Joey: Well, hello there. [laughs] I didn't know how to introduce this video. I've got to say, welcome the new year, I feel great, let me explain why. Have you ever been laying in bed in the morning and you just got a super busy day, or it's really hectic, or maybe the house is messy and you just don't want to do it? That's what the new year has been like for me. The gallery has been a disaster. It's been an ongoing mess for months. I always say bear with me with the mess, don't look, et cetera, et cetera. I had to do something about it.
I spent the last few days simply cleaning up, doing water changes. On the water change thing-- We'll get back to the cleaning in a second.
The water changes made me a lazy hobbyist. Remember before, we had the floor fan up on this thing here? There was a water change system there. Basically, just hit a couple of buttons and the water-- It was an automatic water change system. That made me really lazy.
I just come out, open up the drain, press a button and tanks would start filling, I drain the tanks. It was so simple, so easy, but one of the problems with that is after using it, and although how useful it is and how time-consuming it is to do manual water changes, aren't water changes and maintenance the number one time where we're most in-tune with our aquarium, we're truly checking on everything? Otherwise, we're just enjoying them, feeding the fish, et cetera.
I decided in order for me to become more motivated about these aquariums, not that I'm lacking motivation, it's just, literally, it's making me a lazy hobbyist and that's a really bad thing to happen. I just cut it out. Literally just snipped the hoses off, removed the water changing system. Not a big deal. I'm going to repurpose it for something else. In the summertime, to save a little bit of time and to prolong water changes, I will switch to a drip system. You guys know about my drip systems in the past. I don't also don't want that to come off like it was a failed project, it worked wonderfully. Again, it literally just made me a lazy hobbyist
As for cleaning, sometimes when it's really messy out here, I hate to come out here and grab a camera. Sometimes, you're just not in the mood to 'clean', you just want to have fun with the fish tanks. I was using this area here for storage, for tools, et cetera, et cetera. Because of that, this filtration system has been put on hold for what seems like forever. Let me show you what's in them.
I still don't know how I want to build these, but I think I'm going to do a bioreactor chamber. I might use one as a settling chamber for debris like a mechanical-type filter and the other one as purely biological, or I might just use them as both slow bio media reactors, meaning that water will be pumped through it slowly through a ton of media and each one will be on its own pump.
I wonder if I can fit in here. Come on, guys. Can you see? Let me get some stuff. You currently can't see. In this barrel, I have a bunch of this tinier black fluidized media. In this one, you can see over here, we have some more giant size. Really, I could use one as static media where the water has to flow through all that and then come to here. I'll do a backwash in this.
I don't know what I want to do there, but now that the room is cleared out, I've been thinking of all these fun ideas. I've come to realize, I want to build four or five different filters just like this just to get to build them and have fun with them. We've done the barrel filtration before, fluidized chamber. Was that six years ago? I don't know. More on that in a future video.
Anyways, this whole place is cleaned. We'll take a look at the fish and do a quick update. This is where I've been making my live videos for the members only, and then we did one the other day. Let me see what else. It's just a lot tidier. This will look normal to everybody, but I've got to tell you, I used to hide things on that stairs, I'd hide them back behind here. There's still actually a hose because I was doing water changes last night. I'd hide them back here, et cetera. It was just a mess.
Really, this place has just become storage almost because I don't have a garage anymore. Oh, man. I feel like I just lied about the reason why I cleaned. One, it feels great to have it clean out here. Two, I'm having a guest. One of the main reasons we clean our houses, or clean our tanks, or clean the glasses because we going to have company over and we are going to take a picture or whatever.
This weekend, I am having company over, another YouTuber. Many of you guys know that he just recently moved to Nova Scotia. All of you guys were like-- Not all of you, but a lot of you were like, "Joey, you've got to collab with him, collab with him, collab with him." Okay, I will. More on that in a future video. I'm sure I'm going to see his fish and then he's going to come here and see my fish, something pretty simple like that, see what you guys think.
Also, I came out here to film today's video. the male Flowerhorn got through the barrier, which is in there really tight. I'm scared it's going to bust the glass type of thing, when you press something in there so tight. He broke through it on its own, got to the other side, I came in, I took a quick clip just to show you guys. He was over there with Francine. They probably lip-locked a little bit, fought a little bit. He's a little scratched up, so is she. I'm going to have to secure this in there with some suction cups or something.
Bottom line is I don't think it's that bad of idea to allow him to break through every once in a while as long as I'm catching it a few hours later. That way they can acclimate a little bit better. She got her busted lip up again. Not a big deal. They are active and eating. He's a little moody right now though because I just caught him, otherwise, they're doing quite fine.
We'll just do a quick update on the fish and then I want to tell you some things that I want to get done here. Let's start with the Bass. The Bass are putting on size. It's interesting to see them on camera because they don't really look like they are. Actually, this tank is quite high up. Very active, though. Always want to eat. Very fun to have. Really excited about them. I'll tell you some news about them shortly.
These guys here, Tropheus. I've got to keep these guys until they breed. We're having breeding activity. I think somebody had fry in here and then they ate them. I have to keep a closer eye on a few of them. We do have some couple of dominant males and the rest look to be female. This shouldn't be too long. I definitely want to breed Tropheus, I've never done it before. This is the only one that I'm going to allow. If I just keep them long enough, they'll eventually spawn. They'll breed. It's a really interesting process of what they go through for breeding. We'll see what happens. If you're following me on Instagram, I actually posted some breeding action video before. Make sure you check that out.
Uaru. [sobs] What's wrong guys? Why are you getting so big, bro? [chuckles] These guys are actually getting pretty big, except Timmy No-Grow. Timothy. Little Timmy. Where are you going, bro? That's the stunted Uaru. He just will not grow. They're all doing quite well, though. This guys's a little dark. Lights just came on so I could film, but you get the idea.
I think I'm going to dwindle this down a little bit more to just keeping four or six. This guy here is probably going to get out of here because he's smaller. I'll drop him off. These four look good. These two, it's probably going to be these two that go. Maybe I'll keep Timmy. You guys will kill me if I don't. They're all looking good.
This is hilarious. This guy's actually one of the biggest, but watch what he's doing. This is what I have to deal with for the intelligence of some of my fish. Watch him. As output here is coming out, this isn't an ideal set up, but output's coming out in bubbles, you see. They're collecting under there. He's fascinated by them and he keeps trying to bite at them every once in a while. They're upsetting him so much that he's darkened up. He gets that from me.
This guy, definitely, the Giant Gourami, easily, easily becoming my fave fish in the racking system. This is a topic we have to cover is having feature fish. I have way too many feature fish where its just one fish type of deal. This guy is putting on some size for sure. Remember when we got him? He was so cute He's very friendly now. He's no longer hiding behind the logs. He used to hide right behind the log like a human would, and swim perpendicular with it so you couldn't see him. Well, you could see him. He thought you couldn't. He's more like 'if I can't see you, you can't see me' type of deal. He looks beautiful. Well, ugly, but in a beautiful way.
Angels. Come on, focus. Focus. There we go. The Angels are looking sexy. I fear I kept too many males. This is definitely a dominant male right here. I fear I have too many males. [chuckles] I think I have eight males and three females, something along those lines. We do have some pearl scales. These guys are just platinums. That's a platinum. Then, right above, right there, see him how he's shimmery? That's a platinum pearl scale.
The Exodons. This tank has settled down tremendously. I'm no longer seeing any weak Exodon that are being preyed on. i suspect if one does, they'll make sure he doesn't last in the tank very long. This is definitely the tank of death. Only the strongest survive. Really interesting tank to keep. A lot of people ask me, is it easy to keep Exodons? The short answer is yes, the long answer is no because they're expensive for a small fish and they potentially kill each other.
In order to avoid that, you definitely need a lot of big healthy ones. If you want to do an Exodon tank, I suggest doing something like this or maybe keeping them with Piranha. They can get a long with other fish, but in a pack like this, they'd probably eat it. I'm not positive and I'm not going to test it out.
Look. What's up, my man? Moody little bugger. He's becomes so moody sometimes, but he's doing well. Growth is slow, of course. Oscars will get to this 10-inch mark within a year, and then after that, to the 12, 14-inch mark, it could take up to five years. I missed Oscars for so long. I really love their pectoral fins. I like how wavy they are. Of course, he clamps it.
Who else we got here? Who else we missing? Is that it? Okay. Just take a look at the catfish. We probably won't be looking too closely today. One hides under the wood and the other one goes in the corner. I have to shut down the filter. Here's the thing. Every time I shut the filter off to show you guys this tank-- There's one. Look how big he is. You see him? I can't see what you see right now. There's another one. God, they're getting big.
Anyways, every time I shut the filter off to show you guys the surface agitation stops, I always forget to turn the filter back on. I don't know why. It's happened to me twice. In doing so, bacteria, of course, will start dying in your filtration without having an oxygen source. I come out the next day and there's a protein film on the top of the tank. It's safe, it's fine, but I've got to do these massive water changes to catch up on my mistake. I've got to stop doing that. I'm going to only do feature videos on that pond.
Same with the 2000 now. This tank deserves its own videos. Lights only just came on. Let me see if I can get this to look a little bit better. Lights only just came on. The rays are all doing fantastic, though. All active, all happy. It's difficult to see. Like I said, lights just came on. Reflections everywhere. The Arowana are growing. They're getting big. What else have I done in this tank? Nothing. Just feed them. I just throw food in this tank and that's pretty much it. We won't do another feeding video for a little while here.
This tank, I secretly hated it. I'll explain why in here in a moment. Let's just take a quick look at how everything's going. I'll shut some lights off. Sorry for the amateur filming, guys. Well, you're used to it. This is a 375-gallon tank. Eight feet long, three feet wide, two feet tall. I've got videos on me building it. There they are. [chuckles] They all think they're going to be fed. I always feed on one side. I should start trying to feed through the middle so they'll occupy it more when I come through. This tank is a blast to have.
I do notice one thing. I'm going to change the lighting. I'm going back to the Aqua Illumination Primes. I miss their colors. I want to go back to that. They're actually here somewhere. You guys will remember these lights. I'm going to go with three of them. AI Primes. I got them from EcoTech. I love these. I love these lights. I like going something basic like I showed you guys here with just the short lights, how we switched. Maybe it was just testing, show you guys some different options. For this tank, definitely going back to the AI Primes.
All the loaches are pretty fat. They'd have some stragglers here and there at some point, but it's difficult to feed this many fish in one tank. The Vieja, we've got three species. That's a Argentea, we've got a Synuspilum, and then a Hartwegi. The Hartwegi are growing the fastest. We have a bunch of rainbows, but the rainbows don't have as great a color in this tank as they did in others. I might put them somewhere else.
Anyways, the reason why I love this tank is based on the scape, very simple but I really enjoy it. I love the inhabitants. I remember when I added in-- There's a Pleco here, a Royal Pleco somewhere. Anyways, he chews on the wood, and every tank he was in, he was destroying the wood. It's not just destroying it, but it creates this mess down here. You see that? I just cleaned that last night. He chews on it and creates a bit of a mess. What was happening was it was clouding the whole tank all of the time.
I kept the outputs the same, but I moved the wavemaker. Now, the wavemaker is going in a circular motion. What it's doing is it's helping not only the filter remove it instead of having it directly in the middle, it's not only having it remove it, but it's also allowing it to collect right here. If you're having circulation problems in your aquarium and you have a wavemaker, or maybe you adjust the output of your filter, see what happens.
You might have better collection of debris, your water might get clear, something along those lines. For me, I put it down a little bit, because if I put it down too far, I'm just going to blow the substrate around. I don't really need surface agitation because the outputs are-- I hated that fish until I simply moved that six inches, now I love the fish again even though we only see it at nighttime.
What else is the new year going to bring? Like I said, we have too many feature fish. We've done what we could do with the Oscars. We've done some species profile, we had fun with them, lots of people got to know them a little bit better. I really like them, but I think we can do a lot better with this. I think I want a Tetra-only tank that's planted. I actually want to plant this one nicely. Maybe we do shrimp only. I don't know. We'll do something crazy there.
This tank with the Flowerhorn-- Did he get over again? No, he's right here. With the Flowerhorn, of course, I think our time with Flowerhorn, we had it. Many of you guys were so supportive in the comments about my thought on this tank. I'm just going to go with my gut. We'll figure these guys out over the next couple of weeks. Ultimately, I'm leaning towards repurposing this tank, letting Frank's legacy live on as being Frank. I'm not going to chase that anymore. I think I was just trying to fill a void that I didn't even know he created it.
Then, we've got to get something up here. I think I might want to do some big, massive goldfish, but I'm not sure. I know lots of you guys want me to do goldfish again. That's just the media block. That was in there before. Absolutely nothing in here. These guys are staying. I think we're going to repurpose this. This guy is staying. That's going to be the only 'feature fish' in this racking. Angel fish, I think I want to add in some more Tetras, or maybe we'll do something different there. I'm not sure. I really like the Angels, they're really cool. This tank is completely empty. We need all new fish and scape in there. While we were staying, Bass, I'm on the fence. I think it's really cool, it's really fun. This tank will be pretty exciting, but at the end of the day, I don't think too many of you guys are engaged. This is where you guys need to fill me in. Am I on the right track here? The gallery and the trophies are staying, of course.
The 375 is staying, catfish pond is staying. The 2000 is staying. All that stock is fine. Really, only five tanks we've got to figure out here. Ultimately, like I said from the beginning of this gallery, like literally day one type of deal. The gallery was never a place to show how many projects can Joey build. It was never about that. It was never about breeding fish or setting up a tank and then keeping it for the next three or five years.
This was a selfless decision. I don't need the gallery. Imagine without YouTube, me having this all alone by myself, paying 1,300 bucks a month, spending all my time taking care of this. I don't need this. I'm very much happy just doing my base and with a couple of tanks. Ultimately, this place was to serve a greater purpose, to truly educate and inspire others to get into the hobby and learn more about it.
I feel like we truly reached the pinnacle of that in July 2017, or was it 2018? 2017, when we hit the number one trending video on YouTube and we stayed there for two days. We got into the public eye like the hobby never has before. It was an absolutely incredible feeling. Absolutely validating. I'm not saying I want to trend to the number one. Of course, that would be pretty awesome, but what I'm saying is that's the purpose. We're always going to rotate out the fish, get new ones, get new people, attract other people. Because maybe you're not into Oscar, maybe you're not into any of these fish, but one of these days, I'll hit the nail on the head and get that extra person in the hobby type of deal.
With that said, I do have to apologize because I'm way behind. I told you guys originally we're got to set up all these tanks, which could potentially take a year. At the end of the year, we start over, and every month we do a new tank, et cetera. I'm way behind. I'm like a year and a half behind now. Let's catch up this year. Let's make '19 amazing. You guys need to be far more involved. I'm not the only one dropping the ball. I feel like I'm all alone over here with no ideas and no suggestions from you guys. I'm kidding. You guys kill it in the comments and all that all the time.
Anyways, I'm going to get the fish fed, and then I'm going to have a friend over. Some of you guys know him. If you don't, I'll be introducing you to him shortly. I also got to get to the local fish store, get inspired, see what's there. I've got some fun ideas and some fun videos. I just feel more re-energized. Anyways, guys, I hope you enjoyed today's video. If you want to follow along with the progression of the gallery in 2019, make sure you subscribe if you're not already.
