blazerino Posted December 18, 2014 Author Share Posted December 18, 2014 *cries* Noooooooooo!!! We shall get through this, send them pics so they can see it. Was it a bad box-job pre-shipping or you think your UPS guy kicked it across the lawn to your front door? The package definitely could have been treated better by UPS as you can see in these photos. From the damage to the tank, it looks like it was dropped and the corner impacted hard enough to shatter it and send cracks out on the back and side panels. I was not overly impressed with the packaging job, the only padding was a lot crumpled up paper. I have seen other unboxing photo's here on nano-reef of PicO tanks and they had styrofoam corner padding and cardboard edge protection that was banded around the tank, so I'm not sure what happened in this case. I sent an email with photos to Chris as soon as I opened it. He just emailed me back, and he's going to take care of it as I would expect. I appreciate the good customer service but it's still a pretty disappointing situation. Now the wait begins....again. That being said, the build quality looks awesome and the silicon work is perfect. Hopefully the replacement has as great workmanship as this one. Link to comment
da1001 Posted December 18, 2014 Share Posted December 18, 2014 Very true. It sucks that this happened, this was a MAJOR deal breaker for me way back in the day too. I think I had like 4 glass tanks shipped to me several years ago and every single one was broken. Sometimes the packaging sorta sucked, most of the time it was the handler not even bothering to look at the big ass FRAGILE GLASS sticker on the side and treating it like it was a bag of coal or something. If I wanted freaking coal, I would kick Santa in the nuts, dangit! *rant end* I began following because this is a super awesome build. I hope the next one comes through for you. I spent an extra 9 bucks on taxes to have mine shipped to my LFS so I could pre-inspect it before I bought it. Link to comment
kimberbee Posted December 18, 2014 Share Posted December 18, 2014 Ow... Poor tank. I think I would have cried if that was mine! Link to comment
blazerino Posted December 18, 2014 Author Share Posted December 18, 2014 Very true. It sucks that this happened, this was a MAJOR deal breaker for me way back in the day too. I think I had like 4 glass tanks shipped to me several years ago and every single one was broken. Sometimes the packaging sorta sucked, most of the time it was the handler not even bothering to look at the big ass FRAGILE GLASS sticker on the side and treating it like it was a bag of coal or something. If I wanted freaking coal, I would kick Santa in the nuts, dangit! *rant end* I began following because this is a super awesome build. I hope the next one comes through for you. I spent an extra 9 bucks on taxes to have mine shipped to my LFS so I could pre-inspect it before I bought it. I think I would loose it if I got four broken tanks. It's amazing how badly UPS treats packages. My company did some construction work at the UPS distribution facility near us around cristmas time last year at it was rediculious some of the stuff you would see. My impression is it's generally not the delivery drivers that mess up the packages, it's the people and machines in the sorting and distribution facilties. It's almost comical seeing the huge tear in the box right over the fragile sticker. Hopefully the next one arrives in good condition. Ow... Poor tank. I think I would have cried if that was mine! Yeah it was definitly a huge letdown. When I opened it up I saw the good sides first so I thought I was good to go, then I looked at the other side.... Link to comment
blazerino Posted December 21, 2014 Author Share Posted December 21, 2014 In better news, I finished up the top for the stand and it turned out great. Link to comment
ninjamyst Posted December 21, 2014 Share Posted December 21, 2014 my first PicO was damaged by UPS too but Chris took care of it. sucks to have to wait again but i guess u can finish cycling your rocks? Link to comment
da1001 Posted December 21, 2014 Share Posted December 21, 2014 That is one nice looking top. I just finished mine as well but it is nowhere near as nice at that. Link to comment
blazerino Posted December 22, 2014 Author Share Posted December 22, 2014 my first PicO was damaged by UPS too but Chris took care of it. sucks to have to wait again but i guess u can finish cycling your rocks? Chris has been great about it, he said a week or two to wait for the glass and then just 4 days for the build + cure. Thankfully I'm doing clear seams that only take 48 hours to cure. Rocks have completed the cycle, ammonia and nitrites are at zero so I have been adding a drop or two of ammonium chloride every few days to keep feeding the bacteria. I'm going need to do a water change this week to keep the nitrates down. That is one nice looking top. I just finished mine as well but it is nowhere near as nice at that. Thanks! The trick to a good finish is several light coats with high grit sanding in between. I did 4 coats of minwax polyshades with 400 grit sanding between coats and then 2 coats of epifanes spar varnish to make it waterproof. Link to comment
da1001 Posted December 22, 2014 Share Posted December 22, 2014 I spent so much time on the initial stand build itself, I don't know if I will have the energy to sand and stain mine too. -.- Link to comment
blazerino Posted December 25, 2014 Author Share Posted December 25, 2014 Merry Christmas everyone! Got a hanna phosphate checker and a dual inline TDS meter as gifts today. I have never tested my RO output so im interested to see what the results are. My wife also got me a f 1.8 25mm prime lens and a MCON-P02 macro converter for my olympus EM-10. I have been playing around with the macro converter today and it is awesome. Can't wait to try it out on some corals! Link to comment
da1001 Posted December 26, 2014 Share Posted December 26, 2014 And we cant wait to see the pics of your "playtime lovin" with your new "toys". Link to comment
blazerino Posted January 21, 2015 Author Share Posted January 21, 2015 They day has come.... new tank from Pico and the nanobox duo both arrived today in perfect condition. Stay tuned... Link to comment
blazerino Posted January 25, 2015 Author Share Posted January 25, 2015 Spent the past few days getting the tank set up. I made the mistake of filling the tank with water, sand a rock BEFORE I mounted the light stand (100% due to my own impatience) so I it was a total pain to get it mounted to the wall. The Pico tank and the nanobox are freakin sweet. So happy I went with this combo. Since my tank was delayed due to the first one being broken, Dave held onto my nanobox until the V3 array came out and upgraded me for free. Thanks Dave! Word of advice to those hanging nanobox lights... buy super sharp wire snips to cut the hanging wire. I didn't and I had a hell of a time getting a clean cut on the wire so that it would fit into the wire grippers. Took me about 2 hours and 200 screaming curses until I got the light hung. Anyways, here are the photos (please excuse the blueness, I just took them with my iphone) Link to comment
ninjamyst Posted January 25, 2015 Share Posted January 25, 2015 wow wow wow . love the scape!!! cant wait to see this thing stocked. droolz Link to comment
Dramad1 Posted January 25, 2015 Share Posted January 25, 2015 I agree, the scape looks awesome. Looking sharp! Link to comment
blazerino Posted January 25, 2015 Author Share Posted January 25, 2015 wow wow wow . love the scape!!! cant wait to see this thing stocked. droolz I agree, the scape looks awesome. Looking sharp! Thanks! I had pre-selected an assortment of rocks from my old tank so it actually only took a few minutes to set up the scape. Turned out great on the first try! When I set up the tank on thursday I added Dr. Tim's one and only and ammonium chloride to get the cycle going. I tested my ammonia, nitrites and nitrates and both ammonia and nitrite are at 0! Does anyone else have experience with the Dr. Tim's product? Is my cycle really complete in 2 days? Seems too good to be true..... Link to comment
ninjamyst Posted January 25, 2015 Share Posted January 25, 2015 I used Dr. Tim's with great results. To confirm your cycle really is done, add some more ammonia, check ammonia is NOT 0, wait a day and check all the parameters again. Link to comment
D Z Posted January 25, 2015 Share Posted January 25, 2015 Love the build and that scape! Tagging along.... Link to comment
blazerino Posted January 26, 2015 Author Share Posted January 26, 2015 How I spent my sunday.... I rent and didn't want to mess up the walls so I mounted everything with removable velcro 3M Command strips. Hopefully they work as described.... Link to comment
Jay Wee Posted January 26, 2015 Share Posted January 26, 2015 How I spent my sunday.... I rent and didn't want to mess up the walls so I mounted everything with removable velcro 3M Command strips. Hopefully they work as described.... Nice! What a way to showcase your gadgets and equipment. Link to comment
kimberbee Posted January 26, 2015 Share Posted January 26, 2015 I sure hope that holds! I've had issues with 3M not holding if I hang things right away. IIRC, you're supposed to let the sticky stuff stick to the wall 24 hours before hanging! Link to comment
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