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Pschom's Deep Blue 30 Gallon Frag Tank Review


pschom

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So I've received a few questions regarding this tank such as, do I like it, what comes with it, what don't you like, etc. After a search for this I couldn't find a review so.... Since I'm sitting here in court (witness not defendant) with nothing to do I figured what the hell. I'll add some pics to this when I get home this evening.

 

Review is in sections

 

Glass/Aquarium

 

I'm in love with this shallow design. It always reminds me of going to the National Aquarium and touching all the starfish and crabs and stuff in the kiddie tidal pool. Great memories and that's the point of an aquarium to make you feel good. The height and dimensions make for ease of cleaning, viewing, scaping, getting things out/in etc, makes for easier sps keeping as there is less water for the light to penetrate. Also the shallowness makes for a larger swimming area for the volume so you have a few more options for fish with the 24x24 30 gallon than you have with a 18x16 29g. It just gives so many available options as far as lighting and everything. I'll be sticking with shallow aquariums for some time I think.

 

Glass:

 

Lets be clear (lol no pun intended) the glass is cheap and has a green tint and while everything looks stellar from above, the glass removes certain colors making everything a little more bland. Certain colors do show well, but certainly not all. I have LEDs and that contributes, but the difference from looking at everything from the top down, to looking at it trough the glass is a world apart. For the cost it's not bad, but if I knew I might have waited and purchased a low iron or something. But again, it's not bad and most things look great.

 

Overflow

 

The good:

 

Pre-Drilled/Overflow kit-This will show up again later below for different reasons. I like that its reef ready and comes with everything pre made so you don't need anything other than a sump and a drain and return line. It's all pretty simple to put together and I've never plumbed anything in my life.

 

The Bad:

 

WHY didn't these guys ensure that these things were being drilled properly at the factory? Holes are cut great. Plumbing is correct size. Derso works ok (it whistled at first and I had to get another $0.30 PVC pipe to soften the noise). Now it doesn't whistle, it flows water loud enough to hear in every room of my apartment. Some of you may know how to fix this, but I feel that if you sell a product you should test it and provide the best solution using the same materials. There are so many great designs here on NR why didn't they just use one of those? There's so much stuff crammed into the small overflow area that it makes maintenance difficult. The wall has a sliding piece that's 'adjustable' for water height. Two reasons this sucks: 1 it doesn't stay in place with the plastic screws because once you install the plumbing you can't adjust the screw!? 2 why would you even want to adjust the height of the water? It looks stupid down any lower than maximum and if I had no fish I'd want it even higher. So...I had to cram the sliding plastic piece against the return pipe and the wall to make it stick. I think this caused a small leak that I fixed easily. The ovfl area could have been a great place (and maybe still could if your not as picky about it as I am) for a small fuge to grow pods or macros for phosphate removal... There's just no room and the whole thing pisses me off! Ok nuff said...

 

Stand

 

I like it, but there are far superior. I think for the money it's probably not worth what you get, but it holds the aquarium up, it has a contemporary design and the sump goes inside. If your not real picky it will work for you. It's made of cheaper material, but it comes assembled so no fuss there. Makes me feel better about it holding up because I did NOT put it together. No doubt others will feel different but I ain't no carpenter. The hole for the overflow plumbing is large, allowing for a wider variety of different overflows if you change tanks in the future (of course they all would have to have the ovfl in the same location). Now, the hinges rust like an old Chevy. All four of them now look like Mater from the movie Cars. Hate it. I also changed the front hardware because the handles were CHEAP! That wasn't expensive and I like what I got to match the kitchen cabs for pretty cheap (which are also showing some rust but that's Home Depots fault). I feel like if your selling an aquarium stand it should hold up to humidity, moisture, spills.... Rusting hinges after a few months is not acceptable. Just coat them or something Deep Blue come on!

 

Overall

 

It's a pretty standard, baseline, whatever you want to call it, tank with good dimensions and I've been happy with it. Think of it as the base model of a car you really like. Yeah it's got outer appeal and power windows, but you secretly wish it had those dealer upgrades that were just out of your price budget at the time... Your gonna have a time trying to find a sump in a store that fits. I've been using a 16H tank, but will be ordering a sump soon (like $200). Reason it's hard to find a sump is not that it won't fit, but that you can't fit the equipment you want in a 18x12 sump. I'm sure there's more crap I could think of, but I'll leave you with that for now until I think of it.

 

Feel free to respond or PM and ask me any questions I haven't answered here. Thanks for checking out my review.

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  • 1 month later...
So I've received a few questions regarding this tank such as, do I like it, what comes with it, what don't you like, etc. After a search for this I couldn't find a review so.... Since I'm sitting here in court (witness not defendant) with nothing to do I figured what the hell. I'll add some pics to this when I get home this evening.

 

Review is in sections

 

Glass/Aquarium

 

I'm in love with this shallow design. It always reminds me of going to the National Aquarium and touching all the starfish and crabs and stuff in the kiddie tidal pool. Great memories and that's the point of an aquarium to make you feel good. The height and dimensions make for ease of cleaning, viewing, scaping, getting things out/in etc, makes for easier sps keeping as there is less water for the light to penetrate. Also the shallowness makes for a larger swimming area for the volume so you have a few more options for fish with the 24x24 30 gallon than you have with a 18x16 29g. It just gives so many available options as far as lighting and everything. I'll be sticking with shallow aquariums for some time I think.

 

Glass:

 

Lets be clear (lol no pun intended) the glass is cheap and has a green tint and while everything looks stellar from above, the glass removes certain colors making everything a little more bland. Certain colors do show well, but certainly not all. I have LEDs and that contributes, but the difference from looking at everything from the top down, to looking at it trough the glass is a world apart. For the cost it's not bad, but if I knew I might have waited and purchased a low iron or something. But again, it's not bad and most things look great.

 

Overflow

 

The good:

 

Pre-Drilled/Overflow kit-This will show up again later below for different reasons. I like that its reef ready and comes with everything pre made so you don't need anything other than a sump and a drain and return line. It's all pretty simple to put together and I've never plumbed anything in my life.

 

The Bad:

 

WHY didn't these guys ensure that these things were being drilled properly at the factory? Holes are cut great. Plumbing is correct size. Derso works ok (it whistled at first and I had to get another $0.30 PVC pipe to soften the noise). Now it doesn't whistle, it flows water loud enough to hear in every room of my apartment. Some of you may know how to fix this, but I feel that if you sell a product you should test it and provide the best solution using the same materials. There are so many great designs here on NR why didn't they just use one of those? There's so much stuff crammed into the small overflow area that it makes maintenance difficult. The wall has a sliding piece that's 'adjustable' for water height. Two reasons this sucks: 1 it doesn't stay in place with the plastic screws because once you install the plumbing you can't adjust the screw!? 2 why would you even want to adjust the height of the water? It looks stupid down any lower than maximum and if I had no fish I'd want it even higher. So...I had to cram the sliding plastic piece against the return pipe and the wall to make it stick. I think this caused a small leak that I fixed easily. The ovfl area could have been a great place (and maybe still could if your not as picky about it as I am) for a small fuge to grow pods or macros for phosphate removal... There's just no room and the whole thing pisses me off! Ok nuff said...

 

Stand

 

I like it, but there are far superior. I think for the money it's probably not worth what you get, but it holds the aquarium up, it has a contemporary design and the sump goes inside. If your not real picky it will work for you. It's made of cheaper material, but it comes assembled so no fuss there. Makes me feel better about it holding up because I did NOT put it together. No doubt others will feel different but I ain't no carpenter. The hole for the overflow plumbing is large, allowing for a wider variety of different overflows if you change tanks in the future (of course they all would have to have the ovfl in the same location). Now, the hinges rust like an old Chevy. All four of them now look like Mater from the movie Cars. Hate it. I also changed the front hardware because the handles were CHEAP! That wasn't expensive and I like what I got to match the kitchen cabs for pretty cheap (which are also showing some rust but that's Home Depots fault). I feel like if your selling an aquarium stand it should hold up to humidity, moisture, spills.... Rusting hinges after a few months is not acceptable. Just coat them or something Deep Blue come on!

 

Overall

 

It's a pretty standard, baseline, whatever you want to call it, tank with good dimensions and I've been happy with it. Think of it as the base model of a car you really like. Yeah it's got outer appeal and power windows, but you secretly wish it had those dealer upgrades that were just out of your price budget at the time... Your gonna have a time trying to find a sump in a store that fits. I've been using a 16H tank, but will be ordering a sump soon (like $200). Reason it's hard to find a sump is not that it won't fit, but that you can't fit the equipment you want in a 18x12 sump. I'm sure there's more crap I could think of, but I'll leave you with that for now until I think of it.

 

Feel free to respond or PM and ask me any questions I haven't answered here. Thanks for checking out my review.

 

Thank you for the review. This is very helpful. This is a tank that I've been considering and will now probably pass and save money to get one with low iron glass. I appreciate it.

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