, taking advantage of the early days with a previously untapped food source. Life on and around the waterfall has adjusted nicely, even without any intervention from me, though I do put food in it. There's a quiet war on the algae that covers every surface, and it's fought by some of the animals, but the plants will grow to take up more and more nutrients until they eventually starve the green machine. However, there's a lot of limestone for this volume of water, so the hardness goes up over time as more minerals are dissolved, and that's not great for all species of fish. Unlike a real waterfall, this water gets constantly recirculated over and over, and I'd like for it to be as hands-off as my other tanks, but it does occasionally need some outside help. So for this part of the video, I'm happy to have a paid partnership with BetterHelp. Monitoring the little lives of these animals has always given me valuable time to reflect on my own life, but BetterHelp's platform has helped me build another very positive part of my routine. I didn't even consider I could benefit from therapy until I was recommended it by a friend, and I was really surprised at the impact it had for me to regularly speak with a professional who was really there to listen. All I had to do was fill out a questionnaire, and I was quickly matched with a credentialed therapist who was right for me. Mine was able to identify that I had room for improvement in my work-life balance, and most importantly, they helped me see things from a new perspective. Much like an ecosystem, the mind can benefit from regular maintenance. So click the link in the description, or go to betterhelp.com slash tanks for nothing, and you'll get 10% off your first month of therapy. So now I'm going to drain part of the water, along with whatever algae was on the leaves. I'm also going to do a little bit of cheeky propagation to help the plants cover some extra ground. Lastly, some fresh water, for the final stretch. A lush grove has filled in the shallow basin, and its thick ground cover is full of life. If you spend enough time looking carefully, you'll come across a curious eye looking back. A small gourami that lives alone in the miniature forest. He appreciates the cover of the colourful floating canopy, where he spends his days happily foraging. Though he hasn't noticed I added some friends when he wasn't looking. So understandably, he got a bit confused. It took him a while to figure out what their intentions were, but not before getting a bit flustered. He zoomed around his kingdom, as if to make sure they weren't touching his stuff. Of course, the catfish are totally harmless, but a little bit cheeky by nature. All they want to do is scuttle around being silly together, and I suppose they're also tasting every surface they touch. They grip to everything with their suctiony mouths, but also with the little spines that cover their bodies. The algae was destroyed so quickly, the snails were probably a bit embarrassed. Also, whenever their feeding grounds had been depleted, they migrated to the other side of the tank. Then once it had regrown, they'd return, but never when the lights were on. It's safe to say the ecosystem welcomed the newcomers, even if the gourami was being a bit dramatic at first. The catfish are mostly nocturnal, so one night after dark, I decided to catch them in the act of switching sides. I have to creep closer so they don't know I'm watching, and when they feel safe, it's time to climb. You can see he doesn't know where he's going, but his instincts tell him to go upstream anyway. The last leg of his vertical crawl takes him up to the ridge, where all of his wriggling will pay off, because the summit marks the entrance to greener pastures, a place with new friends and fresh food. Every creature living around the waterfall has its own place that it wants to be, and if they're lucky, they have the mobility to enjoy more than one. Whether they're resting in the darkness of a cave round back, or in a tiny puddle halfway up a cliff, life finds a way if there's reason to be there. Some exist in peaceful isolation, with absolutely no idea what's out there, even if they're part of the same system. They all benefit each other, including the plants and the microfauna, from the biggest fish to the tiniest detritus worm. One of the best things about planted aquariums is that you notice something different every time you look at them. Every angle tells a different story, and when you see all the busy lives working in harmony, you quickly forget about the small scale. I want to say thank you very much to my patrons. You enable me to take risks with adventurous tanks like this one, so thanks for sticking around. You mean a lot to me.