ArtFully Acrylic (Adam B)

Wow, you had me rolling with the Lion King reference and the wife analogy. LOVE IT!! Thanks to all for all the great kind words. I can't believe what a great community this is. No other club I have ever been associated with has been so tight knit and supportive. This thread is about LFS so I will leave the tank building side of the business out of it mostly. When I moved into the new shop for ArtFully Acrylic builds I wouldn't have imagined adding a retail location into it until shortly after Steve approached me about it. I am glad that we teamed up to birth Incredible Corals. It has been a wild ride for the last several months trying to keep up with the demand on both sides of the business, but threads like this make it all worth it. Many don't realize this, but we both still keep daytime jobs currently with high hopes of making this a full time endeavor for both of us. I personally usually leave my house at 630 in the morning for the day job, then go straight to the shop/store afterwards. I usually don't get home until 1030 or 11 at night. I do this Monday through Friday generally and am also back in the shop/store on weekends for most of the day. Managing a flourishing acrylics business and assisting in the build out and management of a high potential coral and livestock retail business certainly keeps us both quite busy, but as I said....the support of this club makes it well worth it. I encourage you all to continue to show us, and all of your LFS, support and more importantly, TELL US what we can do for YOU to make sure that all of your needs and desires are met. We don't work these extensively long hours away from our families for giggles or because we hate them ...we do it because we truly enjoy what we are doing, have a dream and a belief that we will succeed. We realize that without all of you we could never realize this dream, so for that we say THANK YOU, and say if we don't have something you want please let us know and we will bend over backwards to make it happen for you!

Awesome your dad was able to do that! Course....upper east side...hamptons...bit of a different area . That being said, my exposure has certainly expanded...as far as Fairbanks Alaska with an order I am working on for a customer there. Also as far as a recent request I actually had to turn down cause it was just WAY bigger than I could handle...165x36x48...YIKES!!!...awesome awesome tank size, but not quite yet equipped mechanically/tool wise to handle a build that size lol. 600 gal is about my limit right now.

ROFLMAO! HEY! HEY! HEY! I will have you know that the show would be called EXPERT Clown Catcher Diaries!! Since we got the batch of Picasso's in (they are in a holding tub in the frag tank till our fish rack gets built out) I have become QUITE good at catching Clowns. Of the 5 Picasso's we have left I have had to make 6 catches already so I am well seasoned. Why you ask? Because before we put eggcrate over the holding tub they liked to jump out into the frag tank to stretch their fins . Silly part though is they never wandered more than a foot away from the tub lol.

Oh goodness don't I know it!! If I was able to tap into those resources around here I would be SET, have a shop 3-4 times the size and a staff of builders

Yes Jan? LOL Big Money tanks like this are quite commonly equipped with fake resin coral. It makes maintenance and parameters easier to keep in check. Most of the people that can afford custom jobbies like this also NEVER do their own maintenance anyway so of course the builder/maintenance company (many times one in the same lol) will intentionally recommend this. It also "saves" the tank owner money. Can you imagine how much money you would have to spend to get coral colonies sufficiently sized to inhabit a tank of that size?!?!?! As for cost, yeah um, I can tell you that a tank like that would cost WAY more than $5K. The acrylic alone is likely 2"-2 1/2" thick and with the size of the seamless molded panel would have required a VERY large mold and oven to bend appropriately. Just that main piece of acrylic likely cost around $10k to have done and that doesn't even count labor for the rest of the build and install LOL.

See the thread here...LOADED with WYSIWYG pics!! Act quickly while they last. Orders can be made to hold as early as now for next weekends meeting and many people may come in to pickup corals direct over this weekend so don't wait or risk losing your favorites!! Sale ends at the end of next weekends WAMAS meeting. http://wamas.org/forums/topic/54974-ultimate-collection-of-incredible-corals-available-for-wamas-meeting-delivery/

Hey!! I remember you! =) Welcome back to the boards! I'm still waiting on those pics and video from that day you came over while I was working on your tank you know =P. Glad to see you are finally getting it setup! Maybe a few more details for everyone will help out here too. As stated, the tank is 20" tall. It has 3 access openings on top and will be setup as a 4 side viewable tank (at least that was your plan when ordered so correct if it has changed). The tank is drilled and has a CENTER overflow box. The box is 8x8 dead smack in the middle of the tank. Drains and returns all run through this box. It's going to be an awesome piece once setup!!

Aww Striking. Absolutely phenomenal!

Most of my customers will say I am generally a man of many words, but......right now....WOW.

Looking great Chris! I thought the tank was artful when you picked it up, but its certainly now on its way to being a masterpiece!!

Is that because you are too busy picking up your colostomy bag off the floor?

Do I get paid in frags too lol? I know I don't count as part of the two extras needed though =(. Thanks for the help Scott! We just need one more...by my calculations, that tank should weigh around 340lbs so shouldn't be too too bad for 4 people in total ;p

You are a bad example cause your tank is cloudy ROFLMAO

ORA IS COMING ON FRIDAY!!! Don't miss the cut off on Wednesday the 16th to get your order in! We are having a shipment of all ORA and this is your last chance to "piggy back" until after we get our own ORA livestock system up and running in the next month or two. Right now you can get EXACTLY what you want from ORA without have to drive all over town or pay any shipping! Check out the thread here to join the ORA Madness! http://wamas.org/forums/topic/54364-who-wants-ora-livestock-again-1182013/ We also, want to thank everyone for the amazing support during our first week open. So many of you came out and most of you took home some Incredible Corals. Just remember... THIS IS JUST THE BEGINNING! We have so much more planned, so keep coming back! Even if you want to just hang out and chat We love it!

Great News Everyone!! Even though I have been out of town for the past several weeks Steve and I have continued to make plans and get everything setup for our official opening. Effective Sunday January 6th at 12pm we will officially open our doors to WAMAS. This day will be for WAMAS members and friends of WAMAS members only. The official opening for the general public and online orders will not occur until the following week so take a ride out to manassas and see us to get first dibs at our first big shipment. We have an INCREDIBLE selection for all of you on this day and we assure you that we will ALWAYS carry some of the best, rare, and vibrant corals from around the world. We have setup numerous relationships and accounts around the country to assure that we can always bring you the very best at competitive prices. Our official store hours to start us off will be as follows: Thursdays 7-10pm Fridays 7-10pm Saturdays 12-5pm Sundays 12-5pm Monday thru Wednesday are still available by appointment. All you need to do to come through on one of these days is send Steve or I an email or a PM. Trust us...it is no bother at all if one of these other days works best for you so don't be shy!! And if you thought it couldn't get any better, make sure you continue to stay tuned and visit often as we still have SEVERAL other tanks that will be going online for various other livestock/display in the coming weeks/months. And wait...theres even more!!...we still have a GRAND OPENING in the works where we will have special sales, raffles, and workshops so make sure you don't miss out on the announcement for that one in the near future either!! We are super excited and can't wait to see all of you that decide to come out to see us!! Happy New Year to ALL...may everyone be prosperous and happy in 2013.

It was a collective opinion/suggestion from a few different parties regarding completing the black acrylic up the rounded edges as well. It will certainly be a bit more work for me molding the acrylic to match those bends, but we will get it done =). We will certainly need those other items in stock to do the sump build though as you are certainly right...TIGHT fit it will be. Here the community voice would certainly be a big help. I am glad you decided to have us build the sump and handle plumbing as well vs Life Reef, but more heads are always better than two with the vast experience we have in this community when dealing with such a unique build as this. Ok all, so we have approximate dimensions of 28x16 on the bottom to work with and 24 in height on the bottom step and 29 height on the top step (due to interior shelf for controllers). We need to fit in what Tom would like to fit there, and will likely need to do it in a "horseshoe" pattern with skimmer in back and return ending in back. The overflow is a bean animal setup so micro bubbles shouldn't be an issue at all so luckily no space eating "bubble walls" will be necessary. Does anyone have thoughts on things/concerns we may not have considered on this unique setup?

You have done well Steve! After building the tank, but then seeing that Mosaic Wall I would have to say you are truly the Artist, not me! And on another note...come get this Water Reservoir would you?!? LOL

If you are looking for a good source for veneer relatively close in the area check out Vienna Hardwoods. The carry a HUGE assortment of common and very exotic woods. They also have an even bigger assortment of other woods and veneers that they can generally get ordered in within a day or two time. I purchase most of my veneer and ply from them for Stand Builds as their common grades (Red Oak, Birch, Maple) that are available at Big Box Stores tend to be of better quality and grain and of course because they have a much larger variety of options available that you won't find at the Big Box Stores.

Lol, I would never kill a customer...but I'm not beyond torturing one slowly . J/K

With his tune 6055's and only a 30x18 footprint the flow from them should be plenty sufficient to lower level.

That flat black is a waterproof rubber paint so also serves a function on top of the awesome aesthetic .

ROFLMAO

This is a good question and one we carefully considered. Any power head that could handle 1" acrylic would have WAY overpowered this tank. This is what led to an internal overflow instead of the originally planned external. The Tunze units will route through the back wall to the front of the overflow and attach there since it is only 1/4" acrylic. This was the best alternative option available. Happy Thanksgiving!

Not bad for a day's work Steve! Looks good!

Thanks all for the kind words. I am open to doing a little demo/workshop on scratch repair at the next meeting. Depends on when it is though. I will likely be out of town last two weeks of December. Otherwise if our retail and Aquarium Commercial Shop Grand Opening happens before the meet I will do one at that for all that attend.