lookin to upgrade in near future

[dannyboy]

I'll be buying my first house within the next year, I'm more excited about being able to have a larger tank then the house! Anyways, I been looking for a site site that sells large, pre-drilled tanks and not having a lot of luck. DR Smith/Foster offer a nice 180 gallon but was really hoping to break the 200 mark. I would prefer to build my own stand so won't have to worry about space/plumbing. I think any lfs in my area would kill me on the price. Thanks in advance.

 

[messiah023]

Oceanic & Tenecor make the best, but you can also go with AGA.
Your LFS should be able to supply them to you.

If you want to buy online, I have heard both good & bad about Glasscages.

The Oceanic & AGA systems both use the Megaflow overflow system.

Good Luck.

 

[Bifferwine]

It's really hard to find 200+ gallon tanks in stores ready to go like that. Most are custom ordered.

 

[McCrary]

I would stay away from AGA and Oceanic, they don't seem to be made with the same quality as a lot of tank builders. Tenecor makes acrylic, which is more expensive than glass and scratches very easily. Starphire is very clear and doesn't scratch as easily. AGE is probably the best glass aquarium builder in the US, Envision is probably the best acrylic builder. You will pay for the quality of AGE, they are expensive, but if you are going to have a tank for a long time they are worth it. Lee-Mar also makes an excellent aquarium if you can get a hold of one, but they only do west coast so you would have to find one used. Elos is another company to consider for glass, they have some great rimless tanks.

 

[fatman]

AGA no longer exists, they were bought out by Aqueon. They new Aqueon tanks appear worse than the old AGA tanks. The ones I have seen were at Petco. The glass was not aligned well, there were chip outs on glass edges of nearly all the tanks I looked at (over a dozen). The glass thickness seems to have decreased, but that is just a guess as they had no old AGA tanks for a comparison. I have no problem with Glass cages. I think most of the stories originated at RC and are just RC skewed opinions and contrived RC gossip. If the glass thickness is good and the seams are good, and the alignment is good, the cuts are good and chip out on edges is minimal and on all panels fit well is a good tank. All the glasscages tanks I have seen were at least as good or better than the old AGA's and the present Oceanic tanks. I however would buy all my tanks with European bracing over plastic trimmed were they available in Alaska. However, I can buy mass produced plastic trimmed tanks up here for less than just the cost of shipping a custom tank up here. I have not seen any real quality mass produced tanks for over a decade, by any of the manufacturers. They all use thin, barely adequate glass. I myself would pay more for a mass produced glass tank made of thicker glass if it were available If a 4' long or less glass tank needs a center brace it is under built with glass that is too thin. The only reason that cross braces are used is so that thinner glass can be used.
I would not buy an acrylic tank if a mass produced glass tank was available in that size. Acrylic is too flexible, too soft and too expensive. The only reason I would ever consider acrylic is because of its lesser weight. And the only time that would matter is if I was only using a clear front panel on a custom tank, and therefore would be more able to physically man handle (with help) an acrylic panel into place with manual labor rather than machinery being needed.

 

[McCrary]

Yea, tanks that are mass produced seem to be slipping in terms of quality. I think its because people want cheap tanks and they don't know how to tell the difference between tanks that are made cheaply and ones that aren't. At the fish store I used to work we sold Lee-Mar and AGA, Oceanic; the AGA and Oceanic tanks were cheaper than the Lee-Mar, but they were made terribly. Its the little things that seem to make the difference, 1/2" glass instead of 3/8", perfectly lined up edges, edge polishing and diamond edging v. leaving the edge so it looks like it did when it was scoured, nice clean silicon work. I would point this stuff out to customers, but they wouldn't want to pay for it. AGE makes some awesome tanks, I saw a 180 gallon from them made from Starphire and it didn't have any bracing, totally rimless. I have seen this done with smaller tanks, but to be able to do that with a 180 gallon takes some work. Although from the quotes people are getting you pay a premium for the good stuff, just like everything else in this hobby.

 

[fatman]

I wish I was still able to get the Odell tanks that were sold in the 1970's. Their 55 gallon tanks were made of 5/8" thick glass; front, back and bottom, the rest was 1/2". Those were the days of glass cross bracing, or no cross bracing. Back when they still sold a lot of Metal Frame (brand name) glass tanks that actually had metal frames.