Pool filter sand is my new go to for substrate, used to go with pea gravel and currently have a 55 and 75 with Black Diamond blasting sand. My 125 has Carib Sea and that stuff was at the time $23 for 15lbs, and I have 5 bags in there, the pool filter sand I have in a few other tanks is the same color and is the same size granule but cost $10 for 50lb bag. It's definitely a no brainer. A person does have to shop around for pool filter sand cause different stores have different granule size and different color.
For stocking, I really love to see a big tank with a lot of small fishes in it, without getting to many species though. For example, some rams or corys to occupy the bottom part and two different schooling fish, like 30 rummy nose tetra and 50 neon tetras or something like that. Trust me, two big and different schools of fish in one tank look awesome, the tighter they school, the better!
I love the idea of doubling up the shelves! I'm not sure why I never considered doing that before. I'll definitely keep that in mind for my next fish room
The tanks should have a mfr label that notes the date of assembly. ASI silicone sealant is used by reef tank owners to reseal. Tanks with hHgh dollar corals and livestock.
Back in the 1970s, there was no such thing as special 'silicone for fish tanks'. Silicone is silicone just make sure it doesn't have any mould inhibitors or anything like that in it. it's just a marketing ploy to suck people into spending more money. I recently bought a second-hand tank I filled it up after I cleaned it cos it was filthy. I put it on a sheet of cardboard. There were no leaks, but I did give it a quick once over with silicone just for my piece of mind. You can buy thick sponge yoga mats in Kmart for about $5 they go really well under fish tanks.I love this video. Thank you from Australia 🇦🇺
My biggest advice when setting up a tank is is to put a thick rubber mat underneath it helps to distribute the weight better and and takes pressure points off the glass. I learnt this the hard way when i had a 200 gallon 2nd hand tank base crack after 2 weeks, lost 40 beautiful african cichlids and had hell of a mess to clean up...😢 spend the $5 for mat it's the best cheapest investment you will ever make in this hobby..😊
@chefsteve8381 Amazing, thank you! Perfect timing for this advice because I'm setting up a 36 gal in a few days and I have time to run to the dollar store.
Hey Brock, loving the videos you've been putting out. How do you have success with sword plants in an inert substrate? Are you adding root tabs underneath them?
On occasion one of our leaders would have us do PT with 5gal water cans. Water weighs 8lbs... I think it is a little more than that, but not enough to round up.
@@chngdbygrace yes, water weighs 8 pounds. But you also have to include the weight of the aquarium and the substrate. You should figure 10 pounds per gallon of aquarium. This 210 gallon aquarium by itself weighed 400 pounds.
Excellent video, super savings! Thank Can’t give any advice to you two seasoned aquarists but Robert’s got a great voice, as a musician l must say I do hope he puts it to good use! God bless your endeavours 🙏✝️. ✌️🇷🇺☮️🇺🇦✌️. 🙋♀️🤍🇮🇱✌️
Well you trusted your floor to be level and flat,,, your concrete can vary ,,care needs to be taken to make sure each corner of the stand or rack is carrying equal load, I do this just before adding water with a pry bar lifting each corner and if necessary shimming the light corner... 1 tube of silicone is enough for one aquarium and in addition to ge 1, I use asi 502, dap, scs 1200,,, AL have comparable tensile strength. Yes I build custom aquarium and filter systems...
Cool. I had this concrete floor poured about three years ago. It’s very flat and consistent. I’ve never resealed an aquarium, but the guy that I was having help that I would need like six tubes. I thought 1 would probably do it.
@uncommonaquatics so heres a couple of facts about aquarium joints, 90% of the strength of the joint is in the silicone thats between the pieces of glass, so unless you are taking the whole aquarium apart your really not doing much by just cutting that inside bead out and redoing that,,, also new silicone doesn't bond well with old silicone so it takes LOTS of pressure with a single edge razor to get the old off totally... if you do have a busted seam it's usually the bottom and the best repair method is to cut or obtain glass strips and basically Euro brace the bottom inside with a couple of layers the length if the problem joint, this transfers the tension force to a larger area that has not been contamination from previous silicone... good luck... atleast y'all didn't continue, just for the sake of making a video, continue on with attempt at "reseal" and lead 100's of people down a wrong path...thanks
It's still $250-300 per tank if I didn't miss anything. Still a lot of money, but you could have spent ten times as much! For the aquarium you get, it's very cheap. I think that's the main reason you might want to go smaller, you could probably get at least ten 40 gallon tanks for $500. Or 8 plus the stand. But I'd go for the two 125's too, without doubt!
I got my shelves at Menards but you can get the same shelves from Amazon here: amzn.to/3ZMuqKf
I am first .thanks for sharing ❤
Howdy Brock! Sound advice for building on a budget. Looking forward to what you decide to do. Thanks for sharing 🤠
Thank you sir
Thank you for this tip!
I did a copper / bronze color as a background and it came out great. It's like looking into a river that's clean if i know what i mean 😊
Cool
Pool filter sand is my new go to for substrate, used to go with pea gravel and currently have a 55 and 75 with Black Diamond blasting sand. My 125 has Carib Sea and that stuff was at the time $23 for 15lbs, and I have 5 bags in there, the pool filter sand I have in a few other tanks is the same color and is the same size granule but cost $10 for 50lb bag. It's definitely a no brainer. A person does have to shop around for pool filter sand cause different stores have different granule size and different color.
Mine too. It's more expensive where I live (Canada). But I like that it doesn't need a crazy amount of rinsing before using.
For stocking, I really love to see a big tank with a lot of small fishes in it, without getting to many species though.
For example, some rams or corys to occupy the bottom part and two different schooling fish, like 30 rummy nose tetra and 50 neon tetras or something like that.
Trust me, two big and different schools of fish in one tank look awesome, the tighter they school, the better!
Thats cool you left the red,looking forward to seeing what that looks like.
I love the idea of doubling up the shelves! I'm not sure why I never considered doing that before. I'll definitely keep that in mind for my next fish room
Thanks
The tanks should have a mfr label that notes the date of assembly. ASI silicone sealant is used by reef tank owners to reseal. Tanks with hHgh dollar corals and livestock.
Back in the 1970s, there was no such thing as special 'silicone for fish tanks'. Silicone is silicone just make sure it doesn't have any mould inhibitors or anything like that in it. it's just a marketing ploy to suck people into spending more money. I recently bought a second-hand tank I filled it up after I cleaned it cos it was filthy. I put it on a sheet of cardboard. There were no leaks, but I did give it a quick once over with silicone just for my piece of mind. You can buy thick sponge yoga mats in Kmart for about $5 they go really well under fish tanks.I love this video. Thank you from Australia 🇦🇺
My biggest advice when setting up a tank is is to put a thick rubber mat underneath it helps to distribute the weight better and and takes pressure points off the glass. I learnt this the hard way when i had a 200 gallon 2nd hand tank base crack after 2 weeks, lost 40 beautiful african cichlids and had hell of a mess to clean up...😢 spend the $5 for mat it's the best cheapest investment you will ever make in this hobby..😊
That sucks. I’m hoping the plywood serves the same purpose
I'd be using the rubber mat's trust me...
A shoe type mat? Or a yoga mat?
@@JessMcCrossan yoga mat is good
@chefsteve8381 Amazing, thank you! Perfect timing for this advice because I'm setting up a 36 gal in a few days and I have time to run to the dollar store.
Blue is like 80s style
You ought to check out frac sand, it comes in 50 lb. sacks and various sizes.
I'm so fortunate I get substrate and driftwood for free. Got love the Arizona washes
Great option
Hey Brock, loving the videos you've been putting out. How do you have success with sword plants in an inert substrate? Are you adding root tabs underneath them?
I did some root tabs at the beginning, but not enough to explain the growth on that plant
I have big messy fish and I feed heavily
The fx6 filter in Canada Ontario is 380 on sale here, can’t believe you got the filter for so cheap.
Wow
Thanks for sharing
On occasion one of our leaders would have us do PT with 5gal water cans. Water weighs 8lbs... I think it is a little more than that, but not enough to round up.
@@chngdbygrace yes, water weighs 8 pounds. But you also have to include the weight of the aquarium and the substrate. You should figure 10 pounds per gallon of aquarium. This 210 gallon aquarium by itself weighed 400 pounds.
@uncommonaquatics true. My head was not doing the math.
Excellent video, super savings! Thank Can’t give any advice to you two seasoned aquarists but Robert’s got a great voice, as a musician l must say I do hope he puts it to good use! God bless your endeavours 🙏✝️. ✌️🇷🇺☮️🇺🇦✌️. 🙋♀️🤍🇮🇱✌️
I’ve just had a thought Brock, I wonder what the red tank would look with ‘black water’ ?! 🤷🏼♀️
@gayefanner731 interesting. My next video is planting the red aquarium
Nice
You should do a Rainbow fish tank
Well you trusted your floor to be level and flat,,, your concrete can vary ,,care needs to be taken to make sure each corner of the stand or rack is carrying equal load, I do this just before adding water with a pry bar lifting each corner and if necessary shimming the light corner... 1 tube of silicone is enough for one aquarium and in addition to ge 1, I use asi 502, dap, scs 1200,,, AL have comparable tensile strength. Yes I build custom aquarium and filter systems...
Cool. I had this concrete floor poured about three years ago. It’s very flat and consistent.
I’ve never resealed an aquarium, but the guy that I was having help that I would need like six tubes. I thought 1 would probably do it.
@uncommonaquatics so heres a couple of facts about aquarium joints, 90% of the strength of the joint is in the silicone thats between the pieces of glass, so unless you are taking the whole aquarium apart your really not doing much by just cutting that inside bead out and redoing that,,, also new silicone doesn't bond well with old silicone so it takes LOTS of pressure with a single edge razor to get the old off totally... if you do have a busted seam it's usually the bottom and the best repair method is to cut or obtain glass strips and basically Euro brace the bottom inside with a couple of layers the length if the problem joint, this transfers the tension force to a larger area that has not been contamination from previous silicone... good luck... atleast y'all didn't continue, just for the sake of making a video, continue on with attempt at "reseal" and lead 100's of people down a wrong path...thanks
Black sand in the red tank with some albino archer fish
What about discus tetras and apistogrammas keep it up
Can I recommend a better 100% silicone. That one has over the years changed its formula and is not safe as it stays. Still GE, SCS1200.
Central American 🙂
Can you post a link to those shelves?
I got my shelves at Menards but you can get the same shelves from Amazon here: amzn.to/3ZMuqKf
Severus or red head tapajoes in the red tank.
Two of my favorites
It's still $250-300 per tank if I didn't miss anything.
Still a lot of money, but you could have spent ten times as much!
For the aquarium you get, it's very cheap.
I think that's the main reason you might want to go smaller, you could probably get at least ten 40 gallon tanks for $500.
Or 8 plus the stand.
But I'd go for the two 125's too, without doubt!
Sounds right. Thanks for watching
The first fish I thought of for the red tank was angelfish. Following... 0