I've been collecting sailboats like these since I was young.
I looked at them the other day which got me thinking.
Maybe I should do a sailboat aquascape?
Now we've all had a tank with one of those tacky plastic ones in it,
but that's not what I'm talking about.
I'm more so referring to something like this.
The only thing though is we can't really put this into the tank.
I have no idea what it's made out of.
It's probably not safe for fish.
So, I think it makes sense to take matters into our own hands.
That way I can ensure the materials are safe to use, like this oak wood.
Oak is a hardwood, that if cured properly, is fine to put in a tank.
It's also readily available, so that's what I went with.
I got the Cutty Sark here and I'm going to use it as my inspiration.
I'm thinking of it in terms of halves
and what I'll do is translate that over to these boards.
I took it to the scroll saw and cut out a length of board.
After that, I drew on a rough shape for the boat's half.
I cut that out on the scroll saw as well.
Once I was done with that, I put it on the board from earlier and traced on the shape.
I cut this out like before.
Then, I went back and made a few additional cuts on both halves.
If you take a close look at this boat here,
you'll see that there's a thin board that runs the length of it.
Now, I could carve this into those ones I just cut out, but that would be a waste of time.
It would actually be a lot easier to sandwich a thinner board in between these.
So that's what I'll do.
I placed one of the halves on the thin board and drew out a rough shape.
I cut it out like before.
So I've got my two halves here that I cut out earlier they're still pretty rough,
but they sandwich right around this thin piece
and as you can see it really does already sort of look like a boat.
I've got all the pieces clamped together here.
Everything's still really rough, so I'm going to take it to the belt sander and even things out.
I started by sanding the three together.
That way, I could get the proper shape on the back here.
Kind of like this.
From there, I took them apart and sanded them individually.
This is when I really started getting the right shape on everything.
It took a little while, but I think the results speak for themselves.
It's really starting to look like about now.
I've got the pieces all sanded down and looking much better.
I'll add more detail later but for now, I'm going to glue them together with some super glue.
As you may already know, cyanoacrylate super glue is fine to use in a fish tank.
That's why I decided to use it as my adhesive.
I applied glue to the appropriate surfaces and clamped the pieces together.
I let it sit for a little while and took care of inconsistencies on the belt sander.
And here it is now.
I really like how it turned out, but there's more work to be done.
This next step is going to be the hardest,
but before I could actually do it, I got to set this up in a jig.
All right so I've got the jig set up.
What it is, is just some 2x4s secured together with screws and then, locked onto my workbench.
I don't want anything moving around so I need to make sure that it's sturdy here
and I also secured the boat from underneath with screws.
What I'm going to do is cut out all of this middle area with my router.
Now you'll notice that I also have a line on the jig itself
and I'm just going to kind of use that as a guide to make sure that I don't cut past this line.
I only have one boat and I'm not trying to make it again.
So I took my time and was very careful during this process.
I just kept going around and around and slowly cleared out the center of this.
Sure, it's not perfect, there's a little hole in the back here and inconsistencies,
but that's all right.
It doesn't need to be perfect for this build.
At this point, I'm ready to start adding all of the detail work and I'm really excited for that.
However, I got my other boat here for reference instead of the Cutty Sark
because it's a little less detailed and easier to follow.
To start I drew a line along the top.
I carved this out with my Dremel to create a nice detail.
For my boat, I think I'll just make a single cabin.
I glued a few small boards together to create the main structure.
I went and drilled a few holes on each side to create windows.
I glued this to the boat.
To add the masts was quite simple.
I drilled a few holes in the boat.
I glued dowel rods in them to create the masts.
I also glued a few dowels to the front for more detail.
I went on to cut out more dowels for the spreaders.
I glued these to the masts.
You may have noticed that it has this really cool weathered look about it.
Now to achieve this effect, I used a wire brush drill attachment.
I just went over all of the pieces to make a really cohesive look
and although I think it looks awesome now, this is only the base.
I've got even more details to add.
I'll use this Hemp Cord for a lot of the remaining components.
I glued it to the masts and wrapped it around in various directions.
I went back and applied glue to the end so that nothing comes undone.
For it to look proper, I need some hardware like these boats have.
I don't know if that's something that you can buy, so I had to take matters into my own hands.
I twisted up some Stainless Steel Wire to create these little loops.
I drilled holes all over the boat to install them.
As I'm sure you could tell based on the look of the other boats
I'll use these to secure more strings.
I also used the one along the top to create a railing.
I simply wove some stainless wire through the loops.
That got us to the current point, which is almost complete.
The only remaining detail I need to add are the sails.
For that, I'll go with this Polyester Fabric.
I know it's fine to put in tanks and I thought
this would be a good option because it won't break down.
I used a few paper templates to cut them out to the appropriate size.
Then, I glued them to various portions of the boat.
After several days worth of work, it's finally complete
and I gotta say I'm so pleased with how it turned out.
As I constructed this, the more excited that I got about the build.
Like can't you just picture this being at the bottom of a scape?
I definitely can.
Originally I was going to tatter it up some more
put a little hole in the side
and stuff like that, prior to putting it in the tank.
However, I'm gonna take the artistic liberty on this one and leave it as is.
You know, I took so much time to get it to this state,
that I figured, you know what, I can see it being in the aquarium just like this,
so that's what I'm going to do.
Enough talk, let's get to the tank.
So this is just a 10 gallon rimless that I made some modifications to.
It originally had a frame on the bottom;
I ripped that off,
I blacked out the background,
and I also put it on a piece of Neoprene, which will act as a self-leveling mat.
Like most other aquariums I set up that are going to include plants,
I'll start out with an aqua soil.
I poured in enough to build up a decent layer in the bottom of the tank.
Now you'll notice that i also evened it out and sloped it up toward the back.
This is just an easy way to create more depth in the scape.
As for the scape itself, I decided to go a Seiryu Stone.
It's got a lot of cool texture and detail to it that I thought
would complement the boat really well.
As I placed the stones, I more or less wanted everything centered in the aquarium.
So I placed them accordingly and in ways that allowed the boat to nestle in them.
I'm just using the natural crevices of the stone to keep the boat in place.
I went with a simple layout because I want the boat to be the primary focus of the tank.
If I were to fill this as is it would definitely float.
So what I'm going to do is secure it to the stones with superglue.
I'll apply to all the areas where it's in contact with it.
I also sprinkled on a little bit of rock dust to hide some of the excess.
And as you can see now, it's rock solid.
Now I can add the remainder of the substrate, starting with some White Sand.
I poured it all throughout the enclosure to conceal the aqua soil.
I also used a brush to redistribute it.
To bring more detail I added some smaller stones.
A few pieces of Limestone did the trick.
Then, I sprinkled Gravel over the majority of the scape.
I added Limestone sand for even more texture.
A little more sand brought to look full circle.
I got it moved over to the rack.
You'll notice that I also installed a Hang-on Back Filter, which has a sponge on the intake.
I have it lit with an Led Flood Light.
More on that in a little bit.
In the meantime, I'm going to get this filled up, so that we can get it planted.
I got it filled up and the boat didn't float, so it's a good day.
It looks good now, but it's going to look even better when we add these plants.
As I typically do I'll start with the largest plants and work down.
First up, are a few stems of Vallisneria.
I think this will look really cool as it grows in and arcs over the boat.
Next up, is Hygrophila corymbosa.
For this scape, I felt that it could loosely resemble kelp.
I put in some Scarlet Temple for a pop of color.
From there, I filled in the foreground with an assortment of Crypts.
I finished it off with sue Süßwassertang.
It's basically freshwater seaweed.
I thought that it would look awesome in this one.
I primed the filter and got it running.
I netted out the debris as well.
I gotta say I absolutely love how this turned out.
Obviously, it's much different than what I would typically do.
I like a more natural style most of the time,
but there's something charming about the way this looks.
I think it's due in part to the fact that the boat is made from real materials.
This one, has some movement to the sails and an
overall sort of organic look to it, that I really enjoy.
It gives me inspiration to do more builds like this in the future.
My only complaint with the whole thing really is how I did the bottom sails on the boat.
I wish I would have stretched them out like I did with the ones on top,
but nonetheless, I think it looks great.
The tank will look even better with some livestock though.
Let's add them.
To stock this tank I'll keep it relatively light, starting out with six Panda Tetras.
I thought these would be a good choice because they're black and
white and kind of ghost-like, which goes with the theme of this tank.
I also added eight ghost shrimp for obvious reasons.
This is a ghost ship, so why not add some ghost shrimp?
And last but not least, were some Bladder Snails I was able to collect from a different aquarium.
It should go without saying that I added dechlorinator
and Fritz Turbo Start prior to adding any of this.
Both of course were provided by Fritz, who sponsors the channel.
And that my friends is the ghost ship aquascape.
I gotta say it's definitely not something I ever thought I'd be doing,
but even more so now with the inhabitants in it, I'm seriously enjoying it.
I'm curious to know what you think though.
Let me know down in the comments.
Oh yeah, I almost forgot about the led floodlight.
This has a really cool feature to it that allows me to change the color,
brightness, all that kind of stuff.
So I can make it a blue color for a more ominous feel or really whatever I want.
I'll leave links to that down in the description because I'm
sure some of you will be curious about it.
Anyway, that's all I have for you in this one.
As always, I hope you enjoyed it and learned something new.
Let me know what you think about it down in the comments
and leave it with the thumbs up if you liked it.
Until next time SerpaSquad take care and peace!