helgymatt

I'm getting a 75 rimless glasscages shipped to my town with holes and bulkheads for $300!!! Try to do that with an ADA. I could buy at least 5 of these for how much I would spend on one ADA tank...not to mention how much it would cost me to get an ADA in the midwest. I can handle a little sloppy silicone here and there. I'm just buying what I can afford.

I'll be sure to take LOTs of photos when it comes in two weeks.

And jazz, I'm very excited to get my tank up and running with the ocean clears.

orlando

Hey keep us posted on how the tank looks, and after you fill that beast up..

jazzlvr123

thats totally cool, not all of us have the money to pay for ADA tanks just remember you get what ya pay for the silicone job was okay it was the edge work that was the big problem im looking forward to see the job they do on your tank

starsunmoon

im finding some great info here guys, and thanxs for all the links to all the great tank set ups !! wow, hopefully I can find time to start poting mine!! I am about to get a 90 gallon next week, and im thinking of using the pool filter sna din the frount half threw to the back right corner, then some kind of substrate thrwout the rest of the back, and the other corners, any ideas?? lol, I will be watching and reading this ocean clear sounds like a great filter, I have been looking those up since I have read this post as well !!! thanxs 2 all !!

helgymatt

My rimless 75 came today from glasscages.com and I want to share some photos of the tank quality, my experiences with glasscages and their customer service, as well as what to expect about shipping.

First, I must say that the tank is very well built. The glass is 1/2" thick on this thing! But, the quality is far from superior. As others have said they are a little messy with their silicone and edge work.

The outside corners have excess silicone that is not pretty. I have begun to scrape some of it off with a razor blade so it will look acceptable.





And a final pic of the 55 being replaced and my other 29 gallon planted tank.


The edges seem to be nicely sanded and smoothed. The inside silicone seams to be good and not too "messy". Again my biggest grip is the silicone on the outside of the tank. This tank cost me $180, not including shipping, so I guess you do get what you pay for.

And now for their "CUSTOMER SERVICE". One word describes it...bad. If you call them on the phone you will be very lucky if you get someone with a friendly happy attitude that makes you feel like they really do care about making a sale and to have a happy customer. When I ordered the tank, I was told that it may be possible to have the tank delivered to my town, which was on the route to the designated delivery point. I live in Ames, IA which is 40 miles north of Des Moines right of the interstate and I thought it would be wonderful if they could just drop it off at a truck stop off the interstate, saving me the trip to Des Moines. In other words, I thought I was getting a favor from them.

The day before the delivery I decided to call glasscages to make sure my tank was built and was going to be scheduled to be delivered and it was. I also asked about whether my tank could be delivered to my town and they had no idea what I was talking about. They said they never do that and it likely won't be possible. I now have to go to Des Moines, which I was OK with, so I asked what time I should be there. I was told that they left a message on my phone a week earlier giving me all of this information. Turns out they wrote my phone number down wrong so I never got the message. I figured OK, mistakes happen. They then told me the delivery was going to be on Sunday morning at 8:00 rather than the scheduled delivery on Saturday. Now I was really unhappy because I had to change all my plans because their "new" driver was having difficulties being on time. I then arranged to have my brother pick up the tank for me in Des Moines at 8:00 and they never showed up. They finally called me at 10:00 and told me they aren't going to be on time. I said, "oh really, I'm so glad you are telling me this now, 2 hrs later." They then told me they would be in Des Moines at 12:30. Well, they never showed up until almost 2:00.

I am still angry about how unacceptable this whole experience was. One person drove from Omaha (which is three hours from Des Moines) to pick up their tank at 8:00 am, and then had to wait 6 hrs to get it. I can only image how ticked they were

This is my experience, they have little idea of what customer service is, but in the end I am fairly happy with the product given the price I paid. I hate to say this, but I would probably do business with them again only because there prices CANNOT be beat.

Let me know if I can provide any more information or if you want more pictures of the tank quality.

hoppycalif

Thank you for the excellent report! I agree that their price is unbeatable, and the glass does look plenty thick. It will be interesting to see if there is any observable bowing of the front when it is full of water. The silicone cementing job looks terrible, but once you see an ADA tank and see how a good silicone cementing job is done, nothing else looks acceptable. You should be safe in scraping off the outside silicone, and carefully removing the haze left behind.

I would be very upset about having a drilled bottom tank like that, and have to do the first fill with water inside the house, on the stand made for it. That could almost induce a heart attack!

Is the bottom construction typical for "rimless" tanks? I have never seen that done before - the narrow band of extra glass around the periphery. Your stand could have no top at all, save about a two inch wide border around it, since the rest of the top won't contact the tank anyway. I think that might be good.

helgymatt

I also got my Iwaki pump and Ocean Clear 340. The 340 has a pleaded cartridge and a biocore. http://www.aquariumguys.com/oceanclear.html
This is the Iwaki i got, Iwaki WMD40RLT Water Pump - (American Motor)
http://www.aquariumguys.com/oceanclear.html

I must say this is an amazing filtration system! I will eventually hook this up to my 75 in a closed loop, but to get the biocore going, I hooked it temporarily hooked it up on my 55. At 800gph, this thing is a beast in this tank. My cichlids love it, lots and lots of flow. I think it will be perfect on my 75, which will have an intake on the bottom right and the output on the bottom left with 2 3/4" loc lines with the 3" fan spray.

Here are some pictures of the set-up on my 55



And happy fishes


I built some inlet and outlet pipes out of PVC, which was very simple.

I would highly recommend this system for anyone wanting great filtration with high flow, without buying multiple overpriced canister filters and power heads. I got the pump used on ebay for $70 and the filter new for $130 (prices include shipping). I have seen these filters used go for under $70 on ebay (I'm still mad I got outbid on a used 340 by a dollar which sold for $51!

For better filtration multiple ocean clear units can be hooked up in series or in parallel. For more info on Ocean Clears see Tom Barr's thread here...http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/ph...d-scaping.html

helgymatt

I'm not too worried about filling this thing up. The build seems to be very good, but you never know. I'm not sure if the bottom construction is typical. I think it is there for more support and strength.
I'm not following you here Hoppy. Are you referring to the stand covering the bottom of the tank with a piece of trim? I plan to have a hanging light fixture, probably a wood box built from 1x4's with my AHsupply lights installed inside.

helgymatt

Is there any EASY way to get of silicone reside? The razor blade takes it off, but it is very tedious. Any kind of solvent that will only take off the residue, but not affect the seals?

hoppycalif

The tank has or looks like it has a border of glass pieces, about 2 inches wide under the bottom glass, so if you sit that on a stand with a solid, flat wood top, only that border will contact the stand and carry the weight of the tank and its contents. So, why not just cut out a big rectangle of wood from the top of the stand, leaving free access to the bottom of the tank in the stand under the tank?