We had a feeling when we first announced the  Y60 case that it would be popular with PC lovers everywhere.

What we didn't anticipate were the sheer number of fish tank memes. 

But where some see memes, we see inspiration.

HYTE is all about extreme case mods, having fun, and getting a little weird. So, we decided to lean all the way into it.

During our first live stream with the Y60, instead of building a PC, we built a fish tank.

The Surprise

Robey was more than a little surprised to watch us pull out fish tank parts instead of  PC hardware.

-Post YT-

Luckily, he was cool with our shenanigans, and so were the viewers! So we gathered our aquarium accessories and got to work.

This wasn’t just about getting laughs, though. If we were going to do this, we wanted it to really work as a place fish can live.

Anatomy of a Fish Tank

Fish tanks are closed ecosystems, so they need lots of finessing in order to make sure everything stays balanced. There’s temperature regulation, light levels, filtration, bacteria, and chemical levels to think about in your tank water (and that’s in a freshwater tank - saltwater tanks come with even more complications). Luckily, we already had people on our team who keep fish as a hobby:

The product team built out an acrylic tank that would be completely watertight and fit directly inside of the Y60 case. They also fabricated a filter reservoir that sits where the power supply would normally go. Altogether, the tank holds about 6 gallons of water, giving this build our affectionate nickname, “the Y6G.”

All that acrylic supplied some pretty satisfying peels on stream, too:

Now That’s What I Call Water Cooling

In order to maintain equilibrium in the tank, water needs to be fully cycled about 10 times per hour. That’s a lot of water cooling!

We decided to go a little “over spec” to make sure any future fish that call this case home live in luxury.

The main tank is connected to the reservoir with a custom PVC loop - the very first custom loop in a Y60 ever!

When the tank is running, water is pumped through biofilters and foam in the reservoir to encourage good bacteria growth and keep out dirt and debris. Then, it’s routed to the top of the reservoir, where it waterfalls back into the main tank, aerating the water with oxygen.

Flounder’s Edition Accessories

Every PC fish tank has to come with a GPU! That’s why we made the 3080 “Flounder’s Edition” to sit vertically in the tank, just like you would install it in a Y60 case.

We gave our GPU a special coating, so that it could live in the tank without any trouble, and give future fish residents the frame rates and ray-tracing they deserve.

And, to keep that GPU cool, we also added our very own 3D printed Kraken!

More Mods to Come

We had a ton of fun with this stream! Big thanks to RobeyTech for rolling with our trolling, and to the community who kept us cracking up with all those fish jokes (or should I say “kraken” up? Eh? Eh? I’ll see myself out).

If you were looking forward to a PC build stream, fear not! There are more Y60 mods to come that actually involve hardware, we promise. Stay tuned for those, and if you’ve preordered already, we’d love to see your own builds once you put them all together!!

Got more questions about the  Y60 case or other HYTE products? Join our Discord! We’re in there answering questions for customers planning their builds right now. You’ll also want to tune into our weekly Townhall events! We answer product questions on stream, and it’s a great chance for us to get to know the community, too.

See you soon! Happy building.