Today, we're going to plant the 2000 Gallon aquarium
no, big deal though right
Mean I'm not the first person to plant a big aquarium although. This is 2,000 gallons. It is unusually big for a home aquarist
but the situation here is pretty unique because
this tank is already stocked with large, Asian, Arowana, and
Freshwater Stingray and the plan of attack is actually pretty simple shut off all of the electrical equipment to the aquarium
drain half of the water or maybe a little bit more and then as they say
kinda just dive right in what happens is one of them does sting me know I know that's going to be a question
well
What will happen is a stinger much like this one
Will be stabbed into my foot or ankle or leg or wherever they get me it could potentially
Break off in place or come out completely or maybe just be a clean stab
That might hurt, but its the venom they inject that causes excruciating
burning pain, to top it off there is no anti-venom for Stingray Venom
You have to take your cut or injury and put it under hot water as hot as you can bear to
hopefully coagulate the venom and stop it from spreading from there deal with the pain for the next 24 to 48 hours and
and Keep it clean so it doesn't get infected
dangerous yes
Irresponsible no, I have several years of experience working with Rays and having them in my care
I feel extremely confident being outside of the tank as well as inside of the aquarium
I've said it many times in the past these guys are like little curious puppy dogs. We just have to respect their space
We can't spook them and of course don't hurt them. They're not there to attack me
They're only there to protect themselves if they have to
at least its gonna be warm
just got to stay calm
move slowly
Start planting the plants stick to the plan
Hello Mister Arowana
So some of the plants I'm going to be using we're starting off with
Basic Java moss this is going to cover a lot of the top and this branch over here
I'm going to be attaching it with some simple sewing thread. Just tying it right on
It comes in a bunch of you know little mats, so it should be relatively simple
I don't want to stay still for too long with my feet the rays are you're curious animals
They will come and explore what I'm doing
And I don't want to be sitting here not moving my feet at all only to you know spook them
when I do move
So this is just a very thin thread going to eventually dissolved in the water be perfectly fine
Specifically its taxiphyllum barbieri or more commonly known as simply, Java moss
I have ten portions of that
What cha' doing frank?
java moss attached relatively easily
I just used some sewing thread to kind of tied along the branch as I tied it along this branch and they capped off a
Couple of the pieces over here to kind of get rid of that cut off piece
So it looks more natural and then just a little tuft here in the middle
You know just kind of even it all out
I think this is exactly what I was looking for now on to some micro Sorum trident
this stuff is a rhizome plant meaning that it doesn't necessarily need to go pushed into the substrate
It doesn't need to you know have a planted tank soil
It can all be attached to the wood and the roots will attach to it
That's one of the benefits of rhizome plants and in fact the rest of these plants are being attached to the wood
Specifically its Microsorum pteropus Trident
I have about 12 portions of this plant
now the micro Sorum narrow
This is also a Pteropus
But it's the narrow version now difference between the narrow and the trident is the trident has a little bit thinner leaf
But if you look at the end instead of tapering off it kind of forms a little trident
He's tasting me
Lot of the plants have been added to the front, but we can't really forget the back of the tank either
Now some anubias Nana we're going to try to focus on putting this new at the top of the tank anubias
This is Anubias barteri Nana. I've got about ten portions of this
Now the Anubias barteri barteri
we have some more
Anubias, but this is Anubias barteri barteri
basically
These are pretty much the same plant the leaves are pretty similar
But the biggest differences are obviously the size this one will grow larger
larger stems and obviously larger leaves and not as many where the Nana
Grows far many, but its far more, but it stays much smaller
We're now onto the very next day. Tank is filled back up, and I have to admit right off the bat. I'm
Absolutely in love with the end
result I can only imagine what this tank is going to look like when the plants truly take off and
Really fill the tank out. I will admit though
I was a little bit worried about the rays potentially ripping some of the plants out
Maybe the flow in the aquarium since there's a lot of flow in this tank would
Potentially blow some of the plants off because some of them are not secured that well
But given the fact that there's so many
Crevices in this wood a lot of these plants are simply
Especially the anubias as well as some of the different species of the Java fern
Are pushed into the crevices into little cracks and holes they're in there quite securely while others are tied with
Some sewing thread so end result though. I think everything is in there quite nicely
I do like the end result you know the middle of the tank
There's a lot of shadow there, and you know a lot of overhang from the wood
so I wasn't really able to put much plants there simply because they'll most likely die
I wasn't entirely sure so I did add a couple to test it out if those are successful
I'll go ahead and add a lot more to the tank
It does seem like the fish are more active in the tank now
I'm not sure if I'm just imagining things or if they're just hungry because I didn't feed them yesterday
but I really enjoy seeing the Rays and the
Arowana, and you know even the flower horn kind of explore the tank and the plants really
Finished this tank off and some of you might be wondering why no plant in the substrate answer that I have is simple
This is just a sand it offers
No nutritional value even if I did have a planted tank substrate the rays would tear it apart in a day
especially in a few months or even a couple of years when they grow to
massive proportions, they're going to
Absolutely make a mess of any tank any plant you know planted in the substrate at all whats up frank
One of my favorite moments of planting the aquarium is how majestic the Arowana was with me in the tank
constantly swimming with me coming over brushing up against my leg
He was clearly doing it on purpose because this is a big aquarium has so many other places he could go
but he was just you know, so
Attentive to me and so curious yet, so gentle with me
It was a really interesting experience, and I hope some day that maybe we can get in the tank. Maybe put on a
Snorkel and kind of you know
Enjoy the tank with them even frank swam around my feet a lot in fact he spent a lot of time in between my legs
but that was hilarious
But and the Rays kind of left me alone
I just made sure I stayed active and I did stay in one spot this took about an hour and a half to two hours
to complete and
You know not being able to get out of the tank and into the tank out of the tank is you know to kind of
Get is take a step back and see what it looks like
Was probably the only downside to doing this however? I think ultimately it turned out great
I'm dying to see what you guys say think about it
So let me know in the comment section below give me some kind of Feedback.
I Need it
I need to hear what you guys think wearing this together, so over 40 plants
5 different species were used a couple species of anubias a couple species of Java Fern and of course Java Moss
I really wanted to get away from the typical Java fern you're used to seeing and
Use a couple of different species that I find don't really
Give the appearance of Java Fern and you know really can really show you a few
Alternatives to plants that do well on decorations rocks wood and don't need to be put in a substrate
So if you ever wanted to add live plants to your aquarium these are some options, and that's kind of something
I want to focus on is not just show you something really interesting and inspiring but give you some ideas that you can use
today and
Install into your own aquariums
And I know I'm going to get asked where did the plants come from of course they came from my local fish store one fish
Two fish in fact he now sells from online so I don't have to travel to the store
And he just ship them to my door
I'll leave a link to his website in the description below for all my canadian viewers that want to get some great affordable and healthy
as for the lighting
well
You guys know that?
ecotec Marine is one of the main sponsors out here in the aquarium gallery along with custom aquariums when ecotec Marine asked me what I was
Doing for lighting on the 2000 I kind of gave some ideas
And they're like let us take care of this they went ahead and turned a couple of their ecotec radion
G4 Lights into the freshwater version these are the x r
30s they put out almost 200 watts of lighting our fan cooled and extremely quiet, but here's where it gets interesting right now
I'm only using
20% of our wattage on a 2000 gallon aquarium
And I'm only using two white with that said what I'm entirely interested in what completely blew my mind is
the ability to control
absolutely every aspect of the light
I'm not going to get into it today
But when I get more well-versed with their mobile app as well as their dashboard that you can use on your desktop
I'm going to show you guys some incredible things you can do with it for now
I'll just leave a link to their website in the description
Below you can check it out on your own and just to be clear because I know I'm going to be asked these are not
The types of lights that I'm going to be using on the racking system for that we have something very special
I also need to take the lights and install the power cords up through the ceilings right now
They're just kind of hanging
I know, it's sloppy right now
But I'm going to make this look really cool once the power and everything is going up through the ceiling it'll just be two
Pendant lights, it's going to look very clean ultimately though. I'm extremely happy with this tank
I think moving forward this is going to change the entire dynamic of the tank
I think it's going to be even more interesting to see how the plants do in this tank because in my
Stingray and Asian Arowana tanks, I keep nutrient levels quite low
But the plant selection is slow growers, and they don't need a ton of nutrients
And I do have the ability to give them as much light as I need so again
It's going to be pretty interesting to see what happens with the plants over the next couple of months what the 2,000 gallon aquarium now
Completed, how about we move on to?
The 375 that's now in the gallery