Well, reports of BVA being slow can be confirmed. My tank wasnt ready on Monday as they told me. Apparently Thursday but Im not holding my breath.

It might be better not to rush these sorts of things anyway :-)

I myself decided to go with a BVA build. I'm totally fine with them recycling glass so long as the tank is rock solid, which it seems it will be from all accounts I've heard so far. If the tank is solid and I can see my fish through crystal clear glass then they can build my overflow box and the bottom of the tank out of coke bottles for all I care. He asked me if I wanted my tank quick or if they could take a couple of weeks to work on it. I knew better than to ask for it quick so I told them to take their time. luckily I am in no rush either.

And actually I rather enjoyed transacting with him. He knew his stuff and was very helpful in helping me design my tank. I had brought in sketches with exactly what I wanted to build and he gave lots if comments and suggestions on all aspects of my design to help refine it. He even threw in all the bulkheads that I'll need. Tank will be 72" x 22" x 22" with an external overflow box. Overflow box will be drilled with 4 1" holes for herbie drains. Eurobraced with holes in euro brace for returns to drop down into the tank. Polished edges. He showed me a bunch of tanks he had on the go for people (they looked like tanks people would put in their homes rather than commercial tanks so I think they belonged to average Joes), and they looked very nice.

I don't have my tank yet so the jury is still out.. but so far so good *fingers crossed*.

K.

One more note about BVA, don't for one second believe that he uses old shower doors and windows for glass, these would be tempered as required by safety regulations so how could someone possibly use them to make standard size aquariums? This is not what is meant by recycling. Most of the time he will use crops from other glass suppliers and shops. These shops order big sheets but cut them to customer requirements and of course there are many left overs. A smart person would buy these as they are perfectly good new pieces of glass which will save you money and allow you to sell your product for less. These big sheets will also come with etched patterns and hence you may see this on the bottom pane from time to time but it's still new glass, just as good as any other.

Really it's just time for custom work, standard tanks are dirt cheap and easy to come by.

That explains my frosted sump patterns then. Thanks for pointing that out.

I have seen the frosting as well, with mine own two eyes:mrgreen:....and not on just Brett's tank either.

I saw two tanks in their shop while I was touring that had the frosted shower door like glass on it. He seems to like using them for the back or bottom pains. What he seems to like to do is suggest that he'll throw in a black or blue acrylic panel to cover up the back pane of your tank. I suppose that is fine if that was the look you were going for. I said that I needed to easily see into my overflow box from inside the tank (to observe the water level) so he's making my back pain "normal" glass, and that was that. I suppose that is one "gotcha" .. that if you don't tell him NOT to use the frosted shower doors then he will :biggrin:

Hmmmm, wonder what kind of tank Im going to get then haha.

Either way Im not super worried. This isnt going to be my last tank, and until I get "my last tank" then I can live with some imperfections. This is my first salt water tank, after all. Im sure I'll make many errors along the way.

I probably saw your tank in his shop, it looked nice :-) .. unless it was the one with all 4 panes made of frosted glass.. then sucks to be you man.. hehe j/k. As I said, there were two that I saw with frosted glass for the backs and two tanks that were (as far as I could tell) made of "normal" glass all around. And then there were a crap load of obviously commercial tanks.

K.

Kien, is that your actual name? I am selling my 135G tank and I believe I called you when you emailed me with interest.

Anyways, hopefully you saw my tank, but I doubt it. I have a feeling it wont be ready for Thursday. I guess we'll see.

Heres my experience with mitch over at bow valley

I called one day, they gave me his cell number, called mitch. He told me to be at the shop in 20 minutes. 45 minutes later called him back, he said "on his way", another 30 minutes later he "forgot", finally he showed up 2 hours 1.5 hours late. At this point I put up with him cause I NEEDED that damn tank in 2 or 3 days ( like he promised over the phone). He wrote down the specs of what I wanted, price was okay... he wanted cash (seemed odd). Came back in 3 days when it was supposed to be done. Not a single damn person there knew what I was talking about, after explaining I talked to Mitch... no one was surprised. Mitch "lost" my order. It took him over 2 weeks to fulfill a 3 day order AND the glass looked it was cut with a chainsaw AND it was 3 different shades of glass AND all 3 holes drilled were the wrong size AND (had enough?) it was scratched to hell AND the silicone looked like it was painted on with a paint roller, it was all over the damn place... I could even see where they taped the shower glass doors together to hold it, too much effort I guess to scrape it down atleast.

Will I personally ever buy anything from that "professional" ever again? I'd rather slam my foot in a door and walk to work.

I was "almost" desperate again and called him again a long time after, as soon as I heard the voice and the usual "3 day pitch" I realized how dumb I was being and went to Elite.