The Tiger Canyon - Aquascape (Tutorial) for Blue Tiger Shrimp

In this video I gonna show you how I build this the canyon style build for my blue tiger shrimps. Okay guys, let's go back where it all began. As you can see the shelf is slowly filling with life. For this setup I will be using an aquarium on the top level of the shelf. It is a 45 liter or 12 gallon tank and the size is 30 cm by 50 cm by 30 cm. For lighting I gonna use an 8 Watt LED bar with approximately 5500 Kelvin. Because I don't wanna see this ugly technical equipment behind the tank I gonna attach some frosted window film to the highlighted panes of the aquarium. This is honestly the process I enjoy the least about any setup. To attach the film I first wet the surfaces of the glass panes with soapy water. Afterwards I place the film on the glass and squeeze out the water with a suitable tool or a bank card. Finally I simply cut off the excess film along the edge with a sharp knife. I checked the aquarium for leaks and put it back on the shelf. And now the fun part of the build can begin. For this build I gonna use an under gravel filter box. This is really a beneficial filtration for caridina shrimps in my opinion. If you want to get more details regarding this kind of filtration check out the linked video later. I filled the filter box with aqua soil and used a piece of filter sponge as top layer. Afterwards I position the filter on the left rear corner of the tank. I use an air hose which I connect to both, the filter and the pressurized dispenser. As soon as I open the air tab on the hose the filter is ready for use. Finally the time had come and I could start building the hardscape. I use two pieces of accurate light diffuser as protective layer for the heavy stones. The final result should look like a canyon later, that's why I position the accurate light diffuser on the left and the right hand side of the tank. I decided to use dragon stone to design the canyon. This is really an awesome looking stone which does not influence the water parameters. Okay guys, the basic idea is to use the dragon stone to build two plateaus, one on the left and one on the right of the tank. My goal is to create a narrow path between the two plateaus which creates a little more depth. So I played around with all the stones of different sizes to find a layout which I was happy with. Guys, don't forget to wash dragon stones carefully before using, because there is always a lot of clay and dirt trapped inside the holes and this dirt will cause a mess later in your tank. After some trial and error I ultimately found a layout that I thought could work quite well. To build the plateaus behind the rocks I used some crushed lava rocks to create additional height. On top of the crushed lava rocks I filled a layer of aqua soil as base layer for the plants on the plateau. Now the plateaus were finished it was time to fill in the decorative sand. For this build I chose a very light sand. The JBL Sensible White is really almost white and looks really nice, at least at the beginning as long as it is not covered by algae or dirt. I used a white sand for the front area of the build and the path between the dragon stone plateaus. Then I used a sand flattener to distribute the sand evenly. Once I was happy with the sand area I cleaned the hardscape with a brush. Now the hardscape was almost finished, but there is still one component missing. Guess which one it is. Correct, wood. I still had a nice piece of spider wood that I wanted to integrate into the layout. From my point of view there was actually only one position that was suitable for this piece of wood. I also wanted to add another small branch that had broken off from the large root. I then glued the wood to the hardscape with cyanoacrylate super glue and cotton wool. Be careful with the glue and don't be as clumsy as I was. Last but not least I added some smaller detail stones to the layout to give the scape a more natural look. Finally the time had come and I could start planting. The first plant I chose for this build is Migrantemo Montecarlo. It looks a little bit like the big brother of the Hemianthus calitrichoides, but it is not that demanding. The Montecarlo pearlbeet with its round fresh green leaves is a wonderful carpeting plant. In this build I used it to plant the two plateaus. The next plant for the scape was Storowyne repens, a nice compact foreground plant which is not too demanding. This plant always looks really nice between rocks and stones. With strong lighting and CO2 the plant can develop intensely red leaves. In my case the light is not really strong and I have no CO2 injection, let's see how red the leaves will turn. Always moisten the plants during the planting process to prevent them from drying out. Then I fixed some Bucephalandras to the hardscape. These are epiphyte plants which can be fixed with cotton thread or glue to the hardscape or simply be pushed in gaps. In this case I used cyanoacrylate superglue which is absolutely safe for fish, shrimp and plants. And I also glued some pieces of pearlbeet to the hardscape. Let's see how this will work. Afterwards I continued to plant the foreground. My first plant for this was Lilaeopsis brasiliensis, an adaptable slow growing grass like plant. I planted the pieces on the left and the right of the path. The second plant I chose for the foreground is Marsilea grenata or also called Marsilea minuta. This nice carpeting plant forms very small round leaves and is relatively easy to keep. I like to mix carpeting plants because I think it looks more natural. Okay guys all the plants were planted except one background plant which I gonna plant after the tank is filled with water. So I started the filling process with remineralized RO water. These blue tiger shrimps are a little bit more adaptable than other Caridina shrimps but in my opinion they also prefer soft water. As already mentioned there is one plant left. For the background I used one pot Bacopa australis. This flexible and adaptable plant is really easy to keep. Then it was time to start the filter and wait and wait and wait and wait. Okay guys it's been approximately three weeks since I set up the canyon style build for the blue tiger shrimps. This time it took a little bit longer because I had some serious problems with white bacteria slime, algae, the plants didn't really grow and this sometimes happens because every tank is different, every cycling phase is different. That's biology but finally it looks good and I've just picked up some beautiful blue tiger shrimps from a local breeder. Not sure if you can see it but yeah I would say let's get them used to the water and the aquarium and put them in their new home. Okay guys let's put these beautiful shrimps in their new home. And this is how the tank looks like now and as you can see the shrimps are already scurrying around. I wanted to film the moment when I put the shrimps in the aquarium but I'm an idiot and I forgot to push the record button of my camera. However look how beautiful these shrimp look. The combination of the blue body with the orange eyes is so cool. Some of them are a little bit pale. But the animals have had a six hour trip from Berlin to Munich. I bought the animals from a breeder in Berlin when we were visiting relatives there. There is also a darker version which is called royal blue tiger shrimps in Germany. But I prefer these. I personally think these are nicer because I find it more appealing to see the tiger pattern. I'm also really pleased how the build turned out. As all my shrimp tanks this is a low tech tank consequently the plants will not grow massively. But in my case that's what I want because it means less maintenance for me. The foreground plants are all slow growing and look really healthy. You can still see some algaes but they have already turned grey and will die off soon. The pearl wheat on the plateaus need a little bit more time to thrive. It is rather an easy plant but due to the missing CO2 injection the growth is limited. The Bacopa has grown a lot in the last weeks and definitely needs a pruning. Even the Alternanthera has slightly grown and the red of the leaves has become a little more intense. Guys if you are interested in more content like this do not forget to subscribe. I have a lot of ideas for future projects that you shouldn't miss. Thank you for watching and see you in the next one. Greetings from Germany to the world. Servus.