Scratchless Acrylic Tanks.....
 

Thats right, an acrylic tank that you can run a key against and not sweat about it, extremely strong, regular cell cast acrylic clarity, no seams at all, they will be manufactured as 1 piece units in a mold....
what Im wondering is what are some sizes you would like to see available.....
new technology is great.....(this is not coated acrylic)
Ill have sample material pics next week
Thanks: Kyle

I don't know much about acrylic tanks. If they were one-piece/seamless, I imagine they would be worth their salt. Clear, light, and virtually leak-proof. Sounds like a nice product.

Forgive me for being skeptical but it sounds too good to be true.

lol, yeah, and to top it off, it wont be much more expensive than a regular acrylic tank of the same size....
The only real drawback to an acrylic tank is that they scratch, this will solve that problem
we will have some standard sizes to be determined, including cylinders at a very tempting price point
let me know what sizes and shapes you would like to see...
Thanks

I think that the market for smaller acrylic tanks is fairly limited (just my thoughts) so I'd think that you'd be looking at 120 gallon and larger. \

Doug

For smaller tanks we were thinking of
24x24x24
36x24x24
36x30x30
48x24x24
48x24x30
48x30x30
60x24x30
60x30x30
72x24x30
72x30x30
72x30x36
What sizes do you folks want to see? and anything else you can come up with. these would be beautiful show tanks with crystal clear clarity and no seams anywhere

72x24x30

I like this size because I am planning to order something like that in the next few months.

But, the thing I dislike about acrylic tanks it the top with 50% of the top closed. With the single piece tanks have the same acrylic tops or will they have more open space?

the tanks will be almost all open, like euro bracing, no little cut outs so you have to hammer your rock apart to fit it in...

Right now I have a 36"X18"X18". I like that depth for lighting purposes. If I were to replace the tank, I would not want to go deeper. :rolleyes:

Bob, see your post just made me start to get excited about my new tank... Thanks

Doug

those all seem a little tall... just when I was warming up to wider vs taller.

yeah I think you should try to get wider tanks

I guess Im kinda partial to "taller" tanks, as for my personall feelings on the matter, I think people are way too worked up about tanks over 20" not getting enough light. I feel that 24" great, 30" is still great for a reef, and 36" is still ok for a reef, mabey dont put all your sps on the bottom, but still not that big a deal.... these are my personal feelings on the matter, and I know some will disagree with me, but thats ok. To backup my feelings, out of all the "nice" sps tanks I have seen, I cant recall any being less than 24"tall, infact most were 30" or taller. some tanks that looked nice to me may have been 20" but that dosent take away from the fact that much taller tanks look just as good, in my opinion better, and health and growth is not a problem in said tall tanks....

:cool: 30 INCHES BABY!
I'm all for the tall tanks too.
Much more stunning and not as much crouching

I would set your max hight at 30" and offer widths up to 36".

Steve

the thing is that each tank size needs a custom mould built to manufacture it, so you will see more sizes that would be purchased more often as the molds are very very expensive, 36"deep is really far out from the wall, most people cant take up that much space in an outward direction...30" is large as well, but not quite as encrouching

Will you offer custom drilling and such on the tanks? I am honestly looking to order a custom tank in the next few months (3-4) and a couple of your sizes look pretty appealing...

Do you/will you have a display tank manufactured like this that I can see within a few months? I wouldnt mind a drive up to kelowna even...

Lost what size are you looking for??

Doug

72x24x30
or
72x30x30

In that area.

Maybe even a 7 foot long tank.

i'll sign up for
60"x30"x24"
=o)
extra charge for drilling?also top bracing how wide are the braces gon' be?

they will be built with or without overflows and the top bracing will be as minimal as possible, meaning alot larger openings than standard acrylic tanks.
the sizing has not been confirmed yet, we will know in abit what sizes will be going into production, and we can also do any custom shape and size at a cost. custom drilling is not a problem

Be that as it may, but 36"X18"X18" is a very common size in the trade. It is a size many people are partial to. The reason being that taller tanks are much more difficult to decorate, because you have to pile your rock higher. Some folks like myself have just had a stand made that will accommodate an 18" wide tank. Therefore, if I were to replace my tank I would want a maximum width of 18", and a maximum height of 20". I would think you would have to sublimate your personal feelings in order to please potential customers. :rolleyes:

I understand where your comming from Bob, and we may end up having a tank available in that size, at the same time we are trying to factor in what will sell. the fact that most people purchasing a tank of that size will buy a glass tank over a more expensive acrylic tank needs to be addressed, not all will do this of course but we have to sell enough to make the mould worthwhile. These are high end show tanks, and more people who are purchasing a high end show tank, seem to be looking for a tank of more than normal dimensions, they want something impressive. I think that more people that are willing to shell out a few hundred bucks for a smaller 36" tank would want a more impressive 36"x24"x24" instead of a standard 36"x18"x18". But if we dont make one to start with, and we get alot of demand for it, we will make one. the problem we face is the cost of the custom moulds for every size of tank, as they are individually cast.

Bob, there is no sence making small tanks out of acrylic as they would be twice the cost of a glass tank and not worth it. the domain of acrylic is in larger tanks where the weigh and clarity of thicker glass make acrylic's cost more atractive.

Also you have to understand that the company that makes the mold and forms them could very well charge up to 5000.00 / mold, so they would have to sell a lot of tanks to justify the cost of the mold.

I recently looked into getting a excursion mold for abs made and they wanted 2000.00 to make the mold (but I would own the rights to it after)

If there is scratch resistant acrilic that would be cool, and by injection or vaccume molding it would greatly reduce the cost of a tank as it takes about 10 min to make one.

Do you have any info on the acrylic polymere that they will be using for the tanks Kyle?

Steve

it is a custom blend that they are keeping a secret for obvious reasons, it has a patent on the way, they spent half a million $USD$ in R&D to develope this new form of acrylic. these moulds are spun while being cast, a mould for a 6' tank takes up about a 12' square area... and the moulds are very expensive, think $40,000+ for alot of them...

I realize that but usaly when there is something like this they have littiture of its properties and such with out listing the ingreadents.. this is what I want to see, the sales brouchere on the plastic

Steve

ah, I see....
no brochures yet, will have info on properties at a later date, this is a new product and has not been released to the public yet, its in the final stages of R&D
I will be happy to post info as soon as I have it

48x18x20
48x18x24

Popular sizes. :biggrin:

48" x 48" pentagon corner tank please. :biggrin:






Jeff

I cant forsee it as worth while making such a small tank Bartman, but Old Guys suggestion is something to look into!
show tanks, think somewhat pricey, not going to be purchased by your average buyer

I am looking for 200+ gallons :)

I am seriously thinking of ordering thru mitch at IA, get some starfire and custom drilled setup...

would these tanks be in that same price range?

so is there any time frame when they will be starting sales? and price wise how will they compare to glass? say 280 gal range.

Steve

hopefully sales will be going in early spring, cost wise, price out an regular acrylic tank and add a few bucks, prices will be very close to regular acrylic tank prices, these are not tanks to consider if on a tight budget as glass under 300gallons is almost always cheaper than acrylic