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Aquarium Gallery Reveal

By King of DIY on

Joey: This looks sexy. You guys ready? Okay. This is just with aquarium lights on, no outdoor lights. Anyway, let's just watch. Look at this. Keep in mind we only have the first coat. It's basically a primer. I went ahead and touched up the 2,000, looking absolutely amazing, gave it new paint here, and then of course on top. It's looking fantastic. Needs a water change and I got to clean the front panel. The floor has its first coat of primer as well. I was thinking about going with a different color because this is just a primer coat, but I might stick with this, do a couple more coats like that. I like this. It brightens the room up and there's extreme contrast in the aquariums, but the focus and the eyes just come to the aquariums itself.

Now, what did I tell you about these stands? Once we just put the fronts on, we didn't even have to wrap it, it looks absolutely amazing. I've got everything done out here pretty much. Computer is here, 2,000. I got to fix that room, obviously, but yes, just the first coat of paint. I told you guys that you've got to have patience and you got to be able to envision. It was really difficult for me to explain what I was trying to do, but I hope you get the idea now. If you don't think this looks amazing, I don't know what's wrong with you. Obviously, I still got a set this tank up.

Yes, I love it out here. I love it. Some people were worried about having a computer out here. Computer has always been out here, it's just been in the other room. We have tons of circulation in here and low humidity. The humidity is about the same as what's in the house. It's no different, really. It's just a lot warmer out here, no big deal. Now, I just turned on the tank lights, so fish aren't really responding yet, but I don't know. What do you guys think? The 2,000, I'm just loving it with a fresh job. It feels like I just built it again just by touching up the paint here and there and fixing a little bit of the Styrofoam.

A lot of people wanted me to do the Styrofoam on these tanks, I'm just not. I think the 2,000 by itself like this-- I stuffed a bunch of stuff back there. I think the 2,000 like this is a centerpiece. It stands out, it's a focal point. When you walk in, I'd be honest with you, not a lot of people actually draw their eyes to this. They come over here first. They go like this, they're like, "Wow, this is great," and then they turn around, like, "What the heck?" Because this isn't really up in the air like these ones. It's not really drawing your eyes, but once you get to it, it's such a pleasant surprise. The lights just came on here as well, so fish are a little bit stressed out, but look at that red. Oh gosh.

I don't know, guys. I'm pretty excited. I want to start gathering supplies to change this to a planted tank. We need to get planted aquarium soil. I need to order in a lot of the plants. It's going to take time. I need to get a new CO2 tank, a lot bigger, to handle the 120. I hope these lights can do a high-tech planted tank. If not, I'm going to swap them out, no big deal. I also, need the planted tank substrates, some nutrients and we'll see what happens there. Of course, we got to start on these tanks here soon, but everything out here needs another coat of paint.

We're going to need some patience in everything that we're doing out here, but I got to admit it's looking absolutely stunning. I hope to be able to go gather some supplies, order some supplies today. I got a regive everything its second coat today. I got to try to organize this room because it's an absolute disaster area. I think a lot of people are like, "Hey, Joey, hurry up. This is taking forever." I'm doing all of this alone, and this takes a tremendous amount of time. Keep in mind I also have children and I'm raising a family, and believe it or not, I have a life [chuckles] outside of YouTube. A very small one, but it's still a life, give me a break.

Anyways, guys, I just wanted to give you guys an update, show you everything that's going on. I suppose you could take a look at the fish. Now, coming into the gallery, it looks good like this, but what I envisioned was you stand at it like this. There's nothing to look at. This isn't interesting. Nothing's interesting around it. The point and the focus is on the tank. Now, the lens is about at my chin right now, or at least the viewing angle is. This is pretty much what you would see in person then you come along, and the next one. At my back is the 2,000. This is basically how you would see it. Although the lens is probably about two feet from it. We have almost four feet in between, believe it or not.

Now, the tanks are 120 gallons. I get asked that all the time. "What size of the tanks?" They're four feet long, two feet tall, two feet wide, 120 gallons each. The tanks are not scaped or properly stocked right now. They're essentially just holding tanks. Look at those Vieja. Can we just please admire these for two seconds? Gorgeous. Loving you guys. I shouldn't have came over and upset them. Look at that big male. Pretty, guys. How's these guys doing? Susan the bass. Check this guy out. [chuckles] He found his little crevice there. This tank is going to get a substrate. I think I'm going to bring the substrate up to the rocks and maybe add in a few extra little rocks in there, but we'll see what we do there. Ultimately, I want a swimming space area for Susan.

Again, this tank needs to be set up, but I don't know. What do you guys think? Now that everything's cleaned up, it's like you're a product of your environment. If your area or your tank is a mess, you don't feel like doing much, but if everything is cleaned up and it looks great, you feel great. It's almost like "dress how you feel" type of deal. I'm really feeling this. I really like it, I hope you guys do as well. If not, I know I'm not going to please everybody. Not everybody's going to enjoy this, but I think it looks phenomenal. I think this is finally what I had envisioned.

Now, I know that there's three more tanks that we need to set up, and they will be going out there, and we'll be figuring things out. I'm not sure what we'll do out there, but right now, again, we just got to catch up with everything that's going on out here. I got a repaint that baseboard with just some white paint, no big deal, but it is discolored from floods. Had a couple of floods out here. Do the floor, another coat of paint. I know it looks good on camera, but I can see, for example, if we come down, I can see the strokes. Look at this. Crack all the way through the floor, goes all the way into the 2,000. No worries. The 2,000 was built on top of this, completely fine.

The crack hasn't gotten any worse, but that was settling. This place, the cement, the actual floor is eight inches thick, I want to say, and I have a total of 16 inches of concrete foundation. That's not normal for anybody. Usually it's like a six-inch slab that you need. Yes, this entire gallery two years ago was built on top of my old garage. This place did not exist. I know there's a lot of confusion as if this is in my house or something like that. No, this is beside my house.

We built this gallery and this building specifically for this, period. That's all it was ever for, and this is a concrete aquarium drilled 18 inches into the ground with the rebar, isn't going anywhere. I love the look of this. I love it. Feeding is going to be easier, maintenance is going to be easier, and of course actually scaping the aquariums is going to be tremendously easier as well.

Anyways, guys, I hope you've enjoyed this quick little update. Let's talk about the color. This black and this black are not the same. This has way more gray. Maybe we can come in a little closer. See? way more gray in person, and it doesn't look nearly as good as when we're zoomed out, right? I'm going to give this another coat. I think it matches everything great, but the 375 will definitely need to be repainted to this color just so they all match and they're symmetrical. Check out my desk. I can make everything symmetrical if I want. Up it goes. Right now I just do it to about the height of this. This is a standing desk. You'll notice no chair. I think we all sit too much and try standing more and maybe get a desk that requires you to stand. You'll feel a lot better.

I am thinking about putting a rug down here, but I don't know how I feel about that. I do like the clean look. Let me know what you guys think about that. Let me know what you guys think in general, though. Did you like it better before or after? What can I do to make some improvements? What do you guys want to see next? Let me know in the comment section below. I'll see you guys next time where-- I don't know what's next. This is overwhelming, though, look at this. This is all filled, and then that room is filled. I got to start doing water changes. I'm behind on them. The 375 with the catfish who hides behind the door right now. Yes, it goes back behind the door there.

Anyways, guys, that's it for me today. I got to get started on my day. I hope you guys enjoyed this little reveal, even though it's not a 100% of what it's actually going to end up looking like, especially the tanks, but this is as close to the finished product as I can get right now. Yes, this is awesome. Now that we're sitting here or standing here, we could film or do live streams. Just like this almost. I can put the camera right here probably, or maybe I put a chair and a table right here, and we're down here. Of course, I wouldn't be squatting the whole time, but this makes a lot more sense.

Anyways, like I said, got to get back to work. I hope you guys enjoyed today's video. If you're not subscribed to this channel yet, make sure that you do, so you don't miss these future updates. Honey, you want to go on the gallery? Get in there, yes. We're going to get Honey's first reaction to the changes. Honey reacts. Get in there. Want to go see? Do you see? What is this place? Do you like it? [laughs] Where did you go? You need a bed in here? [laughs] Do you like it? That's all right. You're a tough one to impress.

About King of DIY

Joey is THE King of DIY, and when he built his gallery of aquariums he chose the Custom Aquariums rack system with 120-gallon tanks...a lot of them!

Joey Mullen is also known as the king of DIY, uarujoey or the DIY fishkeeper on social media. Providing education and inspiration for aquarium enthusiasts on YouTube, he is also the author of The Ultimate DIY Handbook; for the DIY Aquarist. His channel is about educating all levels of fish tank hobbyists who are passionate about caring for fish and keeping an aquarium of their own. Joey's aquarium rack systems were custom made by our professional fish tank engineers, here at Custom Aquariums.

Please watch the King of DIY's videos for some helpful information and great tips on diy aquarium keeping.

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