Hey, that will make a cool fish room inside the stairs. Too bad there isn't any water supply nearby.

I'm going to run some pex from where the washer and dryer will be over to that spot under the stairs for a wash tub. Then plumb a drain with pvc back around that room to the washing machine drain. I don't intend to finish that side of the basement so it's free reign!

Excellent! A fish room with no water is almost as bad as a bar with no water.:lol:

Hey Brett, how is the wife doing? Hoepfully the new year sees her getting much better :)

Just curious as to why the builder talked you out of starphire glass? Is it the scratching of the glass, or other factors?

I just got a quote for the 120 (48 x 24 x 24) I want to build this year and the price was pleasntly lower than what I had expected.

I'm betting on Colby :) He tried talking me out of starphire for mine. Say Hi to wife and family and hope all is well ;)

Wife is doing great guys thanks for asking. I'm Mr Mom here at home and I'm busy but we're enjoying each day together at home and the kids are getting even more attention than before. I never thought that was possible! Reality is I need to get myself back to work because I have a mountain of work to catch up on.

I was actually speaking to Jason over at Elite today about my build and he spoke about how much softer low iron glass is. That as well as me remembering I want to keep this build reasonably priced lead me to scrapping starphire once again. I had been considering a DIY tank but after our discussion I'll be taking my business there again. Jason's not only a nice guy to talk to but I trust his work to be both safe and dead sexy.

If I ever did a tank again (and I probably will) I would definitely take it to a pro like Colby (or Jason or Gary). Slapping my 104.72g was kinda fun but I'm not sure I would want to do it again for anything larger than a sump :-) It was rather time consuming, but I did save buckets of money, but opportunity cost and all that jazz right?

When I was getting quotes for my 150g pretty much everyone I talked to told me not to get starphire because scratching issues. I have seen starphire side by side with regular glass and I can't honestly say that I can tell the difference :noidea:

I think in <1/2" glass you don't really need go to low-iron. At 1/2" it's 50/50 and if you're going >1/2" then it's probably worth it. I notice the difference in 1/2", but that's me.

If clarity is really an issue then you should consider acrylic because it's even more optically clear than low-iron glass. But it's even softer, so will scratch way easier. And you have to brace the heck out of the tank. But on the plus side you can buff the scratches out of acrylic.

I'm fussy and see the difference even in glass thinner than 1/2" but after we build these tanks we fill them with blue light. I don't know when I forget myself for a second I auto-steer to whatever people consider the cadillac of whatever. In this case I think starphire makes little sense to my wallet or my eyes.

I see your thinking about going with a bubble magus! I ordered one a few weeks ago and should have it up and running later this week. Ill keep you posted

cheers
Ray