"Tanked" Poor Example

[Acrophiliac]

The one who said:

"If ATM are doing everything right and are following proper practices to keep the fish happy and healthy in their systems but this just isnt being shown through the editing process, the responsible thing to do would be to change their contract or pull out from the show."

Are you serious? Anyone who would pull out of a show that puts there company on TV for millions of people to see and provides not only free advertising, but I am sure a nice paycheck, would be an fool. Period.

And who cares if the phonebooth tank is for sale? People buy tanks and sell them to get out all the time in this hobby, people buy all kinds of pets even and sell them too when they realize it takes work to keep them. Thats not ATM's fault. They just build tanks. Thats all. They dont build hobbyists. just tanks.

 

[mistaflicksta]

nicks387, I couldn't of said it better myself.

one of the local store owners was just going on and on about how wrong the show was and when I asked him why he was not on TV yet, I got the F U stare and the conversation was over

 

[khowst]

WTS SECOND SEASON!!!!

http://tvbythenumbers.zap2it.com/20...-by-animal-planet-for-a-second-season/105083/


Can I get a hell yeah!

Told ya, all the haters tuning in would bump those ratings up. lol.

 

[Aqua Goddeess]

They keep their livestock in their store. It's not shipped from ERI directly to the maintenance site.

Plus production of the show was in effect almost two years ago... Then the economy tanked (pun completely intended of course), and Vegas was hit almost as hard as Detroit. 14% unemployment rate. Most of the tanks from the first season are in businesses that have since closed their doors. That's why they sell them again on eBay.

You won't see too much technical stuff on the show because a lot of their techniques are trade secret. Like how they can glue pieces together with nary a seam to been shown.

 

[Alphabet]

2nd season almost here so those that like it will tune in and those that dont can change the channel.
Great Company, great history, and one heck of a staff. ( ck out their website)

You can compare it to American Chopper, how many people (with common sense or half a brain) will watch a TV program and say lets build a bike...? :hmm3:

I know there will be a few......LOL!!

just my .02c again!!!

 

[Tizzo]

And who cares if the phonebooth tank is for sale? People buy tanks and sell them to get out all the time in this hobby, people buy all kinds of pets even and sell them too when they realize it takes work to keep them. Thats not ATM's fault. They just build tanks. Thats all. They dont build hobbyists. just tanks.

Oh you are correct. They build tanks, and the tanks are beautiful and I wish them success in that area. They do not build hobbiests, true. My problem lies when they hand over dependant living animals to customers that they know are not hobbiests. Build the tank, fill it with water start up the filtration, then leave. Nobody should ever hand over a PET to an unfit caretaker! The tank is for sale because the fish died with in 4 days. Now, while you may not care, some of us do- and we have that perogative. Granted, theres nothing we as hobbiests can do about it, so we should be able to "vent" in an atmosphere that is supposed to care for these critters, above the dollars. In this hobby, we loose thousands FOR these animals, yet we will defend their actions with the justification of profit?? That is your perogative, however for those of us that feel like this is morally wrong, please, just let us feel that way!! Not everything has to be an argument! You see logic in their methods, I see logic in confining them to ONLY building tanks.

 

[asonitez]

I think Rodney Reynolds the LAFISHGUY should have his own show. He does a HELL o a lot better than these tanked folks. Admittedly... i am entertained.

 

[Aqua Goddeess]

Oh you are correct. They build tanks, and the tanks are beautiful and I wish them success in that area. They do not build hobbiests, true. My problem lies when they hand over dependant living animals to customers that they know are not hobbiests. Build the tank, fill it with water start up the filtration, then leave. Nobody should ever hand over a PET to an unfit caretaker! The tank is for sale because the fish died with in 4 days. Now, while you may not care, some of us do- and we have that perogative. Granted, theres nothing we as hobbiests can do about it, so we should be able to "vent" in an atmosphere that is supposed to care for these critters, above the dollars. In this hobby, we loose thousands FOR these animals, yet we will defend their actions with the justification of profit?? That is your perogative, however for those of us that feel like this is morally wrong, please, just let us feel that way!! Not everything has to be an argument! You see logic in their methods, I see logic in confining them to ONLY building tanks.

The fish didn't die. They are a full service company as well so they do the full care and maintenance of the tanks. Don't spread rumors like the fish died in 4 days. When the tank was broken down the fish went back to their store. Oh and that tank was filmed more than a year ago. I like their maintenance guys. They really do care about the little guys and most of them have their own menageries at home.

 

[Tizzo]

I hope you are correct. My "source" admittedly isn't verified, however, it's easy to believe.

The story I got was, the fish all died, when the customer complained, they said "for a fee" they will come back and add new stock and maintain the tank. The fee was to high so the owner opted out.

And that the owner didn't call them for this tank, but rather he was approached byu the guys on the show to do it.

If that's all wrong, let me know, I'll graciously concede, as I only have word of mouth

 

[Aqua Goddeess]

Animal planet funds most of the tanks for the show. If the customers didn't want to pay for the service contract then ATM takes the tanks back. There has only been one problem with a tank that I've heard of and that was because a circuit in the building went out.

 

[Acrophiliac]

My problem lies when they hand over dependant living animals to customers that they know are not hobbiests. Build the tank, fill it with water start up the filtration, then leave. Nobody should ever hand over a PET to an unfit caretaker!

Actually Local fish stores and pet stores and online vendors around the country do this every single day. Go to any site and order fish and see if the site makes you fill out any kind of questionaire about your hobby experience.

The tank is for sale because the fish died with in 4 days. Now, while you may not care, some of us do- and we have that perogative. Granted, theres nothing we as hobbiests can do about it, so we should be able to "vent" in an atmosphere that is supposed to care for these critters, above the dollars. In this hobby, we loose thousands FOR these animals, yet we will defend their actions with the justification of profit?? That is your perogative, however for those of us that feel like this is morally wrong, please, just let us feel that way!! Not everything has to be an argument! You see logic in their methods, I see logic in confining them to ONLY building tanks.

I never said they only build tanks. I said they dont build hobbyists. They DO however maintain tanks so you have no true knowledge that they fill a tank with fish and just leave. I would think that while in a customers house for hours installing a tank they give that customer a heck of alot more info then the average store that sells them a tank at the counter in 5 minutes and sends them out the door.
If a person buys a tank like this and doesnt pay someone to care for it or doesn't go out and do his or her research to do whats needed to care for it then its 100% there fault. Not the fault of ATM for selling them the tank.
I too have the perogative to post my opinion here as well if I think your opinion is unjustly misleading and without proof. So do not tell me to not post just because it is not the same view as yours.

 

[Jacwil]

Actually Local fish stores and pet stores and online vendors around the country do this every single day. Go to any site and order fish and see if the site makes you fill out any kind of questionaire about your hobby experience.





I never said they only build tanks. I said they dont build hobbyists. They DO however maintain tanks so you have no true knowledge that they fill a tank with fish and just leave. I would think that while in a customers house for hours installing a tank they give that customer a heck of alot more info then the average store that sells them a tank at the counter in 5 minutes and sends them out the door.
If a person buys a tank like this and doesnt pay someone to care for it or doesn't go out and do his or her research to do whats needed to care for it then its 100% there fault. Not the fault of ATM for selling them the tank.
I too have the perogative to post my opinion here as well if I think your opinion is unjustly misleading and without proof. So do not tell me to not post just because it is not the same view as yours.

Couldn't have stated it any better...+1!!

 

[Fish Biscuit]

Writing a check for tank maintenance every 2 weeks does not exactly make you a responsible fish owner either. There are things that still need to be done within that time besides throwing a few flakes or frozen cubes in the tank.

The tank builds are always interesting but I go with the consensus that there are way too many fish put into a tank at once. Definitely not a "how to" show & more along the lines of "what not to do" for success. But it is what it is, just a tv show.

 

[Bluetangclan]

I havent been to their website. I would hope it goes into the more technical details of how they successfully start tanks with what most of us agree on, with good practical and likely learned reason, is fairly irresponsible fish stocking. I do not want the show to end however because as much ammo as I think it gives to groups like PETA who want nothing more than to shut our hobby down, I think it adds that much to potential hobbiests as well who perhaps havent seen tanks like this before. I think most of their designs are silly as hell, really skateboarding on a fish tank? But their more normal designs are really cool, I love the fungshui tank and the circular proposal tank even though I greatly disagreed with the stocking on the latter. I think though one of the reasons I liked the fungshui tank much more than any other they have done is that it was real. There wasnt a lot of fakeness to it, they sort of went into detail on the filtration system so it actually seemed like a real tank one of us might build on a larger scale. I would hope most of their other tanks have similar support equipment and such.

I looked at the phone booth tank on ebay, I actually like that it does have a good deal of support equipment included that was not shown on the show. Doesnt make me want it any more but at least there is some thought to more than just the tank itself and pretty fish inside it. I would absolutely love to get hold of a tall tank like that, I would have a badass deepwater biotope tank with it. I wonder how much something like that would cost to get built locally and how would you take care of it?

 

[H2OTight]

I guess watching a cool tank being built and installed and then watching it cycle would be kind of boring.

 

[Bluetangclan]

From the looks of it, many times they do not have time to cycle them. They get these deadlines. Like the gumball machine tank or the proposal tank, those had very harsh timelines they had to follow. I think the proposal tank had what, a two week time frame from being ordered to delivery and setup? The car tank I think was even tighter than that. They definately are not going through the cycle process on every tank. I would like to know how they do this. It defies logic and ethics if they skip this slightly important part of the tank building process leaving the customer in the lurch. Not to mention the horrible algae blooms they would have.

 

[Aqua Goddeess]

Bacteria and water add-in from cycled tanks at the shop. And fish don't need a serious cycling time when there isn't dead rock bacteria dying off and forming again.

 

[Roblox84]

From the looks of it, many times they do not have time to cycle them. They get these deadlines. Like the gumball machine tank or the proposal tank, those had very harsh timelines they had to follow. I think the proposal tank had what, a two week time frame from being ordered to delivery and setup? The car tank I think was even tighter than that. They definately are not going through the cycle process on every tank. I would like to know how they do this. It defies logic and ethics if they skip this slightly important part of the tank building process leaving the customer in the lurch. Not to mention the horrible algae blooms they would have.

Since I never seen them actually tap into a water spicket I just assumed they have a giant vat of cured saltwater on their truck that they fill the tanks up with using a long hose.

But for discussion purposes I would also like to mention that most of the customers on the show aren't really into the hobby as a "hobby". Unlike probably most people on reefcentral that are diyer's and read about the hobby to learn reefkeeping, and somewhat like taking care of the tank and doing maintenance, for ATM's customers it's more of a status symbol than a hobby. So even if ATM didn't practice responsible fishkeeping, it wouldn't matter because 90 percent of their customers will just pay to replace any dead fish, or just blame their tank maintenance guy. I myself, and probably for other hobbyists, I like researching the fish myself and planning the tank. But they wouldn't make much money of people that like doing it themselves of course so they mostly cater to the people that don't know anything about reefkeeping.

 

[Acrophiliac]

The bio media in the filters is already biologically active from a giant system at the shop for those occasions and they also seed it with a comercial grade bacteria that they will actually be bringing to market soon for faster cycle times. The interview Bret did at MACNA explained this.

 

[mcfa2403]

Just thought someone should point out that most first time hobbyists are more likely to walk in to the lfs and see a naso tang kept in a tank of no more than 20 gallons and not realize it is in a larger system and will not be kept there for long, than to watch this show and think that they can put however many fish in too small a setup. I have seen more customers walk in and think that the lfs stocking standards are appropriate than I can count. The only reason people don't do this is because the lfs (addmitedly hopefully does this) tells them what is appropriate. I don't see anyone on here boycotting their lfs because they keep 12 clownfish in one tank. Sorry, that last statement was slightly inflammatory but until the show does something illegal I dont feel that anyone has the right to judge them so harshly. Honestly if it is an ethics issue realize that fish are not domestic animals and keeping them in a tank regardless of your qualifications is most likely unethical to someone, how would you feel if they came on here and attacked you. That said I do believe a disclaimer would be nice. However, I can't say I've ever seen a disclaimer on any show or movie discouraging the buying of pets for holidays which very often leads to abandonment/flushing of animal depending on species. And as far as the phonebooth tank goes, until someone can prove a tank crash due to irresponsible fishkeeping you should probably let it go. Just go to the selling dry goods page and I gaurantee there is a tank for sale but I doubt you are attacking them asking them why they are getting rid of it (I know its a weak argument but so is "this fsh tanks for sale so the show must have killed all the fish")

Anyways that was my rant. I can be long winded so take what I have to say with a grain of salt and while what I say sounds like it, I don't always think I am right but like everyone else I want to give my two cents.