5 Aquarium Tips I Wish I Knew When I Started Aquascaping

Keeping a thriving aquarium can be challenging. There's a lot of research that goes into it, then there's equipment, maintenance. When you think about all that it can be a little discouraging. That's why today I want to share five things that I wish I knew back when I first started aquascaping. These are not things that you need to do, these are things that you don't need to do. They save me time and effort every day and I hope they can do the same for you. When I was putting this video together the first thing that I thought about was cleaning the substrate. This whole video came from that thought because this one used to stress me out way more than it should have. When I first started I remember spending so much time researching the right way to do it. I tried so many different methods and equipment and nothing seemed to work the way I wanted it to, especially for a planted tank. I even got into the habit of swirling the hose just above the substrate during water changes, thinking I could gently lift the debris so I could suck it out without disturbing anything. But even then I'll always end up accidentally pulling up some of the substrate or worse uprooting plants, especially carpeting plants, which take a long time to establish. Eventually I just gave up on the whole process and for a while I felt like I was neglecting my tank. But guess what? Nothing happened. For real, I couldn't even see the waste anymore. It was all getting broken down, sifting through the substrate and filtered naturally by the plants and bacteria. That stuff actually feeds your beneficial bacteria. It becomes part of the system. Guys, I'm not saying never clean your substrate. If there's a loose moss, visible algae, or a bunch of debris piling up in dead spots, sure, clean that. But those are small touch-ups. What I've learned after building aquascape after aquascape is this, you don't need to vacuum waste out of your substrate. Not only is it unnecessary, it's usually more harmful than helpful. If you're trying to grow red plants and struggling with nitrogen levels, yeah, I've been there. I was trying to get my nitrate levels below 5 ppm for the longest time because that's the key to those vibrant reds, isn't it? And sure, I'll get there for a little while, but then instead of seeing those beautiful reds, what would happen was my plants would start to suffer and show signs of deficiency. It's really not easy to keep nitrogen that low unless your tank is built specifically for that. You need a strong nutrient-rich soil bed. And let's be real, not every aquascape has that. Sometimes you don't want a thick layer of soil. Take this tank for example. There's only a bed of soil in the back corner. The rest is basically all hardscape. And even with a good layer of soil, you've still got fish food, fish waste, stuff that naturally adds nitrogen to the system. So instead of constantly fighting to keep levels low, I changed my approach. I started picking plants that could give me those beautiful reds without needing super low nitrates. If you're running into the same issue, here's my advice. Unless you're designing a tank specifically for red plants, choose species that can handle higher nitrogen levels and still give you color. Plants like Artanantera reineckii, Louisiana tans, and Rotala natto leaf speed red have worked great for me. They are reliable, colorful, and honestly just make life easier. If you guys are enjoying the video, remember to like and subscribe. It really helps the channel grow. And it helps me to continue making videos about this beautiful hobby. Scraping algae off the glass used to feel like just another unavoidable chore. I'd be in there every week with my scraper, trying to keep everything clean so I could actually see into the tank. But eventually, I figured something out, and I wish I had known this way sooner. You only really need to scrape the glass if you don't have a good algae eating glue. Once I added more otocinclus to my tanks, things changed fast. They'll eat almost any kind of algae that builds up on the glass. The only one they don't seem to care for is green spock algae, but that's where horned nidae snails come in. They'll focus on one spot, and even though they are slow, once they are done, I promise you, you'll see the difference. If you keep the right number of these guys in your tank, they'll keep the glass clean for you. You might still scrape now and then, maybe if things get out of hand, but it won't be part of your regular maintenance anymore. I've got 4 tanks right now, and out of all of them, there's only one I still have to manually clean the glass in, and that's just because I haven't added enough nidites to that one yet. So if you're tired of scraping, or feel like it's taking too much of your time, try adjusting your cleanup crew. Don't go crazy though, do it a little bit at a time, until you find the right balance. It's a small change that could save you lots of time and effort. And let me know in the comments of any tips that you wish you had known when you built your first tank. You've probably heard this before, you need special fertilizers if you're keeping shrimp. I definitely did. I've had a man of shrimp for years, so I never really worried about it too much with them, but when I started keeping sherry shrimp, I did a ton of research. Everywhere I looked, people were warning about copper. And yeah, most fertilizers have a little bit of copper in them, because plants actually need it. But apparently, that trace amount was supposed to be dangerous for sherry shrimp, so I played it safe. I set up a separate shallow tank just for them, and didn't dose fertilizers on that one. It was risky, but I wanted my shrimp to be safe. The plants grew slowly, but the shrimp were active, always grazing and exploring, and the tank looked pretty good overall. So now, I'm going to tell you what I know for a fact. The amount of copper in most fertilizers is not harmful to sherry shrimp. I don't know about other neocaridina, but sherry shrimp can take it. I know it, because one day I bought some re-shed, and it came with a tiny hitchhiker, a baby sherry shrimp. I didn't notice until after I already added it to my 50 gallon tank. I figured it wouldn't make it, but weeks passed, then months, and he was still there, healthy and growing. So I added a few more sherry shrimp to my other tanks, still dosing my normal fertilizers, copper and all. And guess what? They've been thriving. Sherry shrimp, at least in my experience, can handle it just fine. I left this one for last, because I actually talked about it in last week's video, so check that out if you haven't already. But this is something I really used to believe in. If you want a healthy, beautiful aquascape, you need a big filter. That was my mindset. I used to run canister filters that were supposed to be for 50 gallons under my 30-gallon tanks, until I ran into a bunch of problems when I downsized from a 75-gallon tank to two 30-gallon tanks. I talked about that in more details on that other video. That experience completely changed how I think about filtration. I still believe canister filters are the best option for high-tech tanks. They give you strong, consistent flow, they don't take up space inside the tank, and they give you more room for biological media. Because, unless you are setting up an aquarium that is self-sustained, which is a whole different deal, the surface area inside your tank by itself is not enough to keep a high-tech aquascape going. But what's changed, for me, is the size. I used to think oversized filters were a must, but now I know that you don't need a huge filter for your aquarium to thrive. I've been running small canister filters on most of my tanks, and they've been doing amazing. I really wish I had known all these tips when I started aquascaping. I would have saved so much time and would have been able to build better aquariums. Please, let me know your thoughts on this topic. I would love to read them.