It stinks (pun intended) that I had so many issues with this tank, but it could be a good learning opportunity. Have any of you experienced anything like this before and if so, what type of driftwood was it? Before now, I've never seen anything like this before and I've scaped a lot of tanks. Also, how do you think the new scape compares to the original?

This shows you.. not even the professionals have a 100% success rate, thank you for actually sharing it and not hiding it away like most other content creators. 😁😁

I first started keeping aquariums and terrariums back in the early 80's. I believe your problem is that what you have is not true driftwood. "Dragonwood" is actually woody vine. I see so many types of "wood" sold in the aquarium hobby trade which are not as good as true driftwood (such as grapevine). These pieces of "wood" may have interesting shapes and textures. They haven't reached a stage of stable decomposition where they can be kept submerged for an extended period of time. In essence, it smells because it is not just developing a biofilm, but it is literally rotting in your tank. True driftwood are pieces of dead deciduous trees that have been submerged for a long time so that all that is left is lignin. There's not much else left to quickly rot when it's submerged. Also, some of the initial tannins have been secreted out. This is why true driftwood often floats and needs to be weighted. This doesn't mean someone cannot use other types of dead wood, but there's a gamble of its suitability and longevity underwater. There are types of wood being sold on the market that are dense, less porous, and not truly decayed. Therefore, these not prone to rapid decay underwater but do contain most of their inherent tannins (such as mopani or "Malaysian driftwood").

When you were "swimming" I laughed so hard I started crying and couldn't catch my breath. That is the funniest thing I have seen I swear, it was so unexpected

There are some tricks to cut down the time of "seasoning" of the wood. First (and kinda obvious) you gotta remove all sapwood (the soft part) with a knife or some scrubber. Boiling the rest for a long time (up to a day) helps. Boiling it in salt water also helps. But mostly you need time in the water so the wood can leach out everything. If you leave it in the dry, you will never be able to use it on an aquarium.

LMAO! TANNER TOAD SWIMMING AT THE END, LOL

The one dislike is from the driftwood

That stuff leeching out the driftwood looked stinky, lol, I can only imagine 🤭 this really shows the importance of cycling a tank and not just throwing live animals in a fresh set up. Although I can't wait to see Pancake and Flapjack in a proper aquarium, they're going to love the new one once it's deemed safe and blend so well with the leaves and flat stones. Thanks for showing the fails too xx

I love how the frogs eat, stuffing their mouths with both hands. 😁 New tank looks great, I can't wait to see them in there!

It's just as important to show when things go awry and how you deal with it as when everything goes fine. I like the new look and think mostly moss would be a good way to go.

I just want to say that I’ve been watching you for a few years now and it’s been awesome seeing you become more comfortable showing your sense of humor and personality! I’ve genuinely laughed out loud the last few videos at the little Tanner pop-ups 😂

I had a piece of what's sold here as "gold vine" go bad but I didn't work out where the problem was for months. That tank must have had a high mold spore load as uneaten food would become furry very quickly and fish constantly had health problems despite very clean water from many many water changes. I finally decided to give up and take the tank down and immediately when I got the wood out of the water the smell was obvious even though the wood looked fine. It had actually rotted from the centre out and was mushy with a harder shell. So glad that tank is back to normal now.

Sounds like some anaerobic bacteria were feasting on the wood. Glad you got it out if it was making that much sulfide

7:13 always with cheeky surprise lmao. love it

The thumbnails and editing are getting out of hand 😂😂

I almost nearly sniffed my phone to see if I could smell the wood 😆

When I saw the thumbnail, I got scared it was the pea puffer setup. I’m glad it was an un-stocked tank. Since the thin parts of the dragon root seemed to season okay, I wonder it they could be used in a riparian setup, although I’d still be nervous to stock it.

I got my drift wood from the Mississippi river. Its the root of a cedar tree I imagine grew on a bluff because it's so odd. I noticed it had one black mold spot that pops up and I clean that spot every few months and it's big around a a finger nail. Its hollow inside so I scraped the bug rot out and it's great. My betta loves the top because I have a plat growing up there and there a notch missing so he enters there. I have the air line running down the inside and out. Its fingers off at the bottom and you'd never notice the gap in one leg but in side that lives two koli loachs. My bristle none pleco keeps it clean.i can wait for the river to do down in the summer because drift wood will be everywhere.

When he talked about the smell of the wood I got flashbacks from my 33g who also went bad and I had to scoop all the soil and substrate out which also had the smell of the wood in it. 🤢

I really respect the fact that even as professional as your setups are you still show flaw and failure with the success

I literally lost it when you were “swimming” in the tank 😂😂😂😂😂

Tanner, you swimming in at the end there had me in stitches.

It’s somehow comforting to see you, one of the kings of aquariums and terrariums, make mistakes. It happens to all of us. Thank you for sharing, and I’m excited to see what you come up with for the toads next!

I'm so glad you take the time to show failures as well as success. I'm going through my first battle with an ich outbreak in my freshwater community tank, and it's really reassuring to see that even the pros have struggles!

Too bad about the Dragon Root it was some really neat looking wood, but nice rebound with the Malaysian wood. Tank looks great!

I lost it when you greenscreened yourself swimming with the toads 😂

Can't wait to see what you make of the new tanks! But knowing you it will be awesome!

I adore how playful you've been with editing recently. It's always such a delight to see something quirky and you have a gift for it :D

Hi Tanner! The new scape looks really good! I just finished watching the one where you added pancake and flapjack into it. They seemed really happy. It was fun watching you feed them. It's cute the way they use their hands to eat. Thank you so much for sharing!

LOL the clip of you "swimming" with the surinames, love the content and am excited to see how this set-up goes, best wishes, see you next time!!

Love your honesty dude, and care towards your subscribers, helping them not do the things that didn't work out for you. Top man 👌

I love the failure repairs as much as the new builds, honestly. It's nice to see the approach to something like that, and helps me feel a bit better about my terrarium failures. Also swimming with the frogs reminded me to hit the thumbs up you will deserve, love it

Hey Tanner. Really enjoyed this video. The first tank I built had the same issue. I pulled the wood out last week and had the same condition I am seeing in your video. Nice to know you have challenges at times as well.

I appreciate your honesty. Your brand of video presentation is unique, real, and focused. I enjoy following your progress, successes, and failures. Though this tank didn't work out for this reason or that, you are still left with a beautiful custom tank, and a new world of options for it. Thanks for what you do, showing us how, showing us what has worked, trying new ideas, a real hobbyist approach to perfecting the craft, in your own way. Well done!

Bro, when you said "I've just about lost my patience with it", I did a double take. You're a patient man, Mr. Tanner. Glad the new scape of the same tank turned out looking great.

Tanner, thanks for sharing this, making sure you share a realistic view of the hobby, I've been struggling as of late with a few things in my glass boxes, it helps to know I'm not alone in the struggles, keeping it real man, that's why I keep watching. The animal room is for sure a goal for me 😎 awesome work, awesome content! Have a good rest of your weekend!

I don't watch nearly as many SerpaDesign videos as I perhaps should, but every time I watch a new one it's always a notch or two higher quality than the last. It'll be absolutely amazing to see where you're at a year from now! You're levelling up so damn fast with your video making, and the videos I was watching when I first found you were already fantastic! Keep 'em coming!

I do like the pop of color the plants provided in the original set up so maybe just add a few to the new one?

Dude your extra little animations/intro things are so fun. I have been watching for a while and always thought you’re an awesome producer. Those stepped it up

Love the video transitions in this one lol, so unique. Thanks for sharing all of your work it's looking great in there!

Love all the content you put out. It's really informative and satisfying to watch! Absolutely love this channel and all of its inhabitants!

I love that you show your problem designs as well, it's refreshing to know that even pros aren't perfect.

Love seeing a video in my feed Tanner! The content quality just keeps going up!

7:15 You're welcome :)

can't wait to see the new setups! It's always such fun to watch. I almost had smell-a-vision with that driftwood...it looked so nasty

Waking up to a video from you is always a good day!! Thank you!

You've inspired me to start making terrariums and collecting plants, now i have four successful mini terrariums, some succulents, and a bowl of moss balls (can't remember name rn) and I'm hopefully gonna get some fish and reptiles and set up some lovely tanks soon. Thank you so much for making videos, and i hope your projects all go well :D

hey man, i just wanna give you some thanks. i've been extremely afraid of frogs and toads my entire adult life but this winter ive been watching videos about them to try and get over it and the way you genuinely love and care about these animals has really helped me overcome my fears. hopefully this spring when im out in the woods looking under logs if i find a toad it wont send me climbing up a tree. your videos are awesome dude glad youre around

Your editing skills have definitely improved, this was such a nice video to watch, lovely transitions

I feel so proud of this guy, his content is always so professional and wholesome. Thank you for always making me feel inspired at 3am to make my own paludarium :)

Loving the multiple tank set up! And congrats on figuring out what was going on with the toad aquascape. At least you fixed it!

Awesome video! So weird the wood went off (eew) and interesting to see how to sort-out a re-set when things don’t go to plan. So excited to see what’s going to be in the new tanks!

Your fish room looks amazing....A M A Z I N G.....Keep up the good work. I enjoy the fruits of your creative labor....

Tanner I am in love with the new subscription reminder breaks in the videos. They get me everytime.

You’ve clearly leveled up your editing skills. Love the content, love the show.

Awesome vid! I think it's awesome that you showed the tank hardship and changeout! Can't wait to see those two in their new tank when it's safe! :)

Love seeing the ups and downs of keeping animals. Your transparency helps others learn!

One of the things I really appreciate about your videos is that you are willing to share the flops along with the successes. It's validating (and refreshing) to see that even the experienced people run into challenges! (PS - I'm super jealous of your mad carpentry skills.)

Everything you make is absolutely amazing and your dedication to your hobby is impressive! I'm awestruck.

Nothing worse than a "stinky" tank!!! The new setup looks great though. I LOVE your woodwork.... sooooooo beautiful!!! Can't wait to see them all set up 🧡

I can't wait to see what your doing! I always look forward to your videos!

The way those toads really utilize their hands to eat by shoving food in their mouths is so interesting and hilarious 😂

Actually so helpful to see a video where a tank fails (for whatever reason), and is recovered. This is so useful and honest. AND we actually see the final project for the surname toads, great vid.

Good rebuild. Yeah I think a few plants with long drooping grass like fronds would look great gently waving around in the tank.

Somestimes things just don't work out but I'm glad you were able to solve the problem. The toads are so interesting! I really love to watch them.

Haha love the toads and how active they are. Started laughing when Flapjack came out of nowhere thinking you were giving them food. Lavalier mic is crystal clear as well :)

Oh I can`t wait to see where that Schefflera is going to wind up! Schefflera is one of my favourite plants because of how cooperative it is. It can handle different light and water levels (within reason, of course) and it responds to pruning super well and much of what you prune off propagates very easily, so you can really customize it if you have a particular vision in mind and it will play along. I can imagine you using it to bring something amazing to life!

I set up a nano waterfall tank with the same wood a year ago. I foamed the wood into the structure of my setup, so I have been stuck dealing with the decomposition of the wood. One submerged piece seems to have stabilized. Another that is half in submerged continues to mold though. I have to spray the water's surface every day to combat a moldy scum that forms. It's slowly getting colonized by moss and liverwort. I hold out hope that one day this tank will prevail and get inhabitants. Thanks for sharing your experience with this devil wood!

I had this happen with my first real fish tank... total disaster. Unfortunately I had already stocked the tank and lost all of my fish. Took me a long time to figure out what went wrong, but once I did I gave aquarium keeping another shot and found success. Love the videos. Been subscribed since my senior year of high school and I’m now in my senior year of college. Your videos are extremely inspiring to me. Thanks for putting in so much effort in your art.

One good thing about waking up at 6:00 am is making it early to a SerpaDesign video!

Such feel good videos! Thank you for being super great and original!

Pancake and Flapjack are absolutely beautiful! Thank you for sharing this Tanner that's how we all learn is by sharing our experiences!! The Driftwood was extremely beautiful, but as you said if it doesn't work... it just doesn't work.. would it even be safe to use in a terrarium type setup? I really did enjoy the build of this Aquarium!! It definitely still looks fabulous maybe even better!! Another great video!! They're at the end I saw a third one.. I think he should be named crepe 😂😂 I hope you and your family are having a very blessed week! Thanks again for sharing! 🙏🌿🐸💚🐸🌿

Not every project is perfect. I appreciate that you are humble enough to show failure. On the plus side, you got a great video from it!

Last weekend as I went out prospecting for gold on a claim my friend paid into I collected different types of moss and plant life. The next week I picked up a large jar with a latch a seal like you used in your native terrarium, with a little activated carbon, while I was gold panning I collected rocks for a false bottom, and made my own native terrarium. It's beautiful and the whole process brought me enjoyment, now I just need springtails and other little critters for it! Thanks for all the informative videos and the inspiration tanner I appreciate you!

I like the way you remind/ask people to like and sub, it's short, sweet and usually totally unexpected and hilarious, it definitely worked for me 👍

I love this channel so much tanner thank you for sharing your journey with us ❤️

Tanner your video transitions are looking so sharp! Love when you walk offscreen into the next scene, such a wholesome human

Love you work man, a highlight to my day when I get a notification saying you have a new video!

its rlly cool that you can share your mistakes, makes me feel okay in messing up knowing that pro's like you can still make mistake and fix them no problem.

We've all been there. Thanks for documenting/sharing.

i love how flap jack chews his food daintily but pancake just gulps it all down in one big gulp! LOL

Had the same happen to my scape, after 3 months of water changes and scrubbing I started up the aquarium and never had a problem with the wood since then.

WOW that is a beautiful multi tank setup. Bravo. def putting this in the memory banks

This is weird to say, but thanks for posting this, its nice seeing when things go wrong and how to get back on the right track

Thanks for sharing the things that don’t go so well! We all learn from it.

another awesome video. love getting to follow you in your hobby. I had never had any aquatic pets before subscribing in 2019, but now am a proud mom to a betta and nerite snail, always more to learn.

Lmao! The subscribe pitch lol

I like both setups but imo the first one looked better thanks in part to the plants. Sorry it rotted :/ The second build is bound to look better after you get some greenery in there. Pancake and Flapjack are gonna love it! Speaking of loving it, that unit you built is beautiful! I would totally stock those top three with poison dart frogs, lol! Can't wait to see what you do with it!

love the plywood look with the brass fittings..room got that 'victorian' vibe going

I gagged on my tea when you super imposed yourself into the tank!! Thanks for the laugh and keep up the great work. You're super talented and you got my wife and I interested in trying our own terrarium:)

Tanner!!!! I am literally going through this right now with dragonwood! It’s been almost two months of 90% water changes with only slight improvement at this point. I packed the filter with anything I could think (carbon, chemi pure, fine floss, purigen, I can’t even remember what else), got a UV sterilizer, even tried bottled bacteria as a Hail Mary in case it was an epic bacterial battle. The water when changed was a murky charcoal color. Like you, I’ve never seen anything like it! It’s a much smaller tank, thankfully (17g). The biofilm is insane...it even grows on the glass and waves like hair in the water flow. THANK YOU for posting this so I could help figure out it IS the wood, as I suspected! You’re awesome. Mopani FTW!

Awesome setup, man u are the kahuna of aquascaping, terrarium, vivarium & the lots!

I lost it when you were swimming with the toads! LOL!! I've had some issues with driftwood too! The slime stayed longer than anticipated and so I ended up taking it out. It didn't affect the whole tank though, but it was a much smaller amount of wood than what you had.

That was NOT a clean up job I would have wanted! Great Job on new set up though! I have never seen frogs like that. Omg, they are just too cute! LOVE their names!! Their feet are just too beautiful! Just wanna hug them up!🤗

Keeping it real and showing that not everything always goes to plan . Great content as always.

Noice, I can’t wait to see what you do with that stag horn fern, I wanted to try that from pulling a cutting inside to put in a build soon myself. The arbicolas are pretty hardy as well.

I love the names of your frogs. So cute!!!

Hey I had this issue about two weeks ago and had to rescape the tank the reason is that the wood is too soft so it rots really easy when submerged I had sandblasted grapevine. Great video as always keep up the great work

You're my favourite KZfaqr!!! Thank you for sharing your artistry with us :)

It's great that you show failures as well with the analysis what went wrong for people to learn from mistakes! Is there a way to prevent driftwood from having that problem? Boiling it maybe for some hours? Or it just needs to wait a few years in a dry attic to season properly and there's no faster way Ed: I can see others commenting about boiling and seasoning in salt water that leaving it dry will halt the seasoning process