0:00:00.3: Greetings, my name is Ed. I've been in the saltwater hobby for about 27 years now. I previously had a 75 gallon and also a 29 gallon that I've had for years and was successful with, but there was just too much going on. I really wanted to just go to one build. And with the pandemic going on, I am an ICU nurse, I worked a lot of extra so that I could afford this. I've been looking at them for a couple of years, and what I have here is about a 180 gallon complete package from customaquariums.com. It measures 24 inches high, 72 inches long, by 24 inches wide. I got the complete package. I upgraded the background to the painted blue acrylic, but the black would have been nice as well. I got clear glass, like the super clear glass on the front and the sides. I also got an extra water change drain just to help with the water changes.
0:01:05.6: The other thing is, I got a caster cart, it was really nice when I actually got the cart or the aquarium into... To get it into my house, it was very nice to help me place it. And then also I got the top canopy, I got the front doors, the doors open from the front instead, just to make it easier access. And then I got the 36-inch stand to give me more room for my sump and other things underneath the aquarium.
0:01:38.3: I was looking at different builds for a couple of years, and the reason I went with Custom Aquariums is because I really like their aluminium frame, it's really solid, it's nice, it's... A lot of frames are just plastic, they break with time from the lighting and just get real fragile. And then the other thing that really impressed me was their seamless sumps. Their sumps are so nice. They're not made out of plexiglass, so there's no seams for stuff to build up on, also you're not gonna scratch that. It's so easy to scratch the plexiglass. And they're just really contained. They also have really nice glass tops to them, they minimize the saltwater creep that plagues our hobby.
0:02:26.5: The other thing is their H2Overflows are really nice. We have a very small footprint, most of my space is for the fish up there and the corals, instead of just a bunch of stuff cluttering it up. Also their siphon stoppers are really nice. They had a lot of bubbles in the vertical position, and I think freshwater people probably don't mind, but saltwater people, we don't want any bubbles in there, so you just have to tilt them at an angle and that'll take care of that. But I like the added redundancy, I use check valves, but then it's an extra place to make sure that my tank doesn't overflow.
0:03:14.3: The other thing, they have a lifetime guarantee, which is really nice. They stand behind their work. I thought the pricing was actually reasonable, even though some people complain they think it's a lot. I probably spent about 6700 for this build, but it was the cabinetry with hardwoods, really nice joins, the whole back is supported. They spent so much time doing it. There's no particle, any particle board crap or anything like that. And I think you just get what you pay for. They took their time, they did an excellent job, I think they're worth every penny.
0:04:00.1: The other thing that was nice is there wasn't... Since I was out of state, I didn't have to pay the state tax for it, so it made it more reasonable. Then the customer service was really good. I spoke to Bob Pontow multiple times. He helped me with the build, helped me figure out my options, gave me updates whenever I called or anything, let me know when my aquarium would come and what to expect. And pretty much it took about three months for them to build, and then they gave a lot of updates.
0:04:35.3: Anyways, I will show you the aquarium.
