(smooth electronic music)
- Look at this massive couch!
What's up, fish tank people?
Dustin's Fishtanks playin' Super Steve's house.
(chuckling)
Ahh, what's up?
How's everybody doin'?
I hope you're doin' well.
In today's video, we're gonna work on my body Steve's tank.
Steve, say hello, you don't need an introduction,
but you gotta give an introduction to 'em.
- How's it goin'?
♪ I am Steve ♪
- Steve. - That's all I got.
(laughing)
- That's all he's got, that's all he needs!
That's all he needs for you all.
It's a 90-gallon tank.
What do we got so far, dude?
- Oh, we got the dragon stone.
We got the pool filter sand
and we got a little bit of dirt underneath, that's right.
And so, we've got a nice sloping angle,
I'm gonna work to slope this up a little more
as we aquascape.
But keep it high in the front, lower in the back,
builds more depth.
And I've built up a few pockets of sand
here around the rocks that are gonna be nice for planting.
- And now for those of you who are just now
joining this here but haven't seen the setup of this,
we actually did a video setting up the hardscape.
Steve has been very patient with me.
We have been very busy
and now it is actually time.
This is a hide the women and children project,
Steve has two young kids and a wife.
Neither of 'em are around right now.
We've got a--
- 'Cause we're gonna make a mess.
- We're gonna make a mess!
- We've got towels on the ground.
- We got towels on the ground,
we got plants on the bar,
we got like, yeah, we got,
shoes are off, carpet, the whole deal.
And we are ready to do this.
- So now we're gonna do some awesome plants,
supplied from Dustin, thank you, Dustin.
- Shocker, there's a shocker, right?
Hold on, so did you have fun
walkin' around the greenhouse earlier?
- [Steve] I did, I did.
- [Dustin] Can we just quick
take a step back on what you did?
So you rolled over to the greenhouse and what then?
- [Steve] Yeah, yeah, and we picked out the plants,
I looked around, I saw what I wanted,
I wanted mostly narrow-leaf plants
or stuff with like finer, lacier leaves.
Got some background plants, some long-stem plants,
some mid-ground plants,
and some shorter, smaller foreground plants.
- [Dustin] And I was told stop, no,
and it's my tank, dude.
You did say, it's my tank, dude.
But you were like, no, I was like, I was like,
bro, you gotta get video!
- [Steve] And I went with the hygrophila.
- [Dustin] You went with the hygrophila.
We're gonna show that in a second,
but I definitely, like, I'm super stoked
because like it's one of those, like,
I'm like, I wanna like try this, that, and the other,
but this is his tank and he has something
that a lot of people forget to do
when they set up their aquarium.
He has a really good plan,
so you wanted to do a lot of fine-leaf plants.
- [Steve] Yes.
- [Dustin] Which is totally sweet,
I was thinkin' something completely different.
But his style, his tank,
I gave a little bit of input on the hygrophila.
- [Steve] Yup, which works.
- [Dustin] Which works pretty well.
- So, I'm excited, these are gonna harder plants
than I usually do.
So I've got a lot of light,
I've got two of Dustin's lamps on top of this tank.
- [Dustin] That's right, two standard doubles.
- [Steve] Two standard doubles.
- [Dustin] Deuce, if you will.
- And I'm gonna do a little of metal halide as well,
to get the ultraviolet spectrum, right?
- That's right. - Yeah.
- I owe you all a lighting video,
I've been talking about it for about three years,
but the spectral composition
of a metal halide cannot be messed with.
We'll show that in a later clip, but--
- LEDs are awesome, especially in show tanks for sure.
- Yeah, but what he is trying to go for here with the depth,
we're addin' the standard double,
and I said, let's try out a halide on it too.
He said, I don't think you've ever played with a halide.
- [Steve] No, this is my first time.
- So definitely I wanna do that.
And that was based on the plan,
so you cater your lights to what you are trying to grow,
so if this was an entirely java moss,
java fern, anubias tank, we wouldn't be gettin' that crazy,
but he wants the red stuff.
And Steve has always been a fan of rotala,
so we're gonna highlight a bunch of types of rotala today.
And I'm super stoked, so before we jump into planting,
you wanna talk about the fish, dude?
- Yeah, yeah, yeah, so I've got cardinal tetras,
I'm gonna get a few more, it's just a start.
I wanted to make sure they'd live before I,
you know, bought like a hundred of them.
And then at the top, I've got some rasboras,
these are rasbora, they're a type of,
they're like harlequin rasboras,
only these are rasboras asbestias,
they get bigger, they kind of an orangey reddish color,
and then I tried to add some green rasboras,
however the problem is is they are schooling
with my other rasboras, so I'm gonna rid of the green ones
and take them back to the fish shop
and trade them for more of the asbesti.
- I have to say, I like the way it goes top and bottom.
- Yeah, so the rasboras are nice
'cause they're gonna stay at the top.
And the cardinals are really kinda bottom fish.
- Would you like to plant now, dude?
- Yeah, let's do it.
- (claps) Let's do it.
All right, so we wanna talk,
how do you wanna start this out, bro?
- All right, so we got it broken up,
we got stem plants right here,
we got three kinds of stem plants.
So we've got--
- [Dustin] That is ludwigia triple red,
botella walikia or botella mexicana,
I can't tell it apart until they get in the water.
Pulgris daemon stellata,
but this stellata's just slightly different
'cause it's got a more red stem
than the stuff we typically get.
So it's got a little bit of a variation to it.
Super fun, I wanna just take a quick step back,
I did the video the other day,
where I did the 30-second pause like,
like, we hung out and like, played with the plants
before we actually put the plants in the tank.
There is something to be said about the process
of like undoing them and like sizing them up
and just playing with them pre-tank,
I think, is an important step.
It's the way to the tank,
as Oliver, the legend, says.
So, these are the plants we're playing with now.
Steve had a thought of how am I gonna do this,
like, outside in?
So what are you thinking?
And I'm gonna tell you what I'm thinking.
And I want Steve to go first
'cause it's his tank and his idea,
for now so I'll make my suggestions.
- Well, the tall red's gonna be kind of an accent piece,
so it's gonna be smaller, kinda,
I'm gonna do it at off-central.
And then the majority of the background
is going to be the stellata.
- [Dustin] Right.
- [Steve] And then this one, I'm sure how to mix it in,
whether I should just put it on the edges
or whether I should put it next to the accent piece.
What do you think?
- So, for me, I would with the stellata outside,
and I say we roll over and, like you said,
I would roll stellata on either side
because you have the matching canyons.
So I would roll the stellata outside
and let's make that our focus for the start.
And then we'll work in the other stuff as well.
I'm dying, d-d-d-d-d-d-dying--
- Just make your own, man, we're--
- To play with the mid-ground plants.
- Second, we got four mid-grounds,
and then got some foreground too.
- So let's grab the stellata,
and you're up, bro. (claps)
It's all you. - All right, let's try it.
So, I love the stellata.
- [Dustin] So, they're gonna start kinda short,
you know, they're not gonna be impressive
background plants in there, but you just gotta realize,
they're gonna take time to grow.
You get 'em growin', they're gonna look tall and awesome.
So, patience, patience, patience.
One of the benefits, too,
is the tank is totally, well, I won't say totally new,
but as far as like,
they said this is the first of the plantload,
so the plants are gonna have
a lot of readily available nutrients in the water column.
And then also in the sub-strait,
I think that's super duper duper duper duper important.
If I haven't beat you all enough with it
that the plants absorb to four to 400 times
more nutrients through their roots
than through their stems and leaves.
Obviously, that's species dependent,
but they're gonna be able to grow pretty quickly.
There's gonna be an adjustment period
'cause they're goin' from my tanks into Steve's tanks.
Homey, how did you add the neons?
How many, how far apart?
Can you talk about that, 'cause I think--
- [Steve] Well, I started with just 10.
Like, kinda canaries in the coal mine
just to see if they would survive.
And then, and they made it. - And they made it!
- [Steve] And they looked good,
and so I went back and I added a bunch more
and I got the rasboras and kinda went from there.
So, yeah.
- We did have the AquaClear
from our friends at Hagan in the center,
Steve moved that over.
(chill electronic music)
So I wanna, while Steve is laboring away.
Okay, so you walk in here.
Steve has friends around, hangin' out with the boys.
It's cool, you stand here, you chill.
However!
Look at this massive couch!
That you can sit and chill on
and look at an aquarium right there,
the whole time, you can do it.
But as Steve said, that's where the wife wins.
And look, I can't argue with the man.
Instead of having a fish tank that would spot it out there,
you know it and I know it,
what is where I would put the fish tank?
Children's toys.
Dads, don't act like you don't have that in your life.
Don't act like that's not happenin' to you.
- [Steve] You think I should leave a gap in the middle
or should I fill that in?
I think I'm gonna fill in it.
- [Dustin] You want my opinion?
- [Steve] Yeah.
- [Dustin] I'd tonina in that crack and that crack,
and just kinda like work the tonina back.
- [Steve] But what should I do,
should I leave that open or?
- [Dustin] I would leave that for the depth.
- [Steve] Okay.
- [Dustin] That's in a hundred percent of,
you know, whatever, like-- - Judgment call?
- [Dustin] Yeah.
Plants are likin' that, though.
- [Steve] Yeah, they look good.
Well, basically, I was thinkin' right here,
what do you think?
- [Dustin] It's yo' tank, notice how he takes the stem
all the way down, he could've left it higher up.
He takes it all the way to get it into the dirt.
Last one.
They're gonna look kinda curly right now,
but they'll straighten out once they start
really knowin' where to go for the light.
(sings)
(chill electronic music)
Kids on the street call it hygro pinna fo' sho'.
- [Steve] All right, so this is gonna be mid-ground.
- [Dustin] And I would tuck those
as close to the rock as you can.
- [Steve] Yeah, these are gonna get real close,
up in the rock.
- There you go. - Yes.
- [Dustin] And that's what I'm talkin' about.
That's gonna be just completely filled with plants,
it's gonna look awesome.
(chill electronic music)
Lobelia cardinalis is one of the plants
that takes the hardest beating with converting.
And it's just goin' in this little pocket,
this is a lobelia pocket.
(chill electronic music)
- [Steve] It's tough, man,
just like squish it in these little,
little holes and hope for the best.
- [Dustin] That's pretty much the way you roll a boost.
And fish tank people, I'd love to get your comments on,
you know, when you do your hardscape,
do you let it sit for a minute and kinda design
and wait and design, or do you just roll right into it?
Leave us a nice note in the comments.
How great is that boost, dog?
- [Steve] Oh, it's fantastic.
All right, four-leaf closer, and we're done.
Oh, there's a little boost over here.
(chill electronic music)
CO2!
So we're ready.
- What do you think, dude?
- Oh, I'm happy so far, it just needs to grow out now.
A little patience.
- A little bit of patience, yeah.
I think it looks pretty solid.
We'd love to get your feedback on this aquarium,
fish tank people, what would you do?
What do you think of the plant selection?
What do you think of the fish selection?
What would you do differently?
And yeah, make sure you hit that subscribe button
and that notification button.
What do you think, dude?
- Save all judgment for one month.
Don't judge me too hard!
- That's right, be brutal in the comments!
(laughing) Tank on.