Transcript
the new Big custom aquarium is here to set up behind me it arrived about a week ago it was delivered right to my house my brother showed up to help me unbox and get it down to my basement to show you what we have today it is absolutely freezing out today but I have Quinn and Alec here with me we're gonna get right into it so let's Dive Right In [Music] okay so we have the tank stand on top and the tank below the stand itself is very tall it's actually 36 inches tall so I'll explain why I did that later but it's absolutely freezing it's like the coldest day for March 18th that we've ever had it's like 10 degrees out we planned this we're there so we got the plywood off now we just have to get all the rest of the boards off the tank and the stand you can start to see the tank down here some holes drilled in the back there for the plumbing that we'll walk through but overall the tank looks great can't wait to get it down into my basement got everything on box on the top now we are going to move the tank stand downstairs which is always one of the hardest parts of these the tank stands are always heavier and harder to get down than we always expect Ed it's a few angle your way a little bit all right what would you say you do here [Music] so you don't see a lot in our videos all the hard work and labor that I put in
behind the scenes I really don't know where we would be without the muscle that I provide you want to do something here oh hey truck we're going to go up and over that let's go back up a little bit is it too early for a pivot joke shut up shut up difficult twist with all the help that I gave them we finally got the stand upright and in the basement we're good now it's time to get stand and let's find our resting place [Music] thank you bro okay so we got these handy suction cups that are always great to have when you're removing a big glass tank like this and uh it's kind of a lifesaver I can't feel my fingers Lloyd maybe you should wear these extra gloves my hands are starting to get sweaty back I'm busy here oh Chester back up okay she's like you don't need help I got you test come on [Music] that's pretty easy yeah we're gonna slide twist I got a good grip all right we're just sliding yep oh okay I just lost it's actually okay we're good if I lose the other one that was all on you I would take it he tried to resection yeah okay hold it all okay I
gotta take the other hand off ready one two three we're good okay got it the uh fogginess added an extra element to this that we haven't encountered before the suction cups were slipping a little bit but we made it it's like moving a 200 pound Ice Cube down the stairs that's thawing it's like the first one we moved down here was 180 gallons then 150 now it's like 135 and somehow it seems harder every time I think the 180 gallon was the problem because it was acrylic so it was like the easiest thing ever so we were like we can move anything down here one two three please don't fall please don't fall we're good oh easy there it is more Awkward than anything so one of the most exciting things about this tank is this AI blade freshwater light that we are going to be trying out so I'm going to unbox this and we're gonna put on the tank let's check it out okay here we go look at that yeah so this is awesome it looks very Sleek thin it's going to be a really cool light you can see the different clusters of LEDs I think on the 66 inch light that I have here there are seven different clusters and they're going to light up this tank and make it look awesome so next step we're going to go ahead and add the substrate which is a mix of Carib sea aragonite sand as well as African cichlid mix which has some crushed up shells I think these two Blended together will look really nice and it buffers your pH which is really good for African cichlids not totally necessary since my water is already pretty high in PH we're basically doing as much as we can together before my brothers leave and then I work on Plumbing the sump but I really like how these two caribsy substrates mixed together I think it's a really unique look something I don't have in my other tanks [Music]
thank you [Music] [Music] tomorrow okay so I'm putting on the final coat of paint here you might be wondering why I didn't just select the black background from custom aquariums and to be honest I just completely forgot to check that box I'm not a smart man so Alec and Quinn just left because I have to wait for all this to dry anyway it's going to be a multiple day process but with the magic of editing you're gonna see it all in this video so next up we're going to flash forward to the plumbing so I had two quick stops to make the first was at Lowe's where I picked up some PVC primer and glue as well as the tea split that's going to be needed for the return lines next I stopped to my local fish store to pick up some more rocks lastly I got some Fritz turbo start which is really going to jump start the cycle of this tank [Applause] okay guys so I already started on the plumbing let's walk through what I've done so far so this is the seamless soap from custom aquariums that I absolutely love I have one on my 150 right now pretty simple to set up you just put it under the tank and these different modular units connect together very nicely on the right is a reservoir unit which really helps with evaporation and Rambo seems to love it so next we have the H2O overflow which will drain down into the seamless sump so we'll get this on the back and then we'll measure the return and the drain lines and then on the inside of the tank you have two H2O overflows you can either have them sticking out towards the front of the tank or you can twist them to the side like I have here I like them to be a little more discreet this way and just be to the back right and left of the tank and then lastly we have the two returns here which comes with a siphon stopper from custom aquariums which helps prevent any type of overflowing of your sump which is really helpful so I'm going to get these on the two return lines now so for my return pump by the CJ synchra SDC I've actually used this up on my 150 here for a little over a year I really love how quiet it is the five year warranty is very nice and
being able to control it all within one app with all my wave makers and pumps all in one spot is pretty awesome but after I get this out of the box I need to put it into the sump and then measure the length that the return hose needs to go up to the t-split so on the first day of Plumbing I got the pump in place I measured the return line to come out of the sump to the t-split during this time I also primed and glued the drain lines to the stealth box as well as into the seamless sump as this was drying I Was preparing the return lines to eventually connect to the t-split and then when it comes to the return lines these tubes are pretty rigid so using a little bit of heat helps you Flex it into the spot that you need this elbow is the top of the return line that goes back to the tank and it definitely would not fit into this without a little bit of heat so the heat gun allows this to go in smoothly and there you go after I had the return lines glued into place the next day it was time to move the tank into its final spot I needed to move it a couple feet to the left and back so I needed a little bit of help to do that so we got a quick Cameo from cichlid bro and law Rob [Music] thank you [Music] so the Aquascape is basically done the sump is actually full of water so now we're going to fill this tank but just a quick note on the Aquascape and why I set it up this way peacocks and halves the fish that will be going in this tank are open water swimmers and if you had too much Decor Rock work Driftwood Etc it actually can create aggression as
they fight over territories in the tank and it takes away from their natural swimming behavior and also there are no live plants in this tank because peacocks and haps are usually just brutal on Plants either destroying or eating them over time sometimes you can get away with certain species of plants but I'm just not going to waste my time with that I will have a clear water algae scrubber on this tank to help reduce nitrates so we'll go over that in just a bit but I'm really just excited to get this tank filled up and then move the fish over see the final product coming very soon so let's get to it [Music] thank you [Music] [Music] so if you're wondering how we put fish into this new tank so quickly we cycle the tank fast by pulling over biological media from my other tanks I took a full tray of biomedia from my 150 and put it into the sump of the new tank I also took filter floss and some different sponges out of the 75 gallon Tank's filters there'll also be a little bit of beneficial bacteria that's on the Rocks coming over from the old tank so with the seated media the rocks from the old tank Fritz turbo start and feeding the tank lightly in the first week there should be no issues with ammonia or nitrite the tank is basically cycled right away we've done this process on all of our upgrades and bigger tanks and it's worked perfectly [Music] all right foreign [Music] [Music]
[Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] so obviously I'm very excited to have this tank in place and finally set up with all the fish that I had planned to go in this tank for so long it might take another day or two for the tank to look totally clear but it is looking great already the colors on these peacocks and haps are already really popping in this tank and I think they're really enjoying the extra swimming space in the tank this six foot aquarium fit perfectly in this Nook of my basement and I feel like it really tied the room together that rug really tied the room together did it not I absolutely love the custom aquarium I feel like it even looks better in person just the quality of the tank itself just really can't be beat I love the seamless sump it's totally quiet behind me with the CJ pumps running I have the CJ pumps and wave makers all in the same map as my
other custom aquariums so it's very convenient and then the lighting on this tank is another Aqua illumination light so that's also on the same app as my 150 so these two custom aquariums are really sharing a lot of the same technology this AI blade light is one one of the cooler parts of this tank we actually try to fit the mounts on the back of the tank to have this lifted about six inches above the tank but because the custom aquarium has a pretty thick aluminum frame the mounts themselves just couldn't really squeeze on there so I'm still trying to figure that out that's one thing that will be coming in the next video on this tank very soon but even with this light sitting flush on the lid and not mounted it still looks great and I'm very excited to have it another thing that will be coming in the next video on this tank very soon will be the installation of the clear water algae scrubber I know I talked about this a lot in recent videos and I'm very excited to have it reduce nitrates in this tank over time especially as these fish grow and produce more waste that algae scrubber is really going to be key at reducing my nitrates and my water changes that clear water scrubber will actually sit on top of my Sump and that's one of the reasons I went with a 36 inch stand for this tank that allows for enough clearance for the sump plus the height of the algae scrubber which will be sitting on top of the sump and obviously there's a great benefit of having a taller stand with your tank just up a little bit higher and be able to look directly into the tank versus hunching down so much I'm also very excited to have this aquarium finally set up and in place because I moved the electric fluocara's from the 20 gallon tank into the 75 gallon tank temporarily this will be a nice upgrade and grow out tank for these electric locara it's actually kind of funny seeing the electrical acara Army in the 75 gallon tank and by moving them into the 75 gallon tank that opens up some quarantine space for future fish that I'll be buying so there are a lot of exciting updates new fish new equipment that are all going to be coming and falling into place now that this big aquarium is set up if you have any questions on the setup make sure to leave that down in the comments below I'll leave affiliate links to any
and all products that we showed and used in this aquarium build I'm very excited to have this custom aquarium set up I'm going to be showing many updates on it very soon as well as some of the other projects happening in my basement and that's not even counting out and Quinn's projects that are ongoing and on that note thank you to the other cichlid Bros for helping me out in this aquarium build make sure to hit that subscribe button and thanks so much for watching
