The Evolution of an Aquarius in 45 Days | From Scratch

Today you are going to accompany me to assemble an aquarium of 370 liters from 0 to 100, from the decoration process, ripening and when we enter the first fish. All this took a month and a half and is summarized in this video. And we start at once with the measurements of the aquarium, this one is 120 cm long by 50 cm wide by 62 cm high. It was manufactured by Pecera Cerof in 9 mm glass and with a satin vinyl on the back, with their respective reinforcement straps. It is illuminated by a WIC Aqua M900K Pro lamp that is hung with its supports. You already know information about these lamps directly with me, I leave you the links in the description. As a base we have a layer of silica sand, the one of a lifetime, 20-30. Enough for us to have a layer of approximately 7 cm in the back and about 3 cm forward, this because later we are going to plant. We start with the decoration, I will use the same elements of the previous aquarium, since you will remember that I had to disassemble that aquarium due to a leak it had, since it was very old and urgently I had to remove everything. The idea is that this one is somewhat similar, the plants obviously I saved them and I will use them in this assembly. We start by placing these volcanic rocks, they are completely inert and of different sizes, also and as always apple roots of different shapes. I use this wood a lot and in fact it is the only one I use because it is easy to get and has very good shapes. I wanted to give it a different layout but it definitely did not convince me and I ended up opting for the classic previous design, with the tips of the roots to one side. I also placed some small roots to give it some detail and thus better integrate the assembly. And once the rocks and roots in place, this was the final design. By the way, I was forgetting to place the reinforcement straps, I removed them to be able to place the roots since they were too big and they did not enter if I did not remove them, but it is very important that they are. I added some smaller rocks and now everything is ready to start filling the aquarium. Unfortunately, tying the roots together was not enough and it made me relax when I filled the aquarium, so I had to make an adjustment to be able to fix them well to the rocks. With a cotton and a little crazy glue they were completely stuck to the rocks. Basically what I did was put the cotton between the spaces and then place a drop of crazy glue. This made it look like a kind of stone and there they did not move at all. And then to hide the cotton I placed other rocks of those smaller ones on top and this also helped to integrate all our assembly, as if everything is part of it. Also later with the plants they will be even more hidden. And that's it, now the aquarium is full and it's time to install the filter. Here I am not going to use the Tidal 110, which despite working very well at 300 liters, here it will be a bit short, especially because of the height. So for this assembly I bought a Fluval 407, which inside contains the filter material that I have already shown you previously in other videos. Very effective and that has given good results. This one does not contain bacteria, it is completely new, so it is time to let the aquarium mature before entering the fish. It is what we know as the famous cycling. I also placed a sachet of Purigen to absorb the tannins that will release the roots, which will be quite a lot for the size they have, they are also many. And that's it, we install the filter, we start it and we start to place the plants, which are the same as they had in the previous aquarium. Obviously I was not going to waste them since there are quite a few. The usual, Balisnerias, Anubias, Cryptocorynes and some Hygrophilas. Unfortunately, I forgot to turn on the record button while planting, so I owe you all that part. And see just how the aquarium looks two weeks later. It's a muck. The brown algae everywhere, you can't even see it well through the glass. Remember that this type of algae is completely normal in a newly mounted aquarium like this, it only has two weeks and see how it is. In these two weeks I was adding some food for fish so that it was decomposing and in combination with the other organic waste of plant leaves and the waste of the snails, our bacterial colony was formed. If we get closer, we can find the first traces of life. The snails have already begun to spread and are helping me to eat the algae that has been forming, you can see their little paths in the glass. Obviously I entered these on purpose, since I consider that they are a very important part in an aquarium, because they act as a natural cleaning team, eliminating food remains and maintaining the ecosystem in balance. And we are going to put the zoom even more powerful to be able to appreciate part of the microfauna that has been forming along with the snails. These small crustaceans, which are like white, are called copepods and are harmless, in addition to being an excellent live food, for the same reason it is difficult to see them in aquariums with fish. In shrimp they are more visible since the shrimp do not prey on them, their presence indicates that the aquarium is on the right track. The plants have also responded very well. The hygrophila polysperma is a plant that is very tall, the idea here is that it goes uprooting the front part in some way, and I will be pruning it when it grows a lot, it is something quite simple, but hey, I wanted to give it a different arrangement. And from here we move on to two weeks later, where the aquarium is already much more mature and ready to receive the first fish, although before I will make a change of water. We siphon the substrate, since it is quite dirty, and we clean crystals to remove the remains of algae. The snails this week did their job very well and are already spreading. Once we drain approximately 40% of the water and remove waste, we proceed to fill, and this is how it was. Now it is ready to receive the first settlers, who traveled almost a thousand kilometers to be able to reach this fish room, and this is a small group of Manacapuru scalers that come from a nursery that is in Monterrey. They are found in networks such as Aquascapers Monterrey, and they sent them to me. Fortunately, they all arrived well, they were sent from one day to the next by package. As they are the first fish to arrive at this aquarium, they go straight, we acclimatize, and they go inside. In addition, they are 100% raised in captivity and are very healthy. Obviously, as they will reach a completely new space for them, they will take a while to get used to it. They were distributed by different points of the aquarium, so we will leave them alone until tomorrow and I will offer them some food. Meanwhile, look at what is happening in the aquarium next door. We have a bet from one of the couples of my Sakura discs. If I had the time, I would try to get these bets ahead, but it would be too much work for me. And returning to the scalers, the next day I offered them some food, a combination of Tetracolor and Vibra Bites, but they did not pay much attention. The breeders told me that they were used to a very different food, so what I have to do is that they adapt to the one I give them, because it is the base food of all the fish of the fish room. The good thing is that they are already looking for food, which is a good sign. They are still very small, but as they grow, they will develop more of that characteristic red hue of this variety. And you can see a little more life in the aquarium, but it is still missing, so two weeks later I added more fish. The classics eat seagrass, pharlovuelas and otocinclus, of my favorite fish for aquariums with this style. Both are machines to eat seagrass, mainly the brown one. You will remember that the pharlovuelas were successfully reproduced in several of my aquariums. Let's hope it's the same here. These last ones were sent to me by HK Aquatics, I leave their networks in the description. And well, you will wonder what happened to the fish that were before. Unfortunately, I had to keep the tetras, scalars and loricalids in adoption the same day I had the leak in the fish tank, since they did not enter any aquarium and at that time I did not have enough space. But they ended up in good hands and I decided to donate them and not sell them to be able to make sure that they were in an aquarium where they were given the same care as me. But now it's time to repopulate this new aquarium. So in the next video more fish will arrive, obviously the tetras are missing, which are essential in assemblies of this type with Amazonian species. It is what gives it color and movement. I will try to look for varieties that you have not seen in the fish room, perhaps also some dwarf cichlids and who knows, maybe some pleco. But in the meantime I leave you some shots of the finished aquarium and practically a month and a half since this whole project began. The plants have developed very well, and in fact I also added floaters that have spread very quickly. The balisneria caulescens measuring more than 2 meters and the hydrophilas growing very well forward. As I mentioned before, it is a plant that is placed backwards because it is very high, but here we are going to keep it at bay in the front area. And for those who wonder about the parameters, the temperature is 26 degrees and the pH is 7, and I have been fertilizing with flourish and potassium desiccant once a week in the complete dose that the manufacturer recommends. In the next video regarding this aquarium, we are going to add the missing fish to make it complete. And surely those who are now will have already grown, so stay tuned to the channel. You will find the purchase links of everything I mentioned in this video in the description, including the fish. And I also leave you my store of the lamps so that you can see the models that are currently available, and you can also send me a message on Instagram to ask me about other models. Stock has just arrived. And thank you very much for staying until the end. Receive a big hug from me and see you until the next video.