The Most Insane Planted Aquariums In India?

Added: 2026-06-02

[00:00:00]Welcome, [music] welcome.

[00:00:02]Welcome to PC Natural Labs.

[00:00:03]>> So nice to be back over here. This wall keeps coming in my dreams sometimes.

[00:00:08]So, it's turned out even better now and I like [music] the jackfruits also.

[00:00:12]>> Yeah, the rainforest walls.

[00:00:15]>> [music] >> Please come. Here's the surprise >> Awesome, awesome. We'll start with over here. This is where the nature aquariums [music] are.

[00:00:25]Wow.

[00:00:27]This is amazing.

[00:00:29]>> This is a very long term dream for me to make a nature gallery with the planted aquarium, a lot of planted aquarium and big ones.

[00:00:36]>> You know, that one is reminding me of this Takashi Amano's huge aquarium.

[00:00:43]>> is a wonderful >> But yeah, it it does and these are so beautifully done.

[00:00:48]>> Yeah, let's explore. So, [music] we have six six-footer tanks. Each one of them are of different scaping designs, different styles [music] and different plant selection.

[00:01:00]>> This is really out of the world, Amartya and great job done.

[00:01:10]>> [music] >> You and your team?

[00:01:13]>> Yeah, that is all dependent on our team.

[00:01:16]They're so enthusiastic and so inspired by nature aquarium and nature now. So, they spend a lot of time >> He's being modest. He's like the artist who's who's telling them what is to be done, but I'm I'm glad that they have shaped up so well and you know, these are amazing scapes over here.

[00:01:33]>> So, this is the biggest uh tank of the all of the nature aquarium that we have.

[00:01:40]>> I'm just trying to guess the size over here. This is about 12 ft.

[00:01:44]>> Yes.

[00:01:45]>> 12 ft long, 4 ft deep and and this height would be 3 ft.

[00:01:50]>> 3 ft.

[00:01:50]>> Wow, this is amazing and you can also probably relate it does look like Takashi Amano's tank, but this is Amartya Ghosh's creation. So, this is Amartya Ghosh's tank. So, Amartya, tell us more about this. Have you given it some kind of a name?

[00:02:06]>> We have given one name, River of the Fallen World.

[00:02:09]>> Wow, what timing. This is great timing.

[00:02:12]This is awesome timing, okay?

[00:02:14]>> We have a part where the plant go immersed, and we have a submerged world also. So, main point of view here in this aquarium is to explore the underwater plantation in life scale. So, actually, once you stand in front of it, you can actually see the scale of it at 180° view if you stand just close.

[00:02:36]>> This is really awesome. There I see so many plant varieties over here, and this is like my favorite Bolbitis, beautiful clumps of needle leaf ferns, and then the variety of stem plants, and that of course is Amartya's specialty, Dutch aquariums, and he loves stem plants. I could never, Amartya, this is like an honest confession, I could never get my hand on trimming stem plants to the shape that I see you always put them in those beautiful shapes, and we'll see some of those also. I do see some native Indian >> Yes.

[00:03:10]>> species also.

[00:03:11]>> [music] >> We have some bream fin barbs.

[00:03:14]Beautiful.

[00:03:14]>> I think this is this will be a view to enjoy. All the fish will come up to for the food.

[00:03:20]>> Is it feeding time for them?

[00:03:21]>> Not feeding time, but they are experiencing it like [music] I mean outside their photo period, so they are curious what is happening.

[00:03:27]>> [laughter] >> Who has come from Mumbai?

[00:03:30]>> The Weekend Aquarist has come.

[00:03:31]>> Yes.

[00:03:32]>> So, we have beautiful species collection over here. It's a mix [music] of exotic and Indian species that we we'll take a good look at.

[00:03:42]>> You were talking about the stem plants.

[00:03:44]So, imagine trimming the plants inside this big aquarium.

[00:03:48]>> I was going to ask you.

[00:03:48]>> So, yeah, so the main part is we have to remove almost 1,500 L of water. Two guys go in with their snorkeling gears on.

[00:03:57]>> [laughter] >> And then they have to trim it.

[00:03:58]Otherwise, the reflection will distort their view.

[00:04:01]>> Oh my.

[00:04:02]>> They go in, trim it, and then we have to So, all these woods are real big woods that we have collected, and they are placed such a way they can actually step on them. And they are fixed >> Okay.

[00:04:16]>> and glue and all so that they doesn't float up. So, they actually step on them and do the trimming.

[00:04:21]>> well tell your guys don't step on them.

[00:04:23]That's like, you know, you're giving them snorkeling kits. Let them swim inside, you know, or you know, however you want to kind of take it. But this is really amazing. And look at the stem plants. Look at the depth. How many months since you have set this up?

[00:04:36]>> This has been like hardscape started on December mid.

[00:04:40]>> Mhm.

[00:04:41]>> And it is almost like 5 months. And the plantation started almost 20 days after the hardscape was done. 4 and 1/2 months it has been.

[00:04:49]>> What's one challenge that you are facing with with this tank?

[00:04:53]>> This tank is equipped with a sump. That sump set up, what we face that the continuous flow of water, and it has a very large volume of water, almost 5,000 L plus including the sump. Once the sump is running, and there is almost 15,000 L per hour of flow to maintain all those plantation and all. That will disrupt the carbon dioxide saturation in water. So, in that case, we face little bit of issue injecting the CO2 in this tank. But we are coming up with differential timing of the sump, internal filtration and all. So, we are trying out a lot of different different things. I think for big tank, that challenge is accepted.

[00:05:34]>> You know, one of the other challenges that in a tank of this size and depth is also lighting.

[00:05:40]>> Penetrates.

[00:05:41]>> Okay. And the light has to reach down.

[00:05:43]And I see in Are these DIY? Have you built this up?

[00:05:48]>> These are LED strips that we use in all of our tanks. Almost customized for our setups and our client setups, but we have put a lot of light in this.

[00:05:56]>> [music] >> Almost 2,000 watts of light running 10 8 to 9 hours every day. So, a lot of light, lot of heat is generated. So, if this room is air-conditioned >> Right.

[00:06:06]>> these lights are required. Otherwise, this much depth, so many stem plant, it's very tough to maintain with only ferns and anubias, it is easy to maintain a big tank. All right, stem plant and some other things to remain in this condition is very tough.

[00:06:22]>> Yeah, and I also see there's a lot of flow in the tank because you can also make out the needle leaf ferns also waving and they love this kind of flow.

[00:06:32]>> Yeah.

[00:06:32]>> So, I see the wave makers on one side and there's some over there as well.

[00:06:38]>> Yes. So, this basically this tank is very big in depth. Front to back depth is so high that if we rely on only the submersible pumps that we have the return pumps, there will be some pockets where there will be no flow.

[00:06:51]>> Correct.

[00:06:51]>> Dirt and all organic waste will be accumulated there. So, additional flow and also mixing, what we do, we put a power head and below that we put the diffuser for CO2.

[00:07:02]>> So, that once the CO2 is there >> it So, it keeps spreading.

[00:07:05]>> Yeah. Keeps flowing and keeps throwing it inside the water. So, it keeps on mixing and the efficiency goes up.

[00:07:12]>> Tell me about your favorites over here.

[00:07:14]I mean >> Focal point is the Denison's barb.

[00:07:17]Cardinal also added because initially we did not want to add cardinals because we'll definitely have it in other tanks.

[00:07:24]In this tank we wanted to do something different, but we could not resist, but this blue color, this vibrant color, other other than cardinal tetra, nothing will justify this tank.

[00:07:35]>> Right.

[00:07:36]>> So, in need we have a like 200 to 50 of the cardinal tetras schooling. There are dwarf puffin barb, there are small Dario Darios. They're all hidden inside the like a >> They are little shy, always a little shy.

[00:07:48]>> is so much of life food and so much of insects and all the whole ecosystem is ready. So they are thriving very good.

[00:07:54]We have also some native loaches, some alligators, balitora, silurintus sucatio, some other like this bristlenose plecos and all. They are all there. That is why alligators are very important in such big tank.

[00:08:10]Otherwise maintenance will be this I'll show you the other tanks also.

[00:08:15]>> Hey, this is an interesting one.

[00:08:17]I don't see soil, the traditional soil, but I see a carpet over here.

[00:08:23]>> Yes.

[00:08:24]>> How did you manage that? Because that's very difficult to manage.

[00:08:28]>> It It all started when I started this hobby.

[00:08:31]>> Huh.

[00:08:32]>> I never used the commercial soil when I started aquascaping. It all started from construction sand. Because I didn't have money that time.

[00:08:39]>> Okay.

[00:08:40]>> why you waste? That That's main scheme of our aquascaping, my personal uh like a preference and all came from this empty pocket.

[00:08:51]Construction sand, Dutch style aquarium, so you don't waste money on hardscape unit and all. And this tank we kept with sand only. We want to showcase people that if you don't use aqua soil also, there is a possibility that you can make one good planted aquarium.

[00:09:07]>> Look at the sand. It's not normally you what [music] you would expect. This is just sand and you've got the Japanese dwarf hair grass growing beautiful carpet. Amazing stuff Martin. I think this is what would interest most hobbies, especially the hobbies who are just starting off have have got a budget. All of us started like that, right? Things that are possible. But to make this possible, CO2 injection would be necessary, right? You cannot go without >> filtration, CO2 injection, proper water temperature and water quality. These are the main thing. Soil is not the main thing. As you said, this is like running on sand.

[00:09:45]It doesn't have any nutrition. All are going through water column dosing. But the other thing that these tanks are doing good because of the water temperature. We keep it at 24°C to 25°C, 1°C plus minus. We have a good fertilizer scheme. And also the water quality that we maintain is like premium for the aquascape. We keep soft water.

[00:10:06]We kill the KH 2 to 4 and GH 5 to 7. So these are optimum for the plants. Then whatever fertilizer you dose, effectiveness goes to the optimum. Otherwise, these things become a little bit tricky. What do we have over here?

[00:10:23]>> Canyon of Serenity. I I like the names also.

[00:10:25]>> Yeah, okay. All given by our students.

[00:10:28]We have a system. We have a portal at GC Nature [music] Lab that they can upload all the parameters, all the details in the portal.

[00:10:36]They can actually check Actually, we admins can also check what is the water parameter going on, how they are maintaining these tanks, what are the specific parameters of each tank. So they can actually scan this QR code. It will show up in your phone and you can actually take a graph of that what parameters are changing, what parameters are stable, [music] what is fluctuating.

[00:10:55]>> So this this portal is accessible only for your staff.

[00:11:00]>> Yes. Only for us. It's not public.

[00:11:02][music] It is only like >> For clients and Okay. Great. Let's see it. See carpet over there. That's Monte Carlo.

[00:11:11]Glosso-stigma. That's glosso and dwarf grass hair. Three different varieties of carpets over here. And I see a small puffer fish also. People call them >> We have some snail infestation. So this is another favorite tank for me because this [music] tank can justify the scaping plus the colors in the back. You have both skills. First skill is the scaping, second skill is how to maintain plants, how to trim them, how to get a good health out of it, and overall the tanks look very attractive. Somehow I feel some clients and some hobbies they feel that only Iwagumi >> [music] >> is very boring after after a certain time.

[00:11:49]>> Mhm.

[00:11:49]>> That becomes very boring. So, adding some colors, some stem plants will justify the scape. So, many people like this kind of scape.

[00:11:57]>> For those of you who haven't heard of Amartya, but his specialty is Dutch scapes, and you will see that that he loves working with stem plants. And like I said, he's mastered the art of trimming them. Look at this beautiful tank over here.

[00:12:14]>> Yeah, this is we have done intricate scaping in this with wood and all. This is kind of inverted scaping, and mostly like close to the competition tanks.

[00:12:25]>> Mhm.

[00:12:26]>> If you have seen many tanks that are in competition, they kind of prefer this kind of scaping. But right now we have made it in such a way that the maintenance is minimal. It is not so high that we have to rescape it again and again to maintain this kind of look.

[00:12:40]So, it is kind of stable. We have added lot of woods and roots like supporting roots, some detailing woods and all, but it's still very easy to maintain. We have lot of moss there. We have stem plants.

[00:12:55]>> coming to that. This tank has a lot of moss, and it's it's it's bulked up.

[00:13:01]>> Yes.

[00:13:02]>> When I'm sure when it's pearling, it will be some sight to see.

[00:13:05]>> Yes. Yes.

[00:13:06]>> Wow, this is a crowded Dutch scape.

[00:13:10]Can see the pearling is still there.

[00:13:12]>> Yes. Yes. It's so beautiful. Every 10 days we do a trimming, proper trimming.

[00:13:17]>> I'm amazed at the lights depth also, because Etsy at that depth is not very easy to kind of grow. Nice clumps over here. We've got Pogostemon helferi.

[00:13:27]>> Yes.

[00:13:28]>> And we have used one easy plant there.

[00:13:30]That is polysperma.

[00:13:32]Hygrophila polysperma in the back.

[00:13:35]>> Right. Yeah, that's one. Yeah.

[00:13:37]>> So, we have used that also because >> This is Rotala rotundifolia 'Red Ruby'.

[00:13:40]>> Yes, Rotala rotundifolia.

[00:13:41]>> Okay.

[00:13:42]We have >> This is our Rotala as over there. This is super red.

[00:13:46]>> Yes.

[00:13:47]>> Beautiful.

[00:13:48]Let's talk about your project verticals.

[00:13:51]Okay. Amartya, why don't you tell us a little bit about your projects and all?

[00:13:56]>> You guys know that we are doing professional aquascaping. That is our the most renowned topic. And then we have like uh started working on vertical gardens, hydroponics. We currently we are doing rock structure artificially so that where it is not possible to place natural rock, we are creating a rock structure with cement and which absolutely looks like a natural one. And then we could plant so we can create water bodies and all those systems. We are currently doing another interesting thing. That is the marine planted aquarium which which contains the macroalgae. So, mostly these are These are the basic things that we are doing but we keep on challenging our ability. We take up projects which are challenging that like make us most satisfied on our work.

[00:14:45]>> For the For the audience, I'm just going to read out. Okay. They are into urban green walls and we've seen this green wall right outside, the rainforest installation, that beautiful Amazon rainforest wall that he's got, freshwater aquariums, marine aquariums, nature feature uh koi ponds, waterfalls, streams, nature themed venues, uh experience center, this the TC Nature Lab itself is a experience center. And they That's where they train uh all these trainees. And then his rock structures. I'm telling you I I when when I came last year, I think they had just managed to finish it the night before. And I couldn't make out that first of all, it looked so natural and it had just rained and all. It was really something I couldn't at first glance make out that it's not natural.

[00:15:36]So he's done a fantastic job. Let's have a look at these tanks.

[00:15:40]>> This is another six fitter. This is pure UG.

[00:15:43]>> Pure UG. We have some HCQ also, but the catch is the HC's are not planted in the soil. All like tied with a small lava lava rock and kept in the premises of the bigger rocks.

[00:15:56]>> UG typically is very difficult to score.

[00:15:59]>> Yes. It's kind of finicky. Once it starts growing, it will grow in like in one week, 10 days it will fill up your substrate and maybe if something goes wrong it will it will start decaying overnight.

[00:16:11]>> What's the secret? I mean, if you were to tell the audience >> The secret here is use low nutritious soil. Don't use high soil which is new or maybe with some more nutrition.

[00:16:23]Mostly the nitrogen content. They basically prefer a water column which has lower nutrition. Here we are definitely doing the fertilizer dosing, but still we managed to use the old soil that we had and we just put it there.

[00:16:37]That worked out for us and we'll suggest everyone that go for a very stable or mature tank. If you have a tank which is six months, eight months old, then you can put UG there directly or maybe use a old soil or maybe gravel. Gravel can also be very good substrate for UG.

[00:16:55]>> These are needle leaf ferns, but Mike that said >> Micro needle leaf.

[00:16:59]>> Okay. I'm not sure the about the exact species, but this looks very beautiful in small tanks and also in big tanks it can become a huge chunk.

[00:17:07]>> So I see some Marsilea over here. This is Marsilea, right?

[00:17:10]>> Yes.

[00:17:11]>> And it's Marsilea crenata.

[00:17:12]>> And this is your Glossostigma over here.

[00:17:16]>> One of the best plant in our nature style aquascape.

[00:17:19]>> Which is this uh stem plant behind the >> plant of the green one?

[00:17:23]>> The the green the one >> Behind the wood that is the lobelia cardinalis.

[00:17:26]>> lobelia cardinalis >> It's the mini version, so their leaves don't become uh too big like anubias and all. But a little bit smaller, so it becomes very compact. We have some anubias growing, we have some bucephalandras growing also. We have used some uh some of these These are the uh limnophila aromatica mini. So, we have kept it like a staurogyne repens, so looks very >> Yeah, so you've you've kept it trimmed and therefore it's become very bushy also. It's it's hugging the ground, otherwise it will grow tall.

[00:17:55]>> Yes.

[00:17:55]>> But I do notice snails over here. Is it by design or >> Not by design. It comes with plants.

[00:18:01]Plants do it had in our previous tank.

[00:18:04]Sometimes it comes from [music] that, sometimes if we put uh potted plants, it comes from there also. This we can do biological control with pea puffer and all.

[00:18:13]>> Discus, now this is This is something new because um you would not see many people attempt to uh keep discus where it's an air-conditioned room.

[00:18:24]Okay, uh you want to talk about how these are conditioned for it.

[00:18:28]>> We actually bred few discus, and these are the babies that we have grown in this condition. We used to have We used to maintain them at 28° C, but we have trained them to lower temperature. Slowly we have adapted them to like we have decreased 1° 1° each week, and we have maintained it at 24° C. Now, they are happily thriving in this condition. So, we planted it like this is a single piece of a wood. So, this wood is extended from the right corner to the left above the water, and we have planted few plants and tied it with the wood so that the root can You can see the roots coming up. They are only like housing themselves on the wood, but the root is actually taking up the nutrient from water column.

[00:19:11]>> Right.

[00:19:11]>> Look at this. This is like a Christmas tree that's lit up. Look at the bubbles on those.

[00:19:18]How do you manage all this because you know, typically you know, Alicia will break off and will go get stuck somewhere else. I don't see that, you know, it's got stuck somewhere else and all. So, your team is doing a fantastic job.

[00:19:31]>> Please compliment him. I'll do this so myself.

[00:19:34]>> So, everyday they're taking care of two to aquariums.

[00:19:37]>> Huh.

[00:19:38]>> So, in rotation every week every aquarium gets a proper maintenance and there is a schedule of daily maintenance. So, they spend half an hour everyday for basic maintenance and weekly two hours for proper maintenance of each tank. And the big one takes like five people to maintain a whole day.

[00:19:58]We generally do it on Sundays or holidays so that there is no visitor or classes going on. So, this is a separate issue.

[00:20:05]>> You know, this is good for part one.

[00:20:08]This is just one glimpse of what the TC Nature Lab is all about. By far, this is the best that I have seen. This is worth a visit and more. If you're coming to Kolkata, if you are from Kolkata, you haven't seen this place, you must. This is something that should be on the tourist places to visit in Kolkata.

[00:20:30]Amartya also tells me that they're planning to have school children visit this and it's going to be amazing for the hobby.

[00:20:37]>> We are inviting all those teachers from the school to come and visit and check how beautiful these things are. So, they can actually connect it with the science that they study in the from their books.

[00:20:49]And if they become interested and inspired to do something by on their own, not have to be so costly, but DIY, whatever they want to do, they'll learn things hands-on. That is the most important thing and we are looking forward to that. And we are also doing a skill development program here here in TC and in Bangalore at Lset. We'll put all the links for how to register there and how to be trained about making planted aquariums, maintaining them and other aquariums also. And this place as you see, this place has been designed like a classroom so that they can experience an immersive knowledge sharing session. They will sit in between the aquariums and explore the science behind it. And I think that will be a good experience for every student who are interested in biology and K.

[00:21:42]>> Amartya is somebody who has created amazing planted aquarium scapes from the basic materials that were available to him. And this goes out for all those hobbyists who think that planted aquariums require a lot of expensive material and all. And Amartya is proof that it's not so. Yes, some plants will require CO2 and all and that's something that will come gradually, but if you're looking forward to start in this hobby, this is an amazing time to start. We never had this kind of, you know, places to visit and all. And now in India there are so many of these places. Stillwater Aquatics has got their gallery. I'm so glad that Amartya has created this one.

[00:22:29]So this is just part one. Part two coming up soon. Thank you for watching us. Follow TC Nature Lab on YouTube, on Instagram, and don't forget to like and share this video from The Weekend Aquarist. Thank you for watching.