I MADE AN AQUASCAPE FOR A BETTA! Full Step By Step Aquascape Tutorial

Today I'm doing something I haven't done in a very long time. I'm going to set up an aquascape for a betta. I'm excited. Hope you guys are excited as well. Let's get started. So a lot of you have been asking me to do a betta setup, but I've actually had some really bad luck with bettas in the past. So I kind of stayed away from them for a while, but I think I'm ready to try again. I did a lot of research and I want to try and create a perfect little betta aquascape. I think this is a good place to start. I got a new nano tank from Denler. Denler have been making these nano tanks for a while, but they just relaunched them with new packaging and some new products as well. So let's quickly unbox it. Full transparency. I didn't pay for this product. This nano tank was sponsored by Denler. Well, let's remove the lid. Let's see what's inside. The first thing we see is the light. These sets from Denler are now available with Chihiros lights. So this one is the Chihiros A2-401. And I'm already using the A2 series on those bottom two tanks on the shelf. Really happy with them. So, yeah, I'm pretty pleased to see these tanks with Chihiros lights now. Then we also have the filter. So this is the nano corner filter. And this is actually perfect for a betta setup as well, because with the spray bar, we get a very gentle flow. Then we also have a starter guide. We have the holders for the glass lid. More paperwork. And then we have the glass lid itself. Let's see if I can remove this with one hand. Yeah, so in here we have the glass lid. Perfect for betta setup, because bettas can be jumpers. And lastly, we have the power supply and the acrylic holders for the light as well. Here we go. Tank is in position on the dinner table, because why not? Lights on top as well. I've already connected it to the Chihiros app so we can control the intensity. So this tank holds 35 liters or 9.5 gallons. I think it measures 40 centimeters from left to right. Yeah, 40 centimeters from left to right. It's 28 centimeters tall and it's 32 centimeters front to back. OK, that's the background done as well. So I just use this very cheap window film that you can find in your local hardware store. And I use this in all my tanks. So this one has it. That one has it as well. Even the big shallow has it. Of course, the next step is the substrate. As always, I'm using the Aquareo Neo soil. I just have some leftovers. So we'll start on the bottom with the normal type and then we'll fill the rest in with the powder type. OK, let's talk hardscape. So in most of my layouts, I like to use a combination of rocks and wood. This one is going to be no different. I actually went hardscape hunting last week and I found this really beautiful piece of, I believe it's called ironwood. I think it's actually very popular, but I've never used ironwood before. So, yeah, very curious to try it out. So I went to the shop called The Manfish and he had this huge collection of hardscape. Yeah, I found this piece of wood. The owner did say that it might release some tannins. So I think that's fine. I think badass actually like tannins, so that's good. And then I also have some really nice rocks. I think this is called millennium stone. So I think the combination of combination of these two should be really nice. Now, this is quite a big piece of wood, and I want to make sure that it's not poking out to the water surface, because I do want to use a lid on this tank. I don't want to risk this beda jumping out, so we're definitely going to use a lid. Look at that. It immediately looks cool, but it's still poking out a little bit. So let's try something else. This looks quite nice as well, but it's a bit flat. So it could be an option, but let's try some more. Yeah, I think this could be something. I like this. We can make a nice triangular composition, starting high on the left, ending low on the right here. Maybe have a little bit of cosmetic sand on the front right as well. I think this is kind of going to be the composition. One piece of wood, big rock on the left side, smaller rock in front and another rock in the back there. We just have to move everything slightly towards the left because it's too much on the right side. That's the hardscape done, looking good. It's quite simple, but it should be simple because the beda fish is going to be the star of the show, not the hardscape. Now, this piece of ironwood does feel quite heavy, but I'm thinking that it might still float. So I want to secure it to all three of the rocks just with super glue and cotton pads. So I always like to use these cotton pads or these makeup pads. Just rip a small piece off, turn it into a small ball and then wedge that in between the points that you want to connect. So like I've just done over there, you can see that small piece of cotton pad sitting in between the rock and a piece of wood. And then you need the liquid type super glue. So not the gel, but the liquid type, because we need to saturate that entire piece of cotton pad basically. So be very generous with the glue. Yeah, and then sometimes you will see a little bit of smoke appearing from that cotton pad. In this case, I'm not seeing it, but if you just wait 30 seconds, then you know for sure that it worked. And you just want to do that on as many points as possible. I think in this case, if I'm doing it on all three of the rocks, that should be enough, that should keep the wood down. So it's now the next day and we're basically ready to start planting. But we have a small issue. Or better said, I'm making issues. So with this tank, we've got a small internal filter, right? The Dennerle X-Filter. But I don't really feel like using this filter because it's an internal filter. It just takes up some valuable space. And the only place to put it would be in that corner right there. I don't know, I'd rather use an external filter. And I still have this one, the Mini External Genset Filter from Mini Complete Tank. I think using this one will be really, really cool. But we have a lid on this tank and the lilypipes for this filter are very small, but they're still slightly too big. So they don't fit exactly in this little gap that we have over here. The thing with this lid as well is that we still have a small gap along the entire rim of the aquarium. And I think this gap is still big enough for Beda to jump through. I mean, it's very small. I think it's only like half a centimeter. But I don't know, I think a small Beda can still fit through there, you know? So we still have to modify it somehow. Also, this gap right here, for sure, Beda can jump through there. It's a bit of a tricky situation. Yeah, I think I'm going to take a little bit more time to think about what I want to do with the lid. In the meantime, comment down below. Let me know what you guys would do in this situation. Would you go for the internal filter or modify the lid to go for the external one? Let's continue. Let's go on with the planting. I've already prepared everything. I bought a lot of different in vitro pots. Yeah, also some types that I haven't used before. So super excited about that. So I'm just going to start planting and then I'll take you guys through each individual type of plant that I'm using. So I'm actually going to start with the background for once. Normally I always start with the foreground, but because we still have to do the cosmetic sand and the cosmetic gravel, I'm going to start with the background. So the first plant going in is the Heteranthera zosteriifolia. This is a very easy plant. It's very fast growing and it will grow really dense, really bushy. And I think this is a good helping plant as well. So if you have some algae issues, this is a good plant to kind of help soak up those excess nutrients. Yeah, it will just grow really fast. So it does need to be trimmed quite often. But with my lean dosing schedule, I'm sure it will not be that bad. So the second plant is the Rotala macrandra, a red stem plant. So we have a nice contrast of red and green. It's going to look great. I left a little bit of space in front of it. And there I'm going to plant Juncus repens. So this is quite a slow growing plant. But it has that really like wild, bushy appearance, which I really like. So it should be, right now it's still very small. But once it's growing in a little bit, it should be just poking out over the wood. Then we have the green grass just behind the wood and just behind that we'll have the red Rotala, so I think that's going to look really cool. OK, so that's how we're looking right now. Eterantara, Rotala, Juncus. Got a little bit of space left here. And here I'm going to plant the Blixa japonica. So this doesn't really look like much right now, but this is definitely one of my favorite plants. It's going to look so good. It's going to form a really dense bush. With my lean dosing, it's going to turn a little bit reddish as well. So it's going to look really, really good. Next up, we have a Crypt. This is the Crypt Pindulatus Red. Never used this one before, so very curious how it's going to grow. So with low light and no CO2, this will stay really green. But with high light and CO2 injection, this should turn nice and red. So let's see what's going to happen. Then moving on to the wood, I have some really beautiful small Anubias. I'm just going to wet them in between the cracks. So over here, for example. I just love Anubias. It just looks so good. It's such a beautiful plant. Now, something I don't use very often in my scapes is Bobitis. It's the beautiful Bobitis fern. And I had some in the storage tank for a while now, but most of the leaves had turned really ugly or were covered in algae. So I just cut off most of the leaves. We just have a little bit left. And it's already attached to a little piece of Dragonstone. So I'm just going to place it somewhere on top of the wood. And then once it starts growing, I think it's going to look really, really good. Yeah, so just like that, two pieces. And hopefully the leaves will start growing again and start looping over this piece of wood. Just cover most of it. I think that's going to look really good. OK, we have another issue. I bought a pot of Monte Carlo, but the quality is really, really bad. I don't think it's going to survive if I'm going to plant it. So we need to figure out something else. I'm planning to go to an aquascaping shop in the next few days, so I think I'm just going to pick up something new. So for now, the foreground will probably just be empty. Let's move on with the rest of the planting. I made a few rocks with Rickia fluitans. I've actually never used that plant before. It's actually a floating plant, I believe. It's not a moss, but it kind of looks like moss. So I have three of these small pebbles that I just cover with this Rickia. I'm going to place them just in front of the wood. I think one on the right side there as well. So one over there, I think one on the other side. And then I have one more. For this side over here, it looks very weird right now, but I think it's going to look pretty cool once it starts growing. And because I've tied it to the pebbles, we can always remove them. Kind of trim everything, because I think once you trim it and you have stuff floating around in the water column, it's going to get stuck everywhere and it's going to be very invasive. So let's just give it a try. Let's move on to the next plant. I've taken a little bit of Fissinens moss from the CPD river. So I want to have a little bit of moss on the on a piece of wood. So I'm just going to glue this in several places, just a little bit of super glue. It's going to look amazing. Yeah, now I'm a little bit stuck because I'm missing that Monte Carlo. I was planning to put Monte Carlo on this area here. Then we have cosmetic sand in the corner here. And in this area, I also wanted to fill up with Monte Carlo. But I feel also like we need some another plant as a transition from the crypt to the Monte Carlo, because this crypt is going to grow quite big. I think like 15 centimeters, something like that. To then have straight away Monte Carlo. I feel like it doesn't really make sense. So I need something else here, maybe a little bit of dwarf hairgrass or something. But I don't know. So I'm going to go to the shop and then we'll come back later and finish the planting. For now, let's just fill up with water, install all the equipment and then we can continue planting in two days. And because this is going to be a better setup, we do need a heater. But I was just thinking like the better is not going to be here for another two or three weeks because we first need to cycle the tank. So there's not really a point of adding this heater right now. This might actually cause more problems because warmer water is more susceptible to algae. So I think I'm just going to leave the heater for now and I'll add it within a week or two, just a few days before we add the better. OK, we're all filled up. It's looking good. For now, we don't need to worry about the lid just yet, so we can definitely use our external filter. I was thinking to use these acrylic pipes again, but because it's a new setup, we always get a little bit of surface gum. So right now we already have quite a lot, but in general, new setups just have a little bit of surface gum in the first few weeks, you know. So I actually want to try out these pipes right here, the stainless steel pipes. I've got them as well with this filter, and this one has a surface skimmer attached to it. So very curious to try this out. Let's see if it works properly. It also came with these acrylic holders. We can attach it to the to the rim of the aquarium. So, yeah, very curious to see how that's going to look. OK, so there's the filter up and running. It's now currently on the lowest setting, still pushing quite a bit of flow around. So I think if we do get one of those long-fin bed dust, it probably might still be a bit too much. The inflow is interesting because there's like a slot all the way on top that's basically skimming the surface. Then there's a slot slightly lower and slightly lower on that side as well. And then you have slots all the way down. You guys can see that. So it's basically siphoning out water on all different levels. So that's quite interesting. So let's see how well it skims the surface. Yeah, we can definitely not use these pipes once the bed dust is here because we can't close the lid like that. But for now, it looks pretty cool. Let's just try it out. OK, a few days have passed. I think it's been three days. I just got back from a little shopping trip. Got a new fresh spot of Monte Carlo, so we can finally finish this scape. We're going to drain the tank all the way again, then add all the decorative sand and gravel, then do the final touches, add the rest of the plants, and that's it. OK, tank is all drained. So to kind of finish the layout, we have some ADA La Plata sand, we have ADA Aqua gravel and have a few smaller rocks that look exactly the same as the three rocks that we've already used. Just to add a little bit more detail in the foreground. The reason I didn't add the sand and the gravel earlier was just because when you're planting, there's always aquasol spilling all over the place. So then your sand beach area basically just gets very messy. So I like to save it to the very end. OK, so let's do these rocks first. Shouldn't really think about it too much, just kind of like randomly place it. OK, next we can move in with the gravel. I'm basically just going to make a line from there to there. Just so we have a little barrier that's kind of stopping the aquasol from rolling forward. At least I hope it's going to work that way. And then the rest of the area will fill in with the sand. Here we go. That's the sand and gravel done. It's looking good. I made it a little bit thicker because I still have these in vitro grip parva that I want to plant in there as well. So I just need a little bit more depth. OK, that's the carpet done as well. So I've left one little space there in the in the middle. As I mentioned earlier, I want a little extra transition from the grip to the Monte Carlo. So I bought this plant. Doesn't look like anything right now. This is a really small stem plant. It's called Limnophila Vietnam. And with strong light and CO2 injection, this will start growing horizontally as well. So I'm not sure if it's going to work, but I think it should look pretty cool in that corner. Let's just try it out. OK, fast forward. I think it's been 10 days since that last clip. I think it's doing good. I'm starting to see a little bit of diatom algae, but that's completely normal. And I had a few issues with some plants, especially the Rotala macranva. It just wasn't really growing, but it's starting to take off now. In two days from now, I'm going to look for a better. I have a friend of mine who works in a pet shop and he texted me yesterday that they have something really special coming in. So very excited about that. So that means we now really have to finish the tank and make it better proof. I've already added the heater yesterday or the day before yesterday. Started on 23 degrees Celsius and every day I'm adding one degree, basically. I think I'm going for 26 degrees Celsius. So the only thing we have to do, I think, is the lid. I've already switched the outflow from the filter to the acrylic ones. Yeah, so if we take a look from the top, we can see the inflow and outflow all the way in the corner now. So I think if I want this glass lid to fit here, I just need to cut a small corner of the lid. And that's it. Super easy. I recently bought a glass cutter as well. So let's do it. Here we go. That's all taken care of. Now we just need to take care of the other issues, which is the entire rim of the aquarium, basically. I want to close that as well. And I have a few pieces of scrap glass lying around. So I'm just going to cut a few long strips so we can cover these tiny gaps, including this one. OK, slight change of plans. I basically finished cutting all these pieces of glass. And while I was cutting them, I already felt like, MJ, this is not a good idea. What are you doing? Because all these tiny pieces of glass on top of here. Imagine if one falls into the aquarium. Imagine having to do maintenance and removing them, putting them back on. No, that was just stupid. So I came up with something else. Clear silicone tubing. Cut them to the exact same size. And I've cut them open lengthwise and attached them to the side of the glass lid, basically acting as a sort of a bumper. But it made the lid slightly bigger. And now all these gaps are properly closed. So a lot of effort just to, you know, close a few holes. But I just don't want to take any chances with this betta. Of course, some people are thinking like, why don't you just lower the water level? But I know I just I just don't really think that looks very good, you know. So this is the end result. Doesn't look too bad. And yeah, pretty simple solution. Just wish I would have come up with it sooner. Still have a hole here and we have some holes over there. I think I'm just going to fill it up with some filter floss or something. OK, the day has finally come. Today we're buying a betta. I'm currently at Frank's Deeren shop. This is like a very large pet shop very close to Rotterdam. My buddy Mark works here and he texted me a few days ago saying that they have something very special. I've always seen the betta and it's amazing. I'm going to show you in a minute. Let's do a quick store tour first. So here's like an overview of the entire aquarium department, the entire aquarium section. And the first thing we see here is a beautiful display tank. I think this is an Oase Scaperline 90 or 100. And this one was actually escaped by Felipe Oliveira. It was a workshop from Aquaflora in the beginning of this year. I was actually there as well. So it's cool to see how this aquarium is doing like half a year later. And in here they have some really cool shrimp as well. Look at these guys. Really, really beautiful. Let's move on to the next one. This one is pretty cool. Here they have a saltwater display tank with seahorses. You can see one in the corner right there. That's really cool. It's like gripping to that piece of macro algae over there. Let's move on to the next display tank. Here they have a, I think it's 120 centimeters. It's a really beautiful planted tank, loads of different stem plants. Some beautiful crypts in the foreground here, some beautiful red Rotala. Yeah, looking really nice. And then here they have the entire fish section. Everything is looking very clean as well. Really, really impressed by how clean everything is. Everything is looking very good. Really nice plant storage selling tank as well. Loads of variety in here. They have a pretty nice saltwater section as well. And the guys were just kind enough to give me a special lens for the camera that shows all the colors of the corals much better. So I'll overlay some clips of how that was, how that was looking. And then this guy right here is the main reason I came here. So this is, I think it's called an alien betta. So it's like a cross between a wild and a something else. I'm not entirely sure, but he is beautiful. So after coming home, I slowly started acclimating again, simply just by adding a little bit of water to the container every five minutes or so. And once the temperatures were matching, it was time to release him into his new home. And guys, I don't know what to say, but this is definitely one of the most beautiful fish I've ever kept. Depending on the light, this color goes from dark blue to dark green. So they're called alien betta because it's a hybrid species. And from what I can see and what I've read so far, these guys are a little bit more aggressive compared to your regular fancy betta. I think we've created a nice little aquascape here. And I really hope our friend will enjoy his new home. Let me know in the comments if we should give him a name. I'm really happy with how this tank has turned out, but it does need a little bit more time to grow in. Of course, I'll do regular updates, so make sure you are subscribed. Thanks for watching. I'll see you next time.