Transcript
it's 6 30 in the morning today's the day the tank is here and we're not picking it up in one of those little guys no we're getting it in the big boy let's go so of course we got problems and I'm sitting here with an empty truck let's see if we're gonna figure this thing out see how big this truck is see how tall that opening is U-Haul lied to me this is not the accurate height they give you the internal dimensions of the inside of the truck but they conveniently leave out that lip right there and that lip is causing me not to have enough space to get the whole package inside the truck so I'm scrambling right now gotta go return this truck go get another truck that hopefully doesn't have a lip and then get back here before these guys go home for the day because then I'm out a whole day let's go let's try this again Penske so Penske has a 26 footer as well just like the U-Haul truck but their opening is a little bit bigger it's exactly the 91 inches as the package I'm gonna wing it and say whatever I'm taking the truck we're gonna go see if that thing fits because we got to get this baby home we have to get the Penske Big Boy docking level about 91 inches clearance from the top and that's the size of the package so we'll see this thing still didn't fit guys but I knew there was a lot of cushion up on top of the tank so I decided to open up right on the spot something the warehouse didn't want me to do but custom aquariums recommends that you do open up your package and inspect it before taking delivery so it had to be done you got it you got it like a glove baby like a glove uh right there man right there should be fine as long as the door closes
snug I love it this dude right here saved the day when everyone there was telling me that I could not open the package he went and got a drill when everyone told me I couldn't get up on top of the package he Lifted Me Up on the forklift I wish I knew your name bro but thank you very much first crisis of the day crisis averted thankfully somehow some way we figured out how to get this thing into the truck we took the panels off even though we weren't supposed to we got it down to size where it fit in the trunk we're in the truck and now we're on the way home and then there's a whole nother hurdle when we get home because how are we gonna get this thing unloaded from the truck I don't know we're gonna figure it out when we get there yeah she made it home that's her 450 in the building not really in the building but here next big hurdle is getting the 210 out of the way I've already got it drained to as low as I possibly can for right now waiting for the fellas to show up so we can try to just slide this thing out of the way but if we can't do that if it's still too heavy I'm gonna have to take the fish out and drain it all the way I've got already got a bunch of extra oxygen in the tank I got a couple extra air Stones going because these guys are gonna stay at this low level of water without filtration without agitation for a while so the air Stones is going to make sure there's plenty of oxygen in there while they hang out and wait so I realized that the tank is still very heavy but that's because there's still water fish substrate in the tank but I also have a considerable amount of product underneath the tank which I decided to take out along with my fx6 filters hopefully that makes the stand I mean now hopefully it absolutely will make the stand a lot lighter but hopefully now the whole tank can be moved together without having to separate them or take the water out or take the fish I'm trying to avoid that step yeah that's the way look we're going to swing so alone you're doing the most turning
we're going to swing from the wall okay no no rush ready one two up you need six real dudes to move a tank baby let's go all right now for the hard part the fun part is going to be unloading this massive tank not only because it's huge and heavy but also because we have a truck at docking level height a forklift right now would be real nice luckily it does have a lift gate and we absolutely will be using it what you see here is called strategizing on the Fly trying to figure out how to get this thing down custom aquariums does a great job of packaging this thing making sure it's safe for its travels to wherever you're located so we finish up removing all the panels all the plywood all the two by fours and get the stand separated from the tank by the way full disclosure six guys moving a heavy tank you might hear some language don't say I didn't warn you watch your fingers watch your stuff guys alone watch your step somebody kicked the plywood down forward all right the plug was up all right guys all right watch your step Carlos Carlos yo set it down right there watch your step
we got it all right just go down all the plywood gonna drop down the gate a little bit nope let's spin that way watch your step Henry that's really good yo everybody there's a bricks here so watch yourself get in the grass get in the grass no question watch the brick on your feet yeah yeah it's pretty good it's pretty good don't get gas though the tank is like double this week just watch your feet guys the tank has to go on top of this one on there you're good here you got clearance here oh I can't get in there welcome to crisis number two while I know that the tank itself can fit through the door the stand is actually taller than the tank so the stand itself didn't fit through the door what do we have to do we have to rip the entire door frame out of the frame now let me tell you I'm no Carpenter by far but without these guys I would have never been able to do this so my boys I love them yeah but you want to go first hold on we're gonna get a treat first come on go in a bit one more step um [Music] all right give me a second hold on this is just a grip
sure [Music] all right drop we can drop right there all right wait I guess the way we'll we'll be using the wind's gonna slide to the wall right I got it all right you're good your tank from custom aquariums comes with this very important piece of cushion that goes underneath your tank above the stand if you do not install it you will avoid your lifetime warranty these suction cups are the truth show them a demonstration see how see how easy it is to lift that up go ahead no look at that and they go nowhere try one more time look at that I have full faith and confidence in these suction cups by the way you can rent them at customaquariums.com check them out it's tank moving time and this time we got some harnesses to try out but can you see the excitement in my face oh [ __ ] baby squat bro yeah [Music] don't rip your pants alone
why not one ready two three three what to do okay okay we're gonna turn bro a little more a little more grab that corner yep perfect perfect good going down that's good wait wait watch your foot babe 's on this side gotta lift from there that means everybody's grip gotta be those suction cups are the truth don't let anybody tell you that those suction cups don't work they work remember that you can rent these cups from customaquariums.com check them out for rent only you got to give them back you can't keep them corner corner okay you get a corner corner I would take that off and then right above the other one a little a little bit more toys over here if you want like definitely yeah crazy bro wait wait wait wait wait one more thing to think about it yeah the neighbors ready one okay one two three uh some [ __ ] happy so we're going back right we're going back who's running first watch your steps
yeah you know through it oh [ __ ] wait wait wait um [Music] let me give them okay hold up swing heavy watch your step with the bucket I mean I'm gonna have to let go both of us no alone [Music] can't go through the door let's go down though okay put it on the step put up yep oh come on all right there's anybody else in there come on grab the middle as soon as we clearly you grab these two bottom ones pretty cool like the ones you were doing yeah yeah but then once in 10 minutes all right you guys ready I'm gonna take over I'd rather take over now um ready
ready one two three oh lift it up too high it's not an angle the bottom angles um there you go go down okay perfect yeah put the ribs higher because we're just sliding across We're Not Gonna lift it all that hard yeah we're coming this way yep yep yo we had these cups in the move when we brought these tanks bro ready yeah male swing yeah okay drop it yeah is that corner heavy no one two three go ahead no all right I'm gonna go all right set it down I'm good I got it you good okay ready hold on hold on hold on I gotta lift it up and go that way yeah come back I don't know come back out open up open up yo it's coming over yeah yeah wait wait yeah yeah right here we go [Music] all right line it up to me to me remember to me open to me okay it's on all right okay stop your phone a corner quarter of inch
plate in there 450 yo how was moving that tank guys come on let him know let him know all 50 in the house couldn't have done it without these guys right here couldn't have done it without my boys let's go high five high five high five high five baby high five maybe let's go okay baby let's go oh 50 in the building the very last thing that we did on day one is move the 210 gallon into its new location somehow the camera wasn't on when we moved it I don't know you guys know me I blame things on the Gremlins and then my boys got to reap all the benefit because they got a fresh new water change and they loving it this day started at 6 a.m and it's literally 10 30 p.m it's been a long eventful but productive day day two begins and all my friends are gone I'm alone again one with the tank and there's plenty of work to do let's go now that we got the muscle work done it's time for some finesse and that means clean up guys before I install anything in the tank I just want to make sure it's nice and clean and ready for me and yes this tank is very tall I've got to get on the top step of the ladder just to reach the bottom and of course the tank is too close to the wall I can't even get behind it so even with my bad shoulder I'm trying to move that thing all by myself gotta push the other side as well because there's just no room to get the stool in here and I won't be able to reach the bottom if I can't get my stool back behind here and yes the tank is so big that I've got to sweep it I gotta sweep the inside of the tank grab my dustpan and get that stuff out of there but just take a look at the massive size of this tank this thing is huge custom aquariums does an excellent job on the silicone all the way around the tank making this one of the most strongest tanks I've ever had that's pretty much why it comes with a lifetime warranty check out all my drilled holes for my overflows and my return lines and the stand is just beautiful I love the
panels the design custom aquariums you did well the sump came packed inside the stand all in some weird order that doesn't make any sense to me right now just like the tank just like the stand this sump is huge but I really like the design of this seamless sump instead of one big glass tank basically as you saw you've got the seamless sump that comes in separate Chambers and they connect together very easily after I figure it out right now I don't know what I'm doing I don't know what goes where but you guys know me I'll figure it out right now I'm basically just looking for the brand so I know which way is forward but trust me when I tell you this is absolutely not the order that this sump goes in but take a look at the sump up close very well made very strong very sturdy comes with all your Parts and Equipment that you need to to hook it up including custom aquarium's own biomedia that's pretty cool so as awesome as this sump looks and as much fun as it looks like I'm about to have getting this thing set up I've already realized that this is going to have to be an entire video all by itself I want to get really deep into how to set it up how it all works I want to show you guys the details so if that video is already out you'll have a card right up there if it's not out yet stay posted all right we're instead going to start putting the background in because that background needs to be silicone and it needs at least 24 hours to make sure that that silicone is dry before I can move on and do anything else so we're going to get that started right now but first there's something you must do painting time yes I'm gonna paint the entire back glass and you might be asking why am I painting it if we're going to put a 3D background in there good question very good question keep watching and you'll see why first step of painting taping all right as I said in this tight squeeze I tell you what's next so the tank has multiple drilled holes in it but two of them are not going to be used because they're going to be covered by the 3D background so I'm going to plug those two holes using these PVC plugs and using some fusion PVC cement glue no leakage coming
out of those plugs or help me up [Music] by the way leaving your glue up here while you work probably not the smartest thing to do don't do what I do so I got the tank prepped for painting but now that I think about it because the squeeze back there is so tight I know I'm gonna have to be moving back and forth behind the tank when I'm putting the 3D background in I don't want any of that paint to rub off on me while I'm working on the background so instead we're gonna get the background in now that needs time to cure anyway and dry so background it is this 3D background comes to you by way of Aqua Decor backgrounds.com one of my amazing sponsors they hooked it up with this custom piece I cannot even tell you the model number I know it's a b model but this is a custom piece make sure you get your orders in early because it does take time to make these custom backgrounds and get them shipped to you they are coming from Serbia as you can see they really wrap this stuff up good to make sure it gets to you all in however many pieces it comes in this particular model is one that needs silicone along the entire backside and the bottom of the background just because it is so thick this is either my third or my fourth background from Aqua Decor backgrounds.com I've lost count long time ago and they never fail with the quality it's always amazing every time it comes here if you guys want to check them out make sure you use the code caveman10 and you'll get a 10 discount so we dry fitted the background just to make sure that it fits right from bottom to top but the height is correct that the holes line up and so far so good I do have to do a little bit of custom work on these holes you can see they're a little bit off not a problem I'll figure it out so now that it's in there the height is good we're
gonna go ahead and start silicone in this bad boy so silicone the background we're using cell sill aquarium silicone safe for fish and aquariums I realized that instead of covering these holes with tape I might as well just put the bulkheads in and then put the tape around the bulkheads on the outside I'll be a little bit safer [Music] foreign [Music] get your calf work in fellas the background is in we finally got some pieces of wood in there to hold it back just so that the silicone can hold to the back of the glass it's looking pretty good I'm gonna let that cure overnight let it sit just like that starting to take shape starting to get there so here's a pretty cool look at the back of the tank before painting it something that you and I will probably never ever see again the back of the background with all the silicone on it pre-painted well fun to see it while it lasted does this space look tight let me tell you you're right it is but I have no choice I cannot move this tank any further out into the room I'm going to use Rust-Oleum Ultra cover flat black paint the good old-fashioned paint that I painted my 150 and 210 back in the day I'm using the exact same one I'll have a link to this in the description if you wanted to try this pink hopefully I don't make a huge mess back here I can't even spin my shoulders around some of you that know me well enough already know that I really dislike painting but what we do for the lifestyle man it's day three in the fish
the fish cave and today we're going to release the background and make sure everything was good last night and we're gonna put a second possibly a third coat of paint on the background after that we're gonna go ahead and start installing our sump that's gonna be a whole lot of fun let's go let's get busy well my dislike of painting really showed overnight I got a bunch of drips all over the place but this second coat is going to go on much much better and I think that all we're going to need is two coats because I really don't want to do three I think two coats is all she gonna need check it out not bad for a guy that hates painting and doesn't have any painting skill whatsoever looks pretty good to me two coats is all she's gonna get from the front might have to do a little touch-ups after I take the paint off we'll touch up around the overflows touch up at the top of the tank but overall it looks pretty good I'm happy with it I just gotta say at this point I'm feeling pretty good getting the background and the painting done was a pretty big accomplishment one out of like four major steps and now we're ready to move on to the next big one but of course I got to do a little bit of cleaning get that stuff out of the tank first now we already tank is clean and looks like it's ready for water are we ready for water no way we gotta set up the sump now let's do it we're ready to start getting the seamless thump installed now I am going to take you guys with me but I'm not gonna go through the detailed process of installing and hooking up the sump not in this video if you want to see that check that video out right there I did entirely on the sun process all by itself but for now we'll just move on to getting this tank completed that's all you got to do to set up this tub this is going right under the tank next one is the baffle tub lit this one up and then and now both of these are connected together next we got the EVAP Reservoir refugium Reservoir here's our sump fully installed under
the tank and fully connected dry fitted all of the chambers connected together now we're going to go to the back and do the hose work and you should end up with something that looks like this I've got three overflows which are the white hoses and two return lines which are the green hoses not too bad for a guy who can't Carpenter anything grab your overflow and it simply goes right into the bulkhead bang when water reaches this level it'll fill this chamber up and overflow right down the pipe this one's already installed right here I'm going to install the second one right in my next return hole push it in there fits nice and snug everything is done behind the tank there is no reason for it to be out of place I'm gonna attempt to move it right now all by myself can I move it I don't know but I definitely need my super grips to get it going let's see what happens foreign look I'm gonna push him right here right here not on the door right there not on the door put your palms here ready one two three one two three one two three let's go wow [Applause]
that's it this is in the middle let's go bad shoulder and oh baby ER what's left to do guys only the best part let's fill this puppy up so why am I only filling this on but I'm not filling the tank well number one tomorrow we're gonna start aquascaping the tank so it's got to stay dry because we're putting in Plants we're putting in the substrate all that good stuff is tomorrow I'm really excited to see when the first baffle fills up and goes into the next one okay the hose is submerged and she's starting to drip into the next baffle don't know if you guys can see it but I see the drip that's pretty cool check out the bottom there that water level's starting to rise so far so good no leaks don't see any drips right there I don't see well there's no drips here yet because the water level's not there yet it's day five of the fish cave setup and today I have Louise from seachem helping me out hey guys this is Luis Navarro with chicken labs and the Aquatic planter specialist for uh the company I told you guys I'm not playing around I got a professional here helping me out Luis how many years do you have aquascaping oh my goodness um I'll have to say over 30 years by now 30 years of experience in the fish cave Aquascape in the 210 let's go [Music] foreign [Music]
hoodie she's the same exactly [Music] but wait there's more big big shout out to my amazing sponsor ccam not only for letting me borrow their in-house professional aquascaper but for blessing me with all of these plants all of this substrate all of this product for sponsoring this project seek him for the w [Music] let me talk to you real quick about my man Luis Navarro not only is he an exceptional aquascaper he's an all-around great dude as busy as this guy is I'm talking about busy like traveling around the world literally before coming to New York to help me out with this project he was just in Ecuador after leaving New York as I speak right now he's currently in Dubai right now when he gets back from Dubai he's heading out to Colombia this guy is always busy but somehow some way I asked a couple questions about plants and because he had a free open week one week window available he offered to help me out and I was super grateful somehow someway the cards align that this tank got here in the same week that he was in between traveling to some other country some way somehow this 3D background got here at the exact time that the tank was getting here it was all just meant to be that's why I know that this tank when Luis is done with it is going to be off the charts and the best advice that I could give you right now is just to enjoy watching an artist at work so what what type of plan is this micro storm theropus or Java Java firm very commonly
views very commonly used it's an epiphytic plant it's really easy for a project like this to grow because it does not require as much as other plants do and it can do well in Nintendo CO2 I want to create contrast by using the internet leap shapes these are Broad those are much more narrow that's the same girlfriend it is the same color it's much narrow leaf so this is going to be on the top I like the way that looks [Music] foreign [Music] these are just so we're all aware we're working with epiphytic plants and we have all bodies of the latte and Microsoft therapus which is the bread and butter Jello current we got two kinds the narrow leaf and we have the in regular variant here so while bodies get big but it takes longer than Java print to take off once this gets going it's going to shade a quick shade over the yellow Fern
and by doing so it will prevent leaves from you know getting too old too quickly with algae and well done it is you though that need to keep an eye on these plants because it's just good gardening to get in and remove all leaves and when you see a split on the top and you see the sports getting new growth that's good and old but it can create a really big mess so I'd rather keep those um clean up the rice um so you always have this look fresh and maintain some you know more better looking tanks in the long in the long run so Louise tell me what we're working with right here so now we're moving on to anubias this is one of the first enemies available to the trade it's Anubis bar Taro barbarteroy so I'm removing the roots so I can easily glue it out to the structure and as you can see it's nice and healthy so we will continue adding more plants cool Luis even let me get my hands dirty opening up a couple of packages removing the plant and taking the little plastic pot off of it now this is some kind of wool that keeps the plant secure in place during shipping you remove this wool it exposes the roots and as you can see we've got a beautiful healthy anubias plant right here healthy Roots healthy plant looking nice escaping's all done are plants that we're going to use are on the background and it's finally time for some substrate now I know what your question is why are all the plants wrapped in Saran Wrap well we had to go to lunch and the thing with these aquatic plants is that they have to stay wet if they dry up they will die so we had to soak them in water really quickly and then wrap them up in Saran Wrap to make kind of a temporary greenhouse effect to keep them wet to keep them moist while we left for lunch and came back check luisao he has a
great technique of spreading a nice thin layer of sand which I really like I usually do a thick layer of sand but I do like the way this very thin layer looks it almost looks very beach-like and I like it and as soon as Luis gets done being Salt Bay and throwing sand all over the tank we're gonna go ahead and remove the Saran Wrap and start filling up but first check this out thank you [Music] foreign [Music] time and even though we did start with a very low flow of water to prevent the sand from blowing everywhere this fill took forever and even at this super high speed I cannot show the whole thing it's too long but I do want to tell you that the reason why we escape the tank the way that we did was only a partial plant Escape is because of the fish that are going to be kept in this tank number one my boy school boy Stingray is going to be in here as well as Flaco the arowana so we wanted to make sure that they both had enough free open swimming space sweat on my brow but the pumps are in the sump and we're about to power it up and check it out for the first time here we go
to flow so I hear the over I hear it overflowing you hear that drain it's overflowing let's check the sump I hear water coming into the socks here it comes from the tank that will overflow into here forget all that look what I woke up to the following morning a room filled with natural light making the tank look even more stunning I had to take a step back and just look at the whole fish cave and realize this is why we do what we do it makes it all worth it I honestly don't know what day it is anymore but today is lighting day we're installing six blade freshwater lights on the 450 but first your custom aquariums tank also comes with glass tops these tops are very well made they're crystal clear to look through and they got a little bit of weight on them so you got like an Arowana that thing's not getting out of here also comes with your handles for each top and you also get your glass tops for your sump each one is individually cut for the sizes that you need for each chamber and the reason why these are very important not only to prevent fish from jumping out of your tank but these glass tops are important to prevent evaporation from your tank and from your sump so that you don't have to continuously top it off I got a little fancy hooked up my controllers nice and my heater is nice but here's a nice look at the entire sump it's really nice I'm excited to learn more about sums and what I can get into with these things I'm going with the same blade freshwater light as usual that I use on my 210 and 150 but we got a little problem I was going to use the HMS mount kit to mount the lights but I forgot about the height of my 3D background I am not going to be able to use the mount kit on this tank another option would have been to hang the lights from the ceiling but the cables and wires might block the logo sign in the middle and that might not look so well I had to make the executive decision and move forward we're going to go ahead and just put the lights on top of the glass and
let them lay there for now until we can think of something better for the future I got three lights on one side of the tank and the next three what a doof and the next three on the other side of the tank this will ensure that the entire tank gets light there are no dead spots and it's going to look good this way for now here's a good look at the top of the tank with all six lights doesn't look bad it's okay for now MP40 that's right we're going with the vortec MP40 on the new 450 just like my other tanks that are rocking the MP40 do not forget to put your gasket make sure you got the right size on it or you could break your Wave Maker I'm going with two of these mp40s on this tank one is going to be on one side one on the other at the bottom as you can see this is really easy to install just put your wet side in the tank and it attaches to the dry side hook up your control unit whatever you like and you're done now I go to the other side this is going to be a little tougher because I got to go deep into the tank I'm gonna get arm length of wetness but just like the other side you just attach the wet side to the dry and that's it you're done let your water drip off your hand onto a towel on the floor you're good to go here's a good look at the mp40s back and forward very low profile it's the reason why I like them but these two wave makers are going to get the job done are you still here wow you are a real one if you've been here this long I want to know about it comment below fish cave for the W that way I know who the real ones are I know you were probably hoping to see fish in the new tank already I was hoping for the same but I'm actually going away on vacation for an entire week so the timing right now is terrible I wouldn't want to add my fish to this brand new tank with a brand new sump and then be gone for a week without anybody here to look after it hopefully you all enjoyed it but this is the longest YouTube video I've ever made if you're looking for that sump installation video check that video out right there and if you want to see when I actually add fish to this tank check that video out right there I'll see you on the other side peace foreign [Music]
