Welcome to episode two of the home discus aquarium build, and honestly… this one’s all about the unglamorous graft that makes the scape work. I stayed up late and just cracked on: drained the tank down to a sliver, pushed the substrate to one end to coax all the baby fish over, and scooped out every last little one (plus loads of Amanos). Then it was wet/dry vac time, buckets of old sand and soil out, and a proper glass scrape-down with sponge first, razor blade after—because if you start a build on dirty glass, you’re basically asking for problems. Next day, Steph’s back and we get the base sorted. I laid non-active aquasoil into mesh bags so it stays contained (no dark balls popping up when plecos or substrate disturbances happen), and it also gives me that mound and a softer bed to sit hardscape on instead of straight glass. Then we tried reusing the old sand, but there was too much aquasoil contamination, so we switched to builder’s sand—and I explain why washing it properly is non-negotiable. Finally, I added something I’ve never really done before in this kind of setup: an air pump with four bubble points, all planned to be buried under the sand as a feature. Rocks and wood go in to form a central island with flow and “360 swimability”… and then I cruelly leave you hanging, because we’re filling it up and testing the bubbles in the next episode.