I finally pulled the trigger on my 220ish in-wall Display with basement equipment room

[Rappa]

@Rappa

Truly appreciate your honest and transparent feedback. Really do. We are humble enough to listen and receive. Thank you.

We truly want a great customer experience. I totally get how you feel and understand your feedback.

We have less than a 0.5% shipping breakage rate with over 4,000 tanks built in about a years time.

We can crate upon request. Tough part is balancing costs and experience. Truth is a crate will not stop forks coming at the package on any side. I have see fully crated packages destroyed. I know that doesn't change how you feel. Typically, the packaging looks better than how yours showed up. I am sorry about that. We also designed the packaging for easy and quick inspection so there would be no need for removing screws, nails, wood or any else just to inspect. Allows for a quick inspection. The terminals just don't allow much time for inspection sometimes.

Yes, we can crate upon request. I believe we could have done a better job communicating this for sure. I am really sorry about your shipping experience.

Love your tank and look forward to seeing how everything comes together. Thanks so much again for sharing. We are always listening and adjusting.

@Joe Glass Cages

Thanks for responding Joe! I actually really appreciate the way and tone in which you responded, rather than sounding upset about my post. I was hoping to show my feelings toward the scenario without bashing or demeaning the product itself, because I really feel that the tank is beautiful and well built. And it may have been different had you and I communicated before, during, or after the build, rather than communicating through our mutual friend... who is an awesome dude and much love for him here! I think for me personally, what what made me nervous, was the amount of dirt and dust on and inside the tank when I received it. However, I don't think that it left your dock that way though... Yesterday I was looking through pictures, and the last picture that you sent, the tank had plastic wrapped over the top, but that was missing when it arrived. I think... had the tank been wrapped all the way around with plastic, and covered (like a new cell phone screen when you first get it), I would have been fine. I had to spend a couple of hours cleaning the tank outside in the driveway, which hampered my excitement about the day in general. And, I did have to scrape some stray silicone from inside... which as I think back on it now, might just be caused by my own OCD and attention to small details. I own a landscape construction business focusing on Irrigation and property renovations/ new lawns. I am more conscientious than most other guys about the small details... grading, symmetry, straight lines, color of my hydroseed, our trucks looking clean, all visible plumbing fittings looking "perfect", etc... you get it... I believe you when you say that typically packaging looks better than mine did. I think it may be possible that the packaging got ripped off somehow during transit, and someone taped it back up?

Anyways, Thank you and I appreciate you responding to this thread. It is nice to know that you are out there keeping up and tuned-in to these forums. It shows that you take an interest and have concern about your product. The tank looks great and is holding water fine. I don't want to give away the ending to the build thread, so stay tuned if you want to see the final result! I will show you that last picture that you sent me with the plastic on it, and you tell me if it got ripped off somewhere along the way? I also have a question for you about something else... What is the best way that we can chat for a couple minutes? Thanks again... -Ryan-

 

[Joe Glass Cages]

@Joe Glass Cages

Thanks for responding Joe! I actually really appreciate the way and tone in which you responded, rather than sounding upset about my post. I was hoping to show my feelings toward the scenario without bashing or demeaning the product itself, because I really feel that the tank is beautiful and well built. And it may have been different had you and I communicated before, during, or after the build, rather than communicating through our mutual friend... who is an awesome dude and much love for him here! I think for me personally, what what made me nervous, was the amount of dirt and dust on and inside the tank when I received it. However, I don't think that it left your dock that way though... Yesterday I was looking through pictures, and the last picture that you sent, the tank had plastic wrapped over the top, but that was missing when it arrived. I think... had the tank been wrapped all the way around with plastic, and covered (like a new cell phone screen when you first get it), I would have been fine. I had to spend a couple of hours cleaning the tank outside in the driveway, which hampered my excitement about the day in general. And, I did have to scrape some stray silicone from inside... which as I think back on it now, might just be caused by my own OCD and attention to small details. I own a landscape construction business focusing on Irrigation and property renovations/ new lawns. I am more conscientious than most other guys about the small details... grading, symmetry, straight lines, color of my hydroseed, our trucks looking clean, all visible plumbing fittings looking "perfect", etc... you get it... I believe you when you say that typically packaging looks better than mine did. I think it may be possible that the packaging got ripped off somehow during transit, and someone taped it back up?

Anyways, Thank you and I appreciate you responding to this thread. It is nice to know that you are out there keeping up and tuned-in to these forums. It shows that you take an interest and have concern about your product. The tank looks great and is holding water fine. I don't want to give away the ending to the build thread, so stay tuned if you want to see the final result! I will show you that last picture that you sent me with the plastic on it, and you tell me if it got ripped off somewhere along the way? I also have a question for you about something else... What is the best way that we can chat for a couple minutes? Thanks again... -Ryan-

Thank you @Rappa

Really appreciate your reply.

for sure I am available. 404-434-3444 is my direct number. We can always schedule a call. or if you call and I don't answer, leave a message and I will call you right back after I finish the call I am on. Thanks so much.

 

[Rappa]

Tank is in place.

 

[LeleganceCoral]

Wow! This is developing nicely, wish i had the house and money for a tank like that!

 

[Rappa]

Wow! This is developing nicely, wish i had the house and money for a tank like that!

Thank you... It didn't come easy though. I bought a house that needed a lot of repair/updating. We have a ton of sweat equity into the house. That's the #1 reason that I couldn't/wouldn't do this project earlier. We used our extra money to put into the house and yard. Then we had kids... I've saved a little, and planned for this for the past ten years or so. Still, I do feel guilty spending the money on it though. My wife was the one who inspired me to go forward with it and gave me her blessing 100%. Ten+ years ago, I was wishing the same thing you are! You can get there if you really want it...

 

[Rappa]

Aquascaping - Admittedly, this was by far the hardest part of this project (for me). I bought hundreds of pounds of Marco rock. I sat outside on my back deck for many hours building structures that I thought looked good in the moment, only to hate them and rip them apart the next day. This went on for a good couple of weeks. I really wasn't getting the looks that I wanted with my old live rock and Marco only. Nope..... Nope..... I struggled with this and I didn't enjoy this part at all. I decided to order some Caribsea Liferock pieces and arches to help me get going.

 

[Gumbies R Us]

Aquascaping - Admittedly, this was by far the hardest part of this project (for me). I bought hundreds of pounds of Marco rock. I sat outside on my back deck for many hours building structures that I thought looked good in the moment, only to hate them and rip them apart the next day. This went on for a good couple of weeks. I really wasn't getting the looks that I wanted with my old live rock and Marco only. Nope..... Nope..... I struggled with this and I didn't enjoy this part at all. I decided to order some Caribsea Liferock pieces and arches to help me get going.

Aquascaping was definitely daunting for me, i remember rescaping so many times until I finally landed on a design that I liked for my tank

 

[Rappa]

I took a break and went back at at. For me, the Liferock pieces helped me a bunch. I'm not really 100% happy with every structure that I built, but it's fine for now and definitely a good start. I can live with it for a while and change things, or build different structures later, if needed... I used a combo of Liferock, Marco, and my old real live rock from my previous tank. Oppinions?

 

[Rappa]

Finished plumbing from the overflow. Two 1" returns and two 1-1/2" drains. One drain will be full siphon, the other a durso trickle/emergency combo.

 

[Rappa]

Return piping is blue, Drains are red.

 

[Rappa]

Added live sand and started filling her up! Started with the 100 gallons of cycled water from the Rubbermaid tub that I have been running water through the sump and seeding liverock in the sump room for a few weeks, and made approx 150 gallons of additional new salt water to supplement.

 

[Rappa]

 

[Rappa]

The Hammerhead Hybrid return pump was putting out over 2000gph wide open. I don't need near that much, so I installed the smaller impeller. Now the flow is 1250-1300 wide open. Much better and saves a tiny bit of electricity.

 

[Rappa]

Working on building doors and finishing my stand. This is my first attempt at making my own doors. I'm kinda just rolling with it. No real plans, just building stuff and seeing how it looks, and making changes along the way.

 

[Rappa]

Finishing the stand, trim, doors, cont.... Made a new chair rail around the bottom of the tank. First one was too narrow and I couldn't rest my elbows on it when doing the close-up stare/gazing. Now I can put my phone on it, or a bottle, etc... I also decided to hide the armored seems with a top chair rail. I am happy with the way it came out, nothing bothers me about it. The large top door lifts up great, and stays up great. I forgot to mention earlier that I had to move the light switches up, and reinstalled the wall outlet at the bottom of the stand side-panel.

 

[Rappa]

Quick Summary / Recap

 

[Ado]

Looking good! I need to update my tank thread haha. Your craftsmanship is something I can only dream of creating

 

[Rappa]

Looking good! I need to update my tank thread haha. Your craftsmanship is something I can only dream of creating

Thank you very much! I really appreciate the compliment. Your tank setup is awesome I just looked at your build thread. Beautiful... Perfect size tank I love the 6' footprint. Yeah you gotta update it because I wanna see how you made out with your diatoms/ hair algae?

 

[Ironwill723]

The Hammerhead Hybrid return pump was putting out over 2000gph wide open. I don't need near that much, so I installed the smaller impeller. Now the flow is 1250-1300 wide open. Much better and saves a tiny bit of electricity.

Any idea the watts being pulled with the smaller impeller? I'm debating using that same pump vs a Sicce ADV 10.0.

 

[Rappa]

Any idea the watts being pulled with the smaller impeller? I'm debating using that same pump vs a Sicce ADV 10.0.

It uses some juice for sure... According to Fusion, at wide open pumping 1235gph, it averages 275.5W for a monthly cost of $51.40. If I restrict flow with the ball valve to 800gph which is what I will run after I get rid of the green hair algae, power actually decreases to 265W... which baffles me. I have 13'-ish feet of head, with a 30'ft run from the basement sump to the tank. I have the version of the pump with the made in USA Baldor motor. I think I got it at Aquacave.