Bad experience at Big Al's
 

I just wanted to share an experience I have had with Big Al's. I had been in big Al's before because I frequent the hobby shop next door and became mesmerized by the salt water set ups. i began a few week of research and price checking and talked to the staff there. I decided to order the 150gal extra high tank (48x24x31) which I wAs told would take no more than 2 weeks to arrive. So I have my stand all built to that tank, all kinds of equipment sitting in the living room ready to install and excited. All to be told today (3 weeks late)r - no tank and no idea when it will get here and pretty much they don't care how ready I was for it. The only thing the general manager seemed concerned about was the fact that I didn't put a deposit on said tank (thank god). So now I am sitting on a stand, sump, and a whole pile of stuff and no tank! :(. Just thought I should share......

If any one knows a good place to get a tank built in Calgary I am looking

Thanks

Go around to corner of Bigs Als and talk to Dave at Concept Aquatics, they build tanks there and you might even find Denny who loves helping people out and is full of advise (if you can take it ;))

Think about talking to them about the dimensions, your tank sounds a bit tall, you may regret it later.

Concept for sure!! I agree on the height of the tank. Mine's 24 tall and hard to work in. I think 31 wide would be awesome though!!

Correct me if I'm wrong from reading your post.

You wanted them to special order you a tank without putting any deposit?
You obviously don't know how businesses run. Nobody would bring in an odd size tank for any customer unless they knew the customer would buy it for sure. The only way for this to happen is a deposit must be placed in case the customer backs out and the lfs is stuck with a tank that not many people want.
I'm sure if you had put a large deposit or even prepaid the tank, it would be sitting on your stand now, full of water.

Hey, like others mentioned drop on over and see us here at concept aquatics right behind bigals. Either call the shop or my cell at 403-554-2196(Denny) we can have you a custom built tank made long before big als will:)

Cheers!

To clarify, it is a standard sized tank from marineland. 48 long 24 wide and 31 deep. With a corner overflow. I offered to pay for the tank at time of order and was told "no problem on the next truck, no need to put a deposit". I am more annoyed at how I was treated when I called to ask about picking it up. I will be at concepts tomorrow. I have to come into Calgary any way.

Dave and Denny will set you down the right track. Deep tanks will pose a problem depending on what you want to keep. If you want a fish only tank then that size is fine. If you want to start introducing corals then you will have a big problem as far as lighting goes. And trust me.....lighting ain't cheap my friend.

Anyways if you make it to Concept your in good hands!!!!!

My tank is 29" deep and no problems. SPS pretty much right at the bottom.

Dave builds wonderful tanks, and you cannot get a better price in my opinion.

And as someone else said, in all fairness to Big Al's, I would not feel sorry for you over no tank showing up; the fish store should not have to take a kick in the pants if you decide you do not want a special order tank. :wink:

I would also give a good thought on tank depth, for cleaning and lighting reasons. Not saying don't go that deep just make sure you know the negatives and positives

He stated he was willing to pay up front and they told him no need for a deposit, how is that a kick in the pants to the store, if anything this likely would have secured a long term relationship. I doubt the op will be back there anytime soon. That's poor business.

That's definitely disappointing.

I wouldn't sweat it too much though, you should be able to get a new tank within the week.

To be perfectly honest here, I would have waited for the tank if Big Al's would have been honest from the start, or they handled the miss communication better. There is more to this story, so far i only touched the surface. During the conversation about when I might see this tank arrive, the manager suggests that I could go to the 120gal which is the same dimensions, just not as deep. The wife and I discuss the idea (and I have read that the depth might have caused me some difficulty in the beginning). Seeing how I was about to get on a plane to come home, I asked my wife to phone him back and tell him we will go with the 120gal. This was his reply: "I never said that tank was in stock, I can see if that one might be on the next truck". Now at this point all I can do is shake my head and think maybe some management training is in order.

The years of investing in this hobby that will easily reach into thousands of dollars will never ever be spent in a Big Al's store

We??????? You're working with Dave now?

I will say Dave at concept is a better way to go.

I will be heading to concept aquatics late this morning.

I thought that was old news lol;)

Doug doesn't let you out much does he? :lol:

I normally try not to touch on the vendor bash as Big Al's has some REALLY good people working in that fish room.

That being said the manager there is practically the largest tool I have ever met, its people like this that need to stay AWAY from the hobby as they only accentuate the stupid qualities in uninformed customers.

Statements such as "Oh ya, Percs & Ocellaris clowns interbreed all the time" or "The two major things you must have test kits for in your salt water tank are strontium & calcium" don't really help the uninformed public...

Again, that fishroom has some brilliant people back there I feel sorry that they have to work under such a troll.

I have to agree about the guys in the fish room. They were fantastic and Answered every annoying and trivial question I asked. The only issue I have is with that Manager. My wife was visibly upset when she got off the phone with him.

Yeah, even us British Columbians knew about this last week. Old news.:biggrin: Put down the XBox controllers and come on Canreef more often, eh.

vendor review
 

Isnt this a vendor review that is not allowed by this site?

The big concern is in gloriously promoting vendors who aren't sponsors. As this is a negative experience, which certainly doesn't promote the store in question (but does promote a Canreef sponsor), there shouldn't be any issue with it.

Thank you for everyone's advice. I was able to meet up with Concept Aquariums and strike a deal. Thanks Dave and Denny!!

What size of tank did you ended up and some lol

Don't forget about us when you pick it up do a tank journal and share some pics!

I have been taking pics up until now. So far I have been spending all night (in between handing out candy) mounting and hooking up the RO/DI unit. mounted my apex controller in the stand and started on the sump. I will take an hour tomorrow and officially start my tank journal.

started making water. I will probably pre make about 90 gal (unmixed)

I kept with my original plan of 150 Gal 48 x 24 x 29 inch deep. I have heard all the precautions with the deeper tank and lighting issues but i just couldn't resist it. I will allow the "I told you so" when i start complaining months from now hahahaha

You gotta get quite a few 250w MH and thats it :)

Or you can always get richman's LEDs ;)

you wont have any serious issues with light , sure a lower tank would make a weaker light more useable , but once you place rock and get a decent light youll be fine for corals just place the higher demanding corals higher in the tank.

Sounds like you are one happy customer! Whats the price for a custom tank like yours going for nowadays?

The Big Al's tank was 599.00 with over flow plumbing. The Concepts tank is 480.00 and I build the over flow. Did all my research and a herbie over flow it shall be.

They still don't allow them my dear...

Moderators don't even crude these boards anymore?

Fragalot....nuff said.

There are dozens of threads similar to this, and they are certainly advantageous to canreef sponsors (as seen here). It would be foolish of the mods to delete them.

The mods are quite quick about locking threads that advertise a non-sponsors wares when the merchandise is available through a sponsor.

I'm pretty sure this is the second negative "Big Al's" thread that you've commented on. There have been a couple of positive ones that you haven't commented on, and there have been several threads with regards to other retailers that you haven't commented on. I find that interesting. Are you doing work for Big Al's?

Nope
 

Nope... I sell to every store in the city.... And I like them all the same!

If you go back and look way back, perhaps before your time you can see that you cannot talk negatively about any stores. It bugs me that while store 'a' might frequent the forum and complain about a perhaps negative thread, and that gets it closed immediately. Store 'b' might not frequent canreef and their negative thread goes on 4 or 5 pages.

That's all... If the thread was about "joe's fish shoppe" I would have said something...

And while it might be a positive review for Dave at concepts, the thread title might need a little editing. No?

I see no reason the thread title would need to be edited. If Big Al's wants immunity from negative reviews on Canreef they can always pay for a sponsorship. Most forums won't permit negative reviews of sponsors, and they are quickly locked or deleted.

:behindsofa:

Ok, here's my thoughts. The title is fine. The topic is fine, it was done in a factual manner and describes the scenario upon scrutiny. This then turned into a Tank Journal/Concept bragging thread with some bickering added for flavour, which is what locked it.
A store review is fine, as long as it's factual and done in a mature fashion. Reviews of sponsor stores can be done in the sponsor's forum, good or bad, and the sponsor then deals with it as they see fit. If a sponsor simply starts deleting bad comments, we look into it and ask questions. There is no immunity for sponsors, they simply buy advertising space. This space, and the right to advertise are protected.
So if Big Al's fell down on a deal, then fine, the OP can post it. We won't allow the announcement of sales at that store, as to protect the paying advertisers.
Again, each and every thread of this type is subject to review and removal at our discretion.