Black Mammoth

Ah...thanks, my memory was definitely wrong on that...it's been 5 years I did research and found it was DaveS and not Eric like you said Anyway, I'm glad to hear about Miracles. I hope to have a quote from Derek tomorrow. Hopefully it isn't $8k like my last quote!

Thanks for the warm welcome No, but it was out of warranty. The tank failed about 6 months after the warranty ran out. A.G.E. asked for some pics and after they got the pics the commented that they had never seen a failure like that before. We then asked them for a quote to fix the tank and another quote for a new tank all together. They never got back to us on a quote. Many emails and phone calls were made, but we never got a response. I talked to another builder last night and he guessed right away where my failure was. It sounds like that there might be a design flaw. I also mentioned to him that my tank had an ever so slight bow to it and I also wondered if that contributed to the failure. I was told that the slight bow as in spec, but the builder last night said that a glass tank should never bow. I also noticed that A.G.E. reduced their warranty from 3 years to 1. I'm wondering if they are experiencing more failures and they reduced the warranty to compensate. I have no idea, but I don't know why you would reduce your warranty. I might try getting a hold of them again to see if things have changed in the past year. I'm not entirely surprised about not getting a response. While the tank was being made, communication was terrible. The builder I talked to yesterday has good reviews and sounds good. However, I got my quote today and they were 2.5+ times higher than my A.G.E. tank! When I ordered my A.G.E. tank they were one of the more expensive builders. My memory might be wrong, but didn't you also buy an A.G.E. tank from Sean after I bought mine? If it is, I think I remember your tank. You probably won't have the same issue I had.

Many of you probably don't know me. I've been out for awhile and I wasn't extremely active when I was on here. However, I do see a lot of familiar screen names. For those don't know, I used to have an A.G.E. 325g (96x30x26) mixed reef tank. I have an incomplete build thread on here somewhere. Well about a year and a half ago, the back glass cracked. I was pretty devastated about it. Luckily I caught the crack fairly early...only lost about 75g or so. Sean over at Fins & Feathers has been nice enough to keep the surviving fish at his place. It took me this long to get back because I was devastated about the loss and we were about to have our first child. Well right now I'm in the process of getting a new tank. I'm talking to builders & getting quotes. I'm also trying to finalize my design. Yeah, I'm changing up things from what I had before. With that said, you will probably see a bunch of stuff (a lot almost brand new) coming up for sale on here. Anyway, I'm getting pretty excited about coming back. I'll probably come back with the same dimensions. I might come back with a 36" width tank, but we will see when I get the quotes back. I already have a steel stand, but if I go 36" width, I'll have to get another stand. Anyone looking at an A.G.E. tank, consider other builders first. My failure didn't turn me off of A.G.E., it was other things. Anyway, I look forward to getting to know you guys again. Actually, I got a head start last year; I met a fellow WAMAS member (jefftse) though my car club. Hopefully I'll get to some of these meets and socials!

Great prices! GLWS

That's a nice store. I know which one you are talking about. When I was in there he was very nice. I told him that I was from the DC area visiting. He didn't care, he took his time with me and showed off his store and his big tank. He even gave me some additional advice. Lynn loved that store and he was friends with him. If I lived in Richmond, I would probably go to that store. I've been to some of the other stores down there and I wasn't really impressed. I also understand Joe's position on some of those stores. Allegedly one of the stores down there did some shady things to try and hurt his business.

Haha...me too. I think Sean is going to ask for a retainer And you know what? If he did, I would be more than happy to do so!

Just wanted to post the BRK & Fins and Feathers came through for me again today. I've been working with Sean @ F&F with some things on my tank and he's been really helpful. Today I really needed a 57w UV Sterilizer. Sean did his best to try to get his backup up and running for me, but it wasn't in the cards. Sean had me talk to John over at BRK and as usual John and his Dad were very helpful. John converted one of the lower power ones to a 57w for me. His dad went over the system to make sure I knew how to set it up and how to work it. It was all ready for me when I stopped by. This isn't the first and it probably won't be the last time that F&F and BRK has bailed me out. It's great we have some really good LFS in the area that are caring and willing to help.

I have the Apex and love it.

That's crazy! Mine is a 325g and was WAY cheaper than that. I had them make a stand as well. All of that shipped was around $5k.

I'm glad to hear you guys are OK and the damage is minimal. Is it to early to say....I got DIBS on those frags!

USGS updated their website. They initially reported it as 1km. Now they are reporting it as 3.7 miles deep.

I'm 99% sure that didn't come from a fault. From the area where it comes from is known to have collapsing rock which causes earthquakes which can be quite large. It was also only 1km below the surface.

How are people's fish tanks doing? I'm at work and I've lost connection to my Apex. I'm concerned about having 450g of water on my floor....I suspect everything is OK though.

I just found your thread. Very cool! However, I'm concerned. Unfortunately, your brother gave you some bad information. Maybe I'm misunderstanding your project, but I don't think so. It sounded as it was a sunroom addition. If it is an addition to your home, you need a building permit (and a few others such as electrical). If it isn't an addition, then it will be considered as a shed which also requires a permit. Finally, if that doesn't get you, it would be classified as a pool. I'm confident in saying you definitely need a permit. It is in your best interest to get a permit ASAP. It will help as it will be easier to get your inspections done before you close things up. Also, if it is a structure without a permit you can face fines and they can make you take it down. I would hate to see such a cool project fail because of the lack of upfront work needed. Also, that's a lot of money you could lose by not getting it permitted. Not unless your brother is the zoning administrator for Fairfax County, you need a permit. Maybe I'm wrong, but I think it is worth the time to contact the Zoning Department to make sure. The link below is to Fairfax County's website for building permits. It has some good information. Fairfax County Building Permits Sorry to rain on the parade...Best of Luck!

F&F has it like you said. I just bought a bunch from them because they had it on sale for a really good price. I'm not sure if the sale is still going on, but you could call first.

Do you have a euro-brace? I have a euro-brace on my tank. I have holes drilled in the top. Mine is rigid PVC to the hole and then the LOC line goes in through the hole. So if you have a brace, maybe you can drill some holes. I suspect that you don't. My last tank was reef ready and pumped back up that way. You could make the rigid PVC hang over as a right angle and then use the LOC line, but you will drop your pressure.

SWEET! I didn't realize you guys were doing this. This shows how out of touch I've been lately. I like your rock scape...it kind of reminds me of something I saw somewhere...now only if I could put my finger on it Speaking of, the algae in my tank disappeared overnight. It was very weird. I was starting to think that you & Sean stopped by one day while I was at work and cleaned my tank Anyway, your tank is looking good. So now that you got a 5' tank, when does that mean Sean gets the 10' tank? <ducks>

I know, I've been horrible. I was about to post some pics, but then I got the new tank syndrome and had an algae bloom. I didn't wanted to clean it up. Then I had a VERY LARGE Regal Angel pass away in the rocks and I couldn't get to it. That made the algae worse. Over time, I was making good progress towards the clean up. I added another heater and GFO to help clean it up. To make a long story short, I didn't realize that both of those pieces were faulty and had some kind of short in them. I had one on each breaker and both breakers tripped. The tank runs on 2 20amp breakers and the tank can run on one if one trips. However, it can't run if both trip. I lost my Achilles Tang, Powder Blue Tang, Female Bellus Angel, Flame Angel, Pearly Yellow Head Jawfish, and all of my SPS. This wasn't good. So I'm currently trying to clean up this mess. This just happened about 2 weeks. The good news is most of my LPS is still alive, my 2 Chromis, my two Yellow Stripe Maroon Clowns, Sohal Tang, Blue Hippo Tang, and Blue Face Angel made it.

I'm glad to hear this. There are some good guys over there. I'm also glad to report that this isn't a first for them

I thought some of you might find this interesting. It really isn't directly to fish and corals, but you marine geeks might like it http://www.vtnews.vt.edu/story.php?relyear...&itemno=950

+1 And Ditto

Wow...when I first read the post, I thought it was a joke. Unfortunately, it was just a hard lesson learned. It's always good to have reminders like this out there. I know that this wasn't talking about QT nor was the tank a QT tank....but my recommendation is to have a QT system large enough to house all of your fish. If you a tank that can only hold a fish or two, it's a hospital tank. You want to be prepared for having to move all you fish out in case something like ick happens to the main tank. At least that is the system I go by. Now that I have a monster tank, I have a LFS do my QTing and they are my backup. I kept a 55g around for QTing and growing out corals. That worked great when I had a 90g. Now back to the original thread...on the bright side...at least the anemone was fed. No more fish around that guy.

That's only part of the problem. The other part is how the reefs are endangered by other variables....such as rising temperature and pollution. As Dave as pointed out, I think all will be a problem. How do you police that and prove that it was aqua-cultured? It is near impossible. I believe that there are people that can propagate an endangered animal, but they have to have special permits. I think that the effort for aqua-cultured corals needs to be going full stream...now! This would help prevent and stop part of the problem. It won't be the silver bullet because of the other problems mentioned earlier (temps, pollution, etc). It would be interesting if WAMAS could get a special permit to have these endangered animals for the sole purpose of propagation and re-population.