Just for My Fishtank.net
- Thread starter strout
- Start date
We have a tank, they messed up something, its no big deal, but it will delay me getting water into the tank by about a week. I ordered the tank with a black vinyl paint on the outside of the back panel, they forgot to do this. What I found out is, the black vinyl isn't sprayed onto the tank, its a sheet, sort of like the stuff they tint car windows with, just thicker. They are sending some out and I will get it next week, just can't put water in the tank because the tank will have to be moved on the stand to put the vinyl on the tank. onto the pics
Copy of the letter I sent DSA Aquariums
Just received my DSA Aquarium ordered from your company thru my local fish store a 48x30x25 tank. To say I am very upset with your company and your quality control is an understatement. You were in competition for my business with Miracles Aquariums, a Canadian based company. Their price for my aquarium of choice was only $300 more than your price, what got me to buy your tank was the quality of the service I would receive from my local fish store owner, the $300 price difference had no bearing in my decision. I had told my local vendor that MOST important to me, told him this several times, was that the tank had a black vinyl coating on the outside back panel of the tank when it came in, I wanted to receive the tank ready to be put on the stand, not outside on my picnic table during the middle of winter having to spray paint the back of the tank black. Its the only thing that your company could mess up, and your company didn't disappoint, you messed it up. Now I have to wait for your company to send the black vinyl sheet next week, wait for the local fish store owner to fit me into his schedule to come over and apply it to my tank, or get some help over to the house, take the tank outside in the middle of winter and spray paint the back of the tank with several coats of black paint, then get the help back over to the house to bring the tank back into the house, delaying my setting up the tank by two weeks, after I have been getting ready for this tank for the last 4 months already. I would almost guarantee you that Derik, from Mircales Aquariums wouldn't have let this happen. I am a member on more than a few online saltwater forums, be sure that I am going to let all of my forum members from the several forums that I am in, know of your quality control or lack there of, and that I am going to recommend that they buy their new tanks from any company other than DSA Aquariums. Ya'll have a nice day, I on the other hand will not.
Just received my DSA Aquarium ordered from your company thru my local fish store a 48x30x25 tank. To say I am very upset with your company and your quality control is an understatement. You were in competition for my business with Miracles Aquariums, a Canadian based company. Their price for my aquarium of choice was only $300 more than your price, what got me to buy your tank was the quality of the service I would receive from my local fish store owner, the $300 price difference had no bearing in my decision. I had told my local vendor that MOST important to me, told him this several times, was that the tank had a black vinyl coating on the outside back panel of the tank when it came in, I wanted to receive the tank ready to be put on the stand, not outside on my picnic table during the middle of winter having to spray paint the back of the tank black. Its the only thing that your company could mess up, and your company didn't disappoint, you messed it up. Now I have to wait for your company to send the black vinyl sheet next week, wait for the local fish store owner to fit me into his schedule to come over and apply it to my tank, or get some help over to the house, take the tank outside in the middle of winter and spray paint the back of the tank with several coats of black paint, then get the help back over to the house to bring the tank back into the house, delaying my setting up the tank by two weeks, after I have been getting ready for this tank for the last 4 months already. I would almost guarantee you that Derik, from Mircales Aquariums wouldn't have let this happen. I am a member on more than a few online saltwater forums, be sure that I am going to let all of my forum members from the several forums that I am in, know of your quality control or lack there of, and that I am going to recommend that they buy their new tanks from any company other than DSA Aquariums. Ya'll have a nice day, I on the other hand will not.
Today's progress, decided to go to Lowe's this morning and pick up some black Latex paint and paint the back of the stand. So, got the tank painted, got the Durso overflow box drain pipe made and installed. Hooked up the drain and return lines in the sump. The return line will have to be redone at a later date, had to use some 90 elbows that I didn't really want to use, but the 45s wouldn't work at this time. Also got the tank filled with RO water, still need about 25g or so to fill the overflow box and the sump, have that water making and should be ready in the morning. Also got the sand put in the tank, just have to make sure I get the live rock down into the base the sand bed when it comes time to put the rock into the tank. I will put the salt into the sump tomarrow morning and let that mix and then the rock will be ready to go into the tank..
Good news bad news. Bad news first, the one fish we kept out of the old 125g tank, was being kept by a friend in her frag tank, Wilma, A Midas Blenny, died last nite 
This was pretty much the first fish we got when we first set up the 125g tank, and got into the hobby. So, we will be starting all over with fish in the new tank. onto the good news, made RO water all nite, this morning filled the sump, put in some extra to fill the return line, put some in the skimmer to weight that down a bit. Still didn't have quite enough water to fill the overflow box and that making right now. As soon as that is done, two years in the making and we will be cranking it up.
This was pretty much the first fish we got when we first set up the 125g tank, and got into the hobby. So, we will be starting all over with fish in the new tank. onto the good news, made RO water all nite, this morning filled the sump, put in some extra to fill the return line, put some in the skimmer to weight that down a bit. Still didn't have quite enough water to fill the overflow box and that making right now. As soon as that is done, two years in the making and we will be cranking it up.
The Big Let Down,,,,,, Everything that I can think of is done, recheck everything, take a break come back and recheck everything again. Its time to turn the return pump on, will I have leaks everywhere, did I do everything right, kinda afraid a bit, will be ready to yank the return pump plug if things go wrong, OK its time don't be afraid, just do it. Plug in the return pump, wait for it, wait for it, here its comes Nothing, Nada, Squat what the @#$% Unplug the pump. Plug in the manifold pump into the same outlet, works fine, plug in the skimmer, everything's good. Take the return pump out of the sump, get the old pump from the old 125g, plug it in and everything's good. Guess I got a bad pump, tapped on it a bit and got it to Hummm a bit, but it won't pump water. Anyway putting salt into the sump now. Never thought to check the pump at the LFS, never would have thought it would have been bad. The good thing, we now have a tank.
Well, a bit more bad news. I had one old MP40 from the 125g tank that was about 6 months old and was working fine when I shut down the 125g, now the motor side is making some kind of noise, I shut it down. I put salt in the tank for 170g and the salt is at 1.024 in the tank, I will check it again tomorrow, if its still high, I will dilute it a bit. Got all of the rock in the tank and that's what it is, just in the tank.
That tank looks awesome Sir!!! Sorry to hear about all the problems. Sounds just like my endeavors in new set-ups. Normally mine is I forgot something in town when I was there rounding up the last parts needed to make it work. The bad part about that is the fact that a trip to town is at least a 90-120 minute endeavor. Seems like forever when you just get back and realize you have to make this trip again!!! Where do you run your salt at?
I do not understand any of the plumbing of this, but I have enjoyed reading every entry - it has been like a drama unfolding and more interesting than much of what is on TV! Good luck with the rest of the project and I will continue to follow it. The only thing I really kind of understand is how in the world are you going to keep all that stuff in the cabinet clean - seems like even in closets and cupboards dust and other debris manages to get in.
Kelly, I am pretty lucky, Lowe's is right around the corner from the house. As to my salt, My Hydro meter is marked, sure you have seen them, has a bracket showing you where your salt needs to be. On the low end of the marked section 1.020, on the top end 1.023, so I always tried in my old tank, to keep it at 1.022. I put salt in the new tank for 170g, just a guess, and after it dissolved I checked it and it was at 1.024. I posted that in my local forum tank build and said I was going to dilute it a bit to get it down to the 1.022 range. Everyone's reply came back, don't mess with it, that they keep their salt levels in their tanks at 1.024 range. So I don't know where it really needs to be, but I was going to leave it there, what's your thoughts? Forgot, a local reefer is coming over Sunday and get the Apex up and running.
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Sorry, Kerry my brain was fried. Don't know why I typed Kelly *crazysmil
Don't know why I typed Kelly *crazysmil
I usually try to have my salt about 1.023-1.024. Since my power outage crash its been 24-25 after some heavy water changes and it seems fine there as well. My local runs theirs at about 22, so I thought about slowly turning my back (23-24) so my acclamation does not take so long.
I have a few questions: All I have in the tank right now is rock ( will be posting new pics tonight) and will be going to the LFS today to get some sand to put in the tank to start the cycle. Now that I think about it (not really sure what I am doing here) the cycle should have already been started, because the rock was in a tub for 1 1/2 months with some live rock rubble, heater and a power head. Right or wrong? Should I be starting my 2 part dosing at this time, should I be running my GFO/Carbon reactors at this time? My Tunze Top Off system, I want to get this up and running, the one thing that I couldn't find in the instructions, the holder for the sensor and the float switch, how do I position this over the water in the sump? Should the sensor be touching the water or a bit out of the water? The way I read the instructions, the sensor is the main way the pump turns on, the float is the back up for the sensor.
You only need to dose as/when needed (or a constant safe amount) and I top off all the time but I do not have an automatic one. I fill my top off every morning and night and add my dosing solutions in safe amounts. I have gotten a feel for what the tanks use so I dose a safe amount and I only check my parameters once (sometimes twice) a week. Do you have a test kit for Mg, Ca, and KH? I have the redsea kit and really like it the best out of all the other kits I have owned. I also have a high pH test kit that I use about twice a month seeing that it stays pretty constant if I keep my other parameters in line. I need to get a strontium test kit as I just dose this at almost half of what the bottle says. I do not know about the other devices such as your GFO/carbon reactor (never had one) or the auto top off deal, I fill my own top off drip system and have not had a sump or any other devices in about a year since I went to a scrubber only system. I do like the idea of an auto top off but I then would need to come up with a system to dose my supplements with it. I like to DIY most of my stuff, try to make it simple, it keeps me busy, and off the Lazy Boy chair too!! LOL.
I like to use the Kalk to seeing that it treats two issues at once. I use to pay a lot of money for it until I was informed that the MRS. Wages Pickling lime powder (calcium chloride) at Walmart for less then $3.00 a pound was the same stuff. This stuff raised the Alk and Ca. When one of these gets to high i does them separately. For the Alk its just simple baking soda (sodium bicarbonate) and for the Ca. I use Calcium hydroxide from the local pool place which was more pure then the two reef supply places I use to get it from on the net??? Go figure??? And much cheaper to boot!!!