Current Project

[Shane Tesser]

Hi all, Just thought that i would share a couple of photo's with you on a set up im currently doing for a customer. This will be a Fake marine set up. The customer wants the look but not the hassle. So here is a couple of pics, ill show more as i transform it from week to week. Currently i only have some basics done, the tank is five feet in lenght, and twenty four inches in height, and is a wall build in, which is residing in the customers home theatre room, enjoy. Shane. P.s., really funny story about this entire job and the month ive already spent doing the set up coming real soon. And oh yeah, the tank is on the left, sorry the pictures aren't the best.

[Shane Tesser]

Here is somewhat of a close up of the five footer just installed, there is currently sixty goldfish in the tank, working overtime to get the bacteria levels started. And no, this is not their perminant home, they are going to a very large pond of a friend of mine once everything is established.

[Shane Tesser]

This is currently the mess at the back of the tank i am working with. The filter has been plumbed. The water changes can be done simply by opening a valve that sends the water directly to a drain for the house. The plumber is coming in sometime in the next couple of weeks to install a tap directly above the tank that will allow the customer at the same time to fill the tank, with a pre-set thermostat that i will probably set at 78 degrees to avoid any chilling or overheating of the fish, it should work so well that they probably won't even notice the water being changed. When i first tested the drain, we were able to drain roughly fifty gallons of water in less than five minutes. Almost maintainence free. I am also still waiting for the electrician to come in to hard wire the lighting system, which will also be on a timer. There is going to be a total of eight lights, the lighting will start at a dim five watts and gradually increase to about two watts per gallon over an hour to simulate natural sunrise. Its fun working for someone without a budget. lol, s.t.

[Youkai]

Not having a budget. Woudn't THAT be nice!!

Nice work, by the way!

[Shane Tesser]

Okay here is the last pic, just another shot of the tank in the room. Trust me, this room is alot bigger than it looks, the big screen t.v. is a hefty 60", but it is temporary, their is a sony project screen t.v. on order, apparently the screen is something like eight feet by five feet. The room is filled with audio racks that go from floor to ceiling. There is so many components that the customer actually required a seperate room, just behind the t.v. wall to access the wiring. Ive never seen so many wires in my life. Its quite clever, i wish i got some pic's of it, you cant even tell the room is there, oh well maybe next time. Look for more photo's to come as the tank evolves. Have fun, s.t.

[corr]

Wow, that's incredible! The room and the tank!

Have you done many tanks with that quick water change system before? Sounds cool.

I'm a little confused about the fake marine. It's just freshwater made to look like marine? What kind of fish will be going in it then? Africans?

A lot of people ask me if my Malawi tank is SW.

[Shane Tesser]

There's no fooling you, yup! africans, i only put in the brightest and most colorful ones in. I always do little things just to disguise the whole look like gold spot pleco's for alge eaters, or blue florida crayfish, makes it look like baby lobsters. There is going to be a tonne of coral going into this thing still. Various colours too, the rock work currently is on a massive, and i mean massive slope, its real hard to tell in the pics, all sorts of little ledges for the coral, starfish and shells to sit on. They're unfortunately still soaking in water to purify them.....part of the long funny story to come. The quick change system i kinda have a version on my tank, not even as close to being as nice as this set-up, i just don't have that kind of coin. They have a large pump to suck the water out i just divert mine off the filter. I plumb all of mine with either 1/2"0r3/4" p.v.c. piping. Where the outlet for the tank comes out of the filter i just install a piece of pipe that goes to a tee, has two more pieces that have a valve on each. When i want to remove water i just simply shut off the valve for the pipe putting the water back into the tank, and open the other one that puts water straight into the bucket. Now, this is a lazy way to remove water i know, but don't fret i still vacuumn quite regularily. And i still fill the water with buckets, the customers has the advantage that this is a new house, so to install plumbing really wasn't a big deal, and they came to me more than a year before they started construction. The location, size, and type of tank changed about fifty times, origionally they wanted a 265 gallon, but the architect didn't like the idea, i guess too much floor supporting, and origianlly it was suppose to be a room divider, ya know a see throught one, lol. Anyway ill type the story when i have time. shane.

[Cornelsworld]

Must be nice to have a customer who wants the best and the most elaborate and doesn't really care about the cost. I seem to be one of the lowest reptile cage builder around and I still get people asking if that is the best I can do for a bare minimum cage. I have had a couple of people who seem to want the best and money doesn't matter. One question though... well maybe a couple... Do you build the tanks yourself or are you more of a coordinator and you get everthing together and organized? The inline plumbing that you are getting done sounds pretty elaborate, but I wasn't sure if it would work like a vacuum and clear the aquarium floor, or if it just sucked water from the top of the tank. Im not much of an aquarium guy anymore, but don't you want to clean the gravel once in a while to get rid of some of the built up waste? I totally want to build cages into someones
walls, but no requests yet.

Nice work and keep us updated.

Greg

[Cornelsworld]

Is there going to be a lid on the tank at all? Wont the drywall and the 2 X 4's on the backside start to rot with all the water? I have an old tv and the top of the tv rotted out because of that.

Just wondering.

Greg

[Shane Tesser]

Yeah, your right it isn't totally maintainence free, you will still have to vacuumn the floor at least everytwo weeks or so. They just didnt want to have to carry buckets of water and hoses all over the place to change small portions of the water everycouple of days. They have a magic line which i drew on the tank to where i want them to drain it to, this way they dont over drain, or have the heater out of the water. This is going to be done every two days or so. No im not worried about the rotting of the 2x4's they family that owns this house are construction contractors, all of these details were thought of a long time ago, and all of the walls in the room were treated. The picture is an early one, it doesnt even show the drain system or pump, you can just see the piping running on the wall, lol, also it doesn't show but the massive cold air return for the house runs right over top of the tank, so galvanized steel, no problem, the house is also extremely dry in that room, the whole place has a radiant floor heat system, even the driveway is heated!!! There is a lid on the tank, but its really there for jumpers. The tank is also i believe close to five feet off the ground, so you can imagine why they didn't want to lift bucket up, lol. No i don't make my own tanks, ive thought about it, but.....tri-and error=mess, lol. I just co-ordiante these things, it has to be a worthwhile progect, cha-ching or i won't get involved. I get asked all the time but there is too many things that can go wrong, plus you need a tonne of insurance, you really could be held liable in alot of cases, imagine if the glass in that thing let go!!! So as a rule of thumb, if its someone i dont know, im not doing the job. Now it could be a good line of work for someone, you would be surprised the amount of people looking for someone to do this sort of thing. Ask anyone in a pet store, they'll tell you, they get asked all the time. There is actually people who put a tank into a buisnesses, or houses, and they also maintain. You pay a monthly fee, and everything is taken care of. I know a guy who does just this, he has one business, a govenment buisness no doubt that has a 65 gallon display tank and they pay him a little over $3200 a year to have this tank. You just need to advertise, drop card off at pet stores, become friends with a manage, ask if you can leave an enclosure for a display, set it up with animals that you will pay for and let them have instore if you can advertise. Just remember the liability. I asked a small petstore near where i live years and years ago if i could set up a display tank. The guy who owned it said sure as he knew nothing of fish, he justed really wanted to sell dog and cat food, lots of markup i guess. So he said okay, i started with a 90 gallon and planted it, next thing you know his fish sales increase by nearly ten fold. People like to be given idea's and inspiration. Think about large chains ie s-pet, this is exactly what they do. And belive me everytime i go to my local one i see the display with the dart frogs and i want to just lay down the money and buy the frogs, the tank everything. Good luck, it just takes time, any more questions, please ask, s.t.

[Cornelsworld]

Do you carry your own insurance? How much does it cost per year? I have been thinking about the insurance for a while, but have never had any problems. I have built quite a few, but the money I make doesn't constitute registering a business and insuring myself for liability.

Thats also why I won't build a aquarium for fish. God knows I don't want to pay for a $1000.00 fish and a house full of water damage becuase of a pinhole leak while the customer was on vacation.

my main concern is doing the electrical work. I have been getting a bunch of full enclosure orders that deal with basic electrical, but with electrical comes the risks of a burned out reptile cage and/or house.

Right now I have liability waivers, but knowing what people can get away with in the legal system, i'm not sure they are even worth anything.

Greg

[Quervo]

Wow, Shane .. that's awesome.:bugged:

This guy's last name wouldn't be Gates would it?

I've always dreamed of having ... unlimited money to do something like that. Great work, keep the pictures coming.

damn... duno what else to say.. thats amazing.

[Shane Tesser]

re: insurance. No i dont have any. I really very rarely will do set ups for anyone do to this fact. I will however as i stated before do them if i somewhat know the people. Still you have to be careful. Your right about damages, i for one will not set up any aquarium until the base is perfectly level. I learned that important rule years ago when in one day a 150 gallon i had cracked at the seam and lost half of the water while i was at work. Let me tell ya no shopvac in the world will remove that much water, lol. And i had another mishap with a 65 gallon that was a wall build in. A rock fell over and smashed right through the glass. The painful thing was that the room was just freshly built. I had to tear out drywall, carpet (it shrank right away) furniture, just a mess. Electrical is another biggie. You really have to be careful. You can find electricians who will sign off on work....but for a small fee, there goes the profit. As for the cost of insurance, i really dont know. My girlfriend however is a claims adjuster with a very big Toronto firm, she knows everything about liability, i will see her on the weekend and ask her. Or if you see me at the show on Sun, come and ask, i will be Jeff Stringers tag along, ya cant miss, im the handsome one lol. s.t.

[Cornelsworld]

I am in Calgary, Alberta and won't be at the next show that you speak of... Too bad I love going to the shows. Anyways, if its possible, please ask your sister if my liability waiver would stand up in court at all if anything were to ever happen.

Thanks

Greg