Tansu inspired mixed reef & Haddoni:Clown setup

[sugartooth]

Ah! The very famous Shu Tin and the underwater paradise of anemones. I haven't followed to the current status but I think she has some macro that I haven't been able to come across. I will definitely see what the current status is and see what other macros I can try. The problem is that this foxface seems to eat what normally is left untouched (except bubble algae!).

I really wanted to put a different tang in there, but really there is no good tang to put in a 3 foot cube.

 

[sugartooth]

Ok! Good news and not such good news.

Good news- I got the tank finally!! It looks very nice and gives more space for fish and coral because the overflow box is smaller. Bad news is that the black background and plumbing that was supposed to come with it, didn't.

Great news is that the seams are beautiful, only itty bitty bubbles seen in the bottom between the first and second glass panes. The bottom is about 1 1/2" thick!


Some more bad news is that I'm under medical supervision and my activity level is restricted. Good news is that I've found a couple of people that can help me out with the heavy lifting (sand, rocks, canopy). I'm going to try to plumb this and hopefully have it leak tested by next week. We'll see how far I get!

In the meantime, here is Odin, 5 1/2 months old and sits on the couch like a big boy now. Tank pictures next week!

 

[sugartooth]

MORE bad news. My holes aren't right.

The size is too small, instead I have 1/2" and 3/4" bulkhead holes for my closed loop intake and output.

I have a Dart. Is there any way to plumb this without restricting the Dart?

 

[dahenley]

how many of each do you have?
and do you have a picture, or is there a picture (hand drawn is fine) that can explan the locations of them.

Reeflo says that as long as the intake and output holes are equal (intake shouldnt be smaller) then it wont hurt the pump. (it just will have less flow)

if you only have a single input for the closed loop, then its too small. if there are a few holes to where you can connect them together, then no big deal.

because the holes for the coming from the OM-4 way are smaller, then you may have to go to a drum to where 2 holes are open at the same time verses 1 at a time. (if you dont have that drum already)

another option would be to drill the holes larger. most LFS will do this. (i personally have dont this on many tanks.... just make sure the glass isnt tempered. i have seen some old oceanic tanks tempered their bottom glass after drilling, so just because the tank is drilled, doesnt mean its not tempered. but a simple phone call will confirm this for you)
(maybe you can con your local fish store into drilling the holes for a discount or even free seeing that you have had many obsticals......)

nice pup by the way...... its growing fast....

 

[dahenley]

oh... and love the carpet in the tank as well!!!

 

[sugartooth]

I have 2 of the 3/4" holes for intake of closed loop and 4 outputs via oceans motions, which are 1" outputs. But, two of them that are drilled are now 1/2".

This is messed up and not what I wanted. I thought about having someone drill a bigger hole....but no way I want to take a chance unless it's Elos to do it. This is 3/4" glass (harder to drill?) and 10 months of waiting for the tank to get to me.

I kind of am running out of time to delay this any further since I'm under medical supervision, things aren't going to get any better so I need to get this done asap.

Thanks for the comments about my puppy.......he is very naughty, but affectionate. I think he's trying to slowly get his way to get on the couch.

 

[BDean]

This tank is amazing! Great job

 

[sugartooth]

#@$%&!!!

I'm about to turn this thing into a bookcase or goldfish tank.


I went to purchase 1/2" bulkheads to finish up putting the bulkheads in and then finally getting the rest of the plumbing done.

Well it doesn't fit! The holes are too small to fit 1/2" bulkheads.


Soooo, I have 4 tiny holes for a 290 gallon tank.....it doesn't make any sense to me. I'm starting to think they sent me the wrong tank because thus far I thought I asked for:

- 2 return holes and 4 closed loop holes per my drawing- I ended up with 2 and 2.

- all return holes to be 1" bulkhead, all of them don't even fit 1/2"

- 2 x 1 1/2" intake holes - which then I was reminded that I was willing to go 1".......but they don't fit 1" they fit 3/4" instead.

- black background - still shipped as clear even after I pointed it out.

- Holes staggered for Tunzes- I ended up with parallel holes which they modified later


I was also told the overflow would be completely plumbed in advance as a courtesy.



All of this after waiting about 10 months to get this tank delivered.



The only thing left to do now in order to finish this is to plumb everything over the top and plug the holes. I'm not sure how to plug these holes, I'm making a run to ACE Hardware. I would ask a store to come and enlarge the existing holes, but don't want to modify it unless it's Elos that does it.
I feel like it's such a waste of hard earned money. I'm completely not prepared for this because I never expected this out of Elos.


The only thing I can think of is that I'm not aware of some sort of plumbing part that will fit this hole and take 1/2" pipe. My suspicion is the whole metric vs. U.S. measurement is what got messed up. I'm really hoping this is the case and everything will be fine in the end (which I guess it usually is).

In the meantime I have grown steadily impatient and feel pretty badly because Jesse was great to work with otherwise.

 

[dahenley]

have you contacted Jesse to see what they have to say?
if they would fly someone over to fix the overflow, then they could pop a new piece of glass in. that would be the easiest thing.....

just a thought....
If you order bulkheads of the internet, the glass drillbits that you order are in Metric, so its hard to mess up when thats the way they are shipped anyways.....

this is not what is expected from ELOS

Also, there was a ELOS sponsor page. you might post there to see what they say/reply with. (changes are, they might take extreme measures to hide this and get you handled and get you fixed.)

just a thought..

 

[krjackso]

wow, really frustrating. Sorry to hear that. On a side note, your pup is awesome!

 

[sugartooth]

henley, yes I spoke to him a little over a couple of weeks ago and he said he would try to find the plumbing parts and send them to me. They are getting another store ready so he was getting ready to travel. If he couldn't find the parts, he was going to have one of the guys that was coming over from Italy bring them and ship to me. That was supposed to happen on the 6th.

I waited for the plumbing parts and figured they weren't coming. Something was also weird with their voicemail system. Today, I sent an email because I got frustrated with all the troubles that I encountered and pretty much lost my cool.

He responded and both him and Italy thought the plumbing had been sent. They will look into it. In the meantime nothing about the actual size of the holes was addressed. I NEVER imagined having these problems with Elos, and actually thought all would be easy after I received the tank and I can re-use a lot of my plumbing.


I don't know how much more I can push on with this build before giving up the original plan. I wanted to see this through as my project, my system. I'm in my second trimester (getting BIG!) and it's become quite hard to manage all the tanks and try to finish this build. I tried working backwards with some of the other plumbing today and all I could manage was 4-5 hours before I didn't feel well.


Here is the tank the day I got it:

 

[dahenley]

Oh, and no sniffing PVC Fumes!!!!!

 

[dahenley]

WOW, second Trimester!!!
CONGRADULATIONS!!!


if they are coming from italy, tell them to bring their hole saw's and the required bulkheads.
if they cant replace the glass, they can drill it for the required "4" holes you required.
the Tunze holes you can deal with, but you need the holes for the closed loop. because whats the use in using the larger pump and plumbing if your choking it with small 1/2 holes......

just a thought
(oh, and bring the included overflow plumbing.)

 

[sugartooth]

Thank you so much! It's been pretty rough and I'm under medical supervision that ends on Monday (I hope). It's been kind of rough because I had some early and ongoing complications, so I hope things will be ok in the end.


The one tank builder is coming from Italy, but not coming to me. He is going to help set up their new store on the East Coast and was going to bring my plumbing with him to mail to me when he gets there. Unfortunately it didn't happen, or it's lost somewhere. I don't think anyone is coming to my home and drilling or replacing anything....although it would be nice and quite a relief if they did.

I'm totally with you on choking my pump with those itty bitty holes. I'm planning on at least 2 to come up and over to give me outputs that are 1" from oceans motions. But I have to find a way for the intake. I'm leaning towards going up and over.....and kind of ruining the look.


I still have my respirator from plumbing earlier, so I should be protected. Thanks for the reminder! That stuff is really bad for your health.

 

[dahenley]

Did you order the ELOS through your LFS?
if so, they are insured and can drill it for you with confidence!
just another opinion.

 

[LJG]

Thanks for sharing your experiences. I feel so bad for you. What a bummer. But from your post, you were able to help me in a few ways:

1) I marked off AGE off my list as someone to build my future 450 Gallon. Those bubbles would drive me nuts too and for them to think that is within a standard realm of acceptability tells me they are not the builder for me. I too have a very keen eye. I will pay for quality and if it does not live up to expectations as to what was promised, I will have issue.
2) While reading I was excited to see you went with Elos. I ordered two Elos tanks from Jesses and I have been happy so far. It certainly put them at the front for the large build in the future. Then I read on.... which was rather disappointing. I know there are two sides to every story, but from what you stated I find it is not what I would expect from Elos.
3) When I have my 450 gallon built I will have the provider sign a contract to protect myself. I will detail what I want and they will sign off on it. That way if they fail, it is very easy to hold them responsible. I have done this on a few landscape projects and it held the parties involved responsible to where it could not be swept under the rug - which they tried to do.
4) I will make sure that whoever builds my tank sends me updated photos of the job to include the final build before shipment. Only after a sign off will I accept shipment. It would at least allow me to make sure I get what I want. I will even have then sent me pictures with rulers for scale on bulkheads now. Hard to believe you have to do that.

Anyway, hang in there. There are always more important things in life to worry about. It always seems to work out in the end, even if the goal takes a little longer to achieve.

 

[sugartooth]

LJG: Thanks so much for your post. I'm glad to have helped you a little bit for your preparation, at least for things that may come up with larger tanks.

I too own a couple of smaller Elos tanks and my experience with them was great. I think that's what frustrated me even more so because this was just not what I thought could possibly happen when I decided to go with the larger tank and custom overflow, etc. I agree, definitely insist on pics before approval.

As mentioned, talking to Jesse was easy and I felt confident. After that I have no idea what happened. I did ask repeatedly for pictures before they sent it on the boat for me to look over so I can make sure it's right - before it gets shipped to the states. Jesse did ask them to send pictures and they just sent the tank, and never any pictures. Then I asked Jesse to send me pictures before he shipped the tank to me.

He did send them, and that's when I noticed some features were not correct and detailed them to him, which he relayed to Italy. From there, it just seemed to be one thing that's not right after another.

If there was only 1 or 2 issues, I wouldn't be as upset. But really, after going for a high end manufacturer and spending more than I wanted to, I shouldn't end up with a list of things that aren't quite right.

Jesse has been very apologetic and I am glad that he recognizes this as well. Unfortunately, I'm not sure there is much they can do except send me the plumbing that they promised.

Another thing you can take away from this experience is that Woodwork Refined (the woodworking crew) is TOP notch. They have been following me and keeping in touch this whole time, ready to modify the canopy, willing to come and install the trim once I'm ready. This is about 1 year since they've completed the project and have been paid! I can't say enough about their integrity and craftsmanship, you really feel the pride they have in their work.


　
Henley: No, I went direct with Elos. I figured having a third party may muck up the communication. I still believe that.

 

[dahenley]

Sugar, have you posted in the ELOS forum? if anything... you may be able to get the desired plumbing pieces you need faster....
and maybe get more help.
just a thought

 

[sugartooth]

Thanks....no, I haven't thought about posting in the forum. I'm not sure if it will accomplish anything more than 'venting', which I guess I have done here.

He knows how I feel and I don't think I've written anything he doesn't know already.

Thanks for trying to find ways for me to move forward. Hopefully he will respond soon and track down the whereabouts of the plumbing. Otherwise, I'm going to have to go buy 3/8" fittings,etc.

 

[Vince huy]

hope everything come out peaceful with your 2nd tank