my re-build thread

[Joel A]

it's a toss up right now... but leaning towards glass cages....

few reasons i'm thinking this way right now:
A) Tank is not very custom... just rimless black silicone and possibly starfire front panel, so it'd be hard for GC to screw that one up to bad.
B) Price is obviously the 2nd reason, and probably the biggest reason. I'm looking at 300-350 for the tank i want from GC where others have quoted it as high as 800. Now i understand for that 800 the workmanship and quality of build would be nicer than GC, but so much nicer than it constitutes and extra 400-500 bucks?

Not trying to take a short cut, but it's just hard to drop that much on what seems like a pretty "standard" tank to me. Especially since i just dropped upwards of $1000 on my lights and dosing pump the past couple of months...

Plus it would make it so i could swing the funds to get the vortech sooner rather than later.

I haven't gotten a quote from Miracles yet.. although i did shoot them an email. I'll be interested to see what they say.

 

[Reefried]

Joel this is the reason why i think you should drop the extra $$$ on a better quality tank......

Not trying to take a short cut, but it's just hard to drop that much on what seems like a pretty "standard" tank to me. Especially since i just dropped upwards of $1000 on my lights and dosing pump the past couple of months...


......you could have went tek T5's but you spent the extra coin on a quality light set-up......and you could have went with a cheap dosing pump too but didnt.........you get what you pay for in this hobby....

 

[paulthomas]

Joel this is the reason why i think you should drop the extra $$$ on a better quality tank......

Not trying to take a short cut, but it's just hard to drop that much on what seems like a pretty "standard" tank to me. Especially since i just dropped upwards of $1000 on my lights and dosing pump the past couple of months...


......you could have went tek T5's but you spent the extra coin on a quality light set-up......and you could have went with a cheap dosing pump too but didnt.........you get what you pay for in this hobby....

True. You're not skimping on the equipment, so why on the tank? You're not exactly asking for a standard 70-75 gallon tank either, IIRC. I'm not saying that a GC tank is a bad one. I've seen a few of them and they looked very decent, especially for the money. But if you were to get a sloppily done, brand new, tank from them, you can't say you weren't forewarned about their reputation. Stuff like messy silicone is pretty easy to clean up. But what if the edges are rough or uneven, etc.? You can't just take a razor blade to something like that. And later down the road, you may regret not having dropped that extra $4-500 for a nicer looking tank, especially if it's rimless and not an in-wall one.

 

[Reefried]

.....true dat true dat..

 

[paulthomas]

.....true dat true dat..

J'yeah. So like ma man Reef-Pimp-My-Ried is sayin', don't be a busta.

 

[Reefried]

J'yeah. So like ma man Reef-Pimp-My-Ried is sayin', don't be a busta.

......Fo' real...(and in the FWIW category I prefer "reef-Pimp-My-Ry-ied")..........and like my manz and them says "stop slackin on your mackin"...."stop skimpin' on ya pimpin'"......and dont be a busta.......Ya-mean.....Ya'm sayin'

 

[paulthomas]

......Fo' real...(and in the FWIW category I prefer "reef-Pimp-My-Ry-ied")..........and like my manz and them says "stop slackin on your mackin"...."stop skimpin' on ya pimpin'"......and dont be a busta.......Ya-mean.....Ya'm sayin'

Oh my. Now you have lost me, my good man.

 

[Reefried]

Oh my. Now you have lost me, my good man.

.....wooooow I thought you were an OG.......and sorry Joel, theres nothing like two old white dudes getting ghetto in your thread..

 

[paulthomas]

.....wooooow I thought you were an OG.......and sorry Joel, theres nothing like two old white dudes getting ghetto in your thread..

Well I am half Korean. Never mind... Yeah, sorry Joel. I'm still voting for the tank upgrade first.

 

[Joel A]

Ima ghetto boi too but i aint no old cracka foolz. (just felt i'd contribute to the convo )



I hear what you guys are saying.. and it definitely goes with my own number 1 philosophy about this hobby (don't be cheap on crucial tank equipment) I'll see what miracles gets me for it... but if it's significantly more than GC i'm thinking i'm going to have to go GC. And to be completely honest, i've seen a few of their tanks and i was still very impressed with them.... i think (hope) most of the horror stories you read about are older and they've gotten better since then.

Its tough though, because i want a new display and sump.. but then i want a vortech, as well as a new skimmer (bubble king alpha 170), and a new controller (apex). Now it's just kind of about picking and choosing when to get what, and what (if anything) i may be able to save a little bit on.

I'm having surgery this week though, so don't be expecting anything to happen to soon on this as i will be out of commission for a little while, and certainly not capable of setting up a new display and plumbing it... hell i can't even plumb a tank well when i've got a good arm, never mind a bad one..

 

[paulthomas]

Well, it sounds like you're giving everything good thought. BUT, don't be like me. I've always suffered from paralysis by analysis. And it's gotten worse over the jears.

JUST SAY NO.

 

[Joel A]

Lol, ok Paul... at least i have a tank .

Have you run across any good threads about the BK Alpha cone skimmers? They look sick...

I def. want my next skimmer to be a cone, and i'm trying to decide between the alpha 170, Econo 850, or the Itech small/medium. I've heard great things about all of them, and price wise they are all pretty close. I'm thinking for similar prices it might be hard to say "no" to royal exclusiv over the other two...

 

[paulthomas]

Lol, ok Paul... at least i have a tank .

Have you run across any good threads about the BK Alpha cone skimmers? They look sick...

I def. want my next skimmer to be a cone, and i'm trying to decide between the alpha 170, Econo 850, or the Itech small/medium. I've heard great things about all of them, and price wise they are all pretty close. I'm thinking for similar prices it might be hard to say "no" to royal exclusiv over the other two...

I have a tank too. But like you, I'm not happy with it.

I haven't read much on any of the those skimmers. But I'd be hard pressed to look at anything but the Alpha skimmer. It is after all, a BK. One thing to consider is the price of the pump to replace. I'm not sure what the other skimmers are using, but the Red Dragon pumps are not cheap. Though the RD pump is key to all of those tiny bubbles. It's pretty amazing just how thick-a-head of bubbles a RD produces. Plus you're getting BK quality parts and construction. Are those things that important? Probably not... But those are some of the reasons why people like BKs so much.

 

[paulthomas]

Lol, ok Paul... at least i have a tank .

Have you run across any good threads about the BK Alpha cone skimmers? They look sick...

BTW, in case you thought so, I wasn't trying to crack.

BK Alpha 250:

http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&postid=15196824#post15196824

 

[Joel A]

I have a tank too. But like you, I'm not happy with it.

I haven't read much on any of the those skimmers. But I'd be hard pressed to look at anything but the Alpha skimmer. It is after all, a BK. One thing to consider is the price of the pump to replace. I'm not sure what the other skimmers are using, but the Red Dragon pumps are not cheap. Though the RD pump is key to all of those tiny bubbles. It's pretty amazing just how thick-a-head of bubbles a RD produces. Plus you're getting BK quality parts and construction. Are those things that important? Probably not... But those are some of the reasons why people like BKs so much.

for close to the same price (they are all like +or- 150 dollars in price right now) the reason i was leaning BK was the red dragon pump... i've never used one but have heard phenomenal things about them... both of the other skimmers use modified sicces... which imo is a good little pump too, but not on the same level as the RD. That said though, to replace a sicce you are looking at 125 bucks... RD is what, like 350? The Itech Small doesn't use a Sicce, it uses either an aquabee or sedra... but neither one of those are stellar either.


I'm fairly happy with the pimped out octo 200 that i have... but i actually think it's to big a skimmer in my tank... i only have 3 fish in about 80-85 gallons total water volume... and i don't even feed daily. It skims well occasionally, but unless there are enough organics in the tank the head of foam just drops down into the skimmer body....

 

[Joel A]

Thanks for the link... i was looking on RC the other day.. but if the search feature is down.. hell good luck finding anything on that site..

=)

 

[paulthomas]

RD is what, like 350?

If it's the RD 1000, try $720. If it's the 1500, which I doubt, it's eight hunnid fitty.

I know. ::

 

[paulthomas]

Thanks for the link... i was looking on RC the other day.. but if the search feature is down.. hell good luck finding anything on that site..

=)

You've got to be a member for the quicker searches. Hell, a search at all...

 

[Joel A]

If it's the RD 1000, try $720. If it's the 1500, which I doubt, it's eight hunnid fitty.

I know. ::

it's the 1500? Say what??? where are you getting those prices?

 

[JayM]

as long as you run in-sump, the askoll motor MSX cone is worth a look too. Mine pulls insane skimmate/nog out. It will practically gag you when you clean it.