glasscages

I have a 16x16 acrylic cube for my fuge from GC, and it worked out well. The acrylic has a small amount of bubbling at the first 1/16th inch in from the outer sides on the seams; I don't know if this is normal, but there's still about 3/16" that's perfect all the way around. They cut my bulkhead hole the right size too (lol).

 

guy at my lfs has installed them for a business before, the first one broke but the second one they got worked out fine.

since they do custom stuff I would pay them to use thicker glass.

 

Ok so you guys want a real life miserable experience with them huh...

Here is my wonderful story and why I will NEVER, EVER, EVER, NEVER, EVER (X1 Billion) buy a tank from them again and warn anyone I can not to as well.

It was a warm summer day when...

I decided to purchase my first SaltWater tank. Me being me, I decided to go big. I purchased a 195 Gallon Display Tank, 65 Gallon Sump Tank and Tank Stand from them. Let's start with the Display Tank shall we...

Display Tank - Overall the quality of tank (60Lx30Wx25H) is fairly good. The glass is a good thickness .5 inches, the seams are glued together nicely for the most part (although as someone else mentioned, liberally/sloppy in some places. The tank features a center style built in overflow along the back of the tank. The tank also has a center style brace down the middle that's roughly 2.5 - 3 inches in width. It runs dead center down the tank and creates the first problem. There is literally no room to work in the overflow especially after all the pipes are in place. Well, I decided this was a small oversight and moved on.

Tank Stand - I decided to purchase the stand from them for some reason. In truth, I don't remember why. There were some slight modifications made to it that we all agreed on and I thought understood. I would be using their stand backwards and so they needed to switch sides for one of the panels as well as cut the hole for the overflow on the opposite side of where they normally would.

Sump Tank #1 - The is one of their standard acrylic sumps. It was a 65 Gallon 48LX18WX17H. It came with baffles and a built in chamber to hold a pump. Overall, not a bad sump.

So after meeting them at some highway truck stop I picked everything up and got it home. I immediately try to put the Sump Tank into the stand and low and behold it doesn't fit. They left roughly 14 inches on each side of a 2x4 they braced the middle of the stand with. Well that is certainly not going to work. The overall quality of the stand was very poor as well. Honestly, I don't understand how they ever expected it to hold the weight of a 200 Gallon tank empty, let alone full. And the kick in the sack while I was down was the hole was cut into the wrong side.

Monday rolls around and I give them a call to explain the entire situation. To rectify the stand issue they told me to just cut the hole in the stand on the side myself. Ok... To resolve the sump issue they offered to give me a thinner but taller sump. Well guess what, a taller sump is not going to fit either. There's barely enough room for me to get a hand, literally only a hand, into the sump. It's actually completely unusable. So back to the drawing board, the stand was deconstructed and put back together to make the sump fit as well as make it much more sturdy. However, I can't raise the stand any because of a steam pipe that runs above the tank. So I'm still stuck with a sump problem.

Call #2 didn't end very well. Basically they offered once again to swap the sump with the taller thinner model but that was the extent of their offer. At this point I'm pissed but I decide, I'll sell the sump and design a custom version.

Sump #2 - This is where the fun begins. To give you a bit of background the new sump consisted of two smaller 20LX23WX14H. They are then interconnected by two 1.5 inch PVC pipes/bulkheads. Water drains from the display tank into the right side tank, moves over a series of baffles into a larger chamber in the same tank where it can flow through the two connecting pipes into a left hand side tank. The tank is identical to the right hand side tank so it enters a larger chamber first then flows over and under baffles to a bulkhead exit to an external pump which them pushes the water back into the display tank. One additional feature I added was a small bulkhead as close to the top of the tank as possible to allow for an emergency drain from the tank into an existing sump. I thought I could prevent a flood in my house if for whatever reason a ton of water flooded down into the sump. I explained extremely clearly what this hole was for and everyone said they understood what it was for. After two days of back and forth with GlassCages over the design (Apparently the 3D version of the tanks was too difficult to understand so eventually I just made an mspaint version of the two tanks) we agreed on a price and they built my tanks. We're roughly 2 months from the initial delivery date. The day comes to pick up the tank and immediately we have a problem. They forgot one of the bulkheads for the emergency drain. The truck driver assured me that he would give them a call as soon as I left and they would overnight the missing bulkhead to me. This was necessary because I explained to them that the flow to my tank was now shutdown to remove the old sump and move a brace in order to fit the new sump. No problem they said, we'll take care of it. I take my new sumps home and start to assemble. I figure because the hole that I'm missing the bulkhead for is so high I can add water and get it all up and running since the water line should be nowhere near the hole. I mean why would it be, I explained its purpose to them right? Wrong. When they added the baffles to the tank they made them SO high that the water line in the tank is actually above the emergency hole. Fan-F**king-tastic. I decide that it's not the of the world and purchase a plug for the bulkhead that will be arriving Tuesday.

The end of Tuesday rolls around and what do you know, no bulkhead. So I give them a call first thing Wednesday morning, they're completely unaware that they neglected to bring my bulkhead in the first place, thanks driver. Strike one. At this point, I'm starting to lose my patience with these people. After 10 minutes of shuffling through paperwork they finally find mine and agree to two day UPS me the bulkhead (because apparently over nighting the part was too expensive for them). Fine, I wait my two days, rush home to find a package sitting on my front steps. Perfect, they finally came through.

Run downstairs with the package, tape up my plug for the bulkhead and rip open the package to install it. WTF this is a 1.5 inch bulkhead not a .5 inch. Strike Two. I give them a call and explain the situation. Once again after 10 minutes of filing cabinets slamming being transferred around, they have my paperwork and can't believe they made another mistake. Join the club. They make an honest mistake according to them and wrote the 1 and .5 too close to each other and someone mistook that for a 1.5 inch bulkhead instead of a .5 inch. Well, she is outraged, she's going straight to the area where they make the tanks and will personally ensure they overnight me a .5 inch bulkhead right away. I explain now that I have only a little flow in my tank thanks to my powerheads but I'm getting nervous, it's close to a week now without proper flow. Things are starting to look stressed, I'm getting slight discoloration in things, etc. She is very understanding and we hang up. At this point, I'm certain I'm going to receive the correct part.

Thursday, no bulkhead. I try to be patient and give them the benefit of the doubt because I called extremely late on Wednesday and she probably didn't get the part out in time. Friday, no bulkhead? Really? Well maybe that's because they're too cheap to overnight me the part so I give them a call late Friday afternoon. After the usual 10 minutes of pure bull$!t, I'm sorry David, we have no recollection of you calling. Are you F**KING KIDDING ME?!?!?!? :-X:-/ but mostly . I lost it, I really just completely lost it. I worked in profanity the way other artists might work in oils or clay (Christmas Story Ref). She hung up. Now really at this point I don't blame her, I must have called them every name in the book but I don't care, I hear that $hLt from people ALL day long, it was my turn. She even had the f**king balls to insinuate that because I hadn't returned the other bulkhead they had no idea I needed a new one.

That feels much better. I've been holding that in for so long .

Some of you might be thinking at this point, why I was so upset. It seems like a series of unfortunate events and while I agree to an extent, that's NO way to run a business. That's NO way to treat your customers. I made a HUGE mistake ordering from these people not once but twice. I will NEVER make that mistake again and hopefully by posting my story I've saved just one person from the hassle and aggravation of dealing with these @$$hole$. The low prices are certainly alluring, but don't be fooled. Pay that little extra for a good overall experience.

 

+1 to this. Fortunately IMO they went into jerk mode during the planning stage when I couldn't decide between 2 sizes. I told them to just forget it.

 

geez, you gave them too many "benefit of the doubt" situations". I would have asked for an entire refund after they told me to cut the holes for the overflow myself.Seriously, spend hundreds of dollars only to be treated like a POS?

 

tencor i think it is makes acrylic tanks but they also do glass and they are amazing i have heard

 

they co$t but i hear they are good quality

 

Acrylic and Glass Exhibits

A.G.E. are supposedly the best and are made in Texas. The LFS guys have a few of their tanks in their personal collections and love them.

 

Glasscages - were rude to me in a single E-Mail communication...came off as he had something better to do than build a custom 170+ gallon starphire aquarium. Business must be good...

A.G.E. - I have heard they are great. I disliked their warranty issue with built stands...buy one of their stand to get a warranty.

Midwest Customs - Haven't spoken with them directly, but seem a bit pricey for my project.

DSA - Top notch construction, beautiful custom work, competitive pricing.

Tenecor - Great customer service, competitive pricing, superior quality.

These are the companies I have looked into personally. I do not own any aquariums by these manufacturers, but I will soon.

 

Well have not much to say about them yet but just emailed them for pricing on a sump tank so will see what the email looks like. If its nasty ill post the email up here. More to come soon!!