Aquascape Tutorial: HUGE XL Paludarium / Vivarium Flooded Rainforest Build (How To: Step By Step)

Okay, I think I'll just let that amount just sit in there for the first I think Mummy's waiting for me Is she? Okay Mummy needs you, fine Is there any chance I can just film my video guys? Are you coming? That's where everyone is Welcome back to the channel everyone As you can see behind me I've got a massive Exo Terra Terrarium, paludarium, that sort of thing Whatever you want to call it, to escape It's been sat here for a while, I've not done anything with it But now is the time for us to kit it out First of all though, I want to take out the background Now the one you get with it is perfectly good But I want to go for something a bit more natural But I'm going to use it as the template for the build First of all I've just got to work out how to get it out So the background does look really good It's just that I want to have something that I can use To make water travel through I'm going to be using some of this Cocoa fibre brick broken up And then I'm going to put silicone On the areas where I want it to stick Chuck it on and let it stick I mean it's probably easier if I just show you isn't it? Yeah let's do that Click subscribe So it's the next day Everything is completely secured And solid Look at this funny bit right here That's where the air was seeping out As the rest was dried And it's just sort of made this little nugget Oh no sorry I can't see a thing So what we want to do now is take a Stanley blade to it And just rough it right up And blend in the shapes in the sides So then we can add our silicone And our sort of detailed barky stuff Well I think that's turned out really good I can see some gaps, a few bits of gaps like that It doesn't really matter because we're going to cover it up anyway What we've got to do now is smear all the silicone All over the green bits you can see And I'm probably going to do some on the white bits as well And then we... Excuse me? Excuse me do you mind? I'm trying to do a video here What is it? Is it a camera? You're going to see a lot of this Anyway I'm going to cover up the green bits with silicone And then I'm going to chuck on all that sort of Foresty, muddy stuff on it To be honest I think I'm just going to use this stuff I don't think I need the coco fiber This bio-life foresty stuff It's got all the fine stuff in it That's going to go on the silicone really well Look at how good that's looking I can't wait to get it in But first I need to get some help To angle this down and get it back in again Because that space is not big enough Right I skipped the process Hang on let me get those doors open I skipped the process but it's in Look at how good that looks I think a good idea now would be to put the lighting unit on Oh I need to put that back on I need to put the lighting back on top So we can actually illuminate and see what's going on Obviously it's going to be all water down this bottom section So that's why I've left that clear The rocks are all going to come round And then gravel and other rocks are going to come up above Sticks going everywhere And all the greenery Yeah let's get on with that So the lighting we've got is this compact top terrarium canopy Yeah I don't know a lot about it guys All I know is that it's used with the Exoterra compact fluorescent Or the incandescent blah blah blah It holds bulbs It puts the light downwards That's all you need to know And it needs to go on top Right then, moment of truth Yay Yeah yeah yeah Really pleased with how that's turned out guys A couple of little patches that are showing through But it won't matter because a big fern will be in that area I'm going to put ferns mainly at the top And then some smaller stuff on the bottom I don't need to talk about it, just get on with it Right so I've bought these plants from the garden centre Basically this is a type of asparagus Apparently News to me And we've just got some Boston ferns as well I've got some ivy and things like that Now what I want to do is I want to put them inside of here Best if I open it isn't it Yeah I want to put them inside now So that obviously if I'm going to be building the bottom area I don't want to do all of that Put water in and then just get all the soil dripping down Into the water polluting it all So if we get the ferns in now and get them all settled in when we want them We're away So that's some of the ferns and more delicate plants In the paludarium already But I'm saving the other slots that I've got in there For some more bulkier plants Now the animals that I want to get for this paludarium Like a broadleaf and also they're renowned for like Being bulls in a china shop They're not bulls They wouldn't fit That's not even funny But either way Adding the variety of leaf sizes Will actually really add to the aesthetics Of the paludarium But I'm really liking what we've got so far So the ferns have actually now been In the enclosure for a few days They're actually starting to stand up and grow towards the light Which is great But I was waiting for some new parcels to arrive That have got even more plants in Because we don't just want ferns in here For the species of animal that I've got going in We need broadleafs, they like to sit on leaves or stick on leaves Because maybe that's a clue as to what is potentially coming These are the plants we've got Now let's get them open Right this is really Hard to do one handed But it's worth it to show you guys And here they are then, here's my plants So I've got this big broadleaf one It's a bit pushed down but nothing snapped But I guess that's just to get it in the box I've then got this one as well I'll put the names of the You can't see that, it's not focused, there we go Come on, focus please There we go I'm going to get them out to show you properly We've got some Nice plants here So you can see that I've just placed down Some more foam that I've found Just to protect the base a bit more from these heavy rocks Going on because I want to pile them all in there Just up quite nice and high Then we can just put some gravel on top And that will be out of the water by that point Put down a membrane and we can lay our soil on top of that So I've now got some stone chipping That I've stolen from my driveway And I'm going to use that to fill out the back section Because it just fills in all the gaps All the crevices It means that there will be no holes In between these rocks as well For anything to get stuck in And it's just a cheap way of building up that back area I could place more rocks in but it would just leave gaps This is a much better way of doing it Right so that's all the rocks in place And all the gravel in behind What I've done is actually siliconed this one down Because you can see it's quite an angle it's sat on there I didn't feel safe just letting it balance So that's siliconed down which has locked that one into place That one into place So what I want to do now is actually put a semi-permeable membrane Over all of that gravel That will allow some water to trickle through From the soil above it But not the soil itself to get in And I also want to put some filter floss in there as well So we'll lay those two bits down And then we can put our soil on top That's what we can put more plants into But not too many more because We're already in full green mode But yeah it'll also allow me to put my Sticks and that across that I've got planned as well So for some reason And I do not know why I've just hit maximum excitement level On this build I think it's because adding in that dirt substrate Is something that I've never done before And it's kind of just made it all become real I don't know if that makes any sense But I know what I mean Really excited now But it's now time to add in some wood Just so we can like This is wood Just so we can tie in the ground Well not the ground but the Dirted area with the higher tree areas So I just think Pieces of wood like this that can overlap The rocky foreground And then reach into the top Just going to add really I just said that title together You know what I mean Click subscribe I really like that I think I've nailed it there So what I've sort of done is Kept this one off of this side So we've got a nice big planting area We've got a nice big shaded planting area in the middle section there Areas to perch on And for possible moss to grow up And different plants to wrap around Just step back for you guys So yeah look at that Obviously the base is going to look far more natural Oh the phone's ringing Right there we go I personally think that looks awesome Some of you might prefer without having the riozingo down Riozingu The darker stuff The bigger bits You might prefer not to have that down Some might have just the white sand But for me I really want to go for realism On this build And that looks really realistic It looks like a river's edge or riverbank Now it's time to put some water in You'll notice I deliberately left a ledge area So that anything that does go in the water can possibly get out Maybe a hint as to what could be going In this amazing scape Now call me stupid And I'm sure you will But I've not even water tested to see if this is tight So hopefully we don't get any leaks But there's only one way to find out isn't there Just get it in Ok I think I'll just let that amount just sit in there For the first I think mummy's waiting for me Mummy needs you, bye Is there any chance I can just film my video guys That's where everyone is You're looking at you again Just look at the hole All the water is now filled up It's holding nicely, it's gone a little bit murky But that'll clear very shortly because I have got this tiny little Nano filter but it's 300 litres an hour So that's a good amount of water it's going to be pushing I'm just going to put it in the little side area here Run the lead all the way up the back Because you're not really going to see it then are you It's not going to spoil how it looks Ideally you put the leads all behind the board That we've got at the back but I don't want to do that with a filter that's here Because I might need to take it in and out regularly For cleaning or something like that so I don't want it stuck behind that whole background And this way I can just neatly run the lead All the way up the sides Up near the back and pop it out the back at the top And plug it into an extension lead on the top Perfect Woohoo Right that's the filter all up and running Still a little bit misty it'll take a day or so to clear But what I've done with the cable Look you can see I've just neatly tucked it to the side And I've got a little suction cup With a clip there and then one over the other side At the top as well so that's keeping that all sort of out the way You can barely see it Yeah the filter's slightly intrusive But needs must you've got to keep the fish clean right Well the water clean anyway Next what I've got So you can see I've left this area here completely clear And that's because I've got a couple more plants here They're just in pots at the moment look So I want to get them planted in I've got that one and a bromeliad I think that's how you pronounce it anyway So that one doesn't actually need to be planted I can place it as an epithite plant on top of the wood Wrap it in some sphagnum moss And just let it grow sort of in the air If you like It's kind of like an air plant Well I guess it is an air plant because it grows in the air Anyway so down here as well I've got even more plants look at that That is real believe it or not And a load of cool ones so let's get them planted as well That is all the terrestrial plants I want in For now at least I want to see how these do first Like I say I'm not accustomed to these kind of plants I don't really know much about them Only that they need soil and water So the nutrients obviously as well Anyway let's get some plants in the water section now That'll do all the job of keeping that water clean As well as a little mini filter we've got in there as well But the two combined should keep the nitrates low And should just keep the water perfect For the fish that we've got planned to go in Right so already that's looking Really nice and natural But I do want to add some little rocks Just in this little gaps that you can see in the edges With some moss on Now I've got plenty of moss to be able to choose from So this is the old goldfish aquarium And you can see it's a moss extravaganza Excuse that reflection I really need to paint that black don't I I'm going to do that at some point Maybe not now, maybe never Anyway we've got so much moss here That is the thickest moss you've ever seen isn't it So I'm just going to cut off some of these bits Attach them to some rock with some super glue Super glue is fine, remember use the gel type The cyanoacrylate or whatever it's called That's the one you want And attach it to the rocks And then I can put it just in these little gaps Like that one there And just under there I mean it doesn't matter if there's gaps But I just think it'll look quite nice with some moss rocks as well But not too much, I'm not going to go overboard with it at all Because it's already looking really good The way it transitions at the moment From that bottom section into the top Oh yeah and I don't think I've shown you guys this yet Maybe I have, anyway Ready 3, 2, 1 We have light I've got like a cool app on my phone and a load of smart plugs and everything So I can just turn it all on just like that And then you've got everything lit up So cool, so much easier So that is all the plants in They look great But what I want to do now is just test the water Because like I said I've not added soil Method behind the water Like I've got it, I've not done it before I just want to make sure the water's alright And then we can put in our enders, guppies, ender guppies You know what I mean, the fish So some good news The tests have come back perfect Let's add some fish And you know what, one thing that is perfect I don't have to go to a shop to get fish for my tank Because this is my guppy breeding Tank I need better names But at the moment you can see there's quite a lot of males If it will focus on that Might have to switch to manual There we go So there's quite a lot of males there as you can see And then we've got the females as well So there's loads of babies as well So if I reduce some of the male numbers by putting those across into the new aquarium They'll look great And you know it will sort this tank out as well For the ratios to make sure the women Or the women? The female fish aren't getting harassed By these males So we've got a good mix there of male enders They're looking great Now the temperature of this tank is exactly the same As the water in this tank The room itself sits at the perfect temperature for the enders So yeah we don't need a heater Which is ideal because there's no messy wires Or stuff sticking in the water But it's time to put those fish in You might be thinking But hey MD there's no way that That tank is cycled Well you'd be right Technically what we're doing here is a fish in cycle So if you're going to do that You need to A I would say have a lot of plants And there's a decent amount in there Also you need to be prepared to change the water Pretty much every day for the first week I'm going to do 50% water changes every single day for the first week And then in the second week I'll drop that down to every other day Third week, every third day and so on and so forth Until eventually you can just do your normal 20% Once a week, once every two weeks Whatever your regime is I find that I don't have to do that many water changes Because I keep a lot of plants in all my tanks Plants are amazing They clean the water pretty much for you basically And then just to be sure though I'm going to dump in a load of this beneficial bacteria Now's the time to do it when the fish have just gone in So they can provide waste for this beneficial bacteria To feed on Let's put it all in There we go