Interesting that you have a history with Petsmart. I was looking at their “Clear For Life” tanks before I found the Tenecor Brand. Do you outsource to them or are they an affiliate of yours presently? Does Tenecor offer anything that the Petsmart brand can’t? You’ve gotten me curious with that gorgeous build above because I love the rounded corners.
PetSmart approached us a few months before they were going public. We were both located in the metro Phoenix area. They asked me to evaluate their current store systems and see what improvements could be made. According to the execs at the time, thr fish department and dog food carried the company. Everything else was a rounding error. Their fish losses were running around 30% and their store systems were falling apart in less than two years. They would receive large fish shipments on Monday and Thursday with ammonia spikes soon afterwards. I don't want to discuss other brands or companies suffice to say that there were a lot of problems. Btw, this is also where we first introduced loc line to the hobby. Before then it was used mainly as coolant hose on metal cutting machines such as mills and lathes. The design I came up with utilized a large sand filter like in swimming pools. Massive UV steriljzers, in line heaters and most important, large, very large sumps. Each tank was individually plumbed and could be completely segregated. Fish losses plummeted. System reliability improved dramatically. Their bottom line got nice and fat. Around the time they went public I got bored and sold Tenecor. The second owner took it to yet another level before finally retiring for good around 2006. Then the third owner took the helm and apparently rolled up the carpets soon afterwards. I don't know any of the history after the first sale other than the second owner really kicked butt. When I was running it, we were shipping two semi trailers a week. I think he was doing even more. Oh, no cnc. No internet. We had to figure it all out trial and error because no else had ever done it before.
To answer your question, we do not make tanks for anyone else except selling precut kits to select fabricators. Again, I don't want to discuss other companies but there is one in particular that essentially took a Tenecor price list and copied it completely. Including the typos. . We stay in our lane and don't really care about what anyone else is doing.
I was curious about the new ownership. Because when Tenecor went bankrupt in 2009ish, they almost took my company down with them. They accepted a large custom order from me and gave me a discount to pay in full weeks before they went bankrupt. I definitely learned some lessons from that.
I worked on and installed some of those systems while subcontracting for the vendor that handled the filtration for Petsmart, Petco and Walmart. Those were great systems. All run from a central brain. Huge fluidized bed and UV towers. And a hydraulic shut-off arm that closed the water flow coming in from the displays so the sump wouldn't over flow. Those were beast systems when they were fully operational.
This is unfortunate. I know the second guy did not do this. He was a rock star and did a great job. Tenecor was his post corporate career. Another reason I am back in this is because it is part of a larger chess board. I have a strong interest in RAS and have designed smaller systems meant for off grid use. Tilapia. The current design is producing around 700 pounds annually and I have the cost down to around $8,000 DIY. A while ago I purchased around 100 acres outside of Chicago to do something bigger. Commercial grade salmon but came down with a physical issue I am still recovering from. As it turns out, I ended up selling the land to a private equity firm who now is putting up assisted living residences on it. Funny how life goes.
It would explain the bowing too. And the yellowing. When did live rock become bad? Why? Serious questions. Just read somewhere that because of some Tik Tokker Toker, nut oils are now deadly. Everyone is an expert.
What else are you looking for? Background color? Peninsula? Overflows? That size is a lousy cut yield but the tank is beautiful. Standard walls would be 3/8 including top and bottom. Base price with no OF or color walls would be around $1,500 plus shipping for 3/8 and $350 more if you want 1/2 inch. Unbreakable polycarbonate lids with feed cups are no charge. Internal OF return plumbing no charge. Loc line in tank plumbing no charge. If you want it blessed by a witch doctor $50 extra. Take a look at the pics below if you want peninsula OF. This would be a additional cost. This design is very efficient and we can do it as OF or AIO. AIO wet/dry or open sump for the above is also available.
I’m new to acrylic too that’s why I’ve been reading up. I had found this one advertised and thought it was the norm but apparently not.
I can't speak to the glass but as for the acrylic, we have built thousands of these and similar. They do deflect a little (like even glass does). The thing to keep in mind is that acrylic tanks are systems. The top, walls and bottom all play critical roles in the structural integrity of the entire tank. We have built big tanks like this out of 1/8 inch just to see what would happen (they look like water balloons). We have built tanks like this and completely sealed them up and attached an air line to them and tried to blow them up (do. not. do. this.) we have built tanks like this and swung hammers at them. Seam quality is a critical factor. On countless occasions hobbyists have written us in a panic about their seams failing, overflows breaking off, tops coming off. Each time, poor bonding techniques. See images below of sample poor seams from another company that was sent to us by a frantic hobbyist. I can go on and talk about why almost all acrylic tanks should have attached tops. The only tanks we offer without tops are low boys and other smaller frags. We make those out of 1/2 inch and they are only 10 inches tall. There is another nano out there with an orange bottom. No top. All of you who own this tank will eventually end up with side walls bowing out and finally end up throwing the tank into a landfill. We have desktops that are still going strong over 45 years. 1/8 inch walls.
Don't know this company. But do check if your dims are correctly stated as LxWxH. If not, sounds like a topless frag tank 43.5 (L) x 23.5 (W) x 15 (H). Again, don't know.
That one would be 1/2 inch. Rule of thumb, not hard set in stone, up to 20 h we go with 1/4 up to 24 3/8, up to 30 1/2. Above that, it depends. These are rules of thumb. Larger sizes like the one you are referncing usually 1/2 because we have stacks and stacks of 1/2 and because flexion is another issue. Another topic.
BTW, base price starts at $1900 for that one.
See those fractional dims? That's probably because they are cutting it out of one sheet instead of going into a second. Sheets of this thickness are called block acrylic and usually come in net size of 48x96. Again, I don't know for sure. That's not a bad price BTW.
