today we're going to be setting up the quarantine aquariums i'm also going to show you how to remove
stuck on algae and hard water stains just like this like this is pretty bad but i'm
going to show you how to get rid of it with very little work now if you want to make
your aquariums look absolutely brand new you want them to be shining this is fantastic for
the glass aquariums it's not going to work well on an acrylic aquarium but potentially that's
something we can get into in the near future i've already showed you guys this lit like
seven years ago or something like that you need a sponge and you need bar keepers friend
the active ingredient this is oxalic acid it's a natural plant-based or plant-derived active
ingredient that's in this and it works like an abrasive cleaner the oxalic acid kind of
dissolves the organic matter in the aquarium plus the it's a it's a powder so that kind of rubs it
away it works beautifully now i'm not going to waste your time with other methods you could use
peroxide lemon juice you could use all these other types of things bar keepers friends simply works
the best for hard water stains when it comes to algae though nothing better than a simple
razor blade now these tanks are empty and if you have hard water stains a lot of the times
if your tank is full you can use the razor blade however i don't suggest you use any
sort of chemicals or anything even though that is plant-based and pretty safe it's still advisable
not to do this when your aquarium's full make sure you drain it completely the results are definitely
going to be worth it now the acoustics in this room are pretty bad but uh it's not gonna be too
bad the first thing i like to do is take that sponge we're just gonna wet everything and you
might see like the hard water stains you know kind of almost disappearing because they're getting wet
a lot of the times in your home aquarium you won't even notice these hard water stains if
you keep it wet now you're supposed to sprinkle this on the areas that
is uh you want to remove the hard water stains but i sprinkle it on the
sponge instead just like that then i just kind of rub it through look at that look at that look
this isn't a sponsored video but i'm telling you it should be i uh i questioned myself
when i made the original video i thought i was too hype i thought i was too excited over this
it was working so well these are legitimate hard water stains at my house my ph is a 7.8
the alkalinity is over 240 the water is hard enough to walk on now this is in real time
i literally need to get shares of this by the way this sponge cost me 50 cents and this was two
dollars i don't care if you have hard water stains or issues go get grab yourself a bottle of this
and just it should be a part of your uh your arsenal of things that you might potentially
need one day like i like to have razor blade maybe that's a video we should make all the
things that i need to have that you probably wouldn't think of so we know all of this is wet
but you can see the clear line where i wiped it off this is like taking me seconds to clean
the worst part about doing this is if you do have fish in your aquarium you need to move them
or anything like that technically you can do this with the fish in your tank if you were to do like
a 50 water change and then you had dry sponges like kind of kind of just in place and you were
following it along dry sponge below wet sponge above i've done this before and i never killed
anything or heard anything but you just want to make sure you don't get anything so look at this
wet sponge up there with the oxalic acid or the bar keeper's friend and a dry sponge below and
we're just going like this hard water stains are typically by the top the only reason why this had
them everywhere is because when i drained the tank i was lazy and i didn't clean it
personally for me i like to do it without any fish in the tank it's just like one less thing to worry
about and i don't have to be cautious like i could just go nuts in here and scrub this off
but i mean if you got a spare 30 minutes or an hour you can do this with your fish in
there it's not going to be a big problem i literally left the worst tank for you guys
and it's making it look like this was never a problem but these are the types of videos that
i love because they're so useful everybody can do this and it's so satisfying all right
to clean this a solid acid off of all the tanks a little bit of water in each one just a basic rinse
again i've never had any issues with this stuff hurting my fish or anything like that but so i
don't want to say that you can do this with fish in your aquariums just in case somebody ends up
having issues and but for me i've literally never had an issue with it it does have warnings on it
that it could um cause irritation on your skin and whatnot but uh yeah for me i've never used
anything other than like the bar keepers friend or a razor blade when i'm trying to like remove
hard water stains and whatnot yeah so just a basic wipe down and then shop back it out or
drain it out tip the tank over however you want to get it out okay so so with the insides cleaned
out you can always already see these guys look night and day i mean i got a little paint on
here from the last place the glass is what i'm most concerned about for the outside i go ahead
and i use the fritz glass and acrylic cleaner is that what it's called yeah i like to use
this simply because i can transition between my glass tanks and my acrylic tanks and still use
the same product i think the best part that i like about it not only is it clean the glass of course
almost any you know glass cleaner is going to do the job but what i like about it is
it leaves like this film on it that doesn't allow for or helps prevent like fingerprints these tanks
honestly don't need anything maybe a couple flower pots fake plants i mean put a lid on
it quarantine tank also doesn't necessarily need a light so i'm probably not adding lights unless i'm
going to have like coral or something in one of these tanks but i already have these backgrounds
from aqua decor backgrounds.com they made them for these 40 gallons a while ago
i got them why not add them do a rock one this is a wood one we'll put in here
something like that i guess that looks good
these will just help the fish feel a little bit more secure so we've got two more tanks
i've got to install and clean up but for now i'm getting the first four up and going
because if i had the majority of the system up and running or at least ready for water
the other two we just add in now when it comes to a multi-tank setup
a multi-tank setup like this we want to make something that's efficient is going to do the job
won't break the bank and has many adaptive features that we're going to talk about in
a minute what i'm building here right now and i wouldn't say building but just kind of like
tossing it together this is scrap wood from the stands by the way i try not to waste
anything i just try to be as resourceful as i can since these aren't show tanks we're going
with an air powered system i think most of you probably assume that anyway now the reason why
this is right here i'm going with an air powered system for a number of reasons one
i can control each system not all tanks are going to be running all the time i'm also installing it
up here so i don't have to install check valves into each aquarium if this was below the tanks
if the power shuts off all the water is going to start to siphon down back through this down
through the pump and flood the floor ruin your pump and cause potentially more issues but because
this is like an off limit zone we're not really going to be showing anybody besides you guys
i like to place them above the aquarium water doesn't siphon upward and as much as
somebody might want to tell you that a check valve doesn't have an impact on the air pump
go ahead and try to blow through one and ask and tell me if you felt any resistance
of course it has some impact on the flow of the overall flow of the air pump so
that's why i'll just mount it up above the water level so obviously we're going with
simple sponge filters again grab them off amazon relatively cheap each aquarium will have one
that doesn't look like a lot of filtration for a quarantine tank but believe me it's going to
be able to run it no matter what the reason why i like running sponge filters is very simple i
can easily add them to the aquarium or remove them what if i have more fish in here than i do in here
or this one's empty and i need additional i can just transfer the filtration over
i've also advocated for years that you should always have sponge filters up and running in
your main aquariums hide the behind rocks put them somewhere so you always have a cycled filter for
a quarantine system if you're not familiar with the way a sponge filter works i often forget that
i've covered some things but not everybody's heard all of my videos the way this works is simple
this is going to pump bubbles down into here when those bubbles rise because we know bubbles rise
it because it creates suction behind it that suction forces water through the sponge and
back up through it essentially a sponge filter is a mechanical filter as well as biological so
food particles are going to get attached to it but it's also going to harbor massive amounts
of beneficial bacteria due to the porosity of the sponge it not only serves as a filter but at times
fish like to hide under it shrimp and fry like to eat off of it there's a number of benefits
to running sponge filters for me i like the simplicity uh and the ease of transferring
the filter or having one always cycled and of course the economic benefits they are
cheap to purchase and run long term i'd hate to say this and i know i'm gonna get quoted or
people are gonna throw this in my face in the near future but i do think that sponge filters
although they are an eyesore they are ugly they're not pretty to look at let's be real
but they offer so many benefits they're so effective and all the things that i've already
said but another thing that i like about it is the fact that when those air bubbles
when those air bubbles rise to the top of an aquarium they burst that bursting action
causes ripples in the top of the tank we know that but what's actually happening is your surface area
is increasing by a tremendous amount and the more surface area you have the greater ability for gas
exchange to occur carbon dioxide gases off oxygen is replaced based on the temperature of the water
so essentially they help aid in the oxygenation of the water as well air bubbles rising through
the tank themselves and seeing that air does not add air to the aquarium they're they're not
in the water column long enough in order to dissolve and uh and raise the oxygen content
in the tank and then that's it i mean that is a quarantine tank and this is going to save me
so many fish it's going to save me so much heartache and so many issues and so many problems
from being able to take these types of precautions now obviously like i said i've got to add in
two more aquariums down below they're currently being used wait till i show you how they're being
used this type of setup is going to blow your mind you might even be doubting it right now but wait
until you see and i'll bring it to the back to the gallery here shortly and show you what's going on
with those two tanks but for now all i got to do moving forward here add the lids fill the tank
up with treated water turn this on i'm probably going to add fill i'm definitely adding uh heaters
to the tank obviously because i'm heating the aquariums individually as opposed to heating the
entire building but that's it for a quarantine tank i'm not adding lights they don't need
lights i'm not growing anything in here you know potentially might have one with lights for coral
or another one for plants something like that but ultimately the rest of them they do not require
lights ambient lights is going to be enough you'll also notice that i built the stand with enough
room to actually get things done in between each aquarium i'm really excited to actually be able
to access the bottom aquarium easily this time and that's why i make these videos you know all of my
experience and everything i'm learning i project onto you guys and you don't have to go through or
make the mistakes or do any of the problems or issues that i've had because if you just
listen to the best parts of my videos you'll have success as well and you might be wondering what
about a substrate it's just going to be a headache you don't need a substrate and a quarantine system
you want to be able to treat the aquarium and or do a massive water change you don't want to be
gravel vacuuming if you must if you feel you need to add a substrate go ahead i highly recommend
that you don't that's just based on personal experience uh what about decor we might add
in a few clay flower pots maybe some fake plants just to give them a little bit more comfortability
in here and this entire system will look a lot better of course once we get the other two in
here it's looking a little awkward missing two tanks right now is all anyways that's it
for today's video steady progress is the goal get something done that's a measurable uh step forward
every day even if it's something as little as you know setting up the quarantine system and
getting it up and running and i know like a lot of people don't even want to see this type of
thing they don't want to see the build process they don't want to see this and that but this
and a lot of things i'm going to be teaching you guys over the next several months
and even years is of course going to be things that uh are going to be the most beneficial uh
aspects to leading towards the success of your hobby i think that the more i show you regardless
of how small or how big it is and ignoring the fact that it's got to be a crazy video and a
great video or you know and ignoring views and how popular things are i just want to put out as much
information as i possibly can there's definitely been a shift in my mentality and the way i'm
looking at youtube these days and i hope you guys appreciate and enjoy these types of videos i don't
expect you to like them all but i do appreciate the support that you guys give me from purchasing
the merch to becoming a member of the channel which has been revamped lately go check out the
member benefits it's incredible right now buying the book or you know just clicking the like button
or watching the video even though you don't want to watch it it helps do helps me out tremendously
and literally makes all of this possible so for that i appreciate you guys and i thank you
links to everything i just said are in the description if you do want to further uh support
this channel just a little bit more i highly appreciate it i'll see you guys in the next video