You can build the most insane aquascape ever, but if you don’t maintain it, it’s going to lose that crisp “fresh fill” look fast. In this video I take my little “end guppy tunnel” aquascape (with a heap of red cherry shrimp breeding in there) and run through my step-by-step maintenance routine—trimming, cleaning, and a water change—so it stays defined, healthy, and algae doesn’t take over. First up, I deal with the absolute menace: duckweed. It blocks light and turns into constant maintenance, so I show my super easy method using a cheap hair comb—press it to the glass, scoop, and you’ll pull out a massive chunk in seconds. Then I get into the real shaping work: trimming back stem plants like pearlweed, pulling out trimmings, and even bunching them up to sell or take to the fish store (free money for doing your tank maintenance—can’t complain). I also hack back a Monte Carlo carpet that’s grown ridiculously thick (around 5 cm), because once it gets dark underneath, it needs a reset to grow back greener. To finish, I drain the tank down while siphoning up spilled aquasoil, wipe the glass edges with paper towel to stop plant gunk causing issues, then refill and get everything running again. The result is a cleaner, sharper scape that’ll actually hold up over the next month instead of turning into an overgrown mess.