I MADE A QUICK & SIMPLE NANO AQUASCAPE FOR MY ALIEN BETTA!

In this video we're making a quick and simple jungle nano aquascape for my alien betta. So this is Mr. Alien. He's a hybrid which means that his parents were two different species of betta. He has been with me for more than a year now and today I'm making a new home for him. I've been keeping him in a 35 liter tank on my dinner table but after today he will move to the shop. His new tank is going to be a 30 centimeter cube from UNS. I love this size aquarium and they're really fun and easy to scape. I've already got my usual frosted window film on the back glass and if you want to know how I install this background I suggest you watch my low budget betta scape tutorial that I made a few weeks ago. Next up we need a light. This is the brand new Skylight Hyperbar. A beautiful light made in Poland. I've been using the Hyperbar for a few weeks on my shallow tank as well as on my reef tank and I'm really pleased with it. The light is app controlled which allows you to change the colors and make your own schedules. Now we can start on the hardscape. I want this layout to have a forest slash jungle vibe but I want to keep it really simple. So I found two pieces of spiderwood which will work perfectly for what I have in mind. To make life easier I'm just going to glue a rock to the base of the spiderwood. This will prevent the wood from floating and potentially ruining the layout. As always I'm doing that with cotton pads and super glue but for some extra strength I'm also adding some baking soda. This is a trick that I learned recently. It makes an even stronger connection. With the spiderwood prepared we can now move on to the substrate and for this layout I'm going to use something new. I've ordered a bag of base layer substrate from Dennerle Plants and I want to see if this will work even better than just using aqua soil. For this size of crimp I need one liter so I'll just pour that into a jug and then I'm pouring it into the tank. I'm then spreading it out as evenly as possible but I'm keeping it away from the front glass because I don't want it to be visible there. Now in my last video I showed you guys how I made this shallow tank and for the substrate layer in that tank I also use these magic powders from ADA. I was always very skeptical about these powders but this tank has been super stable and algae free from day one. So I'm going to use these powders again to see if I can get the same results in this tank. So we have the base layer, we have the magic powders, now I'm going to cover it with aqua soil. I'll start with a thin layer then I'm going to position the spiderwood and then I'll add more soil. To make the hardscape a little bit more interesting I'm also adding in some rounded pebbles. Right now the wood and the pebbles have almost the same color but over time the spiderwood will turn darker and provide a bit of contrast. With the hardscape done we can now start planting. I've selected a few different types that I think will work well in a jungle style nano. First up we have dwarf hairgrass and I'm planting this in the foreground but also in the center and towards the back. Around the base of the spiderwood I'm planting two different types Then a plant that I don't use very often, Ranunculus inundatus. I don't know why but this plant kind of reminds me of parsley. The leaves have an interesting shape and I like the bright green color. In the background I'm planting Rotala laos mixed with some Juncus repens. Fast forward six weeks later the aquascape has grown in nicely. I've installed a small canister filter, a heater and I'm injecting co2 as well. I've also added some moss and redwood floaters to complete the look. Mr. Alien moved in a couple weeks ago and he seems happy in his new home. I also gave him a few friends that will help keep his tank looking good. In the past six weeks I haven't really done much in terms of maintenance and it kind of shows. The glass needs to be cleaned and the plants could use a small trimming session as well. I'll start by removing the co2 diffuser and soaking it in some hot water with some bleach. Now I can clean the glass with my algae scraper. There's a little bit of algae in the glass lily pipe as well so I'm just going to clean it with a small pipe brush. Now let's trim some of the plants. The Hygrophila is getting a bit too big and the Ranunculus is starting to take over the foreground. The Rotala needs to be trimmed as well and the easiest and fastest way to do that is just by cutting everything really short. Of course this temporarily destroys the layout a bit and I'm totally fine with just leaving it like this. But just for the sake of this video I'll replant some of the cuttings. Lastly I'll do a quick water change and that's the maintenance session done. A few days later the tank is looking good again. I do prefer the overgrown look that we had before the trimming session but we will have that again in a few weeks. And you know what, that is why I love aquascaping. Because there's always something to do and there's always something to look forward to. But the only thing left to do now is to just sit back and enjoy.