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About LinkBacksHere are a few pics I took of my new Starphire Glass tank from Inter-American Pet Supply in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. Phone: 403-272-4960 Fax: 403-569-0667
This is the 420-lb crate they thought 2 guys could unload. [img]/ubb/eek3.gif[/img]
Here is a shot through 2 panes of glass; I left the maple leaf sticker on to prove there was actually glass there. Note the black indicoat mirror back which I really like. The white under the bottom is just a piece of styrofoam for cushioning between the tank and the wooden pallet. There is a form-fitted piece of the good dense styrofarm that is siliconed to the bottom of the tank. The bottom is 19mm LOF float glass. Three sides are 12mm Starphire glass.
View through two panes of glass lengthwise. The 6.5"x10" corner overflow if made of 12mm AFG Industries Greylite tinted glass.
The tank has 12mm Starphire glass perimeter bracing all around the top (1.5" on each end, 1" across the front, and .5" across the back).
Full view of tank (one of the few that came out without the sun ruining the shot), note how the black silicone gives the impression of a picture frame. If you look very closely at the left edge you can see that the front vertical edges were ground and polished. Tank is 120 U.S. gallons, dimensions 45"Lx23"Wx27.5"H. Cost: US$550 + $320 shpg.
View of Starphire glass center brace to demonstrate that there is no greenish tint even on the edges.
Another view through the Starphire glass and a closeup of the black indicoat mirror back to demonstrate how it has a nice subdued mirror effect. This was achieved by sandwiching a 3/16" pane of Greylite between the 12mm LOF back glass and the 3/16" Black Indicoat Mirror.
P.S. Added 7/20/03:
Another observation: I was really sold on the black indicoat mirror backing on my tank. Looking at it when the tank first came in I thought it was spectacular. But now that the water and live rocks are in the tank I don't care for it nearly as much as I thought I would. The front of the overflow compartment, for instance, where I inserted a sheet of black acrylic and even the sides of the tank at the rear that I painted with black enamel are "blacker" than the black indicoat mirror.
The lights cause the black indicoat mirror to appear a lot more mirror and a lot less black. All of the rockwork is clearly reflected in the black indicoat mirror which looks like a smokey mirror with the tank running. So that's something that I have completely changed my opinion on. My preference now would be for either a thin sheet of black acrylic behind the back glass wall of the tank or even black enamel paint. I can't tell any difference in my tank between the black acrylic backed section of the overflow and the black painted sections, but the black indicoat mirror is definitely different and not what it appeared to be in the empty tank. Pictures of Ninong's tank in progress.
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