Jestersix

Where to buy a Custom Starphire Tank in Bay Area???

Hello... I'm looking to price/buy a new tank to update my used and scratched up 75 Gallon. I am looking for a place in the bay area that sales/makes tanks.

I am looking for a 48" long 18" wide 30-31" tall 110-120ish gallon tank. I am wanting the front and two sides to be Starphire glass with a back center overflow drilled twice for a 2" drain and 3.4" return (3 1/4" hole and 1 5/8" hole).

Am also considering the same tank done with Acrylic but only if it can be done at a comparitive price.

I've done a fair amount of research on line and in other forums to try and discover a place that can help me with no luck. I'm hoping that BAR can give me a hand.

Thanks,

Jeff
 
Through Glasscages.com I can order one to my specs for about $650, but then have to deal with delivery costs. There has to be someone in this area that does this? Acrylic at these specs looks to be in the $1,000 range which is too high for me. I'm hoping to find something in the $400-$600 range and local.
 
Leemar in Socal does custom glass tank. It's not that far to go pick up yourself.

World Marine System in San Jose makes glass tank too. The quality is not good but the price isn't too bad.
 
sorry can't do a 4x2x2. I will be putting this on my current 75 stand and canopy so the 48" by 18" dimmensions can't adjust.
 
Still... 1K for a tank is a little more than I can or want to spend. Thanks for the suggestion though Gomer. The Oceanic Tech is largely what I'm going for; slim overflow and high clarity glass on display sides. I need to come in at closer to half that price though... Do you have a link to any common sites their tanks are sold from? I believe it's the 105 Model I would need but have been having trouble identifying a site to get the exact $$.

I've put in a request for info from World Marine Systems and Leemar... so thanks Elite.

Anymore suggestions anyone?
 
I did some tank pricing last year and found that often, it's the shipping that really kills the deal. In my case, I went with Elos because it wasn't worth the trouble for a custom tank and they're local, but nonetheless, it came down to shipping expenses.

Have you tried getting a quote for something from Krittertanks? They only do acrylic work, but they're local, so shipping wouldn't be as big a factor.
 
Yeah I think you'll be hard pressed to find a custom starphire tank for cheaper than an "off the shelf" oceanic Starphire, although for all I know the oceanic ones are made to order too
 
I hear that... getting a saphire tank that cheep in NC, VA and TN was no problem. We'll see what I can figure out here. Just found out today about the Aquarium Showroom and it looks like they do custom Saphire tanks as well. I havn't been there yet so will probably go check out the place this week.
 
I've sent a message over to Krittertanks to get a quote and have also got a request in with Aquatic Gallary for their Acrylic Tanks. Chem-e... you mentioned that Elos was local? Many places I am finding are carrying the spec tank I am looking for as a standards size. Where is Elos at Local? a website?
 
Out of the 40 or so ppl I have seen buy tank from glasscages only 1 had a possitive experence. and at least 4 of them had the tank show up with broken glass and they were refused a refund.

Just and FYI most of the time you get what you pay for.
 
[quote author=jeffncindy link=topic=4740.msg57711#msg57711 date=1223325465]
I've sent a message over to Krittertanks to get a quote and have also got a request in with Aquatic Gallary for their Acrylic Tanks. Chem-e... you mentioned that Elos was local? Many places I am finding are carrying the spec tank I am looking for as a standards size. Where is Elos at Local? a website?
[/quote]

jeffncindy - Elos is local, but they're not very cheap. You can find prices at Phishy business as a reference. When I was on the market for a tank, I was planning for a custom starphire and I found that Glasscages was the cheapest. Aquarium Environments and Aquarium Obsessed were on the pricer side. Everything I wanted for a custom tank was over $1k after shipping anyways, so I decided to just go with Elos instead because of all the good things I heard about them (and I haven't been disappointed :) ). That and I like to see what I'm getting if I'm going to spend a decent chunk of money.

I've seen some of the work that Gen has done and I think the Kritter tanks are really good quality and they'll be cheaper than the starphire tanks.
 
Gen's tanks are really nice but his price is getting up there with glass starfire tanks. I was quoted 1300 for a 48x30x20 albeit it was 3/4" acrylic w/ a 1/2" bottom. I ended up with WMS the tank was only 720 w/ the same acrylic specs. The quality is not as good, however I couldn't justify such a big price difference.
 
Well I've put out requests for price on both Acrylic and glass (starphire) versions to about half a dozen places. I'll share what I get from each location when I get them. Thanks for all the great feedback so far...
 
This is a quick pic of my current set up. The tank is a 75 gallon that I'm wanting to replace with a tank that is 30" tall (110gallonish). I don't like the corner overflow and the tank is about 10 years old now; lots of minor scratches on the glass. The actual stand is made of 2" Steel L-bars. The Skirt and canopy I made myself out of red oak; it turned out very nice and am wanting my tank to meet it's quality. I have about 140-160 pounds of live rock that is looking great. Lots of life in the tank but no fish yet. There are several corals, crab, snails and urchins that were all hitch-hikers in the rock and are doing really well. I want to change out my tank for the new version I'm wanting before I get too far into this current build. Lots of big plans and the larger tank/clearer tank will work better for me...

2878776850_0e60cd0d2a_b.jpg
 
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