Shadowing Practice: I MADE A RIVER AQUASCAPE FOR THE PERFECT NANO FISH! Aquascape Tutorial - Learn English Speaking with Video

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296 sentences

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i think this can work we can make it a triangular composition sort of like this way

and actually in the cabinet i've set up a little plant holding system okay

so while the tank is filling up we can have a look at this new filter

okay plan for today is to set up this tank right

here this used to be the low tech slash low budget aquarium for my 2025 aquascaping beginners guide

if you have not seen

that guide you want to watch it i'll leave a link

in the video description it's a seven episode series covering everything from start to finish about aquascaping

so we basically have two identical setups the only difference is

that this tank is made from regular float glass

and this thing is made from optic white glass so

that glass is a little bit higher quality a little bit

more transparent this one has a bit of a greenish tint

to it i did upgrade the light on this tank

so we now have two of the same lights

and these are twin star e-series 4 i just think they look really nice with the acrylic legs you know

so i've upgraded the light on the setup

and i'm actually also going to upgrade the filtration

because i used to run a internal filter from superfish i think it's quite bulky

and just doesn't look very nice

so i'm going to upgrade it with an external cancer filter

this is the new eheim classic vario it's not sponsored i

bought someone with my own money i actually saw this filter

for the first time at interzoo last year spoke to the guys from eheim

and i was quite curious to test it out

so i saw it on sale recently

so i thought let me just try it out of course

i'm not going to install the filter now although the ones escape is completely done

but i'm excited about this product so uh yeah something to look forward to

so this layout i made a few days ago

and this is going to be a real classic nature style

escape you know like carpet in the foreground crypts around the wood ferns on the wood

and then colorful stems in the background

so of course this one should be something a little bit

different i'm thinking of making sort of like a river star escape

but actually a heavily planted river if that makes sense

so i have these really nice dark gray boulders

and long-term viewers of the channel might recognize these stones

because last time i used them was in the 90b river

i think this layer is going to be quite similar i was thinking of doing something completely different

but i really enjoyed the layout you guys enjoyed it as

well i think the video got like more than 100 000 views

so yeah i want to just try something similar again

but first things first we need to take care of this substrate

so So this is the old substrate on the previous layout.

I definitely want to reuse it again because it's full of beneficial bacteria.

It's only six months old, so there's probably still nutrients in there as well.

But I do want a cosmetic sand foreground.

So I'm going to push some substrate towards the back

and then kind of clean it up a little bit here and then add in some sand and some gravel.

I want to try to siphon out this last bit of water because it's quite dirty.

So I'm going to raise one side of the aquarium.

okay remove the aquasol from the foreground i don't think it's a good idea to add in the sand

and gravel now because i'm going to be using quite heavy rocks

but the aquasol is still going to be shifting around

and moving around so it's probably going to be to save that till the very last so

yeah let's get some of these rocks in so i've used these rocks a few times now and

every time I've used them I've glued the hardscan together.

So these rocks actually have some glue marks.

I don't know if you guys can see that.

Yeah you can see there's a lot of glue marks on there.

Unfortunately there's not really much I can do about it anymore.

It's very difficult to remove so I'm just gonna have to find a way to make sure it's not visible.

So either you know face this rock the other way

or cover it up with some plants or something but we'll figure something out.

I think the other side doesn't really have much glue marks.

so this one could stand like this

wasn't really happy how things were going so we're starting from scratch again

and this time this time i'm going to start with the wood

because the wood has quite a nice flow i think i want to have it like

that so now i'm going to start adding in the ropes again

so i do want this piece of wood to sit a

little bit higher i think this can work we can make

it a triangular composition sort of like this way i have

a much more density plant on this side taller plants as well

and then just have it sloping down towards the right i

think this could be nice i do still have quite a lot of these smaller pebbles

but at the moment the piece of wood is touching the glass over here

so i'm just going to move it forward slightly

i think i think this is good now i can also have plants over here you know otherwise

would be hard to kind of cover this up

so initially i was thinking just have a line of sand

because metal gravel in the foreground but i'm thinking to have soil until there

and until there and then just have sand in the middle

and have it going up up on the hill as well you know i think

that could be nice so i'm going to add a little bit of new aquasole in each corner

just to raise it up a little bit here we go

so now this side and this side can also be planted

This will remain empty and later on once we're completely done we'll add in some nice cosmetic sand.

Right I quite like where this hardscab is going.

I can kind of already visualize how it's going to look with the plants in there and the sand in there.

Next step is to glue this piece of wood to the rocks.

I just wanna have it secure, you know?

So I'm just gonna use my super glue and cotton pad method.

A few spots here and there just to hold it down.

okay i think piece of wood is secure yeah it's not moving anymore

so we're pretty much ready for planting but before we do

that i just want to add some root caps into the

substrate like i said it's been six months this actual six months old

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so i just want to make sure we have enough nutrients for another six months

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so a couple of these dental plants power caps in there then we should be good

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you want to push these in quite deep because those capsules always have a little bit of air in it

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sometimes they want to float up to the surface

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i'm going to put three in the background here

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and then a few more over here okay root taps are in

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so now we can start planting

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so i'm thinking for the left back corner to use the nymphoidus telman this will look really good in there

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and then i'm also going to add in some of this juncus repens is a nice grassy stem plant

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so just mix

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that with the nymphoidus taiwan then i have some taxophyllum barbeer

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also known as java moss of course it's going to go on the wood

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and kind of like in between the smaller rocks

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and then for these shorter areas over here i'll use the halantium broadleaf

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and halantium red and actually in the cabinet i've set up a little plant holding system

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and in here i have a few more options i have

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some really nice hydrocotilde verticillata in here i do have some

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small amazon swords as well got some hair grass i got some pearlweed

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some sagittaria as well so i might pick a few of these as well

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all right all done planting i like it a lot already i think it has a very natural feel to it

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so the only thing i have to do now is to add in the sand

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and the gravel i think in order to do

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that i'm actually going to fill up the tank with water first then siphon out this little bit of mud

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that we have over here in front maybe siphon out a little bit of excess soil on the path

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and then I can add in the sand and the gravel.

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Okay, so while the tank is filling up, we can have a look at this new filter.

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We've got a huge thick manual and we also have a quick guide.

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So I'll probably just read the quick guide and get rid of the manual.

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And here's the filter itself.

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Even though I have seen this thing about a year ago, I'm still quite surprised how big it is actually.

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and it's not that powerful i think this wind does like 510 liters per hour

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which you know it's not actually not

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that much yeah at least there's a lot of space for uh for media

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and stuff like

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that let's see what kind of media is in there actually

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yeah i'm not going to open it up as you can see it's basically just sponges

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but that's not biological filter media it's kind of weird as

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well you know like it's it's not a cheap filter why would you only put sponges in there

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and besides the filter of course you get a bunch of tubing you get four of these valves

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which is nice of course all the pipe work for the in

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and out flow which i'm not going to be using

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and then of course the uh the power brick

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and the electricity cord okay back to the tank so i'm just going to start siphoning

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i just want to remove this little bit of mud over here and a little bit of soil

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in this area over here.

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So I've just been digging through my collection of sands and gravel.

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I have this Dua River sand, tropical river sand.

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It's quite nice.

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I have the classic ADA La Plata sand.

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And then I also have this gravel from WIO, which I also used in the previous River Lail with these rocks, you know.

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Here we go, this is very similar to the boulders that I've used for the hardscape, you know.

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So I think a combination of these three materials should look very nice.

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Okay, all done with the sand and gravel

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but of course it's super cloudy because MJ didn't bother to wash anything

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so I'm just going to quickly install the filter

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and then the filter will clear everything up

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so I think I'm going to have to say goodbye to my plant haunting station

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because I need the space for the external filter

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so instead of the standard filter tubing i'm just going to use this

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flexible filter hose from chihiros pretty much use this on all my tanks now

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so this is what comes standard with the eheim filter not necessarily bad it is quite flexible

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but it's also like kind of a dark brownish gray color

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not very pretty i think this looks a lot better i don't know

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if you guys can see but i also have to go through this little gap over here

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there's a hole in the cabinet

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and then i have to go out to behind the tank

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so this is really flexible hose from gyros it's great for

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that it's not sponsored just a product

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that i like instead of using the standard in and outflow

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which is also not a very nice looking color i'm going

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to upgrade it to the aquario neo flow they're actually the same shape

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but this one is transparent and this one is not wondering

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if it's made in the same factory i don't think

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so probably not okay filter is installed

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and the in outflow is installed as well now this filter doesn't even have a prime function

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so we're gonna have to do it the old-fashioned way

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and in case you're wondering what the old-fashioned way is it's basically removing the tube making sure

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that the inflow is fully submerged and there we go now it's priming

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okay now the filter is slowly filling itself with water okay it's all filled up

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so now we can plug it in

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and we have flow seems quite powerful actually okay i finally

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managed to connect the filter to the iaheim app i'm now

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running it on 50% of issues oh i think it's good i'm now going to add some ada clear water

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and hopefully in an hour i think it's crystal clear

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okay fast forward to the next day tank is looking good water is crystal clear

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and i'm quite happy with how the senpa turned out i

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think it's looking really good only thing i have to do

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now is to add in the co2 didn't really have time for it yesterday

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so i'm gonna do

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that now okay plenty of space in cabinet for a co2

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system i have a brand new 500 grams co2 cylinder remove the packaging

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because it's new it always has this yellow seal on the uh the output so i'll just remove that

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and now we're basically ready to go full of co2 these 500 grams co2 cylinders they can't really stand alone

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so they need to have a foot as well

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so we're just going to put it in the cabinet like this then next up we need a co2 regulator

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and i'm actually going to use the two heroes co2 regulator

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mate i think it's called i've shown this one once before in my 2024 co2 system buying guide

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and since then i haven't really used it

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so yeah it's perfect for this small system okay

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so the regulator is attached to the cylinder now i just

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need to fill up the bubble counter you can do this

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with water i actually like to use glycerin you can find this in like pharmacy and stuff like that

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not sure what it's normally used for

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but this stuff is a lot thicker than water

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so it also doesn't evaporate so

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if you fill this one with water over time the water will evaporate

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or will just end up in the tubing

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and you can't really count the bubbles anymore you know with this it's a bit more of a permanent solution

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Then for the CO2 diffuser I'm going to use the NEO diffuser from Acario.

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This is the special curved S.

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So I think this is not the smallest one but the one up basically.

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They have tiny S, M and L I think.

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There it is.

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Really nice diffuser.

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Really good size as well.

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I like that it has this curve here, so you can just hang it over the glass edge.

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You don't need any suction cups.

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Next up, I'm gonna make a cut in the tubing somewhere in the middle and add a check valve.

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Focus on that.

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There's probably already a check valve in the CO2 bubble counter, but I just wanna prevent having the entire CO2 tubing being

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filled with water after the CO2 turns off you know

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so just gonna have a check valve locked close to the diffuser to prevent

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that here we go so diffuser tubing check valve is over there

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and I'm just gonna pull the tubing so the check valve is not visible

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here we go

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so we're all done setting up the CO2 system we've got

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micro bulb was coming from the diffuser only thing you have

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to do now is to add a drop checker to the

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aquarium i think i'm just going to place it in the back corner over here

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so the drop checker is just going to tell us how much you do we have in the aquarium

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so blue is not enough over here in this one it's yellow it's bit too much

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but we don't have fish in here just yet

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so that's okay this one has been dialed in a long time ago it's a nice lime green color

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which is perfect you really want to dial it in as soon as possible

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because once you start making adjustments like a week in

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or two weeks in the chances of getting some algae issues because of the fluctuations is a little higher

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okay guys roughly five or six weeks have passed

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and this thing developed really beautifully

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and really fast as well i mean it's not totally surprising

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we use like quite a lot of fast growing plants we use the pearlweed the halantim in the foreground

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so this one grew in fast also had absolutely no startup issues whatsoever like no brown algae no diatoms nothing

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and i think that's because i really used the substrate on a previous layout you know like

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that stuff is full beneficial bacteria you kind of instantly cycle

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the tank you can also kind of skip past the ugly face doesn't always happen

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but in this case it did

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because some really nice inhabitants in this tank i've added a mix of celestial prodenius

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and the emerald resboras so the celestial prodenius have a blue body with dots

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and then red fins and the emerald resboras have a blue body

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but with like vertical stripes i think they're the same family sort of

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and i think they can actually breed together as well

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but um i don't think that's going to happen in this tank

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and even if they would like the the babies probably wouldn't survive there's too many predators

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and i've also added the borneo loaches really love those guys

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because they stay quite small

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so they're the perfect size for this nano tank in my opinion

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and some of them have really beautiful blue tail so

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they're really interesting fish to watch they really can keep the the rocks nice

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and clean there's a bit of green algae on the rocks

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but yeah that's food for them so i kind of want

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that so that's all the fish

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and then we have some shrimp in here as well we have a nice group of crystal red shrimp

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and there's some amount of shrimp in here as well i

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really love the crystal rats like they're probably my favorite i

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would say yeah i think crystal that's my favorite shrimp a

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little bit more difficult to keep you know a little bit more finicky when it comes to the water parameters

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but um they seem to be happy in here so

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if they're happy i'm happy as well

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so i think that's all the inhabitants i mean there's a few snails in here as well

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but yeah i think i've mentioned all of them

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but you might have noticed that some of the plants have changed a bit

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so initially i planted the nymphoilus taiwan in the background

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but unfortunately almost all of it has melted

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so instead i planted the um hydroclase nymphoilus if i pronounce

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that correctly it's like a little south american water lily

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and uh yeah kind of a similar looking plant

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but a bit different and then i also wanted a little bit more color in the layout

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so i added a few stems of the prosopinaca no there's

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no point right persicaria that's it few stems of persicaria

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and there's a few stems of red miriam film as well just for a little bit more color oh

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and of course the the redwood floaters i did also add

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a light screen to the aquarium i'll turn it on right now

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so this is without the light screen

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and this is with the light screen you guys let me know what you prefer i sometimes turn it on

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but for the most part i just keep it off

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but it's it's kind of nice when you're making some cinematic footage you know

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in terms of maintaining this tank it's kind of the same

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recipe as always light is on for eight hours per day

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from 1 pm to 9 pm it's not on the full brightness it's the one step lower

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and co2 starts two hours before the lights turns off one hour earlier

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and currently in terms of fertilizer i am dosing the ccam flourish this is kind of an all-in-one fertilizer

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but it doesn't really have a whole lot of nitrate

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and phosphate the nitrogen phosphate is mostly coming from the fish waste

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and from the food

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so yeah this is uh this is working well right now i really love seeing all the fish

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and the shrimp kind of yeah just hanging out underneath the arch sometimes they do come out

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but um yeah really happy with this layout hope you guys

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enjoyed this one as well um i think this is it guys thanks for watching see you in the next one

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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson

This B2 speaking lesson is built on the video “I MADE A RIVER AQUASCAPE FOR THE PERFECT NANO FISH! Aquascape Tutorial”. This video has 296 sentences and 3634 words to shadow. The speech runs for 20:40. The speaker talks at a natural 176 words per minute, close to everyday conversation. Only 81% of the words are among the 3,000 most common in English, so the vocabulary is demanding.

Key vocabulary in this video

The 15 most advanced words in the video, with pronunciation and meaning:

Word	Pronunciation	Meaning
gravel noun	/ˈɡɹævəl/	Small fragments of rock, used for laying on the beds of roads and railways, and as ballast.
diffuse verb	/dɪˈfjuz/	To spread (something) over or through as in air, water, or other matter, especially by fluid motion or passive means.
layout noun	/ˈleɪ.aʊt/	A structured arrangement of items within certain limits.
valve noun	/ˈvælv/	A device that controls the flow of a gas or fluid through a space, such as a pipe, manifold, or plenum.
foreground noun	/ˈfɔː(ɹ)ˌɡɹaʊnd/	The elements of an image which lie closest to the picture plane.
aquarium noun	/əˈkwɛɹ.i.jəm/	A tank, often made of glass, for keeping live fish or other aquatic animals.
substrate noun	/ˈsʌbˌstɹeɪt/	An underlying layer; a substratum.
shrimp noun	/ʃɹɪmp/	Any of many swimming, often edible, crustaceans, chiefly of the infraorder Caridea or the suborder Dendrobranchiata, with slender legs, long whiskers and a…
glue noun	/ɡlu/	A hard gelatin made by boiling bones and hides, used in solution as an adhesive; or any sticky adhesive substance.
alga noun	/ˈæl.ɡə/	Any of many aquatic photosynthetic organisms, including the seaweeds, whose size ranges from a single cell to giant kelps and whose biochemistry and forms are…
siphon noun	/ˈsaɪfən/	A bent pipe or tube with one end lower than the other, in which hydrostatic pressure exerted due to the force of gravity moves liquid from one reservoir to…
regulator noun	/ˈɹɛɡ.ju.leɪ.tɚ/	A device that controls or limits something.
cylinder noun	/ˈsɪləndɚ/	A surface created by projecting a closed two-dimensional curve along an axis intersecting the plane of the curve.
flexible adjective	/ˈflɛk.sɪ.bəl/	Capable of being flexed or bent without breaking; able to be turned or twisted without breaking.
bubble noun	/ˈbʌbəl/	A spherically contained volume of air or other gas in a liquid, commonly a soapy liquid.

Phrasal verbs you will hear

Word	Pronunciation	Meaning
fill up verb		To make (something) completely full.
set up verb	/ˌsɛt ˈʌp/	To make ready for use.
turn off verb		To power down, to switch off, to put out of operation, to deactivate (an appliance, light, mechanism, functionality etc.).
come out verb	/ˌkʌm ˈaʊt/	To be discovered; to be revealed.
go through verb		To travel from one end of something to the other.
have over verb		To host (a visiting guest) at one's house.
left back noun		A defender who normally plays on the left side of the field.
look forward to verb		To anticipate, expect, or wait for, especially with a feeling of approval or pleasure; to be excited or eager to.

Grammar in this video

The structures the speaker uses most, with the exact words from the video:

Structure	In the video
“Used to” used to + verb — a past habit or state that is no longer true	used to be · used to run
Present perfect have/has + past participle — a past action that still matters now	i've set · have not seen · i've upgraded
Passive voice be + past participle — the focus is on what happens, not who does it	is made · be planted · is installed

Pronunciation to watch

The speaker uses 102 contractions and reduced forms, such as I'm, I've, don't. Say them the short way, as you hear them.

The “sh” and “zh” sounds: shrimp /ʃɹɪmp/, beneficial /ˌbɛn.ɪˈfɪʃ.əl/, brownish /ˈbɹaʊnɪʃ/, filtration /fɪlˈtɹeɪʃən/, fluctuation /flʌkt͡ʃuːˈeɪʃən/
Long words — get the stress right: aquarium /əˈkwɛɹ.i.jəm/, regulator /ˈɹɛɡ.ju.leɪ.tɚ/, evaporate /ɪˈvæp.ə.ɹeɪt/, inhabitant /ɪnˈhæb.ɪ.tənt/, persicaria /ˌpɝ.səˈkɛɹi.ə/

How to practise with this video

Listen to the whole video once without speaking and note the words you do not know.
Start at 0.75× speed, shadow it sentence by sentence, then go back to normal speed once it feels easy.
Record yourself and compare with the original, paying attention to words like gravel, diffuse, layout.

What is the Shadowing Technique?

Shadowing is a science-backed language learning technique originally developed for professional interpreter training and popularized by polyglot Dr. Alexander Arguelles. The method is simple but powerful: you listen to native English audio and immediately repeat it out loud — like a shadow following the speaker with just a 1–2 second delay. Unlike passive listening or grammar drills, shadowing forces your brain and mouth muscles to simultaneously process and reproduce real speech patterns. Research shows it significantly improves pronunciation accuracy, intonation, rhythm, connected speech, listening comprehension, and speaking fluency — making it one of the most effective methods for IELTS Speaking preparation and real-world English communication.

Shadowing technique: read the full step-by-step guide →

Shadowing Practice: I MADE A RIVER AQUASCAPE FOR THE PERFECT NANO FISH! Aquascape Tutorial - Learn English Speaking with Video

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