Transcript
Intro
hey guys welcome back to another video my name is troy i'm alec i'm quinn and together we are the sickle bros welcome to part two of our two part series installing our brand new custom aquarium in part one we got everything unboxed and down here in my basement um today we're going to be setting up the sub aquascaping getting the fish in the whole tank will be complete in today's video so the hard part's over we're ready to have some fun so let's dive right in [Music] to quickly catch up from the last video we unboxed the 150 gallon aquarium stand and sump from custom aquariums similar to the tank itself the packaging of the tank was top-notch quality so it took a bit of time to unbox it we did get some help from our brother-in-law rob who's been in a few videos now good thing he helped as quinn literally did nothing but jokes aside it was a team effort to get this tank down my staircase and into place in my basement we have moved large tanks before and we've gotten pretty good at it just plan for each step and it usually goes pretty smoothly i've been planning this tank for such a long time that i can't wait to get this set up running and stocked all in this one video let's start with one of my favorite features of this custom aquarium the seamless sump
The Seamless Sump
all right alec let's talk about filtration and how we're going to set this seamless sump up all right so first of all it starts off with the wide pre-drilled holes go right into the stealth box one of my favorite things about the seamless sub package is the skimmer here that leads right into the stealth box the water will come right through one of these bottom tubes here this is the tube that will go in the back of the tank which would take it to the sump and that goes right into two massive filter socks and that will be the first chamber of filtration which will overflow into the second chamber which is for our five media trays here mainly for biological filtration which they send you plenty of really high quality filtration biomedia we will also put some pre-seeded media so we can cycle the tank a little faster and some of our favorite chemical filtration kimmy pure blue and we will also a little trick on the top tray we will put some filter floss up that will kind of dilute some of the water noise as it trickles in it'll make it a much quieter sump which is already very quiet so that will overflow into the next chamber which is where you're going to keep your heaters and your outlet pump which will take water back to the tank through this green hose in the smaller pre-drilled holes we have these two outlets here customizable directions and one of the coolest features is the siphon stopper in case of a power outage or if you turn the power off for a water change this will prevent any water from backflowing and overflowing your sump it's a really nice safety feature all right alex so what is this last tub here this last tub here is highly customizable you can really make it what you want at least it's just a water reservoir for any type of evaporation issues or diluting the water for any type of toxins you can also grow plants in here it's easy to clip a light on you can put meteor reactors refugium you can get growing in there so you can really make it your own and one of the things i really like about all of these chambers is that it has a lid that you can put on here it's a glass lid so you can see how everything's going you can easily take the glass lid off and work with anything and that glass lid also prevents evaporation so that is key okay so here hey hit mute and mute yourselves okay so here we have the stealth box we have it attached to the tank and this is the h2o overflow so there's two different h2o overflows that will go in here and here there are a couple customizations you can make you can see this allows less water which means less noise if you want to adjust that way or you could use this different grommet which allows for more water flow and a little more noise [Music]
The Aquascape
one of the focal points of this tank setup was finding the right driftwood and rocks for this scape i asked around and was luckily pointed to sr aquaristic for this step i was blown away by their showroom which has a really cool and buna tank and setup a planted tank with cardinal tetras and of course an awesome driftwood selection they had some of the largest pieces i've ever seen and even had a space to plan out your aquascape right there in the store i went with one of the most unique pieces of driftwood and also picked out the rocks right here which are elephant skinned stones once i got back to my house i let the driftwood soak in a bend for multiple weeks before it ever went in this new tank but now that we have all the materials let's get skating so we put the sand in or what yeah baby [Music] okay so this is what we're thinking we have this big piece of driftwood here like how the big piece sticks up on the left and then we kind of have it propped up with a second log here another piece of driftwood and we like how it kind of comes in like a root [Music] so the hardscape here is looking great and it's exactly what i wanted i can't wait to add the plants to the escape as soon as i finish plumbing and the leak test i also wanted to do something slightly different from my typical tanks with the bar or led strip lighting so i went with two ai prime lights which i think gives this tank a very cool look and i just love the way this tank is coming together
The Plumbing
so my brother's left me to finish off the tank setup since plumbing the tank does take some time and we need to let the glue dry anyway i started by using a heat gun to mold the vinyl hoses to the returns these are pretty tough to work with but a little heat makes a huge difference i'm splitting the return line by using a y valve to then go back up to the two returns after gluing the elbow barb for the returns and the drain hoses in place it was time to wait for the whole setup to dry with the glue set i attach the return hoses and then move the tank back against the wall for its permanent spot the equipment is also something i'm very excited to use on this tank i have a cj syncra sdc return pump along with an extreme wave maker that we'll get to shortly i've used cj pumps and filters for a long time now and they're always reliable and efficient the syncra stc return pump comes with a controller that hangs up for easy management the pump can also be connected to the control app so you can adjust the settings to fit your needs the app also shows the tank temperature and can send you notifications of any malfunction with a pump or a temperature change tomorrow with a pump in place in the sump and attached to the return hose it was time to fill this tank up for a leak test anytime i put together a sump this is always the point i'm holding my breath i started by filling the sump and all good so far then it was time to fill the tank [Music] [Applause] [Music] once the tank was filled i turned on the pumps and inspected everything and thankfully we were good to go next it was time to add a few final pieces of equipment i have the cj xstream wave maker and two 300 watt heaters the heaters go down in the sump while the wave maker will be assembled and put into this tank this pump will be controllable from the same app as my return pump so everything is simple and easy wave makers provide many benefits to an aquarium having good flow in your tank can prevent debris from building up it can improve your filters performance and even oxygenate your tank if you angle the pump upwards slightly it can break the surface tension in the tank and provide more oxygen to the system the seamless sump is running really smoothly and here in the first chamber i have filter floss on the top to prevent some of the noise of the trickling water and i also put chemi pure green in one of the trays which will definitely clear up the water fast and then lastly above the sump i have the controllers to the two cj pumps as well as my power strip [Music]
The Plants
with all this in place it was time to add the plants i picked up a lot of plants from my local fish store including many different types of anubias and some different mosses i wanted to cover a part of the driftwood and moss which should grow in to look pretty awesome over time i also have a couple rooted plants that i'm bringing in from another tank this kind of felt like an art project gluing these plants to rocks and driftwood but i think it all came out really well i then filled the tank back up and the tank is looking incredible finally let's talk about the stocking of this tank
The Fish
i actually already added my first fish the apistogramma which was in my desktop aquarium before he's getting a huge upgrade here and it was kind of a last-minute addition to my plan then in my 75-gallon aquarium i've been growing out these fish for a while the six geophagus finnai five electric blue caras the albino hekeli and two of the plecos will be going in the new tank the geophagus finnai are showstoppers and they'll even grow a bit more so i can't wait to get them in the new tank i have a different plan for the severum and the nicaraguan cichlids as they'd eat all the plants i just put in the tank so more to come there lastly my three new angelfish are ready to come out of quarantine and join the new group in this new tank since the tank has been running for less than a week i brought over plenty of cycled media from my other tanks and added it to the sun i'm also adding a lot of seachem stability each day and together the tank is now safe for fish my angels went into the tank first followed by the albino hekali and then one of my very large electric blue caras who splashed like crazy i've had him for over three years so it's an awesome feeling to provide an even larger aquarium for him and with everyone now moved over let's come back a bit later to see the final completed setup
The Completed Setup
[Music] so [Music] so [Music] so [Music] so i could not be happier with how this tank setup turned out this tank is top quality from custom aquariums and i'm super excited to have this i would almost consider this my new dream tank build because of the quality of the tank itself it really can't be beat i cannot wait for the plants to grow in and for the water to become a little more clear that should happen over the next couple days i'll be sharing plenty of updates on this tank on the channel so make sure you hit that subscribe button so you don't miss that and also thanks to my brothers and my brother-in-law rob who helped me with this tank setup it was really a team effort so thanks again for watching everyone and we'll see you next week
