Please comment on Bow Aquarium tank made in Calgary
 

Hi,

I am interested in a 120gallon customer made a tank from Bow Aquarium. Please advise or comment on your experiences from Bow Aquarium tanks.

Thanks

mitch the owner can be a real pain to deal with but ive always thought he builds the best tanks,
ive had probably 6-10 tanks and sumps built by them and i think 4-5 from the other main tank builder around calgary and i have to say id rather go through bowvalley

Bowvalley aquarium
 

Thanks for your response,

I also came across the company called "Trigger" aquarium (the name could be misspelled), the gentleman said that "Trigger" is the best place to build tank in calgary, metal stand, best quality glass.......He really made me wonder which one to go to, Bow and Trigger.

Is it true that Bowvally uses used glass for their tanks (low quality)?

Please provide comment if you have or had experiences with the two.

Thanks

i dont doubt that it has happened but ive never had anyproblem with him or any of his tanks

Have a custom BVA (and new glass). Was definitely a long frustrating experience but no complains with the aquarium itself (and the 75g sump that he basically threw in for free). Wouldn't hand over any money up front in case you just get fed up after a few months and walk.

Should say this was my experience from about 4 years ago.

haven't had experience with bow valley, but just keep in mind that Elite aquatics does customs.
i got a sump made by them and it was done very professionally.
made my order,put down a deposit, they called about a week or two later to tell me its done, i go in, and i get exactly what i asked for :)

in my experience elite aquatics does a very good job and gets it done in good time. I'd defiantly recommend them

Red Coral Aquarium has built some really nice tanks too... roommate has one by them, and I've seen a few that have been in the shop waiting for customers to pick up... all very good looking tanks.

All I had Mitch do was cut my sump glass. One of the most frustrating experiences EVER. I was also inside his place on about my 10th trip back to get the last piece cut he forgot. The place is filled to the ROOF with used glass. Lots of it is still in old wooden window frames. I snapped a few pics too lol.

Colby at Elite built my tank. It's far cleaner than Mitch's work and he can do ground and polished edges while Mitch will not. He also delivered the tank to my house and helped me get it on my stand. Highly recommended.

As with any tank build, get it in writing with delivery date and ask for insurance coverage.

Mitch makes a good tank never had a problem and he custom made me some huge tanks.
I used to sell them when I had my shop in Edmonton

I wouldn't recomend Mitch, you will get excuse after excuse. Its such a frustrating expirience. he was over 3 months late building my sump, and every day he said it was only going to be a couple more days. I had Golds build my 220 and it was done when they said it would be. Good quality too.

Yes Gary does a good job. He built my 400 on-site and I think when I had the previous tank built at Oceans he was their builder as well and the work was good.

Me and a few others were literally camped outside BVA after being promised he was going to be in the shop (again). Another guy and myself exchanged phone numbers to keep in touch and alert the other if we ever found Mitch at the shop. At one point he lied to us and said a worker had just cut himself badly at the shop and he had to take him to hospital. We were BOTH at the shop =) Had been for an hour already. I'm just guessing but I believe I made about 8 or 9 trips to the shop by the time I got my glass. Many of these times he had promised he'd be there or he ahd promised he'd leave my glass outside for me at my request. Never happened! Gas was NOT cheap at the time either.

That's all I'll say on the matter I suppose. My wife worked at Pisces for years and really advised me to avoid BVA as she had a bunch of pleasant stories to share. I def got the 'i told you so on that one'.

On the flip side of the coin I had a fantastic experience with Mitch. I showed up, he cut class while I wait, I paid and left. I built my own tank though so it was just glass cutting I had him do.

Then again we have a mutual dislike of a particular thing, and that seems to get me some better, quicker service.

how mysterious....:typing:

My dealings with BVA were back 4 years ago. Hate to keep knocking Mitch if he's recently got his act together.

I can assure you he hasn't.