John: Hey, folks, it's John with kgtropicals.com, bringing you something really special today, and that is part one of a video series that I'm going to call Dream Tank. Why am I calling it Dream Tank? Well, it's really quite simple, ever since I was a teenager when I first started keeping fish, I've dreamt of having a tank like you see behind me. So it fits dream tank, this is my dream and I'm going to share it with you.
Now there's also another huge reason why I'm sharing all of this with you and that is that I'm a retailer for CustomAquariums.com , who is the company that manufactured this tank.
I'm a retailer for them that is the first of their kind. They have retailers all over the country and they have display tanks like this in their shops, well I don't have a shop anymore, so this is the first time that they've actually done this with somebody that's strictly online. That's really cool, I'm glad that they chose to take a risk on us, they believe in us so that's really cool. We're going to talk a lot more about that as this video goes on.
Today what I want to do is just introduce you to CustomAquariums.com , tell you what you need to know about them, what they do, what is available to you and all of that, and also share my experiences getting this tank. This is a pretty big deal here folks, when you talk about ordering something that costs a lot of money and having it shipped to you, that can be pretty stressful. I want to talk all about the whole process, not only the process of ordering it and what's available, but also delivery; how it came to me and all that, we're going to go over all of that stuff today give you, hopefully, a better feeling about ordering something like this because I know that the process can be pretty intimidating.
The first thing I want to do is introduce you to CustomAquariums.com , that's what this video is all about, and then we'll get into more as the videos go on. So let's do it. Let's answer the question, who is CustomAquariums.com? CustomAquariums.com is a build to order custom aquarium manufacturer. Kind of makes sense, doesn't it? Because of the name, but this is actually the largest manufacturer of build to order aquariums in the entire US.
They have a 25,000 square foot manufacturing facility in Wisconsin, where they cut their own glass, they bevel their own glass, they do all of that, they even have a cabinet shop where they make the canopies and the stands like you see behind me. This is literally a one-stop shop for the entire process. One of the coolest things about this company is that they build products that look and perform so high-end that you automatically assume they're just going to be outrageously priced and be way out of reach. Folks, you're going to see as this series goes on, that's absolutely not true.
One of the things that really stands out about this company is their customer service from start to finish in this process. There's a few companies out there that do the same thing; they'll manufacture you a custom size tank, but the problem comes with things like delivery, they'll tell you, "Yes we'll ship the tank to you no problem," but then when they deliver it, they'll tell you, you got to go pick it up at some hub somewhere or something.
You know what let me tell you a story. A good friend of mine ordered a tank from another company, I'm not in the business of disparaging other companies, so I'm not going to say who that was, but they ordered it from another company. When it came time for delivery, the company said, "By the way we don't deliver direct to your door, instead we're going to have to have you meet us or meet our driver in a Home Depot parking lot 45 miles away from where you live." He called me on a Saturday morning frantic not knowing what to do and-- by the way it was 45 minutes from me but it was about an hour and 45 minutes from him.
He called me and he's like, "I don't know what to do." I said, "Well, come on, I'll take my truck, we'll go over there and we'll get it, no big deal." So that's what had to happen, we had to drive to this parking lot somewhere to pick up this tank which they just took it from the truck, put it straight into the bed of my truck. I mean if that were me, I'd have been awfully furious that I had to go through something like that. CustomAquariums.com they're not going to do that to you, no. They're going to deliver it straight to your door.
Now when I got mine, the driver was bringing it in a box truck, not a huge semi or anything like that, just a box truck which he could maneuver through neighborhoods and stuff like that, and he pulled it right into my driveway. As you can see in the video, it's not exactly an easy driveway to pull a truck like that down into. He asked me once he got there, "Hey, where do you want me to put this thing? I'll drop it wherever you want it." Of course, he can't carry it into the house, but he offered to drop it wherever I wanted it, and he even offered to put it in the garage for me but, unfortunately, my garage is too jam-packed full of empty aquariums, so that wouldn't work but he offered to put it anywhere, and he dropped it right outside of my garage which was perfect.
This thing was packed in a massive crate, and let me tell you something, he could have backed up into that thing with his truck and I don't think it would have hurt the tank. I mean it was packaged so well, a wooden crate built specifically for my tank and what I had going on in there, everything was neatly packed inside of there and it really wasn't that big of a deal, you don't have to be super handy to be able to take these crates apart. Simply used a screw gun and a hammer, once we started taking the actual crate apart, to remove all of the parts it was no big deal, it was very easy. Like I said, this thing was built like a small house surrounding this tank, it was unbelievable.
One of the great things about this company is that they work with you throughout the entire process, it's not one of those things where they'll just kiss your butt until you actually give them your credit card information and then you're on your own, no. It's not like that at all. They want to make sure that this process goes smooth from start to finish. Even when you contact them and you're trying to make those decisions, or actually you're going to contact me, but you're trying to make those decisions, we not only me but them also, we are going to work with you making sure that you get exactly what you want. That's critical, but it doesn't stop there because they even help you with things like delivery.
Now they're not going to send a bunch of people to carry the tank into your house for you, wouldn't it be nice if they could do that, but they do something that I think is awesome and I don't know if any other companies are doing it, they'll provide you with the suction cups that you see in that video right there. Let me tell you something, folks, those suction cups make a world of difference. Now they don't give these things to you, I mean unless you want to buy them, they send them to you in a box which once you're done you can put these back in the box with a pre-labeled shipping label on it and send them right back to them.
The only way you're charged for them is if you don't send them back, but how nice is that that they provide those for you. Let me tell you something, it makes life so much easier. I had eight people show up the day that I brought it in, we didn't even need all eight, it was one of those things where I actually asked more people than I thought I needed. Because I figured a few of them wouldn't show up, but then everybody showed up.
With those suction cups, we probably could have carried this heavy tank with six people and I think it would have been comfortable. The suction cups, I know it looks intimidating because you can't imagine that they'd actually stay in place but they absolutely do, and it made it so convenient that we could just-- we could easily take a break or pause for a second, no big deal. If one person needed to take a break, it'd be fine.
Let me go back to the story I told you about that tank that I had to drive 45 minutes to pick up. That tank, folks, honest to God, ended up in a million pieces on my buddy's garage floor, true story. If he watches this, hopefully he will comment below and tell you that what I'm telling you is true. It was four people trying to carry a tank the same size as this one into his house and it never even made it in the house, halfway through the garage, somebody stumbled and down it went. Devastating, folks, trust me, so what a nightmare.
I don't think that that would have happened. I think with this, with the suction cups, if somebody had fallen, it would not have been a big deal, everybody else would have still maintained their handle, everything would have been fine. That's huge to me. I don't know of anybody else that's offering that to their customers; having these suction cups. Like I said, they take care of you from start to finish and you got to send the suction cups back, but still it's awesome.
How do you get one of these tanks in your house and how am I going to be involved in that whole process? Well, first of all, I want to tell you a couple of things about the relationship between CustomAquariums.com and I and then we'll go from there. The first thing that I have to address is that there's been people already, and there's going to be people probably in this video that are going to say, "I wish I could get a free tank," or "must be nice," but look, folks, there's nothing free at all about this tank. I'm going to, hopefully, make that make a little bit more sense to you.
They approached me when I was in Chicago, they had seen my bald head on YouTube and they said, "Hey, John, look, this is what we do for retailers. We'll send you a tank you can put it in your shop, display it for everybody to see and then you can sell our tanks, it's beautiful, it's a perfect program." I said, "That sounds fantastic, I would love to do that, but I don't have a shop anymore, but I do have a YouTube channel that probably gets more visits per day than any pet store in the United States. So maybe we could work something out that way."
They said, "Let me think about that." They thought about it overnight, approached me again the next day and said, "We're in." Perfect, I guess they looked a little deeper into my channel and stuff like that, and the website, and they looked at it said, "Yes, why not do something like that, it's true, there's a lot more people that go to that channel then there are people that go to your local pet store. So beautiful, let's do it." That's how this whole thing got started.
What I'm trying to explain to you is this is a display. Now if I sell a certain amount of tanks, it's mine to keep forever and ever, but if I don't sell any tanks, folks, they're going to come back and get this thing. There's nothing free about it at all. I have to earn this tank. I'm ready to do it. Why? Because they build a fantastic product. It's not going to be hard. It's not going to be hard to sell tanks like this. They're just absolutely incredible. The tanks that I saw in Chicago were breathtaking. One of them was almost identical to this one. Yes, I'm not worried about it. I know we're going to sell plenty of them.
There you go. I hope that clears things up a little bit. I hope it opens your eyes to who CustomAquariums.com is, what my relationship with them is, and all that good stuff. Can you tell? I'm pretty excited about this. I think it's going to be a blast. Like I said, if you want to get one of these for yourself, send me an email [email protected]. We'll talk about what you are looking for, what you would love to have. We might even be able to make those dreams come true just like what's happened here for me.
In the next video, we're going to take the camera and we're going to go up close in this tank and show you everything about it. We're going to finally answer the question of what this tank costs. If you wanted to get this exact tank that you see sitting behind me, exactly how much that would cost to arrive at your door just like this. We're going to go over all that kind of stuff. You're probably thinking, "Well, that's what he said in the last video and he screwed us with this one."
Well, maybe that one's going to come out right after this one, you never know. It might come out next week, might come out tomorrow, or it might come out right after this one. You'll know if you subscribe to the channel. If you don't know what subscribing on YouTube is all about, there's a little red button, I think it's there or it's there, click that button. What's going to happen is when I put that video up, that's going to answer all those questions. You'll get a notification that will say, "Hey, KGTropicals just uploaded Dream Tank Part Two." Then you'll know so you don't miss it.
You don't want to miss it, folks. It will alert you on your phone, whatever. Subscribe, that's the way to do it. That video is going to come out very soon. Like I said, I'm going to try to put it up right after but you never know. You'll know if you subscribe. Thank you so much for watching. This was a lot of fun. I can't wait to grab the camera and start going through this thing. I'm going to do it right now. Let's do it. Thank you so much again for watching. I look forward to talking to you again next time.
