Shadowing Practice: Nature Aquarium Gallery Tour | Spring 2026 - Learn English Speaking with Video

Hey guys, it's Logan and we are here for a very, very special gallery tour.

We're at the AquaDens ADA Gallery.

This is the largest privately owned gallery in the United States.

This is located in the Pacific Northwest and it's in collaboration with Aqua Forest Aquarium, AFA.

They're located in Northern California.

So I'm going to take you guys on a tour of each and every tank.

We're going to talk about some of the plants, the fish, sort of the design philosophy behind Escape, and hopefully provide you with some inspiration.

So if you like these types of videos, go ahead and like the video and subscribe to the channel, and let's get our tour started.

Everything is ADA.

Everything is pristine, and this is one of the first tanks you see when you walk in.

So this is a very zen-like classic nature vibe.

You can see there's a really beautiful carpet of Eleocharis and then we've got some taller plants.

We've got a really beautiful taller Eleocharis in the back and these fish, very peaceful.

These are black neons and they're just kind of doing their thing.

You can tell there's nice surface agitation but the flow and the circulation is still quite calm.

The plants are super healthy and the stone just contrasts so nicely with the plants.

This is the famous Unzan stone.

It's a type of stone that outside of the the ADA product line, you just don't really see.

And of course it's powered by an incredible ADA light, one of the latest and yeah, it's just immaculate.

Up close, you know, I don't really see any algae.

It's well maintained and it's just absolutely beautiful.

Gotta love the stainless steel inflow.

All right, and next to the first tank is the DUA Palluta System 600.

This is a 60 centimeter system and all the plants in here are terrestrial,

of course, and all of these were collected locally here in the Pacific Northwest.

If you've never been, it is just an incredible area for mosses and life and nature,

and you go on hikes and all these beautiful things are just out there in nature, the ferns.

So it's one of the benefits of living here is you

can find a lot of really beautiful terrestrial plants in real life, and you can see they're doing really, really well in here.

It's beautiful.

The way the wood kind of crosses is really natural.

And the stone is just a nice contrast from the greens of the plant.

These are the types of systems that they look beautiful, but they can actually be a lot of work to maintain.

Often getting the plants to adapt to your home's conditions takes some time.

There's usually some die off.

You know, maybe one or two plants go away.

Another one dominates.

But as you can see, this one is really well balanced.

And it's a really nice contrast next to that kind of a mono style nature scape.

So I really dig this.

And now here we are at this beautiful rack.

So we've got a bunch of tiny little terrariums.

In fact, these glass come all the way from Japan.

And this is a newer product.

It's called the Mini NA, as in the Mini Nature Aquarium.

So it's like a tiny desktop or shelf top in this case, nature aquarium, complete with a pressurized CO2 system, which I think is just so dope.

So the way this system kind of works is it outputs a little bit of gas

and then it traps a bubble in this little like bell system here.

And then you kind of dial things in and every once in a

while that bubble pops and it disperses CO2 into the system.

And as you can tell, it's working.

I mean, these plants look super healthy.

Obviously, a system like this, you're probably not going to push to the utmost limit with your lighting

and your CO2 but these plants look healthy and happy.

And you know, this is something that pretty much anybody can have on a desktop or in a corner of their home.

And I'm personally a big proponent of systems like that, stuff that are kind of gateway scapes that get people into it.

So that's where I think a shelf like this is just fantastic.

So got a bunch of tiny little terrariums showcasing a variety of different plants, all kind of at different stages and different levels.

And cool thing about terrariums, if you never kept one, is there a lot more set it and forget it compared to those first couple of tanks that we talked about.

A lot of maintenance goes into this.

Just to prepare for today's showing, it was about five hours of maintenance.

So that's where having some terrariums kind of takes the load off you and you can kind of let them develop, let nature take over.

And they still look beautiful because you're not really dealing with algae.

So a shelf like this, I think just belongs in every gallery.

All right guys, so over here we've got a really unique setup.

So this is going to be a tank that will be called Bridges of Pandora eventually.

You can see it's featuring really nice cork bark that's going to be covered with moss, but the glass itself has a really interesting story.

So this glass is a OG ADA 120P.

You can see it even has the old school logo, not something I think I've ever seen before.

So this is a piece of vintage aquascaping history, if you will, and it was originally purchased at Aquaforest Aquarium by a customer all the way back in 2005,

and now it lives here in the Pacific Northwest at the AquaDens Gallery.

So it's really cool to see a 120p, you know, with this kind of history here.

We've already had a really strong hardscape that takes up a lot of the width of the tank, so I think this is going to be dope when it's grown in.

This is a little piece of history that is kind of tying together this beautiful space

So over here tucked into the corner of the gallery we have a really stunning 60p so

This is the type of scape that personally got me into the hobby.

This is an Iwagumi Of course, it's a three stone Iwagumi

and as I've mentioned on my own channel a bunch of times Iwagumi in my opinion is the most difficult.

It is so simple, but it's all about wabi-sabi kind of getting that imperfect perfection.

And a lot of that comes down to stone placement.

So the story behind this scape is that

these three high impact stones were chosen

and it's kind of meant to represent a dragon that was laid to rest and these are kind of his remains.

And this is one of my favorite carpeting plants that I think is personally underutilized, a lanthium tenalum broadleaf.

I've done scapes with it and it's super healthy, nice and vibrant, the tissue looks great.

It's surrounded by a really, really beautiful shoal of schooling fish.

So we've got green neon tetras in here, as well as emerald eye risboras.

And the way I always see fish in Iwagumi is that they're kind of like representing like birds out in nature, you know, kind of in the sky.

If you squint, right, they could just be birds.

So really, really dig this.

And the plants look super happy.

The fish are really active and out and about.

a lot of people, I would say especially beginners, maybe not as familiar with this side of aquascaping.

They're skeptical of uagumi.

They're like, hey, how are the fish going to be okay without coverage?

These are shy schooling fish.

You can see they're out and about.

They're doing great.

So that just goes to show you when you have a balanced aquarium with balanced biology that's well-planted, the fish, no matter how shy they are,

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they're going to be out and about doing their thing.

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And this tank I think it's a great example of that.

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Hakai stone, of course, one of the coolest stones.

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Hakai is often referred to as bug-eaten stone because of these big holes.

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And this beautiful gray just really stands out nicely against the plants.

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Right next to our Iwagumi is another beautiful 60P

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so this is one of the more mature tanks in the space this one's been around for over a year

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and you can see it's still looking really beautiful

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you've got amazing ruby tetras in here

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which are such a bright red saturated fish they're the type of fish

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that i see online and i'm like oh my god i gotta get those where have you been all my life

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So I think this is a sign for me to pick some up soon.

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And you have some gorgeous, gorgeous stone with amazing character.

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This is some suey stone, another ADA staple, and a variety of great plants kind of framing the scene.

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Some super healthy Rotala in the back, and then some Trident Fern.

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Cool thing about Trident Fern is it's a great beginner plant.

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It's a reophytic plant, so it grows attached to wood and stone, and it's pretty low-demanding.

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This tank obviously has got a full ADA CO2 system.

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You can see the purling on the plants, but you know if you're watching this at home

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and you want lower tech plants Java fern is is a fantastic choice ton of boost of phalandra as well You know, this is the type escape you see

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that I call these like old trusty scapes Like this is the type escape

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that is beautiful high impact

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But it's the type of escape you want to see every day at home

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because there's just a lot going on You know imagine sipping your coffee

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or your tea just checking out the fish checking out the different spots I really like these types of scapes.

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So this is beautiful, especially contrasting the Iwagumi like that.

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And here's the third 60p on this same wall and this features the gorgeous Dracula stone.

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This comes all the way from Poland from the hardscape master himself, Adam Paschkela.

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If you're not familiar with his work, check him out.

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He has access to so many incredible original hardscape types and is just a layout master.

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And this is sort of a very hardscape forward scape.

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It was described to me as kind of like a child finger painting.

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So very free form, but there's a very strong, high angle hardscape.

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And then the plants are almost a little bit chaotic.

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So that's kind of a cool style sometimes is to just have a really, you know, maybe organized hardscape layout, but then just kind of go a little bit crazy with the plants.

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Like there's no rhyme or reason all the time in aquascaping and there's lots of rules you can study,

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and there's lots of techniques and design principles that you can study and master.

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But sometimes it's just fun to throw things in there, and this is a good example of the tank that it just works, despite maybe breaking some rules.

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So these are the gorgeous Kupatai resbora.

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They're one of the tiniest schooling fish, kind of in the hobby.

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I'm a huge fan of nano fish, so I'm always trying to learn about new and different species that work.

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And I would say the kubitai are somewhat similar to ember tetras in their shape and size, but they're like a bright neon green.

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And you can see they stand out really nicely from these plants and really intricate foreground going on, some nice sand, some gravel accents,

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and some beautiful plant growth.

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So these 60Ps are pretty dope and this is one I wouldn't mind having in my space.

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Over here in the corner next to our wall of 60p's we have a brand new project

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that is a work in progress.

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You can see we've got a great hardscape and this is called Gato Stone and then this is ADA Hornwood.

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All imports from Japan.

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These were provided by Aqua Forest Aquarium up in Northern California on the stunning garden stand.

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So this project is eventually going to have some immersed growth

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and it's meant to be an homage to Takashi Amano's youth kind of growing up playing in rice patties

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so it'll sort of visually you know pay homage to that

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and have plants that are coming out of the water

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and the tank itself is the ADA-60F which is a newer footprint

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and it's of course 60 centimeters across and it's a little bit more shallow.

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So this is a cool project if you want to set up a paludarium.

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You can even probably do something that is fully terrestrial in here if you kept it humid.

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But yeah, a lot of promise here so far.

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Great hardscape.

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Can't wait to see this planted.

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Over here we've got a beautiful ADA 45P on the clear cabinet.

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A personal favorite of mine.

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Love how minimalistic they are.

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And we've got the Sensei Stone, another amazing stone from Poland, from Adam Paschkela.

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And this is a really promising Iwagumi as well.

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Can't wait to see this planted.

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It's going to feature a Monte Carlo carpet.

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And you know, you get a lot of tension between these stones, different directions.

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So they all kind of come together to harmonize and produce one nice composition.

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But it's a good example of how adding a little bit of tension

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and contrast in your scape is a great thing to do.

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Over here we've got a 30C featuring a really, really prominent piece of Frodo stone with a massive calcium vein down the back.

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Really really high impact.

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There are details in the foreground but obviously your eye is drawn to this one single or heavy piece of stone.

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I want to address a common question that I see a lot for folks

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that are maybe not used to working with big calcium rich stones.

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A lot of folks wonder, hey, you know, how do you deal with GH and KH with the stone that's affecting your water parameters so much?

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When you're keeping a high-tech system like this with regular water changes, it really ends up being a non-factor because you're constantly re-diluting the water.

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So you can see this system is pretty healthy.

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It is newer.

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It's only been set up for a couple weeks, but everything is healthy.

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You know, as long as you keep up with your maintenance and your water changes, it's not a problem.

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Of course, if you're the type of person who wants to set up a scape and not really mess with water changes, probably not recommended to work with a stone of this type.

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But if you're getting in there, getting your sleeves wet, doing the maintenance, not a prop at all.

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Really a big fan of this, though.

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I love Glosso.

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It's got Glosso.

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It's got hairgrass and tiny crips in the back, some beautiful booths in the midground.

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This is one that showcases hardscape in a really, really interesting way and kind of has that fantasy vibe to it with the plants growing all around it.

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I really dig this.

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Then over here, another beautiful nanoscape.

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This is the ADA Mini M featuring a very, very beautiful carpeting plant, Liliopsis brisiliensis, also known as Japanese cobra grass.

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In the back, we've got a red Rotala.

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This particular Rotala, you know, you probably need a slightly higher par light to bring out the true reds, but you can see it's still beautiful.

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and we've got a type of Rhino stone in here, another stone from Adam Paschala in Poland, and we've got some gorgeous little Risboros in the back.

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If you're newer to Iwagumi, I think this is the type of scape that would not be too hard to replicate and is still high impact.

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Love these clear ADA stands.

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They just really draw your attention to the scape itself.

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And yeah, this is a cool way to conclude this wall with a nice little nano tank.

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So if you just wanted to have one tiny aquascape that wasn't taking out much of your week.

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I would say that Mini M is a great footprint for that.

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So there you have it guys that's the whole tour.

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If you want to check out some of the other scapes of the Aquaden he is theaquaden on Instagram

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and if you're interested in any of these products they're all for sale in the United States on aquaforestaquarium.com.

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Thanks so much for joining us for the tour.

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you

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 Practice: Nature Aquarium Gallery Tour | Spring 2026 - Learn English Speaking with Video

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What is the Shadowing Technique?