i don't know i don't think i need to uh start this video in any particular way i
think by the title you guys know what's about to happen especially over the last few years
you guys have been noticing um that i'm not very consistent with my uploads as much anymore i seem
distracted um you know things just aren't the way they used to be uh i gotta say it's because
i'm gonna say this publicly for the first time but it's because this aquarium gallery
is closing i can't believe i'm doing this it's even oh it's even come to this but
oh
was it for nothing i don't i don't think so i think that there's been a lot of good and
bad that's come of this aquarium gallery but i mean let's kind of start from the beginning my
first five years on youtube i was just making videos sharing what i was up to uh sharing my
fish tanks and some projects and whatnot there was making no money so like money was never a
factor because you couldn't make any money but you know it was just wanting to share with you
guys the next thing i knew my channel took off and it got popular and you guys were calling me
the diy king and the king of diys i was like okay well that sounds a lot better than walru joey and
oh this is so hard to explain because i've said this stuff so many times but now it's literally
everything is full circle from my basement i'd realized that if i could reach as many hobbyists
as i did with three fish tanks imagine if i had an entire building dedicated to aquariums imagine if
you know i had 10 20 tanks imagine what we could do so i dove head first into it
and i think it was like march 2017 a little over four years ago i announced the aquarium
gallery it's gone through a lot of changes over the last four years uh and i think it
well a lot of positive has come from it i mean we reached hundreds of millions of people we trended
the number one video on youtube uh we got into the top trending page like 20 times i mean we got
so many people to the hobby and exposed so many people to uh our our passions through us through
you guys too you guys watching and popularizing it and sharing it and liking it and commenting and
this wasn't just me heck i could talk to myself all day in the mirror and um nobody's gonna care
had a massive effect on a lot of things in the aquarium industry but i don't really
care about that anymore uh over the past couple of years i've simply lost interest in my fish tanks
and it sucks because this is all i am this is all i know i've been doing this for 13 years not the
hobby i've been doing the hobby for 20 years but 13 years as a youtuber not a year or two i
didn't just get started and i know a lot of people don't like to hear them when i say these numbers
but you can't understand or fathom the fact that i part of my identity is being a youtuber i don't
know what else i would do with my life without this
i shot myself in the foot because what i thought we would do with the aquarium gallery and when i
first opened this place and i first announced it before a single fish was in here i said we'll set
up all these tanks and then we're going to cycle through them we'll go from we'll set up 10 tanks
and then once we get to the 10th tank 10 months have passed and we'll go back and we'll recycle
the tanks we'll do different scapes and different that was fun and cool at first because i got to
experience a bunch of fish that i never had and expose you guys to stuff but what i didn't know
was happening was my hobby and my passion was slowly being ripped from me because i was trying
to please everybody else when you look at your fish tank and you've had those fish two three
four years longer et cetera those are your pets i didn't do any of that i still have my rays and
my arowana but man there's so many fish and tanks that i miss dearly but i took this too seriously
and i you know i kept switching things out and then i realized like average hobbyists are trying
to keep red tail catfish so i you know i'll show you how to build a pond but i can't keep this on
my channel because it's too influential and people are going to go get a red tail catfish or a giant
gourami and stuff so i started having to you know find new homes for these guys and i didn't want
to
i should have had permanent installations out here i should have set up a tank
and that was it light you guys can like it or love it but this is my fish tank and i love it
and i want to have it and i should have did bio types for all of them and i should have
did what i wanted to do which is a different area of the world and showcase the entire hobby
i started to do that but got lost in pleasing everybody in the numbers and
and i was going through so much of my personal life that i was on
automatic mode where i'm like okay this that and the other thing if i make this type of video then
that type of video then that type of video you know shop for the fish buy the fish add the fish
acclimate say it was and then i kept repeating and repeating and repeating and repeating
and there's no denying that but that's not who i am i don't like doing that i'm not editing this
video either for some people that don't like the way i'm talking this is just my emotions and my
feelings are pouring out i'm closing the aquarium gallery because i'm no longer doing what is right
for not only the hobby but true to myself i should have went five times bigger out here
i should have went five times bigger i built it 550 square feet because that is what i was
legally allowed to do based on bylaws and permits etc this was as big as i could make it i used
to have my old garage i ripped that down new foundation and built this entire building up
that's why i wear this shirt still even though we don't do a ton of projects you're
still still here and there i want to go back to making all these projects i want to go
back to having permanent aquarium installations where this let's let's get them as babies and
grow them out for five years let's watch them breed let's watch them go through everything
i i've already done everything else i've already built everything
so it's like hard for me to build i've already showed you countless types of aquariums i've
already sacrificed a lot for what i thought was the right thing to do but now i want to go back
and i'm going back and and i know i'm probably going to lose a ton of subscribers i know that
maybe people don't watch me as much when i close this place
i dove in head first having faith in myself and my passion and you guys knowing that you had my
back no matter what i should have went five times bigger i should have had permanent installations
and the single most important thing that i should have done
is open this to the public but i'm seven feet from my house insurance reasons and of course
privacy reasons i have my children here i just never did it i would have had to lease a place
and my expenses would have tripled or quadrupled or then you guys had my back before i'm gonna ask
you to do it one more time i can't believe this is happening it's raining out oh man i'm nervous
now this is the biggest thing that we're gonna do ever and i trust you guys to be there to support
me i don't need any help i just need you to to watch to click the like button to comment
and most importantly
yeah the first public aquarium gallery i get the keys to go in uh on june 1st and i'll be
able to get in there and start doing the painting and fixing up the walls and stuff um because it
hasn't been uh inhabited for about three or four years now so i got to get in there in the first
month is just the fixturing period where i go in and make it uh acceptable to how i want it and um
july 1st i can actually start moving in to summarize though it's 2500 square feet three
bathrooms three on the main floor is a massive open spot a reception area two smaller rooms the
massive open area will of course be all of the aquariums um twice as many as we have now easily
probably triple um showing off all the aquariums from all over the world permanent installations
i'm not switching them up we're not changing them nothing like that and then of course
open to the public we're gonna have the main area is going to be all the aquariums from all
over the world one of the side rooms downstairs is also going to be an aquatic reptile room ah
picture water monitors and i don't know dwarf cayman's already sourced them captive bread
um this is what i've been doing for months now is planning this out and sourcing things and making
sure things are going to be possible et cetera et cetera et cetera so i do have to oh and upstairs
is two offices we're gonna i'm gonna have my main office and then of course uh one of the offices
will be for the podcast room we're utilizing every square foot of this it does have three
bathrooms though one for females one for handicap and one for uh man uh the males uh
and they have showers and everything like this place used to be a gym already did the inspection
sign the contracts the leases et cetera were in there for three years uh with an option to renew
at the end of that three year year period uh they we're not getting rid of anything i'm going to
the thing is i already have almost everything i need um another 10 or 20 large tanks 180 gallons
um minimum and uh i already have the equipment lights etc i mean i've been doing
the gallery for four years and accumulating and collecting i mean this has always been
off to the side of my head and wanting a lot of the fish will get moved over
um but i'm not going to run both the 2000 will stay up as my only aquarium at home everything
else i'm not gonna have two aquarium galleries guys i mean i'm one person and that's um i gotta
put all my funds and you know the power bill that i'm paying and everything that i pay for bills
right now has to go towards the new place i can't double my bills um not on the income that i'm on
but i know you have a million and one questions or comments or whatever let me know in the comments
section below i'll be doing a podcast finally uh later today where i'm gonna discuss a bunch of
stuff um and answer your questions i haven't been able to do a podcast because i knew i wouldn't be
able to keep my mouth shut long enough i can't keep secrets um i always gotta i always blurt
everything out but this has been ongoing uh just in contracts for what a month and a half now going
back and forth it's it's been it's been a process with that said you can also follow me on instagram
where i'm gonna do and ask me anything and i'll answer questions from there as well leave links
in the comment section below make sure you follow the podcast my instagram and here oh i'm sorry i
could have made this video a little more hyped up a little more exciting i just i can't hold it in
anymore i got to tell you guys um that's the plans that's why you know videos are moving out slowly
because i really don't want to set up nothing more tanks or move fish around because for the next i
don't know several months as soon as we move in there we're going to be doing daily videos again
and you guys are going to follow me along behind the scenes of setting up a public aquarium gallery
before it's ever open to the public we'll see how things go um it's an ever-evolving and uh
idea it's it's happening but like the things that i want to do are constantly evolving and changing
i can't wait i'm gonna have to build most of the displays and whatnot besides the actual aquariums
i'm not gonna make you guys watch me build one aquarium every four or five days do that 20 times
um but we'll figure something out so much so much i got to do so many things and plans and
ideas and all i need from you guys is just tune in and watch these videos tune in and watch click the
like button leave a comment let youtube do its thing and um let's uh let's continue to stuff
this aquarium hobby down to everybody's throats once again see you guys shortly in the podcast