How We Boosted a 650 liter Nature Aquarium Full Process Review

Welcome to the beautiful world of aquascaping! Today I'm going to do a boosting session on the biggest aquarium of Green Aqua in 650 liters. It's going to be a very difficult job. Stay with me! But before I start working, let's see what one of the creators, Tommy, had to say about my job today. Okay, so Tommy, I need some creative input on boosting this aquarium. I wanna like try to have your take on what we should do here. Well, what I can tell you is what I like and what I don't like about the current thing. And then I would trust your creativity with the rest. Oh, thank you! I love the dominance of Lotus. I wouldn't take away much. Definitely, but also you are talking about the back Lotus, or you also like these two patches here? I like both. Okay. I also love the huge patches of Microsorium, both in the left front, the right front and the back in the middle. Right. What I don't like with the Microsorium is that patch behind. It's barely visible, but it's somehow a bit out of place. Is that it? And also, the empty spaces are just too big. So if I look at the tank for balance, this is very empty for me. And the negative space in the middle is just too big. Somehow, it doesn't have a shape at the moment. Okay, how about the background with the Superus on both sides? I like that, actually. The visible background, white background. So you want to keep the see-through feeling? Or you could fill it with some stem plants, for example? You could fill it up to like a complete curtain. I like the Superus, I wouldn't get rid of it, but I can imagine stem plants thrown in there. How about the foreground? Would you like me to add more detail onto it? Yeah, definitely. Do you have any color preferences? Do you want the Lotus to be the only colored plant in this layout, or do you want other reddish-orangish plants in here? I wouldn't use aggressive colors. So like I can't imagine putting in Rotala Blood Red, or whatever, this very vivid red. But I can think of let's like... We have the Albedo Brown, for example, in here. So subtle red tones around the tank, I think that's fine. Okay, and you also want to keep the nature aquarium feeling of it, or you can imagine transforming this a little bit to a more competition style? I would love to keep it in a style, but work your magic. Okay, let's go, let's go! So we neatly discussed with Tommy, what should I do with this layout. And you know guys, that there are like days, when you don't feel motivated that much. This is one of those days for me. And I'm thinking of how to address this huge aquarium, which requires a lot of hardscape, a lot of plants. But... And I want to see what's happening, because when I discussed with my dear wife in the morning, that I'm going to shoot this video today and I absolutely need to do it, because all the cameras are here and you guys are expecting something wonderful from me. She told me that don't worry about it, because the moment you will start working on it, everything is gonna fall into its own place. And you're gonna get immersed in the flow, as you usually do. And hopefully, that's what's going to happen. And in the way to Green Aqua, I was thinking about like how should I approach this. And you know, I thought that I would do like three things. First, hardscape boost. I've got some really cool Ironwood pieces, that I want to actually place... I'm not sure about this one, but it should be in the back like that. This is the one, that goes to the left side. I want to tilt it towards the other one, to connect to these two. This is why I'm not sure, whether I want to make an arch, which would be actually nice. I found some plants, that would actually fill the gaps here and there. Maybe grow up more to the surface, add a little bit of detail to the background. That is another thing. Another thing about the hardscape, that I want to change, is the foreground, as Tommy also said. I absolutely want to use some longer Eleocharis. So I could use that in the middle, on two sides, to have some finesse to the scape. Because as you see now, Lotus, Big Leaves, Microsorum, Big Leaves, Epiphytes, a lot of character. So we need to kind of add a little bit of finesse. Check this out! It has all kind of detail, alternating between fine detail and strong character. So that's what you should aim for, if you want interesting layouts, that people can stand in front. The third thing, that I want to improve, fish. Now that Oma-san had built this beautiful layout in the gallery, what I learned is that I shouldn't be afraid, to use multiple types of fish in these kinds of nature aquariums. Okay, that's the plan. And you guys are gonna be the judges. Without further ado, I'm getting started! I've got all the crushed stones, perfect size. These will add a lot of nice detail. Now that they're grayish, they're gonna get the same color after a couple of weeks. And actually, we discussed the tweaking details with Tommy, just about a week ago. And we had one maintenance session since then. Yeah, Tommy's wondering, where I'm gonna put this huge piece of wood. That's gonna go in the middle. I'm gonna put an arch in the middle. And why I'm using glue in a nature aquarium, that's another thing, that he's worried about. So far, I didn't see any disapproval on his face. Which is already giving me a little, just a tiny bit of boost of confidence. I'm using the Fast Fusion compound. It helped a lot, actually. It moved the point of interest to the other side. And they like the idea of the arch. Okay, second one is almost ready. I gotta find out what's happening here. Let's check it out like this first. Arch style. That looks not okay. Swap it! This actually, I like better. And I'm missing like a third one over here. And I deliberately didn't drain the tank now, because I want to see how this whole layout looks, filled up with water. And later, I'm gonna drain it a little bit, so I can work with the plants and at the bottom of it, because it's very difficult to reach in, as it is now. Now we have more things to look at. I really like the middle of it better. Gluing is done! Let's just fill up the background with sand. Maybe this will get the water very cloudy. Should I rinse it? Let's test this! The bottom of it is still completely dry. See how slowly the water goes into it? How it fills up? I have no idea actually, what kind of sand this is, because I just found it in the back. How bad is it? The new fish are here! I've got Titea, that I know. I've got the... That I don't know. And these, I forgot. But... They're all here! So what should I do? I've got a ton of plants there. I've got a ton of rocks here. Just do it! The fun part is the Cyprus hellfairy. These guys have not used anything in these positions, I'm going to plant that in the middle of the aquarium, in the foreground. Now we broke the hegemony of the whole Microsorum bush. So now we have some play in it. And then, we've got the third one, which should come on the other side. There's just barely any soil here. This is a huge plant, the Pogostemon quadricofolius. This will go here, which means it will cover this side beautifully. The Pogostemon stellatus will go on the other side and will actually grow out of here. I've got more stem plants and this is the Myriophyllum brasiliensis. And I selected those plants from the plant holding tanks, that were higher actually, because if you have like smaller plants, the already planted and thriving plants from the aquarium will overpower these guys. Next one is another Cyprus, which will be divided in two also. I am moving to the hairgrass, which is not very long, so I'm not happy about it. Plant these into the center, in the back, to just make a curtain in front of everything there. Again, this will be planted in sand. It's supposed to work fine. This is supposed to grow at least this much. And I'm going to put root tabs right next to it, in the sand, so that it helps the growth a little bit. Obviously this is not going to look good, because the acicularis is just too short, within a week, when we shoot the B-rolls at the end of the video. But if you check out our social media pages, we will post you regularly with updates on all aquariums, including this one. This Microsorum will not live there. I will remove it, because Tommy didn't like it. I could actually put it here. Now the water is mixing. For you guys, who are new to the hobby, we have different methods of letting fish climatize to the aquarium conditions, when you bring them home, or when you put them in an aquarium like this. I use the first technique, which is take the bag with the fish, put it in the aquarium water, wait 20-30 minutes, until the temperature equalizes. And then pinch it with something sharp. I pinch the top of the bag, and then I turn the bag upside down, so that the water from the bag and the aquarium water can mix. And that is going to happen gradually, very slowly, so that the fish will actually get used to the new water. And at the end of this process, about an hour or so, the two waters are mixed, the temperature is the same, so then you can just cut the bag, release the fish and you're ready. And if you're interested, how to actually introduce the fish in your aquarium, and you want the detailed process, if you don't remember these times, you can ask the EIScaper, if you live in Europe, because that is only available for European viewers. Next step is adding details to the foreground, because I have no idea what to do with the epiphyte plants that I selected. So it's a good opportunity to keep my mind busy with something else. Again, the color of these rocks, you would say that it's not ideal right now. Don't worry about the colors. They will equalize. Okay, so now I have a lot of interesting detail in the foreground with rocks and I need to start adding a lot of plants in the foreground as well. So I will start to like tie the Bucephalandra on some of the bigger rocks. Let's glue them. Easier. I'm just using the bucket column in the foreground now. You could actually plant these, but I don't want to do that, because the height of the sand is not enough. Maybe I could plant some small Bucephalandra. I better put them on... Let's just put them on rocks again. I've got two pots of Anubias nana, which is the bigger Anubias. And I want to use them at the bottom of the wood pieces, that I put in, because they don't look very natural. I'm using the Tropical Nutrient Capsules. And I'm putting them at the bottom. I'm not very good at this, am I? I know I should use a tweezer. This is not the same, like with the small things, that you get with the Amazonia, because the ones that you get with the Amazonia are actually not as nutrient-rich as these guys. And while this aquarium is filling up, I will let these guys come in. Three, two, one... Go! They don't look very stressed. Then the third bunch. All that remains to be done is to remineralize. And I will apply some ADA clean water, which is like a flocculating agent, which will clear up this mess, that happened because of the sand pouring. And in a couple of hours, it's gonna be really clean. And you guys are gonna see, how this thing looks in about a week. So let me know, what you think of the boost session. We are here a couple of days later, with one of the creators, Tommy. And I'm not only trying to make it to his taste, but I'm also like getting a bigger beard, to resemble him. It's a long road ahead. So let me know, what you think about this boosting session. What did I do right? What did I miss? What would you change? I'm not changing it, I'm just letting them know. My favorite part is, it has nothing to do with you. I love that the load is going straight up. We never had that. Oh, I love that too. You went all Homasun on this aquarium. I did, indeed. I can see high influence of this work, in the changes made there. I love the long Cyperus leaves in the front, which wouldn't make sense for me, just thinking about it. But it looks cool. Same with the stem plants. What are those plants on the two sides? Two types of Pogostemon. The Quadricostatus and the Erectus, I think. I love how you closed the gap in the middle. I think that was the biggest issue with this layout, that the middle part was too empty and too open. Do you notice, that it's not Redmoor wood, but it's Ironwood? So it's actually a second kind of wood? Now that I'm saying, right? Now that you're saying... No, I noticed that it's Ironwood, I just thought that the whole layout was Ironwood, but it wasn't. There you go! No, no, no! We didn't do this for a competition tank, so now that you look at it in detail, you can see the difference in texture. But this is a good example of how two very differently colored woods look very similar ones underwater. Background! I was expecting you to make it much more dense. Right! I don't mind, that it's not. So it's fine for me. You don't miss anything from that middle part, in the back? I like how the right side is more dense. I could imagine the same on the whole left side. I like the extra fish as well. I have no idea what this is. The pinkish-greenish fish. Don't take me into that stream, because I don't know it either. Fish-wise, again, lots of inspiration from... Absolutely! ...Homasz's work. Now I want to use a lot of fish in our aquariums. Because before, let's go minimalistic, which is cool with certain layouts, this kind of nature aquarium layout, absolutely, it adds a lot. Okay, how about the foreground? It needs time. That's the thing that's bothering me, how different it is color-wise. The crushed pieces of stone. But it's gonna take a couple of months, to get to the same level of aging. This is when you actually see, how much algae there is on the original rocks. I think it's a good point for the viewers as well, to see how the algae can be good sometimes. It grows together. It gives a certain patina to the aquarium. I wouldn't say that it's green algae. If I would brush the rock, it wouldn't... Yeah, but it is. Is it now? It is, yeah. You think so? That's a very thin layer of green algae on the stones. I notice this every time, you know, I usually work with Freljord stones, in my contest layouts as well. This is happening all the time. How do you like rate it, from one star to five stars, and not the aquarium itself? The tank will work. The boosting session. How would you rate it? Four. Oh, that's good! Four from Tommy, is like five from everybody else. Okay, so thank you Tommy for the guidance and thank you for appreciating this and not humiliating me in front of everybody. I never did that. But I also thank you guys, for staying here with us. And don't forget, if you become a channel member, you can not only support the video production of the channel, but you can also watch these videos on Mondays. And if you want to see the original video about this build, you can check it out over here. Thanks again for joining us! Let us know what you think about what Balazs did to my tank. Absolutely! It's good! See you next time! Bye-bye! Goodbye!