Custom Made Tank

[Notsofab]

We discovered an alternative LFS at the weekend and went in for a look around. When we walked through the door, immediately in front of us was our ideal tank. When I say ideal, I mean it is the perfect size, shape and made of the correct wood to compliment the other furniture in our living room. Plus it's much larger than our existing 60 litre tank!!!!!

The first draw back is it is £850!!!! But that's OK. We had a discussion and the wife has given me the go ahead if it's the right tank for us.

I telephoned the shop today and was told that it is a custom made tank ( I think he said the company was called Seabray...? ). It is a tall hexagonal tank with matching stand made from limed oak. The glass is 12mm thick.

It comes with a T5 lighting system only. The LFS said it has a capacity of 180 litres.

We are going to go back this weekend to measure it up fully? I also want to have a good look at how its put together and as its quite tall if there is any connectivity for hoses for water changes etc. I'm also worried about filters and what's going to fit as it's 'custom' made. What other questions should I be asking? What are the other potential pit falls of having a custom made tank? Obviously, if I'm spending £850 I need to be 100% sure that I don't get it home and then find myself blindsided by something I didn't think of.

The alternative is to buy a Juwel Trigon Corner 190, which comes with all the other Juwel bits and bobs. Would that be a better, safer way to go

The Juwel tank will have a much bigger surface area as the custom made tank is much taller than it is long.

Thanks for all replys.

 

[modernhamlet]

It's question time with modernhamlet! Yay!

What are your family's goals for this fishtank?
Do you want a large and active community?
Do you plan to plant the tank with lush greens and reds?
How much is a Juwel with comparable quality stand going to cost you?
Guessing, how tall is this custom tank?

 

[Notsofab]

What are your family's goals for this fishtank?
Do you want a large and active community?
Do you plan to plant the tank with lush greens and reds?
How much is a Juwel with comparable quality stand going to cost you?
Guessing, how tall is this custom tank?

Our existing tank has been a disaster. So the idea is to start again with the right tank and do things properly as advised on this forum

Family Goals - as the tank is in the living room, we want it to look fantastic. We would like colourful, active fish who are fun to watch. (We currently have 3 Balloon Mollies and 3 Peppered Corries and 11 Molly Fry). We have no (more) intensions to breed fish. We would like a good deal of variety of fish types so definately a community tank.

Planting - yes we definately want to use live plants this time. We have plastic plants in our existing tank that now look aweful as they are covered in brown algae. I also now realise the benefits of live plants as well.

How much is the Juwel - the Juwel will probably cost around £700 with stand and everything else ( filter, heater, lighting etc ) included. But without meaning to sound thrifty, the cost is really my main concern here.

How tall - I guess on the cabinet the whole tank is about 6 foot tall. The actual tank is probably 3 foot tall ( 90cm ).

 

[andywg]

850 quid? For 180 litres? That sounds hugely expensive, I must know two or three people who could come to your house and make one that size for a lot less. That's around the 40 gallon mark. I know it was standard, but I got a 600litre tank for 150.

I would seriously not look into that, unless that is a typo.

 

[modernhamlet]

850 quid? For 180 litres? That sounds hugely expensive, I must know two or three people who could come to your house and make one that size for a lot less. That's around the 40 gallon mark. I know it was standard, but I got a 600litre tank for 150.

I would seriously not look into that, unless that is a typo.

That's a perfectly normal price to pay for a custom showtank, andywg. The 600L tank for 150 didn't come with a stained hardwood stand or hood, nor a variety of shapes or other features.

That said, notsofab, I think you may want to pass on this particular custom. That much height is going to limit your stocking much moreso than you'd like and will make maintenance a royal pain unless you like to wear a snorkle. There are certainly plenty of good options out there for a nice community showtank. Keep looking and I'm sure you'll find one.

 

[Luke & Penny]

850 quid? For 180 litres? That sounds hugely expensive, I must know two or three people who could come to your house and make one that size for a lot less. That's around the 40 gallon mark. I know it was standard, but I got a 600litre tank for 150.

I would seriously not look into that, unless that is a typo.

yeah you can get quite a few decent tanks about with a bit more size for less, might be worth checking out some of the classifieds on here or elsewhere, just be careful you dont inherit someone elses problems. Or was custom the reason to fit in to your needs?.

 

[Notsofab]

yeah you can get quite a few decent tanks about with a bit more size for less, might be worth checking out some of the classifieds on here or elsewhere, just be careful you dont inherit someone elses problems. Or was custom the reason to fit in to your needs?.

It just looks like a very well made piece of furniture that fitted perfectly with the other items of furniture in the room. We also don't have a massive amount of floorspace where the tank is going to go, so any rectangular tanks are out - hence the hexagonal tank or maybe the Juwel corner tank if it will fit.

 

[Luke & Penny]

Well personal preference myself would be the juwel trigon corner tank, they look great and Juwels are good Tanks in my eyes

 

[consp]

That is more than I'd ever spend on a tank but I've only brought standard-cheapish-not-so-good-looking ones.

Many shops order customs from Seabrey but remember... they all charge "their bit" on top. It might be worth asking for quotes from some other shops incase you can get it a bit cheaper.


Equipment wise...

If you want your tank to be heavily planted you might want to add a CO2 unit. You could get away with one of those nutrafin type kits me thinks.

For your filter you might find that an external is much easier. It saves you from getting your hands in the tank and messing the tank up when you need to clean it and having an external give you the added bonus of less "clutter" in the tank. You'll only need an inlet and an outlet which is nothing compared to a big ol' hefty internal.

Obviously, you'll need a new heater (Or just an additional one with your old one).

Although the suface area is smaller in the custom made you can always stick in an airpump to make up for it and get in a few more fish.


If you are still not sure why don't you have a look at the Rena tanks. They are really stylish which is ideal for a show tank - and they come in plenty shapes & colours. The only downside is the amount of sizes available... Take a peek...

http/www.aquarian.com/trans/en/products/rena_range/#

Hope this helps

 

[trace1]

hi
i'm sure i've seen the juwel trigon 190 corner tank in pets at home for £349, only know as i was looking for 1.
anyway i got my 270 think its a juwel delta, its deffinatly a juwel of ebay for £156 including the stand so it wells worth looking on ebay as well

 

[morgan]

Hi, if it helps you to make up your mind I am having a Juwel Rio 300 for Xmas and it will cost £416.78 plus a small fee for delivery. I expect the tank you have seen looks nicer. It might be worth paying more if it really suits your room. I cannot comment on the filters etc. as I have only ever had Juwel. Hope you like your final choice anyway. P.S. we are going to buy it from a lfs, I looked online and there were one or two places doing it cheaper but I would rather buy from a lfs.

 

[Luke & Penny]

hi
i'm sure i've seen the juwel trigon 190 corner tank in pets at home for £349, only know as i was looking for 1.
anyway i got my 270 think its a juwel delta, its deffinatly a juwel of ebay for £156 including the stand so it wells worth looking on ebay as well

Yeah i think your ight about that, i seen a few like them in my local pets at home at around this price and i think christmas time nearing is a good time to go into pets at home as they do good delas in order to try to convince people to spend their xmas shopping money in a pet shop of all places.

 

[Notsofab]

OK - the bad news is that after measuring up last night, I dont have enough floor space for the Juwel Trigon 190. The Juwel has a width of 70cm and my floor space footprint is only a 58cm square. So the Juwel is out.

So I am now going back to the original idea of the custom made Seabrey tank.

Obviously, I will take on board the comments made about the height of the tank and the potential difficulties with maintenance. If I remember correctly the whole top wooden section of the tank lifts off revealing a fairly accessible hole in the top panel. I believe if I stood on a small set of steps that we have then I would be able to get my shoulder and arm into the tank and actually touch the bottom of the tank. So whilst maintenance maybe slightly more difficult, it will be possible.

Are there any other areas I should be worried about? I am thinking more about filtration. Internal versus external. If it is external, would I need some high powered pump to run the filter because of the height of the tank? Probably stupid but I'll ask anyway - with an (expensive) custom made tank, wouldn't they take things like water changes into account and build facilities into the tank to make things easier? Surely they must consider what types of filter people are likely to use?

I guess some of these things will be answered by the LFS when I go and have a really good look at this tank again on Saturday. The thing is, it's not my regular LFS and I can trust them.

I'm relying on you guys for the types of question I should be asking.

 

[annka5]

If it's custom made, can you not just measure the space you've got, figure out the perfect hight for you, and get it made to those dimensions...? Am I missing something?
As regards equipment, I'd find out exactly what is included, including the brand name, the wattage, etc.
I'd also check how much clearance from the wall it needs at the back if space is really tight - sometimes you need to leave a bigger-than-expected gap for cables etc. Is the tank the same size footprint as the stand, etc?
I'd check what gaurantee or warranty it has, also.

 

[Notsofab]

If it's custom made, can you not just measure the space you've got, figure out the perfect hight for you, and get it made to those dimensions...? Am I missing something?
As regards equipment, I'd find out exactly what is included, including the brand name, the wattage, etc.
I'd also check how much clearance from the wall it needs at the back if space is really tight - sometimes you need to leave a bigger-than-expected gap for cables etc. Is the tank the same size footprint as the stand, etc?
I'd check what gaurantee or warranty it has, also.

Sorry when I say it's custom made, I meant to say it was custom made for someone else who subsequently changed their minds hence why it has now wound up in my LFS for sale.

The only equipment included is a T5 lighting system.

Point taken about the clearance required, I've just been looking around at other tanks in a different FS and saw the amounts of room required for external hoses.

Yes the tank has roughly the same footprint as the base give or take the odd cm.

Will chech the warranty as well - thank you.