I remember it louder.

Don't worry for your shipping now, alright.

Guys, so you're in your car on your way to work.

You're frustrated.

It's Monday or Thursday. I don't know when you listen to the podcast, but you know, you maybe got that doctor's bill or the car back for the third time from the shop because the brake lines aren't working.

Your mechanic sucks.

Just release all the inks in yourself and buy some shrimp. At Bluecarone Aquatics.com, you can get free shipping.

Free shipping.

Free shipping. Free shipping using promo code.

Aquarium guys, free shipping for your shrimp now.

All right? And don't forget about our favorite charity of choice, the Ohio Fish Rescue. They are there to support fish that need a bigger home. If you bought that paku doesn't belong in a five gallon aquarium, big Rich is there for you. Ohiofish rescue.com. Buy a T shirt. Support them. Call My, tell them you love them.

And do it late.

And let's kick that podcast because I can't stand this happy music.

Happy music sucks.

Welcome to the Aquarium, guys. Podcast with your hosts, Jim colby and Rob golson. Welcome everyone, to the podcast. I'm ecstatic.

Happy New Year, buddy.

Happy New Year. The Vikings just won the viking.

Minnesota Vikings. Yes.

They took down the Saints. And who that? Nation?

Saints suck.

No one knows. All right, if you're from New Orleans, know that we don't hate you. We just hate your terrible team.

No. We hate Drew brees.

We hate your terrible team because they're cheaters.

The only person that I enjoy on the team is that hill person that decided to take over for Drew brees. That seemed to do a better job than Drew brees.

What about bridgewater?

Bridgewater was good.

No, he fell apart for a reason. That's why the Saints have to pick him up, because they know a good herd when they see it. All right.

Shine a turd.

All right. I swear this isn't a sports podcast, so let's get it back to business. I'm Rob Zulson.

Hey, I'm Jim colby.

And I'm Adam ella Shire.

Welcome again, everyone. This week I got to tell you a story. But before that, let's introduce guests. Jim, please take the honors.

Hey. I am really excited today. We have talked, we have begged, pleaded, we've paid a large amount of money, which is two beers.

Two beers.

Two beers to have my friend Tyler Tallestrude from United Aquarium come on today. You probably heard him earlier on an earlier podcast when we had Sean kramer with the 2000 gallon aquarium. And ty is his right hand man. He's also one of my best friends. And he also owns an aquarium company called United Aquarium, where he does custom tank building. Custom tanks building. And what else do you do, ty?

Whatever the need arises.

Whatever the need arises.

Basically, business aquarium guru.

He does some water features also. That's what I was trying to lead into.

Again, thanks for coming on the show, ty?

Yeah, you bet. I'm ecstatic to be here.

Ecstatic. That is a big word.

Well, secretly, he's a big fan, even though he's a friend of yours. I mean, he didn't want to tell you that he's a fan, right? Because I'm his favorite host, clearly.

I bet.

So now that we've accomplished introductions, we got some cleanup to do, right?

This is our first podcast for the new year. First of all.

First of all. Right. But then I'm just going to get this off my chest right now because I know you're going to make fun of me. I can forever more.

You can tell everybody about your new nickname that I gave you.

What is my new nickname?

Sir?

Nubs.

So the story behind nubs is I was ordering some Chinese product in. I decided to get myself high quality stuff, high quality glass plant pots for in the aquarium with suction cups. But when you get stuff from China, it doesn't really have warning labels on it, so it's not my fault, Jimmy.

Like you wouldn't have read it anywhere. You could dip wide.

That's fair. These are nice. You can look them up. They're like little glass ponts with suction cups. I put it on discord. I put it on I believe, our Facebook page. If not, I can make sure it's on there after this episode. But I decided that I was going to try to pull off one of the suction cups because it's really strong on there because I was trying to reverse it.

Yeah, you're a six foot two guy and you're trying to pull off a suction cup. What happened?

Right? What happened?

Professor dumb. dumb?

You can't with these things. You have to either put the suction cup on Direct or pull off Direct. You cannot bend left or right because glass doesn't bend.

Glass doesn't bend. There's something new that we've learned, right?

So I shattered my hand and you.

Shattered your hand or cut my fingers.

I shattered it in my hand and cut down to the bone.

That was funny, right? I laughed my head off when you sent me that picture. My wife and I are at my house and we've got company, and we both get a text from Rob about the same time. And I open it up, oh, my God, there's his finger and his thumb just bleeding profusely. And he's at the doctor's office having stitched up. jen goes, did you see what Robbie just sent us? And I went, yeah, I did. And she goes, thank God he wasn't getting the vicectomy today. Said, yeah, no kidding.

It actually happened the day after we released the last podcast. So in my phone, I still had a lot of favorite it and whatnot, so I took pictures, of course, me at the doctor's office getting stitches, because.

I think it's cool because everybody wants to see that.

Everybody wants to see it. Come on. What is it. So I have my hand caked in blood, five stitches in the finger, and I decided to send pictures to my most immediate friends. And I just like to apologize to Mr. Sean kramer because I miss sent my bloody hands to him as a text message. And I just realized this, like, a few days ago, so my bad. And I need to go through my phone to see who else got the shockingly bloody pictures. So my apologies, but they are no longer infected. I'm able to use them fully, so they just look terrible. I am not nubs, sir. You're offensive.

You're new to named nubs. Thanks for the apology for sending it to me. You don't seem to care that you.

Send it to me at all.

I was having dinner with friends, and I get this picture, like, ew.

Okay. There's three things in life that you share with your friends, right? A good smell, like a raunchy fart. Like, dude, oh, that's terrible hair. Take a sniff. Right? No, you do that with something that tastes terrible, like, oh, this is awful. Here, you want to try one?

No.

And you also do is like, oh, my God, what was that you just sent me a picture of? That's what friends are for.

Yeah, we're going to have a little class later on about etiquette. Well and you're going to be my.

Startup as long as it's not in a glass container.

That's right.

You're giving me the lesson.

That was pretty funny. So I really enjoyed that. rob's ended up in the er over Christmas break, and we took off, what, two weeks, right? I think over.

Yeah, you did. I mean, Adam and I, we got back in the studio. We got another podcast coming up here soon that you just slumped up on.

That's right. Because I was making mary. And so that's what I really enjoyed about Christmas is I don't have to put up with you two guys.

You didn't even make us, like, a popcorn thing for our tree or nothing. You just ignored us.

Ignored you, yes. That's perfect.

Back to the real news. During Christmas season, we got to look at the reviews and whatnot, and I just have to pick one of those because we got quite a few reviews to our podcast. And thank you all for whoever gave us five stars, an Apple stitcher or whatever platform they're listening to. But we have a fantastic review that I have to go over and made my day.

All right, read your mom's review.

My mom's review? No. Marine Flyers fan says binge listening. greatness. I just got back from the hobby after several years away and was looking for fishkeeping podcasts and found these guys yesterday. I listened to them nonstop for hours, going back through all the previous episodes. So good. The banter back and forth keeps me laughing. This is a must. Listen, listen. Podcast, please subscribe. My favorite was story time. I'm pleading with you, please do more of this side.

Rob'S mom.

Not rob's mom. My mom would not appreciate story time. Don't listen that podcast mom.

Absolutely not.

This is not the only person that's been demanding more story time. So Jim is happy to announce that there will be more story times in this.

We are going to have another story time soon, and it'd probably be the next couple, two or three months because we have to make stuff up and drink beer and think about it.

Well, I think next story time, it shouldn't be just us. I think we should get some prior guests from the podcast and do, like, a group concession. Story time.

Let's call Big Rich at 04:00 in the morning because he likes that.

He's got stories, man.

I know that guy's got stories.

He's got stories. All right, Jimmy.

Yeah.

You have stuff to give away?

I have stuff to give away. I have got plant bulbs, and we're going to give them away to five different listeners. We're going to send you ten plant bulbs. And what kind of plant bulbs are they? I think I got tiger lilies. Or what did I get?

You got a random bunch. You got a palms or different ones in there? You got tiger lilies. The sweet stuff that you get is just going to go about without label. They're going to have fun, just like I did, planting some of the stuff.

Right. And so if something grows in your tank and it looks illegal, it's probably not.

Definitely not.

Definitely not.

No. Unless you're in Australia, then you need something illegal because you're on fire.

You're on fire. I forgot about that.

Our condolences to you and yours. We know we have some hard Australian listeners. We're getting more popular in that country. And that's just terrible what's going on. And our condolences.

Perfect.

I know I brought the mood down. I'm so sorry.

Thanks a lot.

So what we're doing this time is we have a random number generator that is to make sure that Jim doesn't cheat and pick all the people that he thinks has a sexy name.

So is this like bingo? Like b five.

No, I just type in the total number of contestants and we hit a button and then you get to read their name.

Did we have more than five?

We definitely have more than five. We have plenty of people that have put their name in the hat. Although if you did not put in a full address, we are not going to include you in this. There was a couple of people that just put their street and number. Did not put a city, state, or zip.

So they live in a box down by the river.

Maybe they're homeless, I don't know.

Live in a cardboard box down by the river.

Amazon is better power than us. They can ship to those addresses that we can.

Absolutely.

Number random generator says, wait. Adam, we need a drum roll. I apologize for your ears right now, listeners.

Wow.

It is right there. You got to read it for me, Jimmy.

Scott Reid.

Scott Reid. You, sir, are one of our winners. Now, how many winners you want to give out, Jimmy?

Five.

Five.

All right, five.

Let's do it again.

I'm only going to the post office. One time.

One time, right? Here we go. Hit the button. And corresponding person is oh, my goodness.

Edgar Arlega.

I don't know how to get that one. So edgar a that's our edgar a edgar a congrat.

Proud owner of some plant bulbs.

All right, see this in one more time. They're all listening like, come on, do me. Oh, I don't know if he should qualify. You know what? He qualifies. He signed up. Doesn't matter who. We did not put limitations on this.

Joe thiesen tyson. Remember tyson? Mike tyson's brother? Yes.

Joe shrimp shack. You get some a pom bulbs, some mystery bulbs, some lotus bulbs. Whatever comes in the pack, you're going to get some.

I forgot about the shrimp guy. He was excellent.

How dare you forget? Next we're going to get big rich. All right, next contestant up for biz Is.

That was terrible.

That was great.

Steve romano.

All right, Steve romano, congratulations from the.

Romano family of cheeses. Right?

I thought you're going to be like a neighbor loves Raymond joke.

No. Nobody likes Raymond. Nobody likes Raymond. All right, in the last winner, Justin templeton.

All right. Congratulations, Justin, from the templeton family. So again, thank you for signing up. We're going to get all those bulbs out to you. We'll be in touch. Definitely share those pictures. hashtag, aquarium, guys, wherever you put them on social media.

Your package will come in the mail unmarked. Don't sign for it. Have them leave it at the door. Watch out for the feds. You don't know what's going to use the camera.

You don't want people stealing this. Your iphone is fine, but don't let them steal your plantball.

Exactly.

That's all we're saying.

All right.

All right. So before we begin, just a reminder to subscribe to this, have downloads push automatically to your phone because that's how we get our numbers boosted. That really helps us out. Support our sponsors. And if you want to support us directly because you love this podcast, you want to hear jimmy's diggery Do or you don't want to hear jimmy's diggery do?

We want to hear the diggery do.

Yeah, everybody wants to hear the diggery do. And then the guy that said, did you don't. I'm going to digger redu.

Oh, my yeah. You called him out.

I called him out.

But if you want to support this podcast directly, you can go to our website, Aquariumguyspodcast.com. In the bottom, there's a tip jar. You can donate once. You can donate monthly. If you want to support us, every bit helps to get new equipment. And we are definitely going to be doing live streaming. We're working to schedule it, actually around some other content creators schedules so we can all be a part of a big happy family.

We're all going to get together and we're going to do stuff with green screen technology.

I think that we should do like a celebration podcast. Like, once we hit like 50,000 lessons, we should get a video of Adam getting, like nickelodeon slimed.

Oh, yeah, we'll do that. I know. How about we just do electric shock therapy? that'd be fun too.

To my face?

No, not to your face. We'll do that.

Adam'S face is better.

If you want to see that on YouTube, check that out.

No, that doesn't exist. Moving on. Moving on. All right, well, let's start with the interview with ty. Thanks so much for coming on. We really appreciate that. And thanks for hooking us up with Sean. That was a hell of a journey that you actually helped him build with. Let's start there. What crazy aquariums besides that, have you done?

Well, I don't know if I've done anything quite that on that scale. Before that, most of the stuff I do is commercial installations. Things like hospitals, nursing homes. We do some residential stuff. For the most part, though, I really deal mostly in commercial tanks.

Some of the things that you do on top of it is not only do you set it up, of course you do continual maintenance and you do whatever set up. I believe that there's a school that I used to go to that you still do a saltwater aquarium and a pond with, is that correct? Correct.

In Detroit Lake?

Yes, we do maintenance. It's one of those things where it's design. It's kind of the main thing I'm doing. And then we do build out, and then we do maintenance also. And part of that is just we do maintenance for some people because they're only interested in the initial set up if we do the maintenance, that sort of thing.

Let's start at the beginning. What got you into the fish hobby? How long have you been doing it?

Basically forever. I was a hobbyist as a kid. Did kind of the standard stuff that everybody else does. Had a few tanks growing up. Took a little time away from the hobby during maybe high school, college age. And then when I met my wife, she was in the pet business, so got back in again.

So drug back in by family, got.

Back in the pet business. How did you get drug back in? Did she own a pet store?

Yes. Well, actually when we first met, she was managing a pet store for somebody else, and then she went out and started her own. So I helped work out with her. Kind of did the fish thing and got more or less convinced to do the maintenance side. We got pulled into more or less, just customers that needed help, and the design and build thing just kind of grew out of that.

I've known your wife for a long, long time, probably, I think a little bit longer than you, actually. She was one of my customers. She decided to put in a pet store in my town. When you guys were driving every day, you were driving, what, 90 miles a day to go to your pet store?

Yeah, just about.

And that's just one way. So that just shows the dedication that they have going back and forth with the pet store. And for many years, I rented the basement of their pet store, and I ran my wholesale operation out of there. ty and heidi owned the top of the building and stuff, where they did all the retail operation stuff. So we became very close and great friends over the years and stuff. Once you went into the tank maintenance, how did you get into the commercial accounts?

Boy, you know, I don't I'm not even sure I remember at this point.

But a lot of golf tournaments.

I think what it is with the commercial stuff is they're a different type of customer. They want a tank that looks good all the time with as little input from them as possible. I think what probably happened was we had some of the administrators or something were shopping in the store. Probably went from there, if I remember right. And then from there on out, it was just word of mouth.

Once you get one, they're like, hey, I know a fish guy. Just all downhill from there.

Well, yeah, generally speaking, it would be. So I do a lot of stuff. Like when a new hospital is being built, I'll get a call from the architect and they'll look for the aquarium design with them on case and size, all that sort of stuff. Work with the construction managers once construction starts. And then we come in and install kind of at the tail end, carpets going in. That sort of stuff is when we come in. And then what will happen is an administrator from another facility will be touring that facility when that facility opens, and they'll say, okay, who did the aquariums? And then it's just one step after another.

So let's do a good and bad scenario because I got to see some of your work in the field. There is a newer to me, it was newer hospital in staples, Minnesota. And I'm assuming the architect there contacted you ahead of time, is that correct?

They did, yeah. Actually, Jim and I did that one together. Perfect.

In staples, Minnesota, they have multiple waiting rooms, and it's essentially wrapped around a circular part of the building. And in the waiting rooms, they have them sectioned A-B-C kind of in a bigger hospital setting. And in between, you have these large, mixed sick lid tanks, and it looks really good. The lighting is well placed. It essentially got appropriate spacing for children so they don't necessarily ruin the tanks continually. And it's done really, really well. And then we have another hospital, which I won't name, that decided. I'm assuming the architect didn't contact you. And they put it in the middle of a giant lobby with three glass walls out to the outdoors and it just gets caked in algae. So you try to work good and bad. That one we used a mono shrimp with. Are they still going?

They are, actually, yes.

So no matter what they do, you seem to find a niche for it and have done some certainly unique tanks.

That's just it, because in a lot of cases they'll be adding the aquarium during a remodel. They'll be doing it as a retrofit, maybe. Maybe they're replacing something. Maybe they're remodeling the waiting room. In those cases, you really don't have as many options in terms of design. The ideal situation is that we get contacted right away. We kind of work through it with the architect. We are able to give them some guidance as far as what to avoid in terms of especially windows placement, that sort of thing.

And you also get to sell them a lot of sterilizers also.

Yeah, right. Well, that's the thing, though, is that these days most of these facilities are built kind of the newer trend is to make them brighter. That's kind of the enemy of the tank. Of course, if we can't place the tank, of course, here in the Northern hemisphere, we're placing against the south wall, if possible, without the windows facing the glass in the tank. But sometimes that can be tough because that clinic may be oriented that way specifically by the architect for that reason as they're trying to capture natural light.

And a lot of these tanks end up in children's areas also. Children like the bright colors of the fish, the fast moving fish. What do you normally put in those tanks?

Pediatrics, I guess. Lately, the last couple of years it's been mostly glow fish, but we've done parrot fish before. They're kind of fun. Interactive? Depends, I guess. clownfish are nice if they're doing a saltwater tank. Something that the kids can kind of recognize, in a way are interactive enough and colorful enough that it keeps their attention.

You can't beat nemo when you set up a saltwater tank for kids, you know what I mean?

Right.

Every once in a while, my wife and I will stop and do a little maintenance for ty if he's running low. And we happen to be in this neighboring town. And we talk about going over there and deslibing the tank because it's in the pediatric area where all these kids with runny noses and sweaty hands leave boogers all over the tank like they've been slimed by Slimo from ghostbusters. And you go in there with a thing of windex and you clean, you go, I think I got it all. And as you're cleaning it, you look across and there's another three year old looking at you through the other side of the tank who's not running down his face with his hands on the tank.

You just want to push with his nose pressed up against the glass while you're doing the other side.

And that's the point where I punch him in the throat.

If only. No, it's one of those things where I try to keep a good sense of humor about it because in a way that means that the kids are making use of it. Right. So they're not on their tablet, they're not watching the TV, they're the tanks. So I guess maybe that's a good sign for the fish keeping hobby in general that kids are interested in tanks.

Yeah, because we've talked about it over and over on this podcast how after walmart's and some of the big box stores have taken fish out, these kids aren't seeing fish like they used to in every Walmart or woolworths or pamida or whatever you want to throw out there. As much as a lot of us don't like those big box stores doing what they've done in the years past, it does put that in front of the kids, and it also then creates excitement and creates an interest. And then that's how we get these people back into the hobby or get these kids started in the hobby.

Wait, does that mean that you're going to be getting an aquarium for your grandson?

My grandson just got a new puppy for Christmas.

Right. So next Christmas is aquarium.

Pony.

Pony.

Yeah. They don't know about it yet.

You're flying high.

Yeah, he's going to get a pony. He doesn't know about it yet. He's almost a year old.

He doesn't listen to the podcast then.

He doesn't even good.

The main reason we got you on ty is for your expertise in tank building. And we have a lot of requests from people across the podcast asking, what are some of the best ways of do I build my tank? How do I repair tanks? And who better than a guy that builds massive custom tanks? Right?

I don't mind doing some tank building itself, to be honest. I think most of the time, most people are best served by buying a glass or acrylic tank that's been manufactured and then doing the rest themselves. When I look at tank building, I look at it as a whole, not just what I call the glass acrylic tank. Really what it comes down to is there's so much more that goes into it in terms of the total design of the system. That tank itself is really just a fractional part of that hole.

So, ty, we brought you in the podcast. You are a tank building expert, and we have so many questions from so many of our listeners that want to know more tips and tricks about building a tank, the materials used, best practices. So what I want to do is walk us through. You told us architects contact you, you try to find the best position, go from there, and let's just say Jimmy is your pain in the ass customer that says I want a 300 gallon tank.

I want a 300 gallon tank. I don't know what I'm doing. And I want it to look pretty pretty. All the time.

All the time.

All the time.

Walk us through the process.

Time and those kids.

Oh, right. So it's a little bit of a different process depending on if it's a homeowner or commercial customer only because it.

Depends on this goes in jim's boating business.

I have a boating business.

It's going to go on the shore. It's going to look like some sort of, you know, shack, you know?

It's a business.

It's a business.

Yeah.

I'm going to be thurston Hall the third from gillian's Island. Jim God's. Lovely.

Jim'S long motorboating.

That's what we're going to call we're not Jim. Well, I do motorboat from time to time.

Just jim's motorboating.

All right. Go, Mike.

We are getting off a tangent here. Let tie toxer. All right, please tell us.

I'll be good.

300 gallon jim's motorboat.

I guess the best place to start is going to be to look at placement. So you want to try to stay away from direct light as much as possible, unless you're an algae lover. I think there's forums for that. Algleevers.com long name.

Amazing results.

Yeah, if you like.

Peace suit.

Generally speaking, what people are looking for is they want a tank that they can look at. It looks nice almost all the time with the minimal amount of maintenance. So that's kind of how I design things. I'm looking for the best spot I can find with the least amount of natural light. I'm looking for things like especially if it's a retrofit, if this building is already there, I'm looking to see do we have enough power in that spot? And then I'm going to go through with the customer. What type of tank are they looking for? Do they have like an example or things that they really like? So freshwater, salt water, those sort of things. Then we get into the minutiae, whether it's going to be glass tank or acrylic tank.

So what makes you decide that? Glass or acrylic?

For most customers, at least most of my customers, glass is the better choice. Glass is less likely to scratch, and that's probably the biggest reason that we use it. I would say probably 70% of the tanks that I do are glass. It's just a lot more resilient to those not knows kids we were talking about earlier when they're taking their Hot Wheels toy and going back and forth across the face of it when they're throwing tennis balls against it, that sort of thing.

So why would you use. Acrylic.

Acrylic is good in certain circumstances. So if you have a big tank, most bigger aquariums are going to be acrylic. And that has a lot to do with the seam strength of the acrylic itself. An acrylic seam is much stronger than a glass and silicone seam. But when you say that much stronger, we're talking about pounds per square inch. Most glass tanks that are out there, you could not fill them and let them. You could run that tank for 20 years and never have a leak as long as the stand was built correctly. But if you're talking about a really big tank, so Sean kramer's tank, tanks of that nature, you get into the three 4500 gallon tanks, and then you get into the thousand plus gallon tanks. The seam strength is an issue. So at that stage, acrylic is going to be a better choice.

So the question I hear when talking about this is, why wouldn't you just do thicker glass? Wouldn't that just be the fix? And you wouldn't really have to worry because you have more seam to glue.

So people who say, why not use thicker glass are chiropractors because.

I've helped him carry a lot of these cakes. Right. I totally get it.

That's where you go. No, the thickness of the actual material, whether it be glass or acrylic, is based solely on, or almost solely on the height of the tank itself, because water pressure is based on height. So it's head height is what's creating that pressure that's on those seams. A tank that is sometimes used to see those glass tanks that were I don't remember, what did they call those? Is it a 40 extra high or a 50 extra high or something? They were basically had the footprint of a ten gallon tank, except they were ridiculously tall. What was that, Jim?

The extra tall?

Yeah. Even like remember the 110 gallon extra high tank we had?

Oh, those things sucked.

Yeah. I'm a midget, and I can't get my arms down there far enough to even work on them. But the glass was so thick, it took seven men and four mules to carry.

I'd have to pay $10 to see you try to decorate that ten.

I'm going to smuck you in the gut. Ding throat.

You're so pretty tonight.

Shut up.

So that's the thing, is that I don't know what I'm talking about.

Well, we ruined it for you there. See Jimmy tonight, he's what, two beers down?

Three maybe.

It's all his faults.

I got to get another one. That's part of my problem, right?

That's right. I'm drinking 16 ounce. I don't know about you.

This advertisement not sponsored by mcgolden Light.

It should be, right?

Call us.

Send me some free beer.

We'll work on that together.

Okay, we've got the material.

The higher the tank, the thicker the glass because of the amount of incredible water pressure. Correct?

Right, exactly. Once you get above about maybe 18 to 20 inches. That's when there starts to be actual pressure on those bottom seams. So as you kind of creep up past that 24 inch mark and then towards 29, 29 is kind of when you go shopping for glass tanks in an aquarium store or a fish store, 29 is about as tall. As what they're going to carry. Because once you pass that point, you start to really build pressure on that bottom steam, and then that glass has to really be thickened up. And then of course, that brings weight along with it, too, and that brings.

An incredible bigger price also, because that glass is so much thicker, it's a lot more money, right.

And you're going to lose visibility, too, because the thicker that glass is. So the standard glass that's used for glass aquariums is actually, as you look through that end, everybody has seen that it's kind of a green color. That's the iron and the glass. To combat that, sometimes you'll see a thick tank where the glass is maybe almost approaching three quarters of an inch thick. But sometimes what they'll do is they'll use a low e glass for that. So, for example, the tank that you guys looked at at the gym is low e glass. Sometimes you hear manufacturers names for low eglass, like Diamond, Fire, and there's a couple of different brand names for that type of glass, but that's a low iron glass.

And what's low iron glass? What's my advantage of having that?

The advantage is solely clarity. The disadvantage, of course, is that it becomes a lot like acrylic in the sense that it is softer. So if you take traditional glass, so if you just go to the store, you're going to go to your local fish store or petco, and you're going to buy an aquarium, that's going to be kind of standard plate glass. You may have a tempered panel or two, the bottom, potentially even the sides, depending on what size it is, but for the most part, that's regular glass. The advantage of that is that it's relatively cheap and it's relatively tough to scratch. As you move towards low eglass, it is softer, not to the point that acrylic is, but it's definitely much easier to scratch than a typical tank.

So you ever use like, corning, tempered gorilla glass? I'm going at some of a new perspective of the questions that we're going to get asked. jim's looking at me like using an iphone.

What did you just make up then? Gorilla glass.

Yeah, they have that's the real thing, tempered glass.

Really?

Yeah.

Most iphone screens have gorilla glass on them.

Yeah, not that I'm aware of. I don't think that application. I don't think you can buy it for them.

People were talking about tempered glass. Tempered glass. What we learned is that you can't.

Drill it, you ding it correctly.

You learned that, I remember.

Right story.

Yeah. We were drilling tanks. Have you ever drilled tanks? Have you ever gone to the dentist and had somebody drill in your mouth? Now take that times 1000, put your head in a tank and start drilling with a diamond bit, and then have the whole thing shatter because it was tempered and we didn't know it was tempered.

Was it filled? No, I thought that would have been a better story.

No, but it was like $200 down the crapper.

That's not fun because Ty and I.

Are writing a book. And how do you lose money? I'll show you how to lose money.

Well, that's what we're here. It's a lot easier to drill sean's tank. Actually, I drilled 21 holes in sean's tank.

Wow.

And do you still use, like, a diamond drill bit or you have to use a special acrylic bit?

Actually, no, in acrylic you can use either a standard wood bit it's going to cut through pretty fast, or you can use a metal hole saw bit.

Oh, incredible. I didn't know it was that easy to drill through acrylic.

Do you have to loop it up or anything? Like, may keep it wet or anything or not?

You have to keep it cool. And you have to go through kind of in one shot, because if you get halfway through and you quit halfway through or it gets so hot that it gums up, then actually your drill bit is going to get kind of fused into that plastic, and then you're done. There's a technique to it, especially thicker acrylic. So you'll cool it typically like you'd cool glass. You'll make a plumber's putty ring around the hole that you're trying to drill. Then you'll fill that with water, and then you'll drill through it.

And we learned that when we were doing glass tanks. We drilled a lot of glass tanks one night after a couple of beers. And I went to bed that night, and I still could hear the sound of the grinding of the glass going into my head. It was just an nauseating sound. But we got to be really good at drilling glass when we're putting in what do you call those things?

Aquariums.

No. What do you call the overflows or whatever we're putting in?

Yeah.

Overflow valves.

So we got the acrylic. We measured it out for 300 gallons. What do you use to put it together in here for acrylic and glass.

So if we're talking the actual tank construction itself, acrylic, there's two different ways to bond acrylic. One is methylene chloride. It's going to give you a really strong mechanical bond, but it's going to give you kind of an ugly result. At the end of the day, you'd use that as the bottom seam. Now, sometimes on corners, and especially on seams in the middle, you're going to use a two part acrylic adhesive that is not as strong seam strength wise, but does look better. You can buff it out to a perfect clarity. So most tank manufacturers are going to use kind of a combination of those two. Depends on thickness of acrylic. They're going to have to temper it in between. So they're going to make all their cuts and do all the machining, and they're going to put it into an oven, warm it up, let it cool down at one degree at a time, bring it back to room temperature, and then they're going to basically bond all the pieces together. I don't do bigger tanks. I don't do the tank construction itself on big tanks like the one that you guys saw at cramer's Place. Mostly for liability reasons, obviously, but also just the logistics of it. If you don't have an oven the size of a train car, you can't anneal acrylic that big.

So I assume the company you bought the Acrylic from is the one that put those pieces together, right?

So that would be typical. Most of those are going to come from acrylic manufacturers, acrylic fab companies. So there's lots of I mean, there's at least a dozen acrylic fab companies out there in the United States that can handle tanks that are between 100 and maybe 1000 gallons. There's only a few maybe that can handle tanks quite that size. Given that length, that 20ft is a tough length for the most part. Right. Your best bet is going to be too, if you were doing acrylic, is you'd contact an acrylic fab company, you would design the tank and then you would have them manufacture it for you.

But for jimmy's 300 gallon, for motorboat Incorporated motorboat, you're going to be cutting that one.

So if that's the case, the glass acrylic decision would be made first, figuring out which way you're going to go there. Acrylic is going to cost more, it's going to be more clear, but it is going to be much easier to scratch. So scratch removal is kind of one of those things that you have to weigh out in that equation. Me personally, I actually prefer a glass tank. And a lot of people who do what I do for a living really don't agree with that. They like acrylic tanks. That's kind of their bread and butter. I just feel like glass is more practical for the majority of people.

So what do you use to put the glass together? We just use silicone to patch the same stuff to put them together.

So there is well, there's an industrial silicone, but it also has to be primed as well. Basically the primer that's used when somebody comes to fix your windshield on your car, when one of your angry listeners has thrown something through your windshield.

We have those.

Yeah. And you get that replaced. They come, they cut that out, and then they're going to put a new windshield in there. So there's a primer that actually allows the glass to stick to the next piece of glass and then of course, to stick to, for example, a plastic frame or a metal frame or whatever it is that you're going to use as your top and bottom framework.

When you're putting a large tank like that together, do you have to really be careful? I mean, I know the set time with acrylic is very quick. Correct.

Depends on which adhesive you're using. But generally speaking, yes. And it's kind of almost a flash here. So the methylan chloride is almost like water. It's very liquidy. If you were doing a bottom scene with methyl and chloride, what actually happens is you set the side piece on top of the bottom and then you squirt the methyl and chloride on the edge of it and it gets wicked underneath. As it wicks underneath, it basically is melting both of those pieces of acrylic. And then you're putting some compression onto it. When that solvent has evaporated, just like pvc glue or any other type of solvent based adhesive, it's a mechanical bond. So in the case of methyl and chloride, or once it evaporates, then there's a mechanical bond between those two pieces of acrylic, they become one.

And so by taking those two chemicals, you're basically just getting a chemical reaction which adheres the two of them together and they're permanently stuck together. Correct.

Right. And that's basically how you end up with the higher seam strength on acrylic, is because using the methyl and chloride method, especially, you're creating a mechanical bond versus where when you build a glass tank, you're using the silicone as a bonding agent. But essentially a glass tank is a glass box where the glass itself is sized and thickness to a frame, the thickness of the glass determines the deflection of the glass. The deflection is basically how much it's going to stretch and bend outwards. So you have to size that glass appropriately. So when you go buy a 55 gallon tank from a store, there are two different sizes of glass that you'll look at. So sometimes you'll see three sixteenths and sometimes you'll see quarter inch. Obviously you prefer quarter inch. It's going to be a thicker glass, but either one will technically work. What you're trying to do in the case of glass is you're trying to prevent enough Boeing that that silicone is able to leak on the corners.

Interesting. I never even thought of that.

A lot of details. So what size tank do you like to switch? Because again, you like to use glass at all times. What's the size where you like, all right, I have to do acrylic.

I would say once you get above about 300 gallons, unless there are specific circumstances, occasionally you could run into something where you could go maybe up to 600 gallons of glass. But I would prefer to probably start looking at acrylic beyond 300.

Just because of the strength.

More or less, yes. And as the size of the tank, as you get to a certain point, people are going to want to go wider with the tank. I'm a big proponent of going wider. If you guys remember, kramer's tank is 4ft wide versus 3ft. Right. So a lot of times you'll see a relatively big tank and it'll be 3ft wide by going to 48 inches in width. It really adds a lot of dimension to the tank itself, and it allows you to get in there and build out some real structure.

And for those people that have not listened to the extreme aquarius, we keep talking about Sean kramer's tank, which is over 20 foot long, holding 2000 gallons plus sump.

Episode 20 is required for this one.

And so that's what we keep referring back to is sean's tank back in December. We did that, correct.

Well, they just got it last week, man. Oh, they just did, right. That is the magic of cinema.

All right. Beautiful. So anyway, we keep referring back to that ty was gracious enough and got us invited over there to take a look at this tank. And it was incredible, people. And if you want to see a tank that you can throw money at, this is probably the most beautiful tank I've seen in all my years. And I've been doing this for like 35 years.

That was one of my favorite ones.

So let's go over the other pieces. So we have jim's motorboat Incorporated. We have selected that it's going to be 300 gallons. You have the materials, you put them together, you've glued them with whatever bond you chose. Now what do we do for, say, like a stand or topping it? Do you use a canopy or lid? Walk us through that.

So in that case, in a commercial build, it's going to be a steel stand underneath it. Then we're going to wrap it with whatever we want it to look like. So in jim's case, lots of glitter.

Lots of glitter. Wow.

Yeah. He's going to put it in the back of his business where the strippers are.

Yeah. And then also I'm going to keep unicorns and rainbows in there just for fun.

He wanted mermaid.

That ain't PC.

Wow.

You can more or less wrap the stand and the canopy with whatever you want. You're looking for something that's going to hold up. Obviously, freshwater is a lot more forgiving than saltwater, but for the most part, it's generally speaking, it's going to be wood components or it's going to be wood and laminate combination. There are some pvc products out there and there's some solid surface components out there. Things like the corian countertops that you see. There are parts that can be made out of those little more resilient passers by, I guess.

Have you ever heard of people using, like, you've been to a trailer house where they have kind of like a nice trailer house to pretending it's a real home?

Are there a nice trailer house right.

And then you see like, trailer house skirting that looks like kind of like this cool fake rock or something. Can you use that to cover the bottom of the stand?

Yeah, perfect.

I'm going to do this.

I'm trying to come up with a joke that fits in there, but just.

Don'T let the tornado hit the tank.

Oh, wow. Trailer parks make tornadoes horny?

That's the one.

That's exactly what it is.

That's it.

Trailer parks make tornadoes horny. Yes.

So then on top, what's your most common? You can make a full canopy to match. I'm assuming you build that out of wood. Is there a risk of humidity? I've always wondered about the canopies.

There is risk of humidity. So there's typically going to be glass lids on top of the tank itself. So for the most part with canopies, what we're doing is we're building it out of a plywood that can handle some level of humidity. And then in a lot of cases, we'll finish the inside with something like a spar of varnish, something that's meant to deal with heat and humidity. And then on the outside, we're going to laminate it.

And of course, using stainless steel hinges. Because if it's saltwater, I mean, I'm assuming that does some damage as well.

Right. So saltwater is really unforgiving. Basically, any components that are anywhere near a saltwater tank, you actually have to go one step beyond stainless and go to marine grade stainless. Otherwise they're going to be shortlived.

So you're saying saltwater tanks are a lot like my ex wife unforgiving. That was good. I thought that I've been waiting for that.

No more beer.

That was good.

No more beer. All right. What are the best, like, do's and don'ts of building a tank? So people want to do it on their own. This is past jimmy's business. People want to do it on their own. What are the common mistakes and what are some best practices or cheats that you do? Boy, you can take your time on this one if you need.

That's all. Yeah.

I know. One of the best things that he does on his tanks don't use tempered glass. That too. No, you have to use temper glass for large tanks. But the one thing that Ty does right, that that learned early on is he brings the water source right to the tank. So underneath the cabinet is usually a place where you can collect, get water to fill your tank up. Because you're talking 300 gallon tanks and you need to top it off. You're looking at a ten or 1520 gallon fill, right?

Yeah. For the most part, if it's a commercial build, we try to insist that there is water supply hot and cold and drain as well.

Yeah, not just cold. People listen, the more I listen to.

This podcast, the more I'm realizing that tank building is 50% location, location, location. Whether it be water pipelines, the architectural build lighting, electrical. It's very much where you place the tank.

That's why the design is so important. I mean, when you do something, it kind of depends on the scale of the tank. The average customer that's putting in 100 gallon tank, you can get away with placing that in quite a few spots in your house. If you've got one outlet nearby that isn't an overworked circuit, you can probably get away with that. But as you get bigger and more elaborate, it becomes more and more like jim's wife. unforgiving ex wife. Ex wife. Yeah, I missed that one.

Yeah. My current wife is now in my top three, so love her to death.

She's in my top three, too.

Yeah.

All right, so what is some of the dos? We went over a few. Don'ts. Don't place it in front of a window. Don't let Jimmy put glitter on it. And above all else, make sure you have water. What are some of the dos of building the tank or set up?

I think the biggest do is in the design is creating the simplest design to accomplish the goals that you're trying to accomplish. So if you're keeping a shrimp tank and moss balls, you're going to put a light on that tank that is going to grow moss balls. You're going to put a filter on that tank that's going to do its job and no more. I think poor planning is really the most destructive part.

I think doing your homework.

There you go.

The most important thing probably well, let's.

Take that shrimp analogy, right? Let's say that you have your tank set up just for the sake of height. You're only going to be in the bottom or you're going to have to have tiered decorations, depth. Are you going to be able to see them in the corners, flow? Let's just say we bought you said the filter that was really important. If you overbought the filter on purpose, because that's what a lot of people do, they will twice the filter just because they want to make sure they can cram as many fish as they can in there. Well, if you have something like shrimp and with high flow, you're going to throw shrimp everywhere. So taking the time for those details, how about with sealants? I have a ton of questions of people resealing tanks sealing for the first time. What do you do for properly putting just a silicone seal on a basic smaller aquarium? Is it put a line, put pressure thumb against it? What are the processes there? Because I've never gotten a straight answer from anyone. And who better than the expert?

Well, you haven't got a straight answer because it's a tough one. Resealing is even a professional resealing. A tank is still a crapshoot. It's not 100% success ratio. If a person cuts as much silicone out as they can get out, and then primes that corner with windshield primer, and then reseals with silicone, that's your best bet. That being said, you're still probably only going to be successful about half the time and you'd never want to try to reseal a tank that was any taller than about 16 inches tall.

Why is that?

Because the seam pressure is just going to be too much. When you manufacture builds an aquarium, typically what they're doing is they're putting a silicone bead along the glass and then they're pressing that glass into it. Then they're putting another bead on top, and then they're pressing that bead down and that's the bead that you see, the initial bead, the initial seal. If that's broken, it's impossible to get back in and actually do that without taking the entire aquarium apart. So you're only able to affect that inside seal. So at best, if you cut it out and you reseal it, you fix the inside seal and not really the structural seal.

And so with that, you might have yourself a leaker in the next year or two.

Is there any hope, like, say you did it wrong, is there any warning sign you're going to get or are you just going to have a wet floor one morning?

Well, typically if a silicone seam on a glass tank leaks, it typically starts very slow. Glass tanks tend to not blow out unless you're actually hitting it with something. A seam leak is going to be a very slow leak. No matter how you slice it, it's going to come out. Typically, if it's on the bottom, you're going to see it come out of the frame and you're going to have water that kind of lays on top of the frame. If it's a plastic frame tank and if it's a side seam, you're going to actually see that drip coming down the side. But no, you don't have to worry too much about blowouts. But the taller the tank gets, the more likely it is to leak. Also, anytime you get glass that wasn't cut and sealed at a 90 degree angle, your likelihood of leaking gets higher. In the case, like a perfect example would be the old hexagon tanks that they used to make were always leakers. I mean, after a certain amount of time, you'd maybe if you were lucky, you'd get ten or 15 years out of them. But a lot of people had leaks in those after two or three.

And that was because the glass is cut at an angle, correct?

Right. And they didn't meet at a 90 degree angle. You didn't get a really good bond in there. They intended to use fairly thin glass because they thought, oh, well, this looks a lot like a circle, so it must be strong. So it was relatively thin glass. It wasn't beveled at an angle to where they all met at a 90 degree angle. So it just ended up basically being poor seams. And then on top of poor seams, you had lots of them because there were six sides.

So let's talk about types of tanks that's been on my list. So that was a perfect segue. Hexagons, like you said, can be a nightmare. At least over time the seal is going to go eventually. What about like both front tanks? You assume that that whole curb is set and then they cut the edge of the glass at a 90 degree so that would make sense to be more sealed, or is that not the case?

It depends on how it's built. I actually have both fronts that are built very well where they have beveled those two side pieces of glass to match the front. In those cases, that's a pretty strong tank, especially if that glass is relatively thick. So there are both fronts out there that are pretty good, but typically in order of leakers. If we're talking just mass manufactured tanks, the hexagons were the worst, pentagons were probably the second worst, and then both fronts were the third.

And the thing I don't like about those tanks, I mean, as cool as they are, when you look at the fish through the aquarium, you get a distortion depending on where you're sitting or standing in the room. And so like the bowfront tanks, you'll get a really goofy looking fish if you're sitting at the wrong angle with the correct light.

So that gets alleviated a little bit if they use a low e glass for that bend or if you use acrylic. But that being said, they're very difficult to clean. They're even harder to remove scratches from, and acrylic in general is hard to remove scratches from. And then you take the boat front and you kind of magnify your problem.

No, you brought up a really good thing about cleaning tanks and stuff. We've all been watching TV and we've seen the tank guys that put those tanks together on TV. And we're hearing that the greatest, as cool as those tanks are, the greatest complaint we hear from people who own them, casinos and whatnot, is that they're very difficult to create flow and to keep clean. Hear that over and over?

Yeah, poor design is going to lead to maintenance issues and then flow is an issue too, but you really don't.

Know which it is. If it's going to be whether or not they did pre planning poorly, or if the customer just didn't realize how much work it's going to take to do 22 26ft of aquarium.

Poor design mostly.

Got you. So what other strange designs have you dealt with? Right now there's a popular one that we see a lot of on internet for custom builds they're making the only thing I can really relate with this is an L design. It's like an upside down l. pretend you have 255 gallons, you have one set horizontally and the other 55 gallon put straight up and down vertically. And they have these put together as. One tank. I can only imagine the nightmares for the amount of height, especially now that you're explaining to me the higher it is, the more risk you have for seam because there's more pressure on it, how that would really work.

Sure. I think what you're talking about is commonly kind of known as a drop off tank. So in a lot of cases, those are used as reef tanks, actually, where people are kind of trying to create what looks like a natural reef. So if you ever go out snorkeling, you know, reefs are kind of these big clumps and there's an almost 90 degree face, and then there's kind of a top of the reef. And what they're kind of trying to create is that edge of the reef.

Is that something that's very popular? I don't think I've ever seen that.

It's not super popular. You see them a lot when you're looking at coral magazines and things like that. It was kind of a trend. Most of them are made out of acrylic. It's not a real practice old thing to make out of glass. It is kind of neat because you can create a different aquascape than what you'd be able to do in a typical tank. And I've seen some that are actually really nice, but there's two main issues, and one is the lighting, and the other one is, like you say, the cleaning of it, depending on how deep that deep leg is. I've seen one that was about 36 inches from top to bottom on the deep leg, and then the other side of it was about 16 inches. So that was relatively practical to deal with with a max step of 36 inches. But if you were to get really deep, any tank that's particularly deep is really difficult to deal with. And I really try to steer people towards a practical tank just because if you build a tank in the shape of a gumball machine, it's cool for a date, and then after that point, it really is all a downhill slide. So if you're looking as a fish keeper to keep a tank, even if you want to dress it up, some really do that with the surround and the canopy versus doing it with the actual shape of the tank itself, because you're creating a maintenance nightmare for yourself.

Yeah, it's very difficult, especially when you have such as like a bowfront tank or anything that's curved. It gets to be very hard without getting your arm into there to keep that acrylic or that glass clean. So I can see that it's a lot more work.

So I have a question on repairs. We get a lot of questions of help on our discord, if you guys are interested. discord is a chat that we use for the Aquarium Guys podcast you can find on our website. But we have a lot of questions about repairs. So, number one, scratch repair. Is there anything you can do? Because we know that there's some sort of repairs you can do for acrylic. Is there anything you can do for glass?

Glass is a little tougher. You can buff glass. You can use something. Jewelers will use it. It's called jewelers rouge. And then you can actually try to buff out small scratches with it. It's not going to become totally clean. You're going to maybe reduce the visibility of it, right? You might reduce the visibility of the scratch slightly. It's never going to go away completely. There really is no way to perfectly take a scratch out of glass, so you'll never see it again. But as most people find, when the tank is full and the glass is clean, in the sense that you run an algae scraper across it, they're not usually visible. Scratches become more visible as they grow algae on them.

Just a word of advice for people. People go, how do tanks get scratched? I'll tell you, I've scratched more tanks with my belt buckle as I'm carrying a tank dry. You're carrying it from the house, from the car to the house, or you're moving it from one end of the other. If you have a belt buckle with this metal belt buckle, it'll scratch up glass and acrylic terrible.

Does that mean you used to be skinny? Because I'm looking at you now and your belly completely consumed your belt.

Somebody can get punched in the road again. Here we go. This is where it all starts. I love you, nubs.

I've also heard, have you ever seen plecos scratch up the glass, eating it? Because I've heard that acrylic not glass. I've heard that large plecos will, when they're, like, trying to eat algae or whatever, they've actually scraped up the glass. Have you ever seen that Tag?

I got to see that type of.

Placo and actually tang scan, too. So there's a family of tangs that are really good at eating algae. A lot of people keep them bristle tooth, tangs. And if they get to a decent size, they can actually, as they're eating algae off the side of the acrylic, they'll actually scratch with their teeth.

Is that because they have braces on or what's the deal?

Right? Yeah, they were the they were the nerd in high school.

The nerd in high school.

There was katy Perry in that last Friday night game.

Oh, I love that video especially. You know why I love that? That katy Perry video. Kenny g's in it. Kenny g rocks.

Uncle Kenny.

Uncle Kenny, don't laugh. Debbie Gibson also was in that. And for you kids out there who are too young to remember or too old to remember, debbie Gibson was hot and still is. Yes.

People are googling stuff now.

Thank you.

They should, yeah. I mean, why not?

They're going to giggle it with their inner tube.

They should giggle it on the inner tube.

So the other repair that we get a lot of questions of, is my tank's leaking? I found the leak. Is there anything I can do to stop it without having to drain my tank?

Without having to drain the tank?

Yeah. Do you like crack an egg and dumping your radiator type redneck stuff we're looking for here?

Well, no, it's unfortunately not like a bank. I have a good fix for leaky basement, and that's that you pour Portland cement, a bag of Portland cement outside of where the leak is, then the water carries it down and plugs the hole. But there is no such treatment that I found for last tanks.

Whoa, whoa, whoa. What about flex seal?

Yeah, what about that guy on TV that cuts the bottom of his boat out and then he fills up a screen with that stuff and I don't.

Know, but you have I feel like if you guys got video equipment, I feel like that should be your first video.

Do you have a boat we can borrow? Because I'll cut the bottom of it off?

No. We're going to find somebody's leaky tank, go on site, spray flex seal so that you can't see into the tank at all.

Yeah, because it's like no, they have.

Flex sealed tape, sir.

Tape?

Yes.

You rip a piece off. You yell and scream like you're on TV, and then you slap the side of your tank where the leak is.

Somebody should slap you alongside the head, you dumb dumb.

I said, I want to do this. If someone is out there that has a leaky tank they know of and they're willing to try some flexio, we want your video.

Yeah. And please do it next to your 65 inch TV so if it explodes, I can watch you.

I'm going to send it to ty, and I'm going to buy him a personal role of flexibility.

It's only 999, 99.

So glad we spent we spent all these years getting away from retail for the reason that those are the types.

Of questions you get all the time.

Going to commercial tank construction all the time. Right back where we started.

Boom. You came full circle, buddy.

Basically done.

So other questions we get, and this is actually one of them we had on our tips and tricks episode is what do you do about tank staining? So Jimmy hates scraping tanks. And I got to repeat this one for this episode, because we're talking about tank building.

I'd rather take the tank and throw it out the window of the sitter and scrape it.

Jimmy has a pile of tanks. Jimmy didn't want to clean tanks.

Don't want to clean them.

Robbie got free tanks.

Yeah.

Robbie took a razor blade until his hand went purple. And that's why we cut at that time.

That's why we call you nubs.

Didn't cut my finger that time, but it did hurt very bad, and I was done with it. So I went and saw that, you know, the King of diy, joey, he recommended barkeeper Secret, and it's changed my life ever since. But there's still a bit of scrubbing. Do you have any cleaners or secrets that you use? I'm assuming I can't use barkeeper secret.

On acrylic hardwater, we use vinegar, but that can be used for coral and algae and salt water tanks. Any calcium based grime that's on the sides. As far as algae itself goes, a person can use peroxide, more or less. You can use just ro water and.

Soak it oh, yeah, because ro will strip anything in the aquarium. I didn't think of that one. That's actually pretty genius. Just take an empty tank, fill it with ro, and watch stuff dissolve.

Or drive your local store and buy a new one. Dumb dumb.

No, see, we're going to do it in another episode of the hobos Tank.

Hobo tank?

Aquariums for hobos. That's what we're going to do.

Yeah, because who doesn't want aquarium in their cardboard box down by the river?

So find yourself a person that used to wear belts more prominent and get free tanks from him.

Listen, Santa claus is fat, and he still could scratch a tank with his belt buckle. This is just going south real quick.

You're buying me a pony as well next year, right, Santa?

No, because there's weight restrictions on ponies. And I'm pretty sure when I march out to clydesdale, you'll take a fence.

That's it. When Jimmy orders his tank from you, allow me to scratch it first.

Yeah, exactly.

That way we can just show the audience how easy it is to buff out.

Okay, so I remember reading when I was in the pet trade, how people would get pistol shrimp in their live rock. And a pistol shrimp, if people don't know, has, like, the caliber of a 22 bullet when they crack their pinchers. Would an acrylic tank stand up to pistol shrimp? Because now people apparently think they're cool pets. I've seen because I know they cracked right through glass. I've heard of horror stories, but would you recommend something like that for more durable stuff?

I don't know if they can make it through acrylic or not. I've had them in my shop before in our Krylic system, and that was actually relatively thin acrylic because they were cubes and had no issues with them. And they would snap in there. I don't know if they hit it point blank. Maybe if it was thin acrylic, it could be an issue. I know. I've heard stories about glass. I don't know how it seems like a one in a million, but in theory, they could break glass. It would be more difficult to break acrylic. And acrylic is basically that's what bulletproof glass is, acrylic.

So how thick does it have to be for acrylic to be labeled bulletproof glass?

Or is it just, you know, what the number? I want to say it's either an inch and a half or two.

Wow.

So on the President's limo, that's what that is. Those are acrylic windows. So it doesn't bounce off. It like in the movies. It bounces off. In reality, what it does is actually gets stuck. So the bullet is working its way through the plastic and it basically gets stuck in the middle.

It doesn't have enough philosophy to get through. And that's why they call the card the Beast. trivia. trivia.

Trivia time. Well, ty, is there anything that you feel that we miss in this podcast? Any big things?

I think we've covered the basics, more or less. I think the point to remember is just that the design is the most important thing you're going to suffer in the long term without a good initial design and a good game plan.

I think we learned that locations, all of it. Pre planning. Don't stick your belt buckle that totally wasn't on your stomach in the first place on it. Try flex seal and let us know how it goes.

That's right. And maybe getting the electrical and water supply right to your tank built in the bottom. A lot of these tanks that he's doing, it comes right in the bottom. You don't see any electrical. You don't see any cords. It looks very professional. It's very cool.

But don't put the water and the electrical into the same thing.

Why is that, Adam?

Then you get electric.

You yes, that's the best part.

I feel like that's a future. Story time. All right, guys. Well, thanks again for listening to the podcast. You can find us on Facebook. We're going to get me back on Twitter.

I was on Twitter one time.

Were you?

Yeah.

You remember it?

Yeah, but then the President took over.

You can come join us on discord. And don't forget we also have t shirts, guys. My statement of going in a crop top still valid?

No. And not going to happen.

We'll see you in the next podcast. Let's kick that outro.

Thanks, guys, for listening to this podcast. Please visit us@aquariumguyspodcast.com and listen to us on spotify, iHeartRadio itunes, and anywhere you can listen to podcasts.

We're practically everywhere. We're on Google. I mean, just go to your favorite place, Pocket casts subscribe to make sure it gets push notifications directly to your phone. Otherwise Jim will be crying in to sleep.

Can I listen to it in my treehouse?

In your tree house? In your fish room. Even alone at work.

What about my man cave?

Especially your man cave.

Yeah.

Only if adam's there no with feeder guppies.

No, they're endless.

You imagine loving Frank sucking mother frank.

Well, I guess we'll see you next time. We'll later.