All right, how [I'm] going to do today's update so this week in the aquarian gallery has not only been a tremendously busy weekend
We accomplished it in a whole lot, but we also did four videos this week, so in today's update
I thought I'd bring you up to speed with what each video was about what I did and what happened next
Followed by anything. I haven't shown you yet as well as what's to come one of the things
We did last Sunday was talk about how the plumbing and running water was almost completed and today
It actually is we now have running water as well as the hot water tank
Heated up the way this works is simple water lines are coming up to the floor here as you can see there's a little shutoff
Valve back there so I can shut the water off
here as well as in the house if need be the drains come through the wall here and connect to
the Little laundry sink here
And we have a vent tube here as well the cold water line is split between the hot water tank as well
As the tub so I can have cold water as well as hot water an interesting thing here
Is there's also a [tee] with a valve installed? This is a pressure regulator for the drip system
That's going to be connected to the 2,000 gallon aquarium clearly
I'm not going to be doing a massive amount of water changes on [that] and a drip system is going to allow me
[to] space them out a lot more all I have to do is turn the valve here and
Water can begin to come out more on that when we set it up last Sunday. We also talked about
Installing the viewing panels here well now they both are but more on that in a minute
[we] also talked about how we're going to be installing these
ecotec
Mt. [60's] now. This is a pretty strong magnet however. It's not strong enough to go [through] eight inches [of]
5,000 PSI concrete that's reinforced with rebar [it]
Is strong enough to go [through] the one and a half inch acrylic?
However, it's more so rated for one inch material. So when it goes on the one-and-a-half inch although they'll stick together
It's not very strong and they fall off so we talked about
cutting up some acrylic and putting them in the Corners, but
[you] guys all talked about me painting them and I thought if I paint them [I'm]
probably going to change mine line on color eventually maybe I do want to have them white or maybe a
to match the rest of the tank however
I thought what if I change my mind on color or
What if I scratch the paint it's going to be really difficult to repair and whatnot so I went with [another] alternative
You guys will remember that planted tank filled where I used window
Frosting to frost the back of the background to give it more depth
[I] went ahead and got the same stuff and simply frosted these now this gives the appearance that it is white and
You can't really see any equipment behind it, but it also is not going to scratch, and it's not permanent
So if I change my mind on this I can simply peel it off as opposed to trying to get the paint off
which is near impossible to do with
Acrylic unless you scratch it and to give you a better idea of what this is going to look like which is
kind of going to be difficult to imagine because we have blankets and braces in here that we're going to remove later on in the
Week, we'll get to that in a second, but to give you an idea
when this goes in the corner here, and
It's not going to be balanced very well, but you get the idea it blends directly in
Cause you go ahead and balance it there randomly
But I want to give you an idea of what this is going to look like now when we drop the wave makers in
It's going to look a lot better now as long as we keep the quartz away from about an inch of the acrylic panel here
You can't see the cords either with that said this is actually not even fully enclosed yet
so we're getting a lot of light back [there] and
Some shadows are being created that won't happen when this is properly installed one will be installing it. We'll talk about in a minute
We also talked about building the filter for the 2,000 gallons, and now it's completed again more on that in a minute [on] Tuesday
We went live and I talked about how [I]?
Installed one of the panels in fact the little side panel here was installed first
And how I did it was actually quite simple
I first took a router and routed off the bottom to give it a beveled edge
Just so when that Edge comes in contact with the bottom corner of the tank
It's not cutting into it because you'll remember when we fiberglass the bottom of the tank perimeter that
Left a bit of a concave and I wanted to match that with the acrylic opposed to cutting into it from there
[I] sanded the perimeter of the acrylic all the surfaces that are actually going to touch the tank then I sanded the
pond armor that is
Waterproofing the [2,000] gallon tank with a 60 grit sandpaper and a simple palm sander from there
I laid a large thick bead of silicone along the bottom so that the acrylic panel can sit on top [of] that and
Line the perimeter of the acrylic itself with a lot of silicone
Then I push this into place with some bar clamps as well as some two by fours and made sure it was extremely snug I
applied the silicone in about two or [three] inch
Zigzag Pattern the reason being is because when I sandwich this with the tank and apply some pressure
Those zigzags are going to become one and spread out and it creates a four inch thick
Seam of
Silicone on the Acrylic now that theme creates the structural strength [so] from there
I took some more silicone, and I created a seal all around the panel
There's no way this thing is going to leak for example. I used eight tubes of silicone on this panel alone
We also came inside during that live video and
Didn't update or you know a basic tour of the fish inside the house on Thursday, we unboxed all of those [aqua]
[de] [Corps] backgrounds that you guys can see here
And I was really excited to see your [guys's] response even though the camera truly doesn't you know capture how?
Realistic these really are you guys got the general idea and I went on to mention that
Every tank in this racking system being 10
120 gallon tanks is going to get a 3D background [four] of which is going to be aqua. De Corte
What I also didn't mention though is that I already have the other six
So I'll give you an idea what those look like now first and foremost you guys might remember that
eight-foot long background that I bought from
Universal rocks it was 8 [feet] long these tanks are 4 feet long
So I decided I'm just going to cut it right in half and Ir and then I'll have two
Backgrounds extra for these because that 8-foot long tank is going to be a peninsula tank
And I don't want to block off one of the sides. I want it viewable from all three
Cutting it in half wasn't a bad idea because now I have two backgrounds that look somewhat
[different] they will be the same colors, but the characteristics about them are a lot different
This kind of reminds me of course
It's rock, but it also kind of looks like a mud bank, so this can be used for a lot of different tanks
I then bought four more including this one here. Which is a thin rock background
[one] thing I do notice about universal [Rock's] is that their colors are kind of similar so while nowhere near as realistic and as
Handcrafted as the Aqua. De Corps these are a little bit more affordable
Especially [if] you use a code like I did from Jay Wilson this one's a [grey] background this one is
typically used for [Malawi] Cichlids
Which I'm probably going to [use] it for as well
This is probably one of my favorites that came
here's another type of Rocky background again lots of depth to these and they're kind of made the same as
the Aqua De course
And then finally the last one now this one is a little bit thinner up top with a little bit of depth
but the bottom here as you can see
Has these rocks jutting out which would look pretty interesting. I'm not sure
what I'll use these for in terms of what fish will go and what but I do know with all ten aquariums getting a
3d background as well as being aquascape beautifully
I think this racking system is going to be absolutely stunning [on] Friday
I decided to install the final [8] foot long panel on the 2000 Gallon aquarium
And I would do it live this panel was installed
exactly as the other one was although I couldn't manhandle it and get it in the tank myself it had to be picked up and
Moved into the tank and then slid into place. [I] got my friend gary to come over and help me up again
It was done identically what the fun didn't stop there you see yesterday being Saturday
I went to my local fish store, and we held a bit of a meet-up
I did a meet and greet [at] q [&] [a] [I] was supposed to aquascape an aquarium, but instead
I thought you know I'll get a couple of kids to do it because it mean a lot more than to them than it would
To me to escape the tank also did some raffles and the store put on some sales
And then of course I checked out all of the fish and got something for myself as well
[it's] difficult for me to go to a local fish store and not buy something
So although it's been in incredibly busy week that leads us up to today. What's next well?
There's not a whole [lot] more I can do on the 2,000 gallon aquarium besides wait for the initial Silicon to cure on
Monday or Tuesday
I'm going to remove the bracing systems and install the corner compartments for the wave makers
I'll also install the lid bracing that's going to go around the perimeter of the aquarium
And I think I might go ahead and do this live on this Tuesday [and] while the main
Filter is now built basically the shell of it making it a sump
If you remember this tank is approximately almost four feet long 12 inches wide and 30 inches tall making it about
70 gallons you see though I ran into a couple of problems with this tank while building it you see originally
I was going to use this black acrylic to serve as the baffles baffles
Essentially separate a sump so you can do different things and control how the water flows in each section
But while drilling it I went ahead and broke it
[I] only had this panel and another one, and I needed them both to complete the filter
I don't have any more and it's not worth it to go ahead and buy a
full sheet
Because I only need these two pieces this in fact was scrap acrylic from a past build so with all of the Kerlick that built
That some so instead
I'm [using] some scrap three quarter inch tile cast
Acrylic which if I were to go ahead and use this at first I wouldn't have had to brace the aquarium
But I went ahead and braced it because I was under the impression that I was going to be using those so now this aquarium
Is incredibly braced the bracing system is very simple just strips of acrylic on sitting on top?
It's ugly, but it's the cheapest and fastest way to brace an aquarium
And this is just going to be a sump. It's not a display tank, so it doesn't matter
Originally though I had another idea. [I] remembered that I had these acrylic tubes
This was for a project that I was going to work on I've had these for almost a year [now]
And I forgot all about them, so I thought what if I instead of using baffles I attach these acrylic tubes
To the bulkheads and believe it or not these fit [exactly] around the bulkhead fittings the bulkheads are 2-inch, bulkheads
There's one on each side I drilled them in with a simple
Hole saw that you would use on what the benefit of working with acrylic is if you have wood too
A lot of those wood tools can also be used on acrylic
so to give you an idea of what I was looking to do I drilled 40 10 millimeter holes into
These Acrylic Tube
And it actually fits snugly over that [2-inch] bulkhead you can barely see it because we're all looking at Acrylic here
But I figured this would save a lot of space [in] the tank
And I could just use this as a baffle instead of using the you know the typical traditional types of apples
That you would see to separate
Some compartments water can't flow in through the bottom
[I'd] most likely have to silicone around the bottom to create a seal so [water] would have to travel all the way up to the
Top and flow through the [holes] I created and I was really liking that idea however. I realized that in the long run
This is going to limit me to be more [flexible] and to make adjustments to the tank if I want to
Ideally what I want to happen is water to come up through one side flow through a [fluidized]
Chamber and down through the other side and back to the tank
But I want this to also serve as a really good mechanical filter
So it polishes the water because the canister filter doesn't do a tremendously great job at polishing water a great biological filter
But not great mechanical
I also want to be able to add heaters to it just in case the floor in floor heating is not sufficient enough [to] raise
The temperature especially during the winters here, so that's where I'm at with it now
I need to make some more adjustments to those baffles, but as soon as that's done
I will cement them in place
And then I can move on to plumbing it
Aquarium plumbing is still at a bit of a standstill until I complete the filter
But we're on a good we're on
Schedule to make sure this is all completed
When the tank is ready to be filled with water if I'm not I could simply close the ball valves down here and water can't
Flow out from there I can continue to work on the filtration system now
What about the cure time of these panels compared to these compartments for the wave makers?
I'm not going to be using a lot of silicone or nearly as much silicone as I used on the viewing panels
So everything should cure right around the same time meaning that potentially next Monday
We will be able to fill this aquarium for the first time as for the racking system
That's going to hold 10 120 gallon tanks and fill this [entire]. Wall. I'm told that this should be shipping late next week
And I'll receive it the following week, which is perfect timing because this coming weekend
I'll be away in New York for [Reefa] palooza
[which] by the way they've invited me out and covered the cost
So I'm not putting any money towards this that will take away from the gallery however
I do want to take advantage of this opportunity
To go to an event like this and get to meet a lot of you guys
So if you're anywhere near the New York area or New jersey area specifically check Outreach palooza [this] coming weekend
[oh] And one last thing we've actually been getting some pretty nice weather over the last few days and because of that
when I'm soaking the
Driftwood the water in the container is warming up the warmer water is allowing the tannins and the driftwood to be removed faster
So I change the wood and this about 4-door change the water story in this about four days ago
And as you can see with the water getting a lot warmer
It's releasing the tannins a lot faster
And that's indicated of you know the tips you typically get of boiling your driftwood before using it to
You know quicken the the release of the tannins however?
I can't boil these it's just too big so with the water and the warming up
It's definitely
Releasing these tannins a lot more which is a good thing and a bad thing good thing [because] it's going to release more tannins quicker
Bad thing because I was under the impression that maybe we were close to being done with all of his tannins being removed
So it's definitely been one heck of a busy week here, and we did a tremendous amount out here
I was really excited to give you guys four videos this week
I don't know if I can still do four
Videos again this week because I have a lot going on and I'm going [away] next weekend however
I will see you guys this coming Tuesday for live video Thursday for a video. I'll see you next Sunday. Where he had another video?