Mike: Hey everyone, how are you? You have Mike and Sierra here and today this is the big reveal of
our 75 gallon aquarium that we've been building for our monster fish. Sierra: Yeah so we
put a lot of work into this we've been planning this out for the last few
months and we've been really excited to show you guys. Mike: Yeah so basically the
concept for this is we wanted to have a tank that looked absolutely natural and
beautiful but that was also suitable for our big fish. So we did a
couple of creative things in order to make that work knowing with what our
fish was like and basically that he liked a hiding spot so we kind of designed a
tank in order to fulfill that for him. Sierra: Yes so we put a lot of thought and
planning into this and this really all started well over a year ago
now, when we found this piece of driftwood here, so we have a few videos
on that and once I seen it I had to have this piece. It was something that we
went and collected ourselves so it's pretty cool that we were actually able to
finally incorporate this into a tank and I think it looks pretty nice. Mike: Let's talk
about what we put in this tank cause as you can see there's quite a bit of stuff
in here. Sierra just mentioned the driftwood.
So we did use a couple bags of ADA Amazonia soil. So this stuff here it's
a lot better than any other planting substrate I used. Instead
of using the fluorite you put a plant in and it just goes right in and
it looks very nice. So we used some Amazonia soil and you can also see that
we used, here, some ADA Colorado sand. Now we picked these up from our local Sierra: ...retailer
here in town, Eco Aquariums, and we were really happy
that. I mean everything was in stock so that was nice and convenient and I think
this sand was well worth the investment because I think it looks really natural
and really enhances the tank. Mike: Yeah so basically we also had lava rock. We
used that for a foundation. We could have used ADA power sand but it would've costed
us quite a bit because would need at least probably four bags just to get
that lift. So we didn't go exactly by the book but it still looks amazing for
what we did. Sierra: Yeah so I mean like all hobbyists out there
we're always looking for ways that we can save money where it (doesn't) matter and then
spend on what's really important. So just to give us some extra height we put some
lava rock in there just to give us a lava rock mountain as the foundation and
that was covered by the Aquasoil where all the plants are going to be. Mike: Yeah so other
than that like I said we did mention we had the dragon stone in there which
really kind of works with the wood and I think it really fits and works nice with
it .What do you think? Sierra: Yeah I think the dragon stone was a nice addition I
really think it looks gives it that natural kind of mountain or hillside
kind of feel and yeah I think overall it turned out great.
Mike: So for the filtration for this tank the Hydor Pro 600, that that thing is just
awesome. It does an amazing job. Sierra: if anything it does too well of a job. With
all of our filtration on all of our other tanks we always oversize it and go
usually larger than what we need and usually what our thinking is there is
that our tanks if anything are only gonna grow. They're not getting any
smaller so it's always nice to have something that's a little bit bigger. Now
with this specific unit when we had the powerhead that we were planning to use
which is the Koralia, we were planning to use that for just for extra
circulation to make sure there weren't any dead spots at all, but we found just
using the canister alone Mike: it was basically doing the job that we needed.
So any more than that, especially right now, with these plants
not being a hundred percent fully rooted I'm afraid would probably just tear them
all out. We haven't attempted to turn it on
right yet. Possibility of using it in the future when the plants are well rooted?
Definitely. For right now though I'm probably just gonna take it out and see
how it goes. Sierra: Yeah so it's nice thing that we have it on
hand in in case, that you know when it when it is fully rooted, we should be
able to...Mike: yeah and if not we have a nice big fish in another tank that would love
to swim in the current so we definitely do have a use
for it and we'll put it in use and we'll show
it to you if it doesn't work out in here. But other than that, what do we have here
next? Sierra: So we have lighting. So for lighting we went with the Giesemann t5 lights
we're using the super flora we did make a video where we showed you the PAR
rating and the difference between the superflora and tropic bulbs that they
offer so if you guys want to check that out I certainly recommend taking a look
at it. Mike: Giesemann all the way for the lighting, super impressive
especially with the PAR results that they were popping out. We have a PAR
tester here too as well now so we've been testing and like these things are
just awesome and I think they're gonna do just an absolutely amazing job and
we're not even using you know four bulbs like some of the you hardcore
planted people are using. Two bulbs, not even the full length of the aquarium and
it's amazing lighting. But yeah definitely having the reflectors on
there makes all the difference in the world. We wouldn't be able to be filming
right now if we didn't have reflectors on because there would just be so much
glare. So they're doing an amazing job and the spread of the reflectors is just
absolutely awesome, if you've seen our PAR results, so very impressed with
that .Sierra: Yeah so, so far, the lighting filtration everything like that seems to
be working out great and we're really looking forward to seeing the fish in
this tank when it's finally ready. Yeah so right now we're just waiting to make
sure we get our parameters exactly perfect before we add him into the tank.
Mike: Yeah so next, the most important thing that we had in order to build this
tank, was Kevin. If we didn't have Kevin this thing wouldn't have been possible. I
did kind of see his vision that he was explaining but after seeing how it looks
now my vision wasn't that grand . Sierra: So yeah so it's always nice to have people that
are plant nerds and that are really involved in the Hobby and to get their
guidance and wisdom can really help and in this case here I've really made
this tank happen, as well as our other tanks. So yeah we've been really happy
with it and we can't thank Kevin enough for all of his help
really. Mike: Oh yeah like I said this isn't the first tank that he's helped us with but
this one here definitely had a lot more planning into it as you can tell and it
just looks absolutely amazing. All right so for the plans in the tank we actually got
our plants from two places. We got a lot of them from John over at the plant
guy. Well actually we even had another shipment come in from John the other day,
we'll show you some highlights here, but we had some beautiful Bucephalandra
that came in that really filled out some of the areas in the tank as
well as some dwarfs add some narrow leaf Java Fern and there was another plant in
there too I just have a hard time pronouncing the name but I think was
like Echinodorus Quadricostatus or something along
those lines. I'll spell it out for you here down below I'm just not exactly
sure how to pronounce it but beautiful plants and they came in a record time
and they look awesome in the tank so thank you once again John for sending those
over to us. We actually did get another unboxing from the aquascape room
we're gonna have a video on that, probably it's gonna be the next video
maybe sometime this week and I'll show you some of the other cool plants that
we picked up. Some of them aren't even actually in this tank so you
definitely do want to check that out and there's also something special in there for
you guys as well. Alright so let's talk a little bit about the plants that we have
in the tank and we'll try to get the right names for them like I'm really
really really gonna try. Sierra: Mike's been working on it. He's getting a lot
better. I try my best but yeah let's go. Mike: So at the bottom right
here we do have some narrow leaf Java Fern, we have some bolbitis. We have
some dwarf sag down here and we had that one plants named Echinodorus
Quadricostatus or something like that. we think that's what it is. So we
actually have some narrow leaf anubias as well. Sierra: anubias nana narrow leaf Mike: okay we
have some bucephalandra and we actually have a couple different types
of bucephalandra in this tank and we're gonna give you some close-up shots
so you could really see these. But we also have the Alteranthera Reineckii
then we have some hydrocotyle tripartita
How about you take over on this side?
Sierra: Okay so we also have, so again the
Alteranthera Reineckii is through here. We also have the Elocharis Vivipara back
here and then the Echinodorus Tenellus at the front well and all around really.
it's kind of everywhere. and then Mike did I believe mention
the anubias nana and a few of the other larger anubias here we also have anubias
coffeefolia back there and again the Hydrocotyle it's right there. I think
that's most of it We do have the Monte Carlo down here as
well and of course there's the mosses which is the spiky moss and the java moss.
Mike: Yeah so we do have quite a bit of plants in here, different varieties of plants.
So it's got something for everybody in here I guess. Now whether all these plants are
gonna stand up to my fish I don't know that's kind of a little bit questionable
but we tried our best in the process to pick plants that our fish wouldn't be
able to destroy as fast or more... I guess for instance we put
narrow leaf java fern because if he wants to swim through it he's got less chance of
breaking, you know the plants by swimming through it. Sierra: Yeah there's a lot of thought
thought it into this tank here and it really was designed for our big fish which was
the ultimate goal because at the end of the day this is his tank and that's kind
of how we look at it. We absolutely love the way it looks right now and we
hope that it's gonna stay this way and you guys stay tuned when we actually get
him in here. it'll be interesting to see his reaction. Mike: yes
and we're gonna get it on film Sierra: And we did have a discussion with them prior to
this about not eating plants and not completely destroying them and I think
so far we're on the same page because we have tried them with a few small plants
here and there. Mike: Yeah so I have him in with plants right
now and he is not touching the plants at all. He does not care about the plants
but it's going to be interesting to see what he does with the tank. Sierra: Yeah
definitely a possibility that some of these things do get uprooted and we may
have to rearrange some things here and there
but I'm really interested to see how it goes. Mike: Yeah that pretty much
explains what we have going on here. Like I said don't forget to check out the
video that we're going to have out in a couple of days with the unboxing from
the aquascape room because there is something very cool and special in there
for you guys and yeah. Sierra: Yeah so I hope you guys have enjoyed our build so far if
you do want to check out any of the other things like our filtration or
lighting or anything like that we do have a playlist or a little series going
on with that but yeah I'm really happy with how it turned out so far and just
time will tell how it turns out. Mike: Yeah so thank you everybody
for watching and I hope you have yourself a great day.
you